Busy museum Saturday

Here's what I did yesterday:

I ventured to the outskirts of Paris to visit the Aquarium. Small, but nice. A friendly tour guide (good looking man in his mid 20s) stopped and explained about a strange African fish I was snapping photos of. Apparently, the guide studied in Africa and he was very familiar with the fish. It looked dangerous to me, but he said they're harmless. He said the local people ate them. I asked if they tasted good. Apparently, that was the wrong question because he said no and excused himself. (Admittedly, if I wasn't married I would have continued that conversation and maybe asked for his number. Where o where are my single girlfriends when I find men for them?)

Next up, the French Cinematheque Museum in the 12th district. They had some neat old movie cameras, costumes, and props. Well worth visiting, but I would have liked to see more post World War II film history and items. They're currently getting ready for a retrospective on French filmmaker & actor Jacques Tati. I may go back for that or to see the Cecil B. Demille films that they're showing on their big screen. Cleopatra is on tonight.

I then went to the Georges Pompidou Centre, a museum dedicated to modern art. The building is extremely modern, but not really in a good way. One of the best features is the escalators heading up; you can see all of Paris off to the right through the glass walls. When you reach the 7th floor, you can see Paris in every direction including viewing the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and Sacré Coeur. I enjoyed the Robert Delaunay and Sonia Delaunay paintings most.

I was done with museums, so I took the Metro to the Hotel De Ville stop for tea and a snack at Mariage Freres. A woman in my French class recommended this trendy tea spot. This is not far from the Louvre so (expectedly) the place was packed on a Saturday afternoon. I had a black vanilla bourbon tea with a creme brulée tart with raspberries on the bottom. Totally lives up to its reputation and I can see why they've been in business since 1854.

For about a week, I've been meaning to check the half price ticket booth at Place de la Madeleine for theater tickets. I finally made made it yesterday. But, I don't think I'm quite ready for an entire evening of spoken theater in French. This is near French gourmand heavens Hediard and Fauchon, so I briefly looked in the stores before heading home on the Metro. This area deserves an entire afternoon, so I didn't snap photos or buy anything on this outing.

Popped home briefly to talk to Nino and our friends Alan and Rosalia on Skype. Nino is in Seattle visiting the LeClercs this weekend.

For dinner, I decided to try to super trendy French-Japanese chain, Planet Sushi. Pink leather bucket stools, pink leather booths and white chandeliers. This restaurant is an incredibly popular gathering spot for French people in their 20s and 30s, particularly the Bastille location near my apartment. And the sushi was FANTASTIC!!! This is some of the best sushi I've had anywhere on the planet. And for dessert, they had nutella maki. It's a nutella roll with sweet rice, a little bit of crepe, and (if you want) bananas or strawberries. Unbelieavably great. I will definitely go back here sometime this week.

Walking around after dinner, I saw a Thai restaurant and an authentic Italian pizza joint that I intend to try before I leave. I love trying fusion food. It's so interesting to see how French fusion differs from American fusion.