after dinner sneeze

t says: On the third day of France-mas, we continued with the sights, but mixed it up g & t style by hitting up Le Bon Marche in the middle of the day. We started with Musee D’orsay which was absolutely amazing. There were so many works in there that I would have never imagined seeing in person. It was truly humbling. Unfortunately, Olympia was closed that day, but next time, right?

As for Bon Marche … on one hand, it was little more than an “interesting” department store, but on the flip side, they had “La Cave” in the basement. This place had an impressive selection of VERY recognizable Bordeaux … including the ones inside their fancy cellar:

Something new …

… something old.

Behold! Norte Dame.

We took SO many pictures inside, but this one was by far my favorite, especially given the certain current events that were going on in Paris the weekend we were there, as well as the wrong order of colors on the rainbow.

We also visited St Chappelle which was amazing, but my panorama shot was too big to download, so I’ll just leave a space for it here ….
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We then visited Pierre Herme, which proved to have some very nice macarons (superior to Laduree) and beautiful other desserts. I quite liked it. And the millefeuille I bought was very good – but about one ounce of chocolate away from being the best dessert of the trip.

After these awesome holy grounds, we then went to La Cremerie, which provided us with an amazing bottle of cheap wine and a good time (it was probably The BEST red wine we had in our entire time in Paris!)

This day concluded with dinner at Les Papilles, an eat-in wine shop (where reservations are recommended) with a fixed price menu for anywhere between 30-40 Euro.  You don’t get to choose much, but I can guarantee that you’ll leave stuffed …

Appetizer was perhaps the most complex vichyssoise soup I’ve ever had … no … after further thought, make it the best.  Plain and simple.  Sorry a, this one is taking GTC’s to the cleaners … Plus, the family-style giant terrine worth means we could go back over and over.  So delicious.  Easily the best soup of the trip.

The sommelier-ish guy suggested this bottle of easy-drinking Burgundy, and he nailed it.  It was a fantastic bottle to share and easy on the wallet.  However, for big-spenders out there, there were plenty of options (they had some Petrus for ~900 Euro).

Welcome to the most controversial dish of the trip.  What you see is duck.  Now, normally, duck is a slam-dunk to be had at pretty much any “contemporary American” or BYO or “farm-to-table” restaurant in Philly.  But at Les Papilles … the duck was very different: it was a bit more toothsome than nearly every other duck I’ve ever had – however, the it was clear that the duck was a perfect medium rare – so what’s the deal?  g blamed her lack of sharp knife.  I blamed her lack of knife velocity.  n felt it was lack of sharp teeth.  m quietly ate his duck without much fuss.  In any case, we agreed that the duck was a little tough and let it go … but then later on, in Burgundy, g and I encountered an identical slab of duck with the same done-ness and somehow the same degree of toothsomeness.  What the?  Well, maybe we’ve just never had French duck before, but I hope that someone over there visits the US for either a lesson in duck cookery or access to US duck supply …

The cheese and dessert courses followed, both of which were rock-solid, but not necessarily mind-blowing.  But don’t think that we had a bad time.  On the contrary!  At the end of the trip, the four of us voted, and Les Papilles was the clear winner of “restaurant we’d visit on our next visit to Paris” as well as “best overall experience” and “best value”.  Bravo Les Papilles!

t says: Blogging while on vacation is hard. Fortunately/unfortunately (depending on how familiar you are with out travel), I had some time today to go through pictures. Here we go:

I liked the Mona Lisa! g remarked how the means of display prevents it from being appreciated up close, but it was actually still impressive – I don’t care how many people dis’ it! Other than the other two ladies, the Louvre was just too huge for my feeble mind to take in. I’m glad we went, but it kind of was a long walk for a short drink.

Lunch at a local cafe …

… Which for some reason a picture of this horse we saw at Hermes is n the middle of.

Lunch at Le Cafe des Inities wasn’t ad. Certainly overpriced, but it did not taste “bad”. As I ponder the burger and croquet Monsieur, I am confidant that we would just not go back and eat somewhere further from the Louvre.

We then conquered the Eiffel Tower …

But lacked the will to wait in line to go up top. We also conquered the Arc de Triomphe but felt similarly about attempting to get to the top. Lauren gave us a nice macaron or two, but we would find that to be only the very tip do the macaron-berg.

While g then napped, I conquered Du Pain et Des Idees, a well-known bakery in the tenth. It was amazing because there was an orderly line when I got there of French people, just waiting to acquire their evening baguettes. But I assure you I did no such thing:

This trip I ate a LOT of pain chocolate. This one was the best, but it was still a disappointment. Why are there only two rods of chocolate? I recall a chocolate croissant from my childhood (i.e. college) where at the library’s coffee cart, they’d sell chocolate croissants that had chocolate disbursed throughout the layers, leading to even distribution of chocolate. I found not one of these magnificent beasts in France. Maybe it was only a dream?

It’s ok, ecause they did have these “escargots” that featured no snail, rather, chocolate and pistachio. It was quite delicious!
Later that night we went to Frenchie. Mmmmmmm.
The foie was pretty good. It had those accompanying dots (citrus), and the bread was delist, but I think that the chef should have done something to the foie to make it more interesting. It was a giant hunk of liver and that’s it. Lame!

Apps: that dark one was mushrooms, poached egg, bacon, and either grain or bean (hazy memory) that was out of control. g felt that she won, however, with that asparagus fish concoction. She also liked the actual dish, itself that had these flowers etched into the rim. Whatevs – I was too busy focusing on the food to notice.

I forget g’s dish … Oops. Lets call it entree du foam …

The lamb dish was insane! Holding the title for single best tasting main dish of the entire trip. I could have eaten it 7 days straight. The lamb, the veggies, the artichoke, the lamb, the thin strip of “skin” was all so delicious. This, plus the bottle of ormiale 2009 a nice combo. It was a rustic Bordeaux from a fabulous year. I’d age a bottle or two in the US if I could find it.
To finish, g did cheese, and I did dessert. Nothing in particular about the dessert (a rum baba) was that insane (it was solid, but my face remained intact), so no picture uploaded …

That was a pretty nice first full day in Paris. If only it was warmer and NOT rainy, we would have enjoyed it more (this would be a recurring theme …)

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.

t says:  It’s girl scout cookie season!  I just bought some!

the first cookie of 2013 … were these always as hexagonal?  I could have sworn they were round … ?

I also look for Girl Scout ice cream.  Around these parts, we usually get Edy’s, not Dreyer’s.

wait a sec!  what happened to “Samoas”?  what happened to the “girl scouts”?  weird!?  Are we ripping off those girls?