France – Page 3

Paris – Les Cocottes Four Years Later

October 15, 2023 mmm-yoso France, French Restaurants, Paris, France, Travel

There's one sort of tradition we have when visiting Paris. On every trip we make an effort to view the Eiffel Tower at night. So, after taking a break following our morning of walking around the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Arrondissements, we headed off to the seventh. On this day we hadn't made any plans for dinner. We were wondering how Les Cocottes was doing. Due to the location it was the scene of our first dinner in Paris and it had been four years since our last visit. The simple, unpretentious food at Les Cocottes had been satisfying and in 2021, the restaurant's namesake, Christian Constant retired. So new owners are in place.

The gentleman working the front of house was very professional and guided us to a table. While the 7th has always been quite popular with ex-pats, we've noticed even more over the last couple of visits. And on this visit we found that all the customers in Les Cocottes seemed to be tourists.

We ordered two starters and noticed that the special for the evening was cassoulet, so we got that to share.

First up was the Creme de Champignon et Lard Paysan – a creme of mushroom soup with bacon. It was also crowned with a soft boiled egg.

When this I arrived I told the Missus; "uh-oh….I must have Covid!"

She rocked back in Her seat and said "why?"

"Because, I must have lost my sense of smell….I can't smell any mushroom!"

The Missus cracked up! In all seriousness, this was very bland, boiled egg wasn't "soft", the bacon soggy, very little mushroom flavor.

Next up was the Foie Gras Terrine.

Check out the "toast"…….did they lose their bread knife and have to tear this by hand? The bread was dry and mealy. The foie gras was fine, quite livery-offaly in flavor. The temperature was off as it was way too cold and hard.

And lastly, the Cassoulet.

Good lord, this was terrible! The pork was on the tough side and the tops were incinerated. This needed some help in terms of seasoning as well. The garlic sausage was undercooked and tough. Worse of all, the beans were also undercooked and hard. One of the worse versions of cassoulet we've had.

This was very sad. Les Cocottes held a special place in our memories, but now….. And to think this is Christian Constant's legacy! Man, we thought our last visit to Arnaud Nicolas was bad!

Les Cocottes de Christian Constant
135 rue Saint-Dominique
Paris, 75007

We were feeling a bit down; but that was soon quelled as soon as we saw this.

We strolled on over to the Tour Eiffel, the glowing beacon in the night, the iconic symbol of Paris, instantly recognizable by billions.

We crossed the Seine on Pont d'Iéna and watched the tower sparkle at the top of the hour and then headed back to the apartment strolling along the Seine.

At at Place de l'Alma we took time to pause at the Flamme de la Liberté.

Presented to the city in 1989 by the International Herald Tribune to mark the 100th anniversary of the English publication in Paris. In 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales died in the tragic crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel and Flamme de la Liberté became a de facto memorial to the beloved Diana. The place officially became Place Diana in 2019.

It reminds me of the lyrics to that Elton John song….the version he performed live only once in 1997.

"And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never fading with the sunset
When the rain set in
And your footsteps will always fall here
Along England's greenest hills
Your candle's burned our long before
Your legend ever will…"

Elton John – Candle in the Wind 1997

Paris – Les Artistes du Ravioli, Patrick Roger Chocolate, and other “Stuffs”.

October 14, 2023 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, France, Paris, France, Travel

On our fifth full day in Paris we decided to just go with the flow and just do whatever came to mind during the day. During the previous four days we'd had plans, but on this Saturday, we just wanted to kick back and enjoy things. So, a visit to our favorite little spot on Rue Montorgueil, Café du Centre was in order. So, we strolled on over. It was fairly early on this Saturday, so the streets weren't quite as busy, though the shopping on Rue Montorgueil was in full swing.

So, we sat, had our Cafe Allonges and just watched the world go by for an hour or so.

So relaxing; it's a favorite pass time of ours.

From here we headed off to do some shopping in the 2nd; passing this art installment which we don't remember seeing before right in front of the Bourse de Commerce.

Doing a bit of a search when I returned to the apartment, I found that this is called Cheval et Cavalier (" Horse and Rider") by American artist Charles Ray.

We strolled thru the lovely Galerie Vero Dodat which I've mentioned before.

We love walking thru the and exploring the covered passages of Paris.

It was fun checking things out. There were some cute pooches as well……

There's always something to draw your attention.

