Paris - the Marmottan-Monet Museum and our 50th Anniversary

Well, today is our 50th wedding anniversary and also the 70th anniversary of D-Day. There are activities planned in Normandy but we haven’t heard of any here in Paris.

We took the RER to the Muette stop and found a café for breakfast nearby. It’s a lovely neighborhood. A kindly lady directed us to the Marmottan-Monet Museum where we wanted to see the visiting Impressionists exhibit, “Les Impressionnistes en Privé.” Thanks to a most pleasant ticket agent, we also found their newest acquisition, a very nice Chagall. It was a marvelous exhibit including many paintings from private collections that you would never, otherwise, have a chance to see. Of course, no photos were allowed since it was a special exhibit. The Marmottan doesn’t allow photos anyway and it was crowded enough that we understood why. We were beginning to get an idea of the crowds to come.

Afterwards we started walking, originally just looking around but finally aimed at the Eiffel Tower. We slowly wandered the lovely 16th arrondissement and stopped at the Café Trocadero for a kir to celebrate our anniversary. A man at the next table jumped up in horror as he watched his car being towed away . . . he was parked illegally. Cars are a nuisance in a city!

We continued on past the Eiffel Tower to Invalides and then found rue de l’Université to continue our walk home. We passed the Erik Satie Conservatory of Music and on past the Musée d’Orsay. We stopped in what we thought was Cinq Mars Restaurant and made a reservation for seven o’clock this evening.

At seven we returned to the restaurant and were seated. The waitress took a couple photos for our anniversary and we each got another kir. We decided to ask the waitress about the restaurant name, Cinq Mars, and quickly discovered we were actually in a completely different restaurant, La Bonne Excuse, across the street from Cinq Mars and both had the same front. We hadn’t looked at the name, only checked the menu which we found greatly to our liking. Serendipity . . .

I ordered the saddle of lamb but asked for the vegetables that came with the pork Ed had ordered. I saw her discussing it with the chef and she finally came back and offered me a different vegetable selection that the chef felt appropriate for the lamb. I said that was fine since my objection had been to the original vegetable. When my dinner arrived, it was brought out by the chef personally to be sure the vegetable selection was suitable. Not only was it suitable, it was beautiful. The plate held perfectly done, fork-tender lamb with an arrangement of vegetables covered with edible flower petals as accompaniment. It tasted even better than it looked. They use only fresh produce and all meat and produce are organic. Both my lamb and Ed’s pork were excellent. We were so glad we found the place. When they brought our desserts, they had lit sparklers in it to celebrate our anniversary so eventually everyone else congratulated us. It was a spectacular end to a perfect day. [La Bonne Excuse, 48 rue de Verneuil 75005 Paris, France; tel: +33 (0)1 4261-5021; La Bonne Excuse web site]

As a post script, we returned to La Bonne Excuse 18 months later when we happened to be in Paris for a few days and when we walked in, they immediately recognized us and started to reminisce about our anniversary. We were so surprised they remembered us. Ed thought it must have been the sparklers . . .