France – Page 4

Paris – Le Bouledogue

August 27, 2023 mmm-yoso France, French Restaurants, Paris, France, Travel

After spending our first full day in Paris, we had reservations for dinner at a place recommended by an acquaintance of mine. They often stay in the Marais and enjoy a brasserie named Le Bouledogue. We were staying just a few blocks away so the nice walk down to Rue Rambuteau was quite easy for us.

The interior of the restaurant is quite charming and the brasserie's namesake is "Elliot" who was owned by the previous owner of this establishment. Service was interesting, the gentleman running things seemed almost irritated and angry at something. The woman who was our Server was very nice and friendly.

I'm sure this place is quite popular. It was 7pm on a Tuesday night and every table was reserved!

The menu is full of "classics" which made us quite happy. We placed our order and soon enough dishes started arriving.

Of course we had to get the Bone Marrow (11,5€). We were quite astounded at the portion size!

The bread provided was wonderful. The nice Server told us it was from the famous boulangerie Poilâne. So, another place to add to our list to check out. We found the bone marrow to be under roasted. In fact, the last of it was on the bloody side and metallic in flavor.

Another standard for me; Beef Tartare (27€), I was a bit concerned about the price, but like the bone marrow, the portion size was quite large.

Goodness, this was indeed a "plat principal"! The frites were on the soggy side, but as with potatoes outside the states, the interior was creamy and yielded a nice, almost sweet flavor. The greens were bitter, yet quite refreshing. The tartare was quite mild in flavor, I like a bit more Dijon, capers, and cornichons in mine, to add pungency and contrast. The cut was also more coarse than I prefer, thus making this a bit more chewy than I prefer.

The Missus is a fan of Andouillette, having enjoyed the versions we've had in Lyon and other places in France. So She ordered that (25€) as Her main.

Again the greens and frites were quite good. That Andouillette was quite, well, rotund, literally bursting at the seams. This was quite funky, shades of lampredotto! The tripe was quite thick and chewy, but this was not bad overall.

As we were dining, the tables filled up; about a 50-50 non-French to French speakers. Folks were being turned away at the doors. Seems like Le Bouledogue is quite a popular place indeed! For us, well, it seemed more about the portion sizes here.

Still, who wouldn't love Elliot?

Le Bouledogue
20 rue Rambuteau
75003 Paris France

Paris – Cimetière des Chiens and Chez Ajia

August 26, 2023 mmm-yoso France, Paris, France, Taiwanese Food and Restaurants, Travel

One of the great things about spending 2 whole weeks in Paris is that it gives us time to do a bit more exploring outside of the center of the city. We'd always been fascinated by cemeteries and had already visited Pere Lachaise twice on previous trips. On that subject, did you know that the oldest pet cemetery in Europe (it's often claimed to be the oldest in the world) Cimetière des Chiens, established in 1899, is located in the suburbs of Paris, right across the Seine from the 10th Arrondissement in Asnières-sur-Seine? I took a look at this web page, saw a familiar name, and convinced the Missus it would worth a morning visit.

So, there we were catching the metro after our morning croissant and coffee, ending up at the Mairie de Clichy metro station and then taking the 20 minute walk, crossing the Seine, and ending up at these gates.

Talk about a rather grand entrance! We arrived at just past the opening time of 10am, paid our €3.50 entrance fee and walked on in.

Right at the entrance is a statue of the famous rescue dog Barry (who is actually in the Natural History Museum of Bern).

The inscription on the plaque reads:

"He saved the lives of forty people. He was killed by the forty-first"

Though according to several sources Barry was retired to Bern, Switzerland to live out the rest of his years.

Lest you think it's just pooches interred here…..

There's even a cat mausoleum in the cemetery.

Some of the graves date back to when the cemetery was established. This one goes back to 1900!

This one is for the two pooches of a Princess.

And this one is for the one and only Rin Tin Tin….yes that Rin Tin Tin.

Still, it was the other tombstones that caught our attention. There were several folks in the cemetery tending graves of their beloved.

You can tell they were loved.

They give so much to us……..

I know we still talk about Sammy and Frankie everyday.

Sometimes when we travel, we're rushing from place to place, from event to event. Having some time to just stroll and think about how lucky we are and how blessed we are does one good and puts things into perspective.

Cimetière des Chiens et Autres Animaux Domestiques
4 Pont de Clichy
92600 Asnières-sur-Seine, France

We crossed the Seine and headed on back to out apartment. After a short break, we decided to head on out to do some "lèche-vitrine" ("window licking") the French term for window shopping. This took us down to the area around Rue de Rivoli. When it came time for lunch; the Missus, knowing we had dinner reservations at a Brasserie was craving some Asian food. I had an interesting place on my "list" named Chez Ajia, run by a husband and wife team, she is the chef and hails from Taiwan and her husband who is French runs the front of house.