After our required stops along the way, we headed on back. Stopping at Hôtel de Ville, City Hall for a bit. You see this was during the first week of December and the Christmas Markets were open. Hôtel de Ville has a Christmas Market of its own.

While not as fun and those in the Alsace (we'd actually be taking a short trip soon) it was a fun little stop. And we saw this well behaved little one posing for a photo which stopped us in our tracks.

My goodness……he looked like Frankie! The Missus and I looed at each other and smiled. Maybe Frankie was looking down at us at this moment! "We miss you everyday Frankie!"

We took busy Rue des Archives back in the direction of the apartment and the Missus saw a chocolate shop named Patrick Roger and we stopped in.

Many of the chocolates seemed sculpted like pieces of art and the Missus decided to buy an assortment.

The Missus didn't enjoy these quite as much as Her favorite, but it was a fun stop.

Patrick Roger
43 Rue des Archives
75003 Paris, France

As we got to the apartment, we decided it was time for some lunch. The side streets close to where we were staying had quite a few Chinese restaurants, in the Haute Marais of all things. I mentioned the History of this in an earlier post. We saw this shop and decided some jiaozi might be nice on a winter day.

The window was all fogged up because there were quite a few people in the place and there was a woman making jiaozi in the front as well. Customer base was a mix of Chinese and regular Parisians.

We got an order of Pork and Cabbage Jiaozi and an order of Baozi.

The wrapper was too thick and chewy, the filling tender but on the bland side. The black vinegar provided was really weak. These weren't very good.

The Baozi was better, but not by much.

The dough was too rubbery, though the pan fried portion was better. It was fairly yeasty in flavor and not overly sweet. The filling here was more tender and juicy, but still on the bland side, in need of a ton of the watery black vinegar.

Not quite sure in the dumpling "artiste" was inhouse on this day? But it was an inexpensive lunch.

Les Artistes du Ravioli
33 Rue au Maire
75003 Paris, France

And it was close to the apartment which was a good thing since I was ready for a nap!

Thanks for stopping by!

Paris – National Archives Museum, Aux Merveilleux de Fred, and a Revisit to Maison De Chengdu

October 8, 2023 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Desserts, France, Paris, France, Travel

After our lunch at Restaurant La Mosquée de Paris we headed back across the Seine back to the apartment. There was one shop that the Missus saw on our way to the Jardin des Plantes that She waned to check out.

Aux Merveilleux de Fred is a chain of shops with branches all over France, London, Europe, New York City, and even Tokyo specializing in, well, Le Merveilleux, a meringue based dessert.

The Missus wanted to try this so we bought a couple for our "le goûter" (afternoon tea).

Aux Merveilleux de Fred
24 Rue du Pont Louis-Philippe
75004 Paris, France

We dropped by the apartment and after storing the Merveilleux, we noticed that it was still fairly early in the day. We had passed the National Archives Museum a couple of times on our walks and had noticed that there was a special exhibit on Epidemics being held for a couple of months. Since the special exhibit was free, we decided to head on over.

The National Archives Museum was formerly known as the Musée de l'Histoire de France and is located in the Hôtel de Soubise which was originally established in 1371! It's quite a grand looking mansion.

We walked thru the entrance and then up the stairway to the exhibit.

And there were boards with information and timelines of the various epidemics in France's history.

Along with documents, paintings, and other displays along the way.

There were no English translations on the labels, but when I'd come across something like this, I would go ahead and use Google translate.

Which usually did a good job in translating. In the case above:

"Instructions and memories necessary both to prevent contagious disease and to get rid of it when a city is attacked, by means of quarantine."

And sometimes, like in the case below, no translation was necessary.

There were also interesting drawings, paintings, and photographs that documented moments in history.

And lest you think this was all about long ago history, I found this photo to be quite compelling. It is a photo of the Louvre on the first day of the Covid shutdown in Paris, March 17, 2020.

After viewing this, we toured some of the other rooms of the "Hotel".

And then did a quick walk thru the gardens, which would be a nice place to relax during better weather.

All in all, a nice 90 minute stop for us.

Heading back to the apartment, while the Missus relaxed, I took a short trip out to the Carrefour for some tea. After all, we needed that to pair with our Merveilleux forle goûter, right?

These were light, not overly sweet. Not something we'd seek out, but nice for a pleasant afternoon tea.

