Toasting the Memory of Stauter - Thursday, 16 June

Pizza Regina - tomatoes, ham,
mushrooms, olives, mozzarella

Dinner my first night in Paris is usually pizza.  I'm not entirely sure how I got into this habit, but after taking a nap to recover (somewhat) from a long day of travel, it seems to hit the spot.  And a fairly decent pizza can be found in most neighborhoods, so one doesn't have to wander far from "home."

Great espresso with 3 kinds of sugar
and a yummy spice cookie

The view from my table, about 8 p.m.,
Notre Dame in the background
against a pale blue sky.

Tonight I was meandering through the Latin Quarter and decided to grab a 'za right in the Place Saint-Michel, on a corner that has had a pasta/pizza resto ever since my first trip here, almost 25 years ago.  My friend Robert Louis Stauter ("Dr. Blue Eyes") planned and coordinated that 2-week trip through France (only 27 hours of which was in Paris!) for four of us, sharing his love for this country, its people and food and wine and culture and customs and art and history.  (I sure caught the bug!)  I can remember Jan Lindquist, one of my fellow travelers (who had known Robert from her surgical residency days), and Robert and I having crème caramel at the resto on this corner - can't remember if we had pizza, but I do remember the crème caramel!  Robert pronounced it "good."  And so it was!  So tonight I raised a toast to the memory of "Stauter" (as he called himself), who died in the 1998 Swissair crash over Nova Scotia.  What a loss to the world.

Some folks had organized a private wine tasting at the restaurant - tables were set up into a long rectangle, several bottles of wine were delivered to the table with multiple glasses per guest, and the apparent expert (the guy in white at the head of the table) took them through the tasting process.  I haven't seen a wine tasting in this format before - quite cool, and the nice wide sidewalk provided a wonderful venue for it, and it was interesting to see hoardes of people stream by this busy corner without paying any attention to the event at all!