We arrived just past 1pm and easily found a table. We found out that the nice gentleman taking our order is one of the owners; he was really friendly, spoke perfect English, and turned out to be quite entertaining; more on that later. The restaurant is what I would call "coffeehouse – cozy". What was interesting is that you are given a device with three buttons on it, like we have at many Korean restaurants here; to call for service or your check. The menu was full of basic Taiwanese "standards".

The Missus is always up for eggs, so we started with a basic Basil Omelette (10€).

This was like something you'd make at home, it could have used more salty – savory tones, the eggs were adequately fluffy.

We ordered the "Loh Bih" (16€) which had some of favorite side dishes.

The eggs were very tasty and the bean curd skin knots were nicely marinated. The pig ears were not seasoned enough and the smoked tofu and seaweed tasted like it came out of a package from 99 Ranch Market.

Meanwhile, the owner, I believe his name is Geoffrey came on over and started chatting with us. And frankly, this was the most memorable part of the meal. He asked us where we were from and we said San Diego…he then asked us where in San Diego and we said "Bay Park". He knew exactly where it was! You see, he spent a year in college at SDSU! And then for some reason we mentioned Hacienda Heights and Rowland Heights. And he said he spent almost year nearby when going to the University. He asked us where about and we mentioned being near Colima Road at HK Plaza. He then said something that made us totally crack up – "so, you could smell the chou doufu then….." Yes, I guess the "scent of Shau Mei" extends all the way to Paris!

The last item of the meal was our favorite, the Guo Bao (11€).

The bao was on the gummy side; but the pork belly was nicely balanced in flavor, just enough sweet to even out the soy sauce, the meat was very tender with a nice savory porkiness to it.

It was a good way to end an interesting meal.

Yes, our first two meals back in Paris was Sichuan and now Taiwanese. Heck, we were spending two weeks here, why not eat like we live here, right?

Chez Ajia
4 Rue du Roi de Sicile
75004 Paris, France

Thanks for stopping by!

Paris – Maison de Chengdu

August 4, 2023 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, France, Paris, France, Travel

After visiting Montpellier, Carcassonne, and Toulouse, we ended up where we started, in what is probably our favorite city. And this time, to make things a bit more interesting, we would be staying in Paris for two weeks, where we could really get a feel of actually, just like a popular travel and television personality says, being a "temporary local". The results would be interesting.

I got us an apartment in the 3rd Arrondissement, on what I thought would be a pretty busy street. But it turns out that this portion of Rue Réaumur was pretty quiet.

It was what I consider a typical Parisian apartment, on the 2nd (that would be 3rd floor by American standards) floor, no lift, cozy, comfortable, with a washer, kitchen, just steps from the Arts-et-Métiers metro stop, and there were no less than 3 Boulangeries within a block of the flat! Man, talk about living the life.

I always create Google Maps for when we travel and this one looked especially "busy"……

Living the life

Well, part of staying so long in one place would mean having choices in terms of cuisine. While doing a bit of research in the area, I found several Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants within a block and two Boba shops on the same block. This is the Marais mind you! I also noticed a couple of Wenzhou style restaurants and was wondering why that was. In digging into that a bit, I found that the first Chinese to migrate to Paris were from Wenzhou in 1876. And many settled in the Arts Et Métiers area, basically right where we were staying. Of course, over time gentrification has changed things and the now the 13th Arrondissment is considered Paris's "Chinatown" or more appropriately "Quartier Asiatique".

We had already been traveling for two weeks and were ready for some Chinese food. After looking thru things, I selected Maison de Chengdu. The state of Sichuan food in San Diego is pretty sad these days so I thought we'd see how this place matched up.

The place is a tiny hole in the wall and the dining area takes up two floors. Those guys you see waiting outside are food delivery folks. This place does a huge volume of takeout and delivery.

The customer base is interesting about 50-50 Asian to non-Asian and the staff speaks both Mandarin and French.

Looking over the menu, we decided on what we wanted and the Missus placed our order. Which started (of course) with a TsingTao.

First dish to arrive was our favorite; the Intestine Dry Pot.

Man, this was the best Sichuan I'd had in a while! The pork intestine was crisp and full of porky-offalness! It had decent, but not overwhelming spice, and we got a good "buzz" from the Sichuan peppercorns. The Missus really enjoyed the potatoes which had a nice starchy-sweetness magnified by the ma-la flavor. We enjoyed this dish so much that we returned two more times (heck it was almost across the street) during our stay.