We then settled in for a nice afternoon nap. Upon awakening, I went ahead and checked emails and such. Night came upon us quite quickly. I hadn't made reservations for dinner on this evening. We'd be spending so much time in Paris that I just made reservations for ever other night. We had been quite disappointed with lunch and the Missus wanted some "comfort food". We were pleasantly surprised with our spur of the moment selection on the first night in Paris that we decided to return to Maison De Chengdu.

We selected our favorite dish from that visit; the Intestine Dry Pot and it was indeed a winner again.

Crisp pork intestine, nicely moderated spice, a bit of ma, just a nice dish with rice.

We also selected a dish we saw several of the tables of Chinese customers order the last time; the green beans with pork.

Another winner here! The beans still had a nice crunch…there was some "wok hay" going on, smoky tones, a touch of spice, a good amount of savory soy sauce and white pepper.

In "bean mode", we also got the long beans with pork.

This one was a bit on the bland side.

This was a nice dinner, straight forward Sichuan style cuisine, something I wish we had here in San Diego.

Maison De Chengdu (古味成都)
16 Rue Volta
75003 Paris, France

We had a nice post-dinner stroll; something that we should actually do more of here at home as well. Life was good!

Paris – Jardin des Plantes de Paris and Lunch at Restaurant La Mosquée de Paris

October 7, 2023 mmm-yoso France, Moroccan Food, Paris, France, Travel

As I mentioned in previous posts, spending two weeks in Paris meant that we'd have time to explore and spend more time enjoying the city. So far on this stay the Missus had Her hair done, we'd done our third (and most successful) visit to the Louvre, and even visited what is claimed to be the oldest pet cemetery in Europe. The Missus was really into getting me to "put in my steps", so I thought we'd take a nice stroll to the 5th Arrondissement and check out the Jardine des Plantes. Though we had passed by the area many times during our stays in Paris, we had never visited. We just thought it would be a nice place to take a walk and relax. The 70 acre park hosts an Alpine Garden, the Natural History Museum, and even a Zoo, right in the heart of the city. We would just be taking a pre-lunch stroll on this day though.

On the way to the garden, I made sure we took Rue du Temple. Why? Well, because of this.

Wondering what this is? Well, I'm going to make you click this link to find out!

It was a nice stroll to the garden. As we entered we saw that there was an exhibition going on. I found out that every year during the holiday season the Jardin has what they call their "festival of lights". During the evening I believe there's an admission fee, but it's free during the day.

The theme for this season (2022) was "Mini-Mondes", literally the little creatures.

And was quite fun and interesting to see; even during the day.

It was quite charming!

We walked down each path, watched families enjoying themselves, a group of folks were doing Tai-chi in one area. It was a very pleasant stroll.

Now the reason I decided to stop by was for our lunch destination. Across the street from the garden resides the Grand Mosque of Paris along with the prayer rooms and such, the Mosque has a cafe and restaurant. And the restaurant is located right across the street from the southwest exit of the garden.

I had checked out the menu online and it featured items we've enjoyed during our travels; like Brick we enjoyed in Tunisia and Mechouia, they even had Shakshuka on the menu. I was wondering if this would make the Missus tell me I needed to step up my Shakshuka game, like She did after having the dish in Jerusalem?

The place was pretty quiet when we arrived. It was around 11am in the morning. There was another couple who just arrived and several folks still working on their laptops and such.

The interior was quite nice! We were told that lunch was not served until 1130, but were given menus; including the one for Hammam as well! Just in case you want some waxing as a appetizer to your couscous.

The Missus got some mint tea and I got some coffee and we just sat and relaxed.

The mint tea was quite good.

Right around 1120 all the laptops were closed and folks started leaving. I guess it was now lunchtime?

We placed our order and then within 10 minutes the folks started coming in, viola!

Soon enough our food started arriving. We didn't go for any of the couscous or large dishes; mainly because we really wanted to see how our favorite dishes from previous trips were.

First to arrive was the Mechouia.

This was super bland and needed more tomato for some acidity. It had a greasy tongue feel and also would have done well with more salt. It hadn't been cooked long enough and the peppers and tomato hadn't broken down enough. It also needed more onion in our opinion as well.

This was delivered along with the Mechouia and we cracked up!

Well, this is Paris, right? No pita here! Actually, the baguettes were very yeasty and light. A bit more crisp-crustiness would have helped, but these were not bad.

