After organizing the bags a bit, Ed and I head out to survey the area. There is a restaurant we want to try right up the street, Poivre & Sel,so we walk up there to make sure we know where we are going. Only a block away, and it looks great. Dinner done!
Then we head over to Place du Luxembourg to explore – and hopefully find the waffle vendor the girl at the desk told me about. Lots of bars and restaurants here as well, but we’re good with our selection. We do however stumble upon my namesake or nemesis as the case may be…
…he’s back! And apparently back to Cat Stevens again. Wonder how much trouble that will cause me at the airport…..let’s hope that episode won’t be repeated!
As we are leaving the square, and I am resigned to not having my last Belgian waffle – success! The Waffle food truck – or VW van as it were. Yummy!
Later, we meet at the lobby bar for drinks. Big beers – and 
I mean BIG. You can’t tell from this picture, but they were absolutely huge – 2-handers! As we have our pre-dinner drinks, we finally have the Swiss/Belgian chocolate taste test. We have had a running discussion about which is better – Swiss or Belgian. We don’t have an opinion, as we think both are pretty darn good. Gaby and Sigis of course, don’t agree! National pride and all. So, I bring the chocolates from Dumon, a grocery store bar and the Swiss chocolates that match to taste test. Chocolate, beer (and wine)! Two of the best Belgian delicacies. Ends up a draw – or at least the acknowledgment that Belgian chocolate is pretty good, if not as good as Swiss. 
Off to dinner, where we find the most adorable little restaurant with an outgoing and personable chef who is from Calabria – and ends up sitting next to us (with his friend who is a girl – you can go from there) and talking to us most of the night. It is a small, quaint (yes Gaby, quaint!) place, very enjoyable atmosphere and fabulous food. We are served pumpkin soup in a shot glass as an amuse bouche, a glass of sangria type wine and then onto our main courses. Oh so good – Risotto with Tartufo for Gaby, Lamb steak in a sumptuous red wine sauce for me, Sole Meuniere for Ed and Linguine Vongole for Sigis. So good.
Sigis has a sweet tooth still (the Belgian and Swiss chocolates were not enough apparently!) so he has chocolate mousse that we all share and it is delicious! Then the grappa. Sigh. The Grappa boys!
After getting the bill and realizing the grappa was the chef’s special collection (i.e., expensive), the chef gave us two more glasses. So nice. Great find!
Back to the hotel we wander to have last call in the bar. Bitter 
sweet – this week has been so much fun and we are looking forward to planning more Rageth/Stevens adventures in the near future. (Actually we are thinking about just following Matthias around the world – next stop Panama City – you never know when we might show up….).
We say a heartfelt goodbye to our traveling pals with promises to make plans to see each other again soon.
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