The Eggplant was nicely cooked as it basically melted in your mouth.

But was overly sweet.

The Shui Zhu Niu Rou (Water Boiled Beef) was tender.

But was lacking balance in terms of savory tones (garlic – Doubian Jian – Soy), "Ma" (numbingness from the Sichuan peppercorns), and oil (too much). It was not bad and better than what we'd had in Paris before.

Still that intestine dish would keep us coming back two more times!

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

Toulouse – Marche Victor Hugo (Again), Lunch at Restaurant Attila, Criollo Chocolatier, a Walk Along Canal de Brienne, and Other Stuffs

July 30, 2023 mmm-yoso Chocolate, Festivals & Events, France, French Restaurants, Markets & Grocers, Seafood, Toulouse, Montpellier, Carcassonne, and Occitania, Travel

We started our last day in Toulouse by taking a short walk in the area.

We had really enjoyed Toulouse, there's a down to earth, relaxed vibe to the place. We spent the morning wandering about.

Nearing 11, we walked on over to the huge March Victor Hugo, which I covered in an earlier post.

We ended up getting some stuffs for a nice self catering dinner for our last evening in the city.

We then headed upstairs where the restaurants are located. Man, the passageway is pretty cramped.

We settled on a seafood place named Restaurant Attila. I really wanted to have some Coques (Cockles) and Langoustines.

Of course there's a plat du jour and other lunch specials as well.

We were guided to our table where we placed our order. The seafood in the marche looked wonderful, so we were quite excited about this meal.

First up was the Salade de Coques Persillade (10€ – $11/US).

The cockles were prepped well, no gritty bits. I was surprised at how tender these were, with a nice hint of savory-sweetness. Strangely, I expected more of a briny flavor, but these had a nice butteriness to them. The greens and such was fine, but those cockles were definitely the star.

The Langoustine with Aioli (13€) was a disappointment.

The langoustine were over cooked and really dry and even though it was supposedly cooked with a court bullion the flavor was lacking.

Last up were the Huitres ( 9 for 15€ – $16.50/US). These were from Marennes, an area famous for their oysters. These really delivered.

Pleasantly briny with a wonderful clean finish! Definitely a winnah!

Restaurant Attila (in Marche Victor Hugo)
5 Place Victor Hugo
31000 Toulouse, France

After lunch, we headed downstairs.

And just wandered around. I ended up buying more Tarbais beans in the shop/deli above….yep, 35€ a kilo and I bought another half kilo.

After which we headed back to the chocolate shop that the Missus had enjoyed earlier named Criollo Chocolatier.

Man, the place was humming!

The pieces here are sold by weight and the Missus bought a good sized box of it.

Of there's any reason for us to return to Toulouse, it's so the Missus can restock on chocolate from here.

Criollo Chocolatier Toulouse Victor Hugo
23 Place Victor Hugo
31000 Toulouse, France

We then headed back to the hotel and started doing some packing.

After which, we decided to go on another walk. I picked out the Canal de Brienne area. The canal which connects to the Garonne is a short 1.6 kilometers in length, but tree lined and quite peaceful. You totally forget you're in the middle of a large city.

Apparently, that building above was an old tobacco factory, which now houses a building the university.

It was a lovely walk and fun to see a different part of Toulouse.

We walked back to our room and just relaxed and then had dinner. Later that evening, we heard singing and chanting. Looking out the window we noticed a endless line of folks, waving the Moroccan flag. Apparently, Morocco had just beaten Belgium in a World Cup match. We decided to head on down to the square. It was a fun parade, one of joy and celebration, peaceful without any antics….a refreshing scene to be sure!

A couple of groups had even set-up around the perimeter of the Christmas Market and were singing and dancing.

We decided to head into the Christmas Market.

To get some Vin Chaud of course!

Egad! I've posted on Vin Chaud before, we have a kind hate-love-hate relationship with this warm mulled wine drink. We really don't care for the taste….but we love that it really puts you in the holiday spirit.

And perhaps we're developing a (bad) taste for this????

Warm mulled wine in our bellies, we slept soundly, got up early and finished packing. We then took the metro to Toulouse Matabiau. We were a bit early and crossed the street for some coffee.

Before catching our train to our final stop on this month long journey.

We had enjoyed our time in "La Vie en Rose", the Pink City – Toulouse. But next we were spending most of two weeks in….well you know where, right?

Thanks for stopping by!

