after dinner sneeze

t says: We’re in PARIS! We’ve never been, so this is super-exciting for us. Time for some photo-journaling:

The view from our room at Bed and Breakfast Bouchardon.

Lunch at Le Cepage in Montmartre began with Escargots (better than BLM, but not as good as Pierre’s) and French Onion Soup (darn tasty!)

Salad x2 (mine had foie, and cured meat, and likely duck heart … So it was more meat than salad, and great!)

So, when g and I walked into this dessert place, I greeted the woman with a “Bonjour!” and then, in French, asked if she understood English, to which she curtly responded “No”. But it wasn’t just “no”, it was like saying “no” in such a way as to imply giving someone the finger … Undeterred (i wanted pastry, damnit!) and suspicious that she knew plenty English, I proceeded to order the above “Trois Chocolats” in my horrible-terrible French, to which she responded “Just one?”. Aha! You were holding out! Well, at least the pastry was de-lish!

Dinner was at Cafe Constant in the 7th Arrondissement near the Eiffel Tower (it didn’t sparkle for us). As I ascended the stairs, I overheard a couple leaving while a waiter asked them what was wrong. They responded, “there are too many Americans!” … in perfect un-accented English … dressed exactly like every other American in the room … with a sense of hoity-toity holier-than-thou attitude that could only be American. Look: it’s Sunday night …. in the same district as the Eiffel Tower … at the affordable restaurant of a fairly renowned chef … so YES – there are going to be Americans there. 1) why are you copping an attitude with the wait staff -as if they can help who patronizes their restaurant . 2) those other Americans are quietly enjoying their vacation and pose no threat to the good food that you, too, could have enjoyed. 3) you are the reason why stubborn-pastry-lady hates Americans.

The aftermath of an appetizer of deviled eggs and an oyster/salmon tartare that were both amazeballs as you can tell.

I went for leg of lamb that looked fairly anemic (g insisted that it wasn’t lamb -the waiter gave me a “what are you -stupid?” look when I asked. But it was quite good. Best ever? Nah – needed more depth of lamb and herbs – but the texture was nice!

But g was very impressed with her beef stew.

Dessert was profiteroles with tons of warm chocolate and an almond salted caramel cream concoction.