rick steves........grafitti board entry

ok, so here is what mm wrote on the rick steves grafitti board about the trip..... I have just returned from a whirlwind trip to Paris, a sort of theme trip with several ladies from my Sunday School class....we read the DaVinci Code over the holidays, and decided to visit the Parisian sites that were key to the story line...more on that later......I planned several lunches at restaurants on-site at major museums. The first day, we lunched in the incredible dining room at Musee D'Orsay.....This room must have been either a dining room or a ballroom when the D'Orsay was a hotel/railroad station.....the ceiling and walls are quite elegant, and diners relax in huge wicker armchairs...we each had either a hot plat du jour or a salad plate...mine was a 'salad of the forest' with mixed greens, mushrooms, roast duck and duck confit, with a broiled goat cheese toast garnish.....the price for 3, including a carafe of house white was 46.55 euros....quite a bargain for the ambience and the luscious food.....Another day we lunched in yet another outstanding dining room, this time in the Musee Jaquemart-Andre, on Blvd Haussmann..the ceiling was brought back from Italy by the art-collector couple that built the house, and the room had those 20 foot walls that make an Italian-painted ceiling seem perfect.....my salad plate was again mixed greens, this time covered in thinly sliced Italian ham, along with grape tomatoes, 3 broiled goat cheese toasts, and a little sauce dish of black olive tapenade.......just divine with a bottle of a mighty dry reisling....for 3...50.05 euros including several cafe cremes.....another deal for ladies who wanted to really 'do' lunch....if you go, get there before 11:30 am, as the room filled up quickly and they take no reservations......now for the most memorable part of the trip.....the DaVinci Code part.....which took place at St. Sulpice....we opted to take Rick Steve's advice, and go to Sunday 10:30 am mass, then stay for the organ concert and wait at the door at the left of the entrance in case the organist will allow visitors to the organ loft.......we were the very last to go up the steps, and stopped to take a few pictures of the sanctuary from the balcony before making our way down the dimly lit hall toward the organ loft.....we were ushered into a brilliant red silk-lined reception room....and as the door closed on the small gathering of tourists, we heard someone gasp....aren't you Rick Steves?.......there he was, confirming details of the organ recital section of the 2004 Paris book with organist Daniel Roth.......Rick Steves himself......We had our pictures taken with him, as well as with the organist. I got his autograph in my little moleskine travel diary.......talk about being in the right place at the right time.....Our next stop was the Louvre, to see the Mona Lisa and Madonna of the Rocks, as well as the inverted pyramid.....also key elements in the book....but not before we lunched at Cafe Marly, in the Richelieu Wing, overlooking the pyramid entrance. We had read that reservations were not required.....The staff had a bit of an attitude because of our lack of reservations but condecended to seat us within 8-10 minutes anyway.......we dined in a glowing room overlooking the Marly horses...the walls had a treatment that resembled baby blue suede, and we sat on burgundy couches or blue velvet chairs...just lovely....the prices were more than we had anticipated...but the food was purely divine.....I had a Thai shrimp soup with lemongrass and mushrooms in a broth thickened with coconut milk and a glass or two of a nice sancerre for about 20 euros.....worth the price just for the people-watching alone......this place must be where the interesting come to see and be seen.....we did toast to Rick Steves, by the way......for making our short winter Paris getaway so memorable......I should add, for the record....that we thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the Hotel Leveque on the Rue Cler, and the meals (2) that we had with Phillippe at La Varangue, and at L'Auberge de Champs de Mars, and the Chinese take-out place across from the hotel. By the way, there is a cyber-cafe just down from L'Auberge de Champs de Mars that is open 12 noon to 8 or 10 depending on the day of the week. Despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, we felt completely secure, and had absolutely no trouble getting along with any one as long as we smiled broadly, and spoke broken French with Kentucky accents.....A wonderful trip.