Toulouse – A Walk Along the Garonne and Dinner at Aligot Bar

July 29, 2023 mmm-yoso France, French Restaurants, Toulouse, Montpellier, Carcassonne, and Occitania, Travel

After spending the morning in Albi and returning to Toulouse, we did a bit of window shopping, then returned to the hotel for a nice nap.

Upon waking we relaxed a bit and then decided to take a stroll. The Christmas Market, right outside our hotel was going strong.

We decided to take a stroll before finding a place to have dinner. As to where we were headed; well, that was answered when we got downstairs. There seemed to be some kind of "walk" going on.

Folks were having such a great time….singing, laughing, it seemed so wonderful that we just kind of followed along.

They headed over to the Garonne, the river that flows thru the city and then crossed on Pont Saint-Pierre. Just having a joyous time waving those light sticks.

After doing a bit of "Googling" on my phone, I found that this was the Course des Lumières a Cancer walk/run. It was really great seeing a community come to together like this.

Instead of heading across the bridge, we decided to walk along the Garonne. It was such a clear evening, the reflections on the river were striking.

It was so beautiful…..

We walked to the Port de la Daurade area, then decided to head back to find a place for dinner.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, because of how busy things were and because most places in the city don't do online reservations, we weren't able to get dinner reservations even when we dropped by a restaurant several days before. So……we just walked around a bit looking for a place to eat.

Close to Notre-Dame du Taur, which we had visited earlier on the trip, was this little place named Aligot Bar.

This Bistro/Fast Casual-ish restaurant served food from the Aveyron region just east of Toulouse. I had been wanting to try Aligot, but the Missus, after taking a look at the gooey-stringy mashed potatoes had always declined. But I noticed the "Salade de Occitane" on the menu, which seemed much like what the Missus enjoyed in Carcassonne earlier in the trip, so I managed to talk Her into it.

We were seated and placed our order. Soon, a young lady sat on the table next to us. She was Asian and we started talking. She's Japanese, from the area right outside Heathrow Airport! It was a fabulous conversation about growing up Asian, the meshing of cultures and all of that.

The Missus enjoyed Her salad.

The Farci au Foie Gras was nice and gamy, though it lacked the nice, offal richness of foie gras. The duck proisciutto was cut too thick, therefore making it really chewy. A decent salad for the price of 13€….actually a bargain if you think of it costing $14/US!

I went for it, ordering the Aligot Classique with Duck Confit and Toulouse Style Sausage (19,5€ – $21.50/US)

And guess who enjoyed the cheesy-gooey Aligot? Yep, the Missus! It was stringy. though smooth, love the flavor….it's like potatoey cheese fondue-pudding if you will. The duck confit wasn't very good; it hadn't been heated properly, the skin was rubbery, the flesh tough and stringy. I did enjoy the Toulouse sausage though. The casing had a great snap, the flavor galricky-porky and this had a bit of pepperiness to it.

Overall an ok meal and chatting with the young lady was wonderful.

Aligot Bar
35 Rue du Taur
31000 Toulouse, France

Needless to say, we didn't leave hungry!

Toulouse – A Day Trip to Albi and Lunch at Ebisu Ramen Bar

July 21, 2023 mmm-yoso Farmer's Markets/Night Market, France, Japanese Restaurants, Ramen, Toulouse, Montpellier, Carcassonne, and Occitania, Travel

We were really enjoying Toulouse. It had a totally different vibe than Paris, more grounded, mellow, down to earth. We wanted to do a bit more exploring, so I had booked train tickets to Albi, a town with quite a history. As a plus, Elyse of Toulouse Guided Walks informed me that Saturday was Market Day in Albi which was well worth checking out. Our location right at Place du Capitole made it a snap getting to Toulouse Matabiau via the metro. We took an early train (725am) to Albi-Ville, arriving just past 840 on this crisp Saturday morning. From the train station, it was a short 15 minute walk to the main square and the immense Sainte-Cécile Cathedral (Albi Cathedral) a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is also said to be the largest brick cathedral in the world.

The red brick buildings really catch your eye.

The Market stalls were being set-up. We walked on over to the Marche Covert passing stands with some humongous produce. Check out this frisee.

Or these Cepes.

We were both shocked at the size of the veggies!

We stopped for a coffee at one of the local shops.

Before heading into the covered market.

There wasn't much going on as most shops hadn't opened yet. The bean vendor was open and I saw actual Tarbais Beans being sold. I was quite excited as I use the wonderful beans we get from Rancho Gordo and wanted to compare. Then I saw the price; it was 35€ a kilo! Yikes, that's like $20 a pound! For beans? Still, I went ahead and bought a half kilo.

