May 27, 2015 A day of food and art in Paris

May 27, 2015 A day of art and food in Paris with Kathryn and Mike

We waited for Mike to arrive at 12:00.  Then while he showered, we walked a long block to the museum of Carmondo, which is a medium sized mansion with an amazing collection of mainly decorative art that was the family home of Sephardic Jewish family that had banking interests 

In the Middle East.

The decorative items dated back to the reign of Louis XVI and the mansion was lovely, a real treasure in fact.  The family ended tragically.  An only son was killed in WWI and the only daughter and her children were exterminated by the Nazis in WWII.  Fortunately, the family gave the house and the collection to the French government in the 1920’s and it was preserved.

We then walked back to the apartment and fixed lunch of steamed asparagus, sauted breaded fish and I and Suzette made a buerre blanc sauce.  We drank a prize winning bottle of Viognier.

After lunch Kathryn got us organized and we walked to the L’ Orangerie at the Tuilleries gardens.  We saw Monet’s water lilies and an amazing collection of art.  Rooms full of Soutine, Derain, Monet, Renoir, Modigliani, Utrillo, and Cezanne and some of the best Picassos I have ever seen.  A wonderful collection of art.

We then returned to the apartment and Kathryn and Suzette and I walked to the Park Monceau, where we saw a street filled with antique dealers and their wares.

We returned to the apartment around 8:00 and made a wonderful dinner of fricassed rabbit. Kathryn had found a recipe yesterday and made the marinade with mustard and chopped shallots.  Today Suzette cooked the rabbit and I made a sauce for artichokes we had bought and boiled yesterday with mayonnaise, lemon juice, red wine vinegar and shallots, olive oil, fresh basil and dill.

Suzette made the Braising medium into a mustard sauce.  Mike made a salad with lettuce and then Suzette a sautéed the artichoke halves in a skillet to heat them and we made salads with the lettuce, artichokes, and lettuce.

Suzette boiled the new potatoes we bought yesterday and thickened the cooking medium into a sauce with heavy cream and the addition of two tsps. of Rosemary to and we had our entrée of fricassed rabbit with new potatoes.

Mike and Kathryn opened a lovely bottle of 2009 Beaune Burgundy.  The light. Lip not noir was perfect with the delicate rabbit and the heavy cream sauce.

After dinner we are pastries for dessert and went to bed happy with a full day of activity and food.

Bon Appetit