The Zaalouk (eggplant salad/dip) was up next.

The eggplant was fairly creamy, this really also needed more salt and spice. It could have used much more harissa, though the texture was good.

Finally, the Brik arrived.

When this arrived, the Missus and I gave each other a "look". This didn't seem quite right. And yes, it was overcooked, lacking in flavor, the filo like pastry was hard instead of crisp. And that egg; that poor overcooked, unseasoned egg. 'Nuff said.

The final dish to arrive was the Chakchouka (Shashuka).

This was on the watery side and bland. Glad the egg wasn't cooked to death, though we'd have enjoyed it more runny. You can just tell by the look, can't you? It really lacked the tangy-sweet-acidity from having enough tomatoes. I don't think they used much Harissa in this as it lacked spice. Overly light in cumin tones. You get the picture, right? At least the Missus wouldn't be telling me I needed to up my Shashuka game.

Overall, a very disappointing meal. Though the place was packed when we left. Service was a bit slow, but the young folks working were nice. I'm sure there's better to be had in Paris; so hopefully on a future visit.

Restaurant La Mosquée de Paris
39 Rue Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire
75005 Paris, France

On the positive side, we'd enjoyed our time at the Jardin des Plantes.

And the day was young. We'd passed a patisserie on the way here that the Missus was interested in and we still had another place to visit on the docket for the afternoon.

Thanks for stopping by!

COMC – Memories of Meals in Provence (Before Covid)

September 30, 2023 mmm-yoso Fine Dining, France, French Restaurants, Memorable Meals, Provence, France, Travel

**** This post is done by request. It's of places we visited back in 2019. I'll be back with more up to date posts tomorrow!

I was recently asked about some recommendations for Provence. The reader (who requested anonymity) sent me a fine email asking me if we'd ever been there. And yes we had! And we loved our tine in Provence and enjoyed our stay in Avignon. But why no posts you might ask? Well, we visited in the winter of 2019. I always seem to have a backlog of travel posts it seems. By the time I had gotten around to posting on our trip….well, this thing named Covid happened. For the longest time, I really didn't feel comfortable doing travel posts…..in the middle of a pandemic. And then when I restarted, well, I was so behind. I was not even going to do posts on our trip to Israel and Jordan. But thanks to "FOYs" KerriK and LaurieH, who both indicated that they wanted those posts, I did them. But by the time those were completed it was mid-spring of 2022! I did a post on our short stay in Paris before heading to Provence and then decided that with a huge backlog of travel and road trip posts to just forgo posting on Provence. I did mention our "interesting stay" at CDG, before heading home from that trip since it dovetailed into our returning to Paris in 2022. So, since this "FOY" wants to see some photos of our meals in Provence….waaaay back from 2019, here goes.

La Cuisine du Dimanche (since closed):

Was our first dinner in Avignon.

This was an interesting meal. Some of the combinations were odd and the presentations somewhat strange for some dishes.

La Cuisine du Dimanche
31 Rue de la Bonneterie
84000 Avignon, France

L'Agape:

This was a nice dinner. Modern presentation, nice flavors.

L'Agape
21 Place des Corps Saints
84000 Avignon, France

Avenio:

Our favorite dinner during our stay in Avignon.

Avenio
19 Rue Des Trois Faucons
84000 Avignon, France

Maison Ripert:

This was a nice meal. A bit too much going on, but still excellent ingredients.

Maison Ripert
28 Rue de la Bonneterie
84000 Avignon, France

L'Épicerie de Ginette:

Lest you think we were just eating in fancy restaurants. one of our favorite places was L'Épicerie de Ginette. We visited twice. After all, who wouldn't love this.

We loved the tartines here.

L'Épicerie de Ginette
25 Place des Corps Saints
84000 Avignon, France

And while I'm not sure how valuable this post will be now, I hope your meals are wonderful!