From here we decided to cross over the Tarn a check out the view from there. So we headed down the atmospheric streets….

Down the Quai Choiseul.

And down to the river before crossing over on Pont Vieux which dates back to the 11th century.

Things were even more quiet on this side of the river. And the views were wonderful.

Things got more lively as we headed toward the other, larger bridge to cross on back. And a market was going on here as well. This one was more bustling.

We eyes the produce before crossing back over the Pont Neuf.

It was now getting close to 10am, when the Cathedral is opened for visitors, so we headed on over.

As much as the church really looks like a fortress, the interior was quite stunning. Your eyes are instantly drawn to the enormous mural of the Last Judgement which dates back to 1474.

It is the largest Last Judgement mural from the Middle Ages.

After wandering about for a while, the Missus was ready to head on back to Toulouse. So we strolled on over the Albi-Ville and caught the 1126am train.

Arriving back at Place du Capitole, we decided to look for a place to get some lunch. Walking toward our hotel, we passed this Ramen shop.

It was pretty cold, so some ramen sounded pretty good. Of course we wouldn't be having our ramen outside either. The drill was interesting. Ordering was done on a machine, memories of Japan, but payment was not. You basically got a number from the machine and placed it on your table. Once your order is ready it is delivered.

As we would often do at these places, we got a rice bowl, in this case the Sukiyaki Don.

We had ordered an extra tamago with this, which was a shade on the over cooked side and not marinated well. The egg yolk in the bowl was also too hard and over cooked. The rice was on the mushy side, but the beef was fairly tender, with a decent soy-sweet balance. What was interesting was that a good amount of togarashi was used giving this a bit of a kick.

As for the ramen. We got the Shoyu Ramen.

As you can see, the Missus was all about the tamago on this day. This bowl had a lot of "stuffs"; scallion, spinach, bean sprouts, cabbage. The best item in the entire bowl was the menma which had a wonderful texture and the earthy-soy sauce tones were on point. The two slices of "chashu", I use the quotation marks because the two thin slices were not pork belly, it was lean and tough.

The broth was really "flat", lacking in richness, hardly any shoyu flavor, and was the color of muddy water. And this was one of the rare occasions where I think the soup needed salt!

The noodles were overcooked and mushy.

You can't win 'em all……

Ebisu Toulouse
3 Rue Lafayette
31000 Toulouse, France

At least we were just steps from our accommodation. It was time for a nap!

Toulouse – Les P’tits Fayots

April 29, 2023 mmm-yoso European Restaurants, France, French Restaurants, Toulouse, Montpellier, Carcassonne, and Occitania, Travel

After a nice day of checking out the Markets and doing some exploring, we decided to do a bit more walking before dinner.

We also decided to drop by a couple of places I had on my "list" to try and make dinner reservations for upcoming nights. Many of the restaurants I had on my list didn't do online reservations and required a phone call. Unfortunately, my French is beyond hideous, so we decided to try and appear in person to make reservations. Unfortunately, since this was a weekend, it was big time fail.

On this night though, we had dinner reservations. It was quite a blessing in disguise. I mentioned in an earlier post, that I had tried to get a private tour with Elyse Riven who heads up Toulouse Guided Walks and is often a guest on one of my favorite podcasts, Join Us in France. Unfortunately, Elyse was I believe out of the country at the time, so we downloaded her VoiceMap audio tour. Elyse was kind enough to make some recommendations for dinner and also for visiting Albi, which is where we were headed the following day.

One of the places she recommended and was on my "list" was Les P'tits Fayots, a nice little restaurant that does small, shareable plates. And they did online reservations!

The location is on a side street, the restaurant quite discreet.

The Missus enjoyed the fact that veggies were well represented on the menu and also enjoyed the wine selection. The service was very warm and friendly. Toulouse is a lot ore laid back than Paris!

The first item up was the Pomme de Terre Confit & Hareng Fume. Wonderfully earthy potatoes confit which was paired nicely with the savory smoked herring.

The mustard creme added a bit of punch and along with the starchiness of the potatoes helped handle the umami-heavy herring.

Next up; the Sable Emmenthal Noisette.

Basically Emmenthal and hazelnut biscuits; this was quite an interesting combination. The celery cream was interesting; we actually enjoyed the greens and herbs the best, nice texture and a touch of bitterness.

Sucrine & Ouef Mollet. You know the Missus and eggs right?

