Lunch, 30 Juin: Les Artisanes, 14, avenue Daumesnil, roughly equidistant between Gare Lyon and Place Bastille
- Salade Niçoise (Kristin)
- Salade Aveyronnaise (Mario)
- Club Sandwich au Saumon Fume avec frites (Rachel)
Our first meal in Paris. We'd had some minor challenges getting in from CDG, but we'd found our hotel and dropped our luggage. It was hot and humid and we had that slightly dazed and woozy first day jet lag feeling. Stumbled into this friendly, comfortable neighborhood place around the corner from our hotel. Servings were massive and very good. Mario's salad had hard boiled eggs, blue cheese, tomato, bacon, walnuts, mayonnaise. Mine was a classic niçoise. Rachel's club sandwich was speared on a skewer and was delicious, with tomato, lettuce, mayo. Good bread, some white wine, and a "Coka" (cola) for Mademoiselle.
After lunch we walked to Notre Dame, strolled along the Seine to Saint Chappelle and then back to the hotel where we gave in to the inevitable and took a long nap. Headed out to dinner ~ 8:30 PM
Dinner, 30 Juin: Brasserie Bofinger, near Place Bastille (Mario subsequently learned from Drew Brees' book, that Drew proposed to Brittany right across the street at "Petit Bofinger")
- Grand plat de fruits du mare
- Saumon Tartare (Rachel)
- Cotes d'agneau persillés (Kristin)
- Salade d'Homard (Mario)
- Sorbets de cassis, framboise, et mirabelle
- Alsatian pinot blanc
A grand and venerable brasserie, specializing in Alsatian food. It was far too hot to consider choucroute garni, Rachel wanted the coolest item on the menu. The seafood platter was eye-popping and impeccable. Oysters, clams, mussels (raw! a first for us), a whole crab (the only let down--a little overcooked and mealy), prawns, delicious briny little bitty shrimp in the shells that we dubbed m&m shrimp (cuz we popped them in our mouth and ate shell and all), and whelks. Oh, those whelks! Chewy, sweet, salty, rich. We learned to avoid the whatever it was in the shell beside the actual whelk--too funky even for us. Delicious brown bread and mignonette to accompany.
Rachel's was a refreshing salad of diced raw salmon with mayonaisse, celery, some tarragon... She was very hot and tired and didn't come close to finishing, but we all agreed it was good.
Mario had a whole small shelled Maine lobster atop haricots verts and greens with a viniagrette.
My herb-crusted lambsicles were served with baby turnips, haricots verts, potatoes and a light but intense jus.
We shared a trio of sorbet for dessert--cassis, raspberry, and lemon.
A leisurely walk back to the hotel...and we slept until seven the next morning.
Entrées
- Assiette de ratatouille froide, anchoïade et tapenade
- Petit chèvre rôti au romarin
- Carpaccio de courgette
Plats
- Rougets à la tapenade
- Cotes d'agneau
- Confits de lapins
Desserts
- Creme brulee
After a siesta to recover from our scorching, crowded, but very interesting day at Versailles, we headed out to a wonderful al fresco dinner at an excellent Provençal restaurant in Le Marais. 77 types of pastis (we didn't try any), and a gruff black maître d'hôtel who wordlessly communicated the proper repository for our olive pits (forefinger tapped impatiently next to pile of pits on Rachel's napkin, then again in the ashtray)...we soon discovered that most everyone did something to incur Monsieur's demonstrative but short-lived disapproval...
- Steaks-frites avec bearnaise
- Cheeseburger-frites
We spent the day at the Louvre (Do get reservations--you get to skip the lines!) and barely made a dent, but hit the highlights. Had a very good lunch in the restaurant but were all jealous when we saw the hamburger go by--it looked absolutely amazing. I think this stuck in Rachel's mind, as she was determined to have a burger . It was good, though the "cheese" was a gloppy processed cheese food product. Our steaks were very tasty. This cafe has a good vibe and is a solid value, and as long as you looked past the fact that seemingly 2/3rds of the customers were Americans who'd been steered there (like ourselves) by Rick Steve's...
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