Paris – Trois Croissants, Ernest & Valentin Reaumur, Boulangerie Pezeril, and Liberté Turbigo

September 24, 2023 mmm-yoso Bakery, Croissants, France, Paris, France, Travel

If you've been reading our little blog long enough, you know I've got a thing about croissants. A good croissant aux buerre is a thing of beauty to me; crisp, light, buttery….. And of course France, and especially Paris, home to over 30,000 bakeries would be the place to try them, right? Thru trying a bunch of croissants during our trips we've come up up with our favorite, which we've revisited several times. There is one interesting thing though. When I ask folks that own the apartments or work at the hotels we stay at about their favorite, they'll undoubtedly name a place within a block or two. When I mention our favorites, I'll often get an odd look. I've kinda figured things out; the French believe that a croissant, like the baguette is a birthright and with all those bakeries there's bound to be one in close proximity. I was once told that within the main arrondissements there will be one within a short walk and being a regular means that you develop a relationship with the folks in the boulangerie. The owner of our apartment told me that there were two boulangeries within a block of the flat. Well, he was wrong as there were three! One opened during our two week stay!

So, at least in terms of croissants, I decided to do the "live like a local" kinda things during our two week stay. So here goes…….

Ernest & Valentin Reaumur:

We saw this location of Ernest & Valentin, I believe there are six locations within the city limits of Paris, right when we arrived as it had a prime location on Rue Reaumur right by the stairs exiting the Arts et Métiers metro stop.

This shop was bustling, but the service was efficient and somewhat friendly.

This would be my favorite croissant aux buerre of the three I tried. It was decently crisp and flakey.

It was light and fluffy. While it could have used a bit more butter, in terms of a balance of butteriness to salt, this was the best of the three.

I would end up having this four times during my stay.

Ernest & Valentin
42 Rue Réaumur
75003 Paris, France

Boulangerie Pezeril:

A block to the East on Rue du Temple is Boulangerie Pezeril.

This was by far the busiest of the three boulangeries. There was always a line in the morning.

This place had a nice local vibe and the employees seemed to really know their regular customers.

Unfortunately, the croissant was quite over baked and hard.

While it had a decent butteriness, I didn't care for the texture. I also noticed that folks really didn't go for the croissants here. There was one good things about this visit. While paying for my croissants I noticed three police officers walk in. They knew exactly what they wanted. Each got Jambon Buerre – the ham and butter baguette sandwich. This was a great clue for me. I would end up stopping by for a sandwich to eat on the train when we did day trips. As it was pretty good.

Boulangerie Pezeril
183 Rue du Temple
75003 Paris, France

Liberté Turbigo:

One the third day of our stay I needed to head on over to the local Carrefour City and noticed that a Boulangerie was opening up.

This was to be the sixth location of the Liberté chain. A few days later they were open and I dropped by.

During my 2 visits, it seemed like the demographic skewed to the younger crowd. If I recall these were also the most expensive.

These were the largest croissants; quite substantial, but lacking in enough butter for my taste and a bit doughy as well. Still, not bad.

Liberté Turbigo
63 Rue de Turbigo
75003 Paris, France

Spending a couple of weeks in one location was fun, at least for me. And can you imagine having three bakeries all within a block of where you're staying? I was told that in Paris "there's a boulangerie on almost every corner". And, at least in this case, it seems that saying is true!

Thanks for stopping by!

Paris – Dinner at Les Enfants Rouge (Again)

September 23, 2023 mmm-yoso Fine Dining, France, French Restaurants, Memorable Meals, Paris, France, Travel

After taking a break from a fun day, we decided to head on out before dinner. The destination? One that we consider a must visit during the holiday season in Paris. We are always interested to see the Christmas window displays at Galeries Lafayette. This would the third holiday season we'd be in Paris, so we couldn't miss that, right?

We walked on over from the 3rd Arrondissement to the bright lights of Galeries Lafayette in full Holiday mode. We strolled around and took in the holiday window display.

Every year the display tells a story. The last time we were in Paris during the holiday season (pre-Covid, 2019) the theme was bees and the hive.

This time, the theme….well, we couldn't quite figure it out.

Can you figure out what the story is about?

After making it around to all the windows; it looked like something to do with outer space and aliens?

Later we'd return to Galeries Lafayette and get the full scoop on the story…..

From here we decided to walk to our dinner destination. Of course, this is Paris, so it was a stroll full of landmarks….

I had made reservations at a place we'd enjoyed previously. Les Enfants Rouge, located right around the corner from Marché des Enfants Rouges was a favorite of our from our previous trip. Yes, we'd been to several places of what we call the "Nikkei revolution" in Paris. Chefs from Japan who worked in the highest levels of French restaurants and eventually opened places of their own. We'd been honored and blessed to sample the dishes at places like ERH, Pertinence, and Alliance among others. But what we had enjoyed at Les Enfants Rouge was the unfussy dishes which leaned more toward Japanese cuisine in our opinion.