The Missus loved the runny soft boiled egg and even the creamy Mornay Sauce, which was very balanced in terms of butteriness and cheesiness. She also loved the sucrine, a lettuce that seemed like baby romaine, it tastes so clean and the shaved Parmesan and mild sauce added so much savory notes to the dish.

The last dish was actually our favorite. The Langoustine Boullion.

The Langoustine was so tender, sweet, and oceany. And that broth was seasoned perfectly, with just enough salt to highlite the touches of sea faring flavors. Bread with this……

We really enjoyed our meal. It was our favorite of our stay in Toulouse. We loved the service and the food!

Les P'tits Fayots
8 Rue de l'Esquile
31000 Toulouse, France

Toulouse – Marché Victor Hugo, Marché des Carmes, and Musée de l’Histoire de la Médecine

April 28, 2023 mmm-yoso France, Markets & Grocers, Toulouse, Montpellier, Carcassonne, and Occitania, Travel

**** No restaurant in this one; just a couple of markets and some exploring!

We put in a bit of mileage of the "footmobile" variety during our first full day in Toulouse.

First thing in the morning we headed off to the huge Marché Covert Victor Hugo.

A market has existed in this spot since 1827 when it was named Place du Marché-au-Bois. The square was renamed Place Victor Hugo in 1886 and in 1892 the renovation to a covered market was completed.

I was told there are over 200 stalls in the market, including several restaurants on the first (second floor in US) floor, which we'd revisit later on during our trip.

As you can imagine, there are fromageries, boucheries, numerous produce stands, and so forth. You can easily identify the more popular vendors here.

While not super crowded, it was busy enough at 8am on a Friday morning.

Marché Victor Hugo
Place Victor Hugo
31000 Toulouse, France

There are also many shops and restaurants surrounding the market, but because it as fairly early in the morning most were closed. We'd return here later in the day.

As you can tell, it was a overcast and drizzly day. Not serious rain mind you; but just enough to wet the streets and irritate you!

We headed south doing the "lèche-vitrine" ("window licking" – window shopping) thing along the way. And before you knew it, we were at Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Toulouse. So we popped on in for a quick look.

There has supposedly been a church on these grounds since the 3rd Century. The first Cathedral was constructed here around 1078 AD.

We stopped for a coffee break before heading west. There was a museum I was interested in that was across the Garonne River. But since we were in the area, we decided to stop in at another covered market, the Marché Couvert des Carmes.

A smaller market that wasn't quite as bustling as Marche Victor Hugo.

Marché des Carmes
Place des Carmes
31000 Toulouse, France

We crossed the river on the Pont Neuf.

And found the tiny, Musée de l'Histoire de la Médecine. We had already visited the Musée de l'Histoire de la Médecine in Paris, so we thought it might be fun to check out this one.

Like I mentioned above; the museum is tiny, but there are some interesting exhibits.

The most interesting was the collection of death masks and skin afflictions.

Musée de l'Histoire de la Médecine
2 rue Viguerie Hotel Dieu-St Jacques
31300, Toulouse France

So, of course after viewing all of this, we needed to grab some lunch. So, we headed back to Place du Capitole and the Christmas Market (this was in late November) and grabbed some sandwiches and tartine.

Before heading back to our room to freshen up.

For some reason, we weren't particularly tired and the Missus wanted to check out a chocolate shop so we headed back to Place Victor Hugo. We first stopped at this shop.

Did you know that the flower of Toulouse is the Violet? In fact, Toulouse is known as the "City of Violets". And while it wasn't really the right season; you could still find violet products in some stores.

And the Missus got what She was looking for here. Some tea. We'd end up making "Le Goûter" a routine while spending two weeks in Paris later during this trip.

Cafés J. Bacquié
5 Place Victor Hugo
31000 Toulouse, France

We also stopped by this chocolate shop.

They sold pieces by weight here. The Missus enjoyed the confections here a lot and we'd end up returning to buy a lot before leaving Toulouse. I'll post on it later.

This post is getting rather long; so I think I'll stop here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Toulouse – Le Capitole, Basilique Saint-Sernin, and Dinner at Le Bibent

March 25, 2023 mmm-yoso France, French Restaurants, Toulouse, Montpellier, Carcassonne, and Occitania, Travel

After having a bit of an adventure trying to get out of Carcassonne, we made our way to Toulouse by bus, which ended up taking 4 hours. Once we made it to the city however, things went quite quickly. We were staying right on the the main square Place du Capitole. And it was a snap getting there on the metro, which was fast and efficient.

We stayed at the Hotel du Grand Balcon.

We really enjoyed the location and our room had a view of the square and this being the end of November, there was a lively Christmas Market happening. We loved just watching the goings on from our window.

