{"id":2917,"date":"2018-10-09T16:22:22","date_gmt":"2018-10-09T20:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mayliang.us\/?p=2917"},"modified":"2018-10-09T16:22:22","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T20:22:22","slug":"paris-september-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/?p=2917","title":{"rendered":"Paris!! (September 2018)"},"content":{"rendered":"

We were in Paris for a week to celebrate the Inn at Little Washington\u2019s 40th anniversary (and its 3rd Michelin star). The weather was lovely\u2014sunny and crisp. In total, we ate at 5 restaurants (if you count the Inn) with a total of 12 Michelin stars (yes, we are gluttonous pigs). But it was a glorious gluttony!
\nWe went with two friends of ours from Wichita and stayed at the Shangri-la Paris. The Shangri-la is situated in the 17th arrondissement, looking over the Eiffel Tower, and the building is the former estate of Napoleon\u2019s great-nephew, Roland Bonaparte.<\/p>\n

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view from our terrace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Inn had arranged for a couple of additional events for us to attend. The first was a private tour of the Dior archives, which consists of both clothing and documents. It was fascinating to see how the archivists conserved vintage clothing and preserved various documents from the Dior shows and from the designer himself.
\nIn addition, Jamie McCourt, the US ambassador to France, hosted a reception at her residence for the Inn. The ambassadorial residence is a building that was formerly owned by a New Orleans-born woman, the Baroness de Pontalba. (Talleyrand also once lived at that same location). After the death of the Baroness, one of the Rothschilds purchased the estate. The family fled to Switzerland when the Germans invaded. This proved to be a wise decision as the residence then became a club for Goering\u2019s officers during the German occupation.
\nThe residence and the grounds are beautiful, and there is even a Calder located on the grounds (it\u2019s on loan).<\/p>\n

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The US ambassador’s residence<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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the Calder!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But the crowning event celebrating the Inn took place at Vaux-le-Vicomte, the former residence of Louis XIV\u2019s finance minister. It is said that Louis XIV modeled Versailles after Vaux-le-Vicomte (with Versailles being a bigger and better model, of course\u2014that\u2019s what happens when you\u2019re an absolute monarch). Vaux-le-Vicomte is a drop dead fairy tale-like gorgeous chateau, complete with moat in front (no sharks) and an 18th century French formal garden in the back.<\/p>\n

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the gardens at Vaux-le-Vicomte<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There were guardsmen, jugglers, musicians, and flamethrowers, all dressed in 17th century period clothing. Patrick O\u2019Connell, the chef and owner of the Inn, was also dressed in period costume.<\/p>\n

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with Chef Patrick O’Connell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The food was excellent (of course!) and at the end of the evening, there were the most amazing fireworks in the garden, set to music. It was the most elaborate fireworks show I have ever seen.<\/p>\n

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menu from the 40th anniversary dinner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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dining in the Grand Salon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In between all of these events, we played conventional tourists (the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, and Notre Dame) as well as unconventional tourists (Mus\u00e9e de Marmottan, Mus\u00e9e de L\u2019Orangerie\u2014both filled with Monet paintings, Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, and Sainte Chapelle).
\nWe also ate at Shang Palace, Taillevent, Guy Savoy, and L\u2019Arp\u00e8ge. They were all their usual impressive places, but the place that stood out this time was L\u2019Arp\u00e8ge. The chef is a genius with vegetables, which all come from his 10 hectare garden in Normandy.
\nSpeaking personally, I am replete with pat\u00e9 and foie gras and red wine. It was a magnificent trip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We were in Paris for a week to celebrate the Inn at Little Washington\u2019s 40th anniversary (and its 3rd Michelin star). The weather was lovely\u2014sunny and crisp. In total, we ate at 5 restaurants (if you count the Inn) with a total of 12 Michelin stars (yes, we are gluttonous pigs). But it was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[301,82,25,1],"tags":[32,38,331],"class_list":["post-2917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-frivolous","category-fun","category-restaurants","category-uncategorized","tag-inn-at-little-washington","tag-paris","tag-restaurants"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p23QXm-L3","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2917"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2919,"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2917\/revisions\/2919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayliang.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}