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As before we strolled down the quiet side street and entered the neat and rather austere restaurant and was greeted by the very kind and professional hostess who led us to our table. As before we went with the three course menu for 75€ and one wine pairing.

And like before, we basically shared everything family style and the great service picked up on this and placed dishes in the middle with separate plates for us!

The Lamb Terrine was so very tasty, mildly gamey, and might I say, almost refreshing in a way?

Loved the purple cabbage slaw and the shallot and parsley sauce, all of which went well with the terrine and the bread! The terrine was also perfectly seasoned with an soft texture which belied the look of a farmhouse style terrine.

The Duck Hearts were not as metallic-iron-ny as expected.

In terms of flavor, it was definitely savory and very "ducky" to the tenth power. The foam had a nice sweetness to it, helping to temper the flavor of the duck. We didn't care for the Roquefort Risotto which had some hard pieces and detracted from the overall flavor of the dish.

The Roasted Scallops were fabulous, perfectly cooked, still rare in the center, sweet, with a briny finish.

The seafood based "sauce" was very creamy, hints of savory shellfish, the mushrooms were earthy, with a mild sweetness to them.

And then the dish we were waiting for, the Tempura Fish. On our previous visit, it was the highlight of the meal. Make that "meals" as this again was amazing!

This time the fish was maigre, which I understand is croaker. The fish was coated in a light and crisp batter and was very moist. For us, it's that deeply savory, nori based "dashi" that is so deeply umami and really takes the mild flavored fish to a different level.

There was one dessert that sounded interesting, the Baba with Toki Whiskey, a 10€ upcharge.

The typical looking Baba arrived at the table and then, no kidding, they brought a bottle of Toki out and proceeded to pour around two ounces of it over the Baba. We cracked up! Liked the whiskey, not quite sure about the "Rum Baba".

We both enjoyed the Lychee Mousse which wasn't overly sweet. And surprisingly the grapefruit supreme paired well with this!

This was another wonderful meal at Les Enfants Rouge. Great unpretentious service, great food, we can't wait to return.

Les Enfants Rouges
9 Rue de Beauce
75003 Paris, France

Of course, this in itself presents another interesting issue of sorts. Over time, we've come up with some favorite places to eat. And it seems that it may be hard to try other places without sacrificing a visit to one of our favorites!

Though looking at it another way, if that's the biggest issue we have with Paris; well that's a nice "problem" to have, right?

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend!

Paris – Ten Belles ( Canal Saint-Martin), Breizh Cafe (Marais) and Revisiting Edwart Chocolatier

September 16, 2023 mmm-yoso Breakfast/Brunch, Caffeine Fix, Chocolate, France, French Restaurants, Paris, France, Travel

Since we were spending two weeks in Paris, the Missus decided that She wanted to get Her hair done. So, after doing a bit of research She found a place in 10th Arrondissement. So, we headed off, up Rue du Temple past Place de la République.

Crossing over to the 10th, which we were not familiar with. There seemed to be a real "local" vibe to the area.

I've seen dog walkers, but this woman carted pooches around…..not sure what this is called? Kinda cute though.

We found the salon without much of a problem. While the Missus was having Her hair done, I decided to take a walk around the area and find a place to grab a cup of coffee.

There was quite a bit of interesting street art in the area. There was a place named Holybelly that was the subject of one of the Earful Tower's Podcasts and since it was in the 10th, I thought I'd walk over to check the place out. Hole smokes was the place busy, with a line waiting to get in.

I had done a bit of research the night before and did have a coffee shop on my list of places to check out.

This one was on the other side of Canal Saint Martin.

Which by the way, I had never visited in all our trips to Paris. Go figure.

It was a nice, mild, winter day, so the walk was quite pleasant.

Right across Canal Saint-Martin, down Rue de la Grange aux Belles is a location of specialty roaster Ten Belles, which I believe has three shops in Paris.

The folks working were quite friendly. I tried to order an Americano in French, but the girl laughed and started talking to me in English and told me "good try"!

And it was a decent Americano to boot.

I took a seat at an empty table and just had a nice relaxing moment. A few minutes later, I saw the gentleman on a small single table next to me greet a woman. Unfortunately, he had no room, so I scooted over and made the hand signs to trade tables with him and we switched. He made sure to walk over after and shake my hand, giving me a nice, warm "merci beaucoup"! As I left the couple both waved goodbye to me. Such nice folks….