I listen to quite a few Podcasts and one of my favorites is Join Us In France. A frequent guest on the Podcast is Elyse Riven who runs Toulouse Guided Walks. Not knowing much about Toulouse, I tried booking a tour with Elyse, but unfortunately this being the holiday season Elyse was travelling during our time in Toulouse. That said, Elyse was so generous in making a few recommendations and I did download her VoiceMap audio tour. We really enjoyed Toulouse and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to book one of her walks next time around.

We were quite happy to find that our room was ready when we arrived. We freshened up and then headed out. It turned out that Toulouse was a wonderful city for walking. Our first stop was right across the square at Le Capitole, a combination City Hall, Theatre, with beautiful State Rooms.

To us, Le Capitole seemed more like a grand art gallery, then a municipal building.

From the Grand Staircase which dates back to 1674 and beautiful paintings that adorn it…..

Which leads to three halls, each featuring stunning artwork.

Whoa…..we really didn't anticipate all this grand and quite stunning art!

It was a nice first stop for us in Toulouse.

From Place du Capitole streets stretch out in all directions like a spider web. We headed up north a bit to see Basilique Saint-Sernin. This huge Romanesque style church was constructed in the 11th Century.

This was once the church of the Abbey of Saint-Sernin. Only the church remains. It is said that Pope Fabian sent the church's namesake, Sernin, consecrated as a Bishop to France, which was then Gaul, where the Christian religion had been replaced by pagan beliefs. Sernin, would walk past the various pagan temples, the idols would suddenly not be able to prophesize. The priests grew angry, seized him, tied him to a bull and he was dragged to his death. The Bull finally ended up on the street going up to the Basilica, now named Rue du Taur (Route of the Bull) and at the place where the bull finally deposited the body of Saint Sernin is a church now named Notre Dame du Taur.

The interior, as expected is quite grand.

And is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We even found a statue of Saint Roch, the Patron Saint of Dogs!

We stopped by Notre-Dame du Taur on the way back to the hotel. I took a photo of the exterior of the church later in our visit.

We returned to our room and took a short break before dinner.

One of the challenges I encountered while making plans for our stay in Toulouse was making reservations for dinner. Most places did not do online reservations and my French is horrendous, so there's no way they'd be able to understand what I'm saying. I did manage online reservations at two places, one of which was a recommendation from Elyse. We did try to drop by restaurants to attempt to make reservations, but alas, the places were booked solid. I really need to do that French immersion thing.

Still, Toulouse had a more relaxed vibe than Paris, much less touristy. In fact the Aerospace and Aeronautics sector is the largest employer in Toulouse. We really enjoyed our time in the city, though I'm not going to quite fall in line with this….

For dinner, I had made reservations at a place nearby, off Place du Capitole, named Le Bibent. There was a familiar name associated with Le Bibent, Christian Constant, whose restaurants we've eaten at in Paris. Even though he is now retired, we were interested to see what Le Bibent would be like.

It was a drizzly evening and we were seated close to the bar area. The restaurant has been restored to it's former glory in the Belle Époque style and is quite stunning.

As is typical of our eating habits, we went with three entrees and one plat; starting with the eye catching Carpaccio de Tete de Veau (14€).

This was quite good, the veal head was tender, mild in flavor, it almost melts in your mouth. The mustard seed vinaigrette added a nice layer of sour-pungent tones, the greens were amazingly crisp, with a mild nutty bitterness. We loved the combination of flavors and textures.

The Missus loves Her Oeufs en Meurette (16€) so we had to get that.

The Missus enjoyed the poached egg, the potato mousse was a bit too starchy-gooey for us. The red wine sauce was nice, not overly bitter. This was not bad.

Of course we had to get the Foie Gras En Croute (21€).

The pastry was on gummy side though the "fillings" were really wonderfully "offaly"-earthy in flavor. Loved all the wonderful textures and flavors that the various greens and the pickled onions provided.

And of course, we had to try the Cassoulet (29€), which ended up being quite diapppointing.

We liked the "crust", but things ended there. The beans were hard, the dish was too salty, this was just not good eats to us.

Of course the Missus was hoping for that ethereal Cassoulet, but it was still not to be found.

Still, in terms of price, this was not a bad meal at all.

Le Bibent
5 Place du Capitole
31000 Toulouse, France

And we enjoyed the "feel" of Toulouse.

