[ Dec.2019 ] On the last day of our short holiday in Paris, we went to a restaurant and a butcher called Les Provinces Boucherie-Restaurant.
It was located in the middle of the lively food market called Aligre Market and it is an authentic butcher.
The space of the part for the restaurant was limited and we were just two of us, so they made us sit at a large table with other people.
It seemed a popular shop and people were queuing to buy some meat at the glass case behind me.
It is not a relaxing place, but very interesting.
We shared the assorted ham and salami for the starter and both of us chose the sirloin steak.
The sirloin is called ‘faux fillet’ in French, by the way.
It was a large meat which was nearly out of the plate.
To be honest, the taste of the meat itself was not surprising, but the little pieces of potato which came with it were surprisingly nice.
The choice of the carafe of wine was either Bordeaux or Beaujolais and we chose Bordeaux, but it tasted rather light.
It was €66.20 altogether.
The people at the same table were an old man who could be a Japanese and beyond him were a mother who was another Oriental and her daughter who was of mixed parentage.
The old man next to me was eating a huge meat on the bone which looked like Bistecca alla Fiorentina.
After the hearty lunch, we headed for Musée de l’Orangerie because the tickets we had bought the day before at Musée d’Orsay included Orangerie.
They were still doing the general strikes in Paris, but the line 1 metro was working, so we used it again and again.
We took the metro from Lyon station and went to Concorde and walked from there.
We did not need to queue to enter Musée de l’Orangerie.
The main attraction here is the 8 ‘Water Lilies’ paintings by Monet but before that, we needed to hurry to the toilet on the basement floor.
To my great surprise, the toilets there were Washlet (Japanese electric bidet) !
This was the first time I saw them in the public places in Europe and America.
I was impressed.
Because we were already there, we saw the special exhibition first.
It was a collection by a person called Félix Fénéon.
I did not know him at all, but apparently he was a major figure in the late 19th century and early 20th century art world and he was the one who discovered Seurat, the famous pointillism painter.
We saw pointillism paintings by this Georges Seurat as well as Paul Signac and some pictures by Henri Matisse and others.
Those pointillism paintings were lovely with the pale quiet colours.
Then we went up to see ‘Water Lilies’.
I cannot remember how many times I have been here, but I remember I was very moved when I saw them for the first time.
They are really masterpieces, aren’t they.
My husband was excited that he found a face in one of the paintings.
Well it could be a face, but…
He was satisfied after finding a website which was talking about the same ‘face’.
I bought an eyeglass cloth again at the museum shop and we left the museum.