Ten Belles – Paris 10
10 Rue de la Grange aux Belles
75010 Paris, France

As I strolled back down along the canal, who should I see but the Missus walking up to meet me!

It was still fairly early, we decided to grab a bite to eat. Both the Missus and I had heard and read about the chain of Crepe shops in Paris that were highly recommended; Breizh Cafe. So many folks mentioned this place and they have several shops in Paris, Lyon, and even one in Tokyo if I recall. The Marias location on Rue Vieille-du-Temple is very popular, but we easily got a table.

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So Breizh Cafe specializes in crepes from Brittany, that would be buckwheat "galettes". We aren't into overly sweet main sweet dishes for breakfast-lunch-brunch, so we both went with savory galettes.

The Missus got the Complete Champignons, which included jambon, Comté, and a sunny side up egg.

I got the Complete, which is jambon, egg, and comté.

Both the Missus and I were quite underwhelmed. The food lacked seasoning, the galettes were bland and this just wasn't too our taste. Perhaps galettes aren't our thing?

At least the people watching was fun.

Breizh Café
109 Rue Vieille-du-Temple
75003 Paris, France

We've run into folks who've been to Briezh and they echo our opinion. And the owner of Hola Paris told me that buckwheat galettes can tend to be on the bland-dry side as well. So, like I said, perhaps galettes aren't our kind of thing. But we're glad we tried them and will again if we're in Brittany.

We had a nice walk to our last stop before heading back to the apartment.

During a previous visit to Paris, we dropped by Edwart Chocolatier. And even though we had a good amount of chocolate on hand from other places we visited earlier during the trip, the Missus wanted to add to Her collection.

And after a few samples, the Missus added to Her ever growing chocolate collection.

Edwart Chocolatier
17 Rue Vieille-du-Temple
75004 Paris

I'm guessing Edwart is now a regular stop on our visits.

We'd headed back to the apartment for a break before doing a bit more exploring and heading to one of favorite restaurants in Paris for dinner.

Thanks for stopping by!

Paris – Aux Crus de Bourgogne

September 3, 2023 mmm-yoso France, French Restaurants, Paris, France, Travel

We had a nice little break after our visit to the Louvre and having some ramen. Checking email, taking a short nap, and heading to the corner Carrefour for some coffee pods. This being winter, the night came on like a curtain being dropped and there was a chill in the air. We don't get this in San Diego, and especially not in Hawaii, so it was kind of fun to experience. We decided to head on over to an area we don't really go to a lot, in the 8th Arrondissement, Avenue des Champs-Élysées. It had been a while since we'd been in this area, but thought that visiting during the Christmas season would be fun and it was!

And with all the famous brands and shops along the street, you knew there had to be some rather flamboyantly decorations, right? Like the one on the Dior shop.

Visiting Europe during the Christmas season always puts us in "the mood".

And before you knew it, we were at Place de la Concorde.

When we had first arrived in Paris, before heading off to Montpellier, Carcassonne, and Toulouse, I had mentioned that the Tuileries Christmas Market was being set-up. Well, by now things were in full swing and we stopped on by.

We'd by stopping by a couple more times during our stay.

And of course, I couldn't resist getting a shot of the Louvre Pyramid at night.

As for dinner? Well, there's an interesting story about that. While looking thru various boards and such….it seems like all the Parisian Chowhounders had found a home on the Hungry Onion's France Page. And there was a familiar name mentioned. A place we've passed many times during our stays near Rue Montorgueil, Aux Crus de Bourgogne.

This Bistro, like the name mentions specializes in the cuisine of Bourgogne…..Burgundy. We really enjoyed our time in Burgundy and of course one of the reasons was the hearty cuisine! As for Aux Crus de Bourgogne, well, due to the location and looking over the menu, I thought it to be somewhat of a tourist restaurant.

Looking over the menu posted outside of the restaurant, we saw dishes we were interested in…….so we walked in and got a table on the second floor

Service was professional and quite "Paris" if you know what I mean. We decided to order mostly entrées and specials which really appealed to us.

The baguette came with rillette, which was quite good.

First up was the Mushroom Cream with Poached Egg.

Rich and creamy, quite woodsy-earthy, with a hint of sweetness. The egg was poached beautifully. We almost finished all the baguette with this one dish!

