Category: French Restaurants

After our surprisingly enjoyable meal at Aux Crus de Bourgogne, a place that we had walked past countless times thinking it was a tourist restaurant, I made reservations to return for dinner. This took us past our favorite street in Paris, Rue Montorgueil, which I've written about countless times already.

During this visit, the street had been declared "Rue des Bulles" ("Bubble Street") for the season. Every year, Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne House declares a Rue des Bulles and the street is decorated in balloons that resemble champagne bubbles.

It makes an already lively street seem even more festive.

No matter how many times you've walked down a street, there always seems to be something you never noticed before.

We walked up to Rue Bachaumont and presented at the restaurant.  One thing we quickly noticed was that the menu had changed since our last visit and several of the items we enjoyed last time were not available.

The place filled quite quickly……folks seemed to be really getting pretty large meals.

Of course, things started with the baguette with rillette, which the Missus enjoys.

We enjoyed the Vol-au-Vent with mushrooms the last time so we ordered the Bouchee a la Reine, which is basically vol-au-vent with poultry.

We had previously enjoyed the mushroom dishes here, but for some reason this dish was really weak in mushroom flavor and the chicken was super dry. The vol-au-vent was still good though; crisp and buttery.

The Missus enjoyed the Escargot as She did before.

And we got even more baguette for sopping up all that garlicky goodness.

Because we had eaten so much for lunch, we ordered one main to share. We ordered the Sweetbreads and Mushrooms. The mains come with one side and we got the green beans. We weren't prepared for the monstrosity that arrived.

   The sauce for the mushrooms were wonderfully flavored, but very gloppy and pasty in texture. The veal sweetbread was massive, dry, tough, and very metallic.

The green beans were undercooked, hard, and in need to more salt.

The service was very prompt and professional.

Well, this was not quite what we expected based on our previous meal. It seems that the menu changes from day to day. Based on this meal, the Missus and I decided that we'd need to see the menu before committing to a meal here. So in the future, since we're usually close by, we'll check out what's being served first.

Aux Crus de Bourgogne
3 Rue Bachaumont
75002 Paris, France

Still, we enjoyed the walk and the always lively Rue Montorgueil.

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

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?

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