Sunday 10 January - Montorgueil. Les Halles, Pied de Cochon, Madeleine Organ

We wanted to see the progress on Les Halles and went there from Sentier metro and down rue de Montorgueil which was especially busy on a Sunday morning.

Galettes du Roi were selling well and samples were being handed out in the street

The main building st Les Halles is scheduled to open in March and the garden in stages until 2018.  The building has an enormous overall roof which will be very impressive.  At present the views of St-Eustache are hidden by the stacked containers containing living quarters for the workers.  When complete it will be a spectacular space in the centre of Paris,

We walked across to the Le Pied du Cochon which was not very full - it is open continuously 24/7 all year.

Starting with oysters, we progressed to an excellent onion soup gratine with very thick cheese-soaked bread while the properly caramelized onions gave a wonderful depth of flavor to the broth.  For the main course Mary had a salad while I had a pigs trotter stuffed with Perigourd fois gras etc,  The whole was washed down with half bottles of Muscadet and Beaujolais as well as a carafe of water.  The "Maitre D' said, in French "You know that comes out of the tap?" and we replied "Yes, Paris water is good to drink".

Pied de cochon farci a la Perigourdine (Stuffed pigs trotter) with potatoes

These little meringues came with coffee.

The clouds were threatening somewhat but we decided to walk to La Madeleine as we had plenty of time - also to help work down lunch.  As we walked along Mary kept saying "I'm stuffed".

The fountain in the Palais Royal were still on, an indication of the mild winter so far.

Rue de Rivoli

This kid was enjoying sailing a boat in the Tuileries

Tuileries boat hire

The concert at La Madeleine was quite good, now that we have found a place to sit to get good acoustics,  The Bach chorale BWV 680 was perhaps the best.  The Pavanne by Faure op 50 was written in honor of Comptesse Greffulhe the subject of Mary's museum visit yesterday. Faure was organist at La Madeleine at one time.  This piece was written for orchestra and did not transfer well to the organ.