Of course, we had to have some escargot.

The Missus had never enjoyed escargot until that first dinner in Dijon. From that point on She was sold! But of course you had to choose your spots for this. The version here was solid, firm but not hard, could have used perhaps more garlic, but it had a sufficient amount of olive oil and such that it paired well with (even more) bread.

The final two dishes came arrived together. The special of mushroom with Vol-au-vent and another specialty of Burgundy, Oeufs en Meurette, eggs poached in red wine.

The Oeufs en Meurette were solid, if not great. The sauce was quite rich, though it had a tinge of bitterness. The eggs, like the other dish was poached perfectly, so rich and creamy. We missed the lardons that were no included in this version.

The Vol-au-vent was probably our favorite dish on the evening.

The rich, earthy mushroom sauce combined with the buttery-crisp "case" of puff pastry, which held up well throughout the meal. We could even make out garlic tones in this.

We were surprised at how much we enjoyed this meal and I ended up making reservations for later during our stay.

Aux Crus de Bourgogne
3 Rue Bachaumont
75002 Paris, France

This was such a pleasant surprise. And based on my walking for the day, I think I earned it, right?

Paris – Revisits to the Louvre and Hakata Choten (Les Halles)

September 2, 2023 mmm-yoso France, Japanese Restaurants, Paris, France, Ramen, Travel

Ah yes, the Louvre, the largest museum in the world at 652,300 square feet with over 35,000 pieces of art on display. It can be is quite intimidating. There's just no way to see "everything" in one visit and if you even tried this, would you even remember what you saw? We had been to the Louvre twice over the years and really wanted to visit yet again. We always get our tickets online, which makes things much easier and do either an early or late visit. On this visit, I was purchasing our tickets and noticed that there was a "Visitor's Trail" of the Louvre's Masterpieces on the website. Why hadn't I noticed that before?

I bookmarked the page in my phone. And since we had pocket wifi, I just followed the trail.

It all started with which entrance to take with turn by turn instructions and details of the masterpiece.

As well as some other historical tidbits. For instance the Salle des Cariatides which was both used as a ballroom and court of justice. There's also this tidbit on the website:

"And it was here, in 1572, that Marguerite de Valois, the famous ‘Queen Margot’, married Henri de Navarre, the future King Henri IV. Only a few days later, on 24 August, Protestant nobles who had attended the wedding were assassinated in the Louvre in the notorious Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre."

Of course, there are some works need no introduction…..

That's Venus and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman by Boticelli below.

And of course, the Grand Gallerie.

I was a bit concerned about our next stop expecting a long line…..

But the line for "you know who"……wasn't very long at all. I guess one of the benefits of getting in right when things open.

Here's Michelangelo's the Rebellious Slave and the Dying Slave.

Doing this walk made me take a closer look at the pieces. For instance, I always wondered why this was called Nymph with a Scorpion.

I'd just take a look at the sculpture from the angle above.

This time, I took a walk around the work and it became very clear…..

After finishing off the walk, we headed on over to look at the Egyptian Collection.

There's a trail for that as well. I think we'll do that next time!

We had enjoyed the Louvre a lot more this time around and I think perhaps we may even do a private tour one of these days.

We strolled around the area near to the Bourse and window shopped along Galerie Vero Dodat one of the 21 covered passages in Paris, some of which I've posted on before.

Then we had to figure out what we wanted for lunch.

This was in December of last year and it was pretty chilly. We thought ramen would fit the bill and decided on a familiar spot that was on the way back to the apartment; Hakata Choten.

We got our usual, the Tonkotsu with Black Garlic and a Pork and Rice bowl.

The broth was a bit richer than what we had on our previous visit here which was nice. The tamago a bit over-cooked but nicely flavored. For some reason, I like the savory-sweet flavor that the black garlic oil adds to this bowl. The noodles were perfectly cooked on this visit as well.

The pork bowl was fine, there was quite a bit of rice in this. The rice was decently cooked, but there wasn't enough of a sauce nor pork to really balance out things.

Funny thing, on one of our previous visits to the Louvre we ended up at Hakata Choten as well, though it was the Opera location.

This was enough to warm us up for the rest of the walk back to our accommodations.

Hakata Choten Les Halles
16 Rue de la Grande Truanderie
75001 Paris, France

Where it was time for a nap!

Thanks for stopping by!