Day 6

Today started with a good sleep-in, followed by butter and sugar in the form of croissants and macarons.
Lindsay and I headed to St. Germain & the Latin quarter and tracked down Pierre Herme and Laduree. Laduree is the shop that made macarons famous (theirs are basically the most well-known). Pierre Herme is supposed to be the first shop aside from Laduree to make them. His macarons are the most expensive in the city and are regarded as the best macarons by some.
We chose plain croissants at both places, and had Herme's chocolate macarons and Laduree's vanilla ones. The croissant at Pierre Herme was, by far, the best croissant I have ever had in my life. It was crisp on the outside and so buttery that it left some butter behind on my fingers. The macaron was good, though I felt like it was more about the filling than the cookie and kinda felt like I was eating a lump of ganache~ delicious, but not really what I was going for. Laduree's croissant was definitely good, but was less crisp than our first croissant. Their macarons, on the other hand, was my favorite from all the different shops we visited so far. It had just the right amount of filling and wasn't too sweet.

We spent the afternoon wandering around Marais. Surprisingly for a city this big, lots of shops and restaurants shut down on Sundays. Marias, being a Jewish community, is closed on Saturdays and open on Sundays. It was packed, like people basically shoulder to shoulder across the narrow streets shuffling from shop to shop. There's an interesting mixture of shops in the area, with everything from vintage clothing shops and antiques, to upscale clothing boutiques and artsy jewelry shops. It seemed like we stumbled across a different band on every other street, and despite the fact that it was crowded, everybody seemed to be pretty relaxed and happy. The falafel joint I wanted to visit was open, but the line was like 50 people long, so we opted to wait to have a proper dinner at a sit-down restaurant.
The restaurant we chose for the night was called A La Petite Chaise. It's Paris' oldest restaurant, established in 1680 in the same house it stands in today. They offer a 3 course menu with options for €33 including service and tax.
Oh ya, a note about tipping: by law in France, the service charge at a restaurant (what would be the tip in Canada) is included in the bill. Nothing is expected above and beyond, and even at super hugh-end restaurants, it is not normal to leave anything behind. Back to our dinner.
The menu was comprised of fairly classic French fare. Choices for the starter included foie gras with toast, French onion soup, and rabbit rillettes. I chose escargots from Burgundy baked in garlic butter, and Lindsay chose cured salmon with toast and grainy mustard cream. Main course choices ranged from steamed salmon to lamb leg. I chose duck breast, and Lindsay chose a steak with red wine sauce. For dessert, she had a creme brulee and I had a chocolate cake that was more like a mousse cake. We also had some really good baguette, and a half bottle of Bordeaux. All in all, it was pretty awesome for the price, though I will say that there is basically no point in specifying a doneness for your meat here they just kinda do it how they want, which is to say medium to medium well...
About halfway home, our train pulled up to a stop and we could hear singing. A pack of people got on, and continued singing for another couple of stops. I have no idea what they were singing about, but it got everyone on the train smiling.