Folks here were very friendly and kind……

Carcassonne – FloridaBlanca, Aux Croissants des Lices, and Here We Go Again

January 15, 2023 mmm-yoso Bakery, Croissants, France, Spanish Restaurants and Cuisine, Toulouse, Montpellier, Carcassonne, and Occitania, Travel, yoso-silly

After spending the morning in La Cité and having lunch at Adelaide we realized that we still had an entire afternoon (and evening) left. So, what to do now? We decided to head into Ville Basse and take a look around. So we headed down the hill and crossed the Aude at the lovely Pont Vieux.

The view of La Cité from here is quite nice.

And we ended up walking down what I believe is one of the main streets in Ville Basse, Boulevard Barbes. Which is named after Armand Barbès, whose statue is found along the street.

What caught our attention was a bit past the monument.

It was a Christmas Fair going on.

We wandered about for a bit, then decided to walk on over to the train station to see how far it was. In the end, we decided to make the 30 minute walk to the train station the next morning.

We were also looking for possible places to have dinner, but of course we were too early for the typical French dinner time and decided to head on back to the apartment. On the way back, we crossed the larger, more modern Pont Neuf. And the view of La Cité was amazing.

Once crossing over we headed to Rue Trivalle to see if we could find somewhere to have a meal….if not, we would just head back to Le Passage. Well, there was another place open, named FloridaBlanca.

By now, there was a steady drizzle going on, so we went on in. The place was buzzing….and guess what? It was another tapas restaurant!

We managed to get a high-top for two. And along with the standard menu, the menu del-dia was presented. There was a nice, easy going, yet joyous vibe here. Folks were having fun. There was a group of folks, it seemed like employees from a company having a "very" happy hour. They asked me to take a photo of them. Of course, being American, I told them to say "cheese"….perhaps I should have had them say "fromage"?

And so we placed our order and soon enough our stuffs arrived.

This was nicely prepared simple dishes made in that tiny kitchen, prep was the key. The Aubergene Frite, was nicely fried slices of eggplant, nicely done, crisp with a creamy interior. The padrons were simply charred, just like you'd have in Spain.

And you'd play you're game of "pepper roulette" as well.

I saw the Jambon D'Agneau and just had to try it. The Server made sure to tell me; "it is lamb" twice! I just wanted to try this.

My goodness, this was so delici-yoso! Think of all the high points of lamb, good fat, mild sweet-gaminess, that "flavor of the pasture". Man, this was so good, I ordered another plate!

The Champignons Farcis, stuffed mushrooms were fine, but nothing special.

I just wanted more lamb. Look at the little leg compared to a jambon!

We got some Patatas Bravas, but it was served with the sauce on the side and wasn't as good as the frites we had the previous night.

And the Missus even got some dessert.

During our meal, the Missus and I wondered why there isn't something like this in our 'hood. It ain't hard, there are places that "claim" to do tapas, but we're not impressed. Perhaps folks here aren't really interested in these type of simple dishes? And then, we also wondered; what's up with Carcassonne and these tapas places? I know that Carcassonne is one of the stops along the route to Spain, could this be the reason?

Anyway, we had a fun time and enjoyed this meal.

FloridaBlanca
22 Rue Trivalle
11000 Carcassonne, France

As we were finishing our meal, I went and checked our train timetable using the SNCF app and found that all trains out of Carcassonne were canceled. Sigh…so here go again! So once we got back to the flat, I found out that there was a train derailment and all trains had been cancelled. And even though it said it would be for a day or two….heck, this is France….. So, I went and reviewed options and eventually booked us a bus from Carcassonne to our next stop; Toulouse.

The next morning, we cleaned up a bit and headed on out. We'd be walking to the train station where we'd (hopefully) be catching our bus to Toulouse.

We happened to come across this Boulangerie and decided to pick up some sandwiches for the trip and a croissant.

Really nice folks working here! So friendly, patient, and helpful.

Aux Croissants des Lices
4 Rue Georges Clemenceau
11000 Carcassonne, France

Getting to the train station we could see the tracks were taped off. I could also see our bus on the schedule board and confirmed with the very helpful station staff.

It was now time to have my croissant.

Decently flakey, it was a bit too doughy for my taste. I also thought it needed more butter, but it suited me fine.

We watched as a news crew arrived to interview the delayed and stranded.

Soon enough a bus arrived at the front of the station. And we started queuing up. The news team actually came over to me for an interview, but I told them I don't speak French. To bad, it might have been funny having my face on the newscast, huh? Maybe I need to work harder and learn more French?

We stowed our luggage and boarded the bus and were on our way to Toulouse. And while we would take twice as long to get there; the Missus and I were just happy to be on our way!

We had enjoyed Carassonne. Two nights and one full day was the perfect amount of time for us.

Next stop, Toulouse!