After returning from our last trip to Paris, we contemplated a longer trip, which ended up being a whole month in France. As usual, we started in Paris, flying out on BA thru LHR. Like I mentioned in my previous post; while the Business Class meals on BA has to us seem better when returning to San Diego from LHR, overall, the food had improved from our last post-Covid travels.
These days we have a routine when flying into Paris in the evening. We catch the RER Blue Line from CDG to Les Halles and stay in the area. This time, since we'd be staying at AirBnbs and VRBOs for most of the trip, we did a hotel right outside Les Halles. One benefit of flying Business Class are the lay flat beds, where we can (usually) get a decent amount of sleep and work on getting our internal clocks adjusted. By the time we got to our hotel it was after 9pm, so it was right off to bed.
The next morning; well we slipped right into our routine.
We strolled over to Rue Montorgueil and had our Café Allonge at Café du Centre just like we usually do.
And just enjoy people watching……
Café du Centre
57 Rue Montorgueil
75002 Paris, France
This was a pretty quiet Thursday morning.
And we felt so relaxed and at home at our corner seats.
As for our plans; well, we went to the Marais and did our due diligence lèche-vitrine ("window licking" – the French term for window shopping). We spent a good amount of time licking 'dem windows and when it was time for lunch, well, we decided on a place I'd had on my list for a while. A rather small shop on Rue Charlot right around the corner from Marche Les Enfants Rouge, named Chez Alain Miam Miam. In fact, this was our original destination during a previous visit to the area, but both shops (they have a shop and a stand in the marche) were packed, so we ended up eating at Chez Taeko. I had read so many superlatives about the place; Food & Wine says it's one of the best sandwich shops in Paris and this YouTube video calls it the "Best Sandwich in the World"that I wanted to check the place out. We decided on having an early lunch to avoid the crowds and got there at 10am. The shop is tiny; the owner, Alain Roussel was manning the counter and we ordered our sandwich and went to one of the shared tables.
Eventually, the beast was brought to us.
The bread was wonderfully toasted and a textural treat; the tomatoes had a wonderful sweet acidity, there's avocados, wonderful caramelized onions, a huge amount of milky-earthy Comte cheese, and ham. The only thing we thought was there wasn't enough of a salt component. But this was quite good and one sandwich was enough for both of us.
In Paris, there are processes. Here, after watching other folks, I noticed that once folks finished their sandwiches, the plates were returned (by non-tourists) to a window and so I took our now empty plate there and got a huge "thumbs up" from the crew!
As we were leaving at around 11 there was a line already forming outside the shop. Not a cheap sandwich at 17 Euros, but it was lunch for the both of us.
Chez Alain Miam Miam
26 Rue Charlot
75003 Paris, France
On Rue de Bretagne, we stopped at