And so it came to pass…..almost two-and-a-half years since we were last in Europe, we headed back. There were so many thoughts going thru our heads as we planned and then left for our first stop; Paris. Would it still be our favorite city? Was cafe culture going to be impacted…..what kind of precautions were in place? How would traveling during these times be?
On our flight outward it seemed that the quality of the food on our flights and in the lounges seemed to have taken a hit….generous portions; but not very good eats…
That shrimp salad was surprisingly the best item we had during transit.
As for masks? Well, almost nil on our flight from San Diego to LHR and in the airport. Required on the flight from LHR to CDG and also on the RER Blue Line though very sparse in Paris as a whole.
We arrived in Paris at around 10m and since we decided to stay at the same 'ol AirBnb off Rue Montorgueil, we were familiar the RER Blue line drill, getting off at Les Halles, then the short walk for key pick-up at the Key Cafe Kiosk on Rue Marie Stuart, before heading to the apartment. We were shocked at how busy all the businesses on Rue Montorgueil were….places seemed packed to the gills! The crowd also seemed much younger than I recalled. I guess I needn't have worried too much about all the cafes going out of business as overflow customers were actually standing on the sidewalks having their drinks and socializing. I thought that perhaps this was because it was a Friday night; but it seems that on almost every night all the cafes/bars were packed until at least 10pm.
The next morning I woke early, the Missus was still sleeping off the jet lag, so I decided to head on out and grab some croissants. Rue Montorgueil seemed totally different at this time of the day.
Place Goldoni seemed so peaceful.
I headed down the rather "gritty" Rue Saint-Denis past Passage du Grand Cerf….
And at the intersection with Rue de Turbigo was Bo et Mie, a place I had in my "Croissant Files" list.
The place was quite modern and what we found on this trip was that just about everywhere in Paris now takes plastic; albeit folks instantly knew you were American once you busted out the card since most US Credit Cards will not do chip and pin and/or need a signature.
It was very easy ordering in line, paying by card, and heading out. Bo & Mie has three locations in Paris and is obviously not a Artisan Boulanger, but I had read some pretty good things about the place.
Bo & Mie
18 Rue de Turbigo
75002 Paris, France
I took a different way back; heading past Les Halles and onto Rue Montorgueil, where things were still quite peaceful this morning.
Saint Eustache looked quite lovely in the morning sun.
Once back at the apartment; the Missus made me some coffee via the "pod machine" and we had the croissants.
This was not bad….lacking in enough salt and butter, though it had a decent flakiness and the interior was light and fluffy.
By now it was time to head on out for our "morning assignments". Mine was to pick-up our pocket wifi. The company that I'd been dealing with over the years now had a splashy new store on Opera and the Missus had Her sights on Chanel Cambon; so we headed on out in that general direction. One thing we noticed is that Paris seems to be getting smaller for us. We got to Place des Victoires so very quickly.
At this pace we'd be getting to our destination before opening time; so I decided to take a detour to what I read was the longest passage in Paris; Passage Choiseul.
According to this wonderful post, Passage Choiseul has only been reopened to the public since 2013.
There seemed to be quite a number of eateries in the passage.
We took our sweet old time…..and in doing so we noticed things we had before like Place Gaillon.
We popped out on always busy Opera and picking up our pocket wifi….or as they call it here "weefee"…..
And then it was time to hit up Chanel Cambon; which I've detailed in earlier posts. After which we explored the "high rent district" before deciding to head on back to the apartment.
On the way back; on Rue du 4 Septembre, we passed a Picard. Tomorrow would be May 1st, which is Labour Day in France. It is a major holiday here and many places would be closed. I had dinner reservations, but we decided to head into Picard to see if we could get something for that day's lunch.
Picard is a frozen food grocery store chain, with over 900 locations in France. It's fun checking out these shops….think of Trader Joe's frozen food section on steroids….
We bought some frozen morels and an eggplant dish for our Labour Day lunch.
On the way back we were getting a bit hungry. In spite of it being late April, things felt a bit on the chilly side. Before our trip, having been to Paris once or twice a year since 2016 (except for those Covid years) we had decided to treat Paris like a home away from home….sure, we'd indulge in a Michelin meal or two, but since we sincerely believe we'll be returning until we're not able to travel any longer, we'd just have fun, exploring, but not overdoing the sights, museums and such.
And since our last real meal in Paris was Ramen, we thought it would be fun to have some slurping for lunch! And, having been to Ippudo locations in Osaka and Kyoto, I was interested to see how the Louvre location would compare…..so why not, right?
We arrived a shade past the noon opening time and went with an outdoor table….yes, it was a bit chilly, but the ramen would cure that. We were surprised at how quickly the restaurant filled up….though no one chose an outdoor table until there were none left inside.
As we usually do at Ippudo and other ramen shops in Japan; we ordered a ramen, this time the Akamaru Special and also a rice bowl, which in the case here was a Teriyaki Pork Don.
First off, the broth was totally Ippudo; not overly salty, nice and rich tongue coating thickness, porky, the black garlic oil adding a nice nutty, sesame flavor with a pleasant pungent-sweetness.
The tamago was a perfect orb of egginess.
The weak link was the noodles. This was a total Hakata style noodle fail as the thin noodles were very brittle and hard; lacking any "pull".
The rice bowl was fine….
The rice was cooked decently; something that we'd find was not the norm in Paris. The pork crisp and light…..
The customers were all Parisians as far as we could tell; no other Asians in sight. This was quite interesting as we'd find Parisians had quite diverse tastes during this trip to Paris.
Ippudo
74-76 Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau
75001 Paris, France
As we headed back to the apartment, the sun had come out…..and with that, all of the Parisians……
Enjoying the sun and socializing. It was as if Covid never happened. Or perhaps folks were relishing and celebrating a hopeful return to normalcy? It was just a tad too crowded for us, so we decided to head on back to the apartment and rest up. We'd be headed to a favorite of ours for dinner.
Thanks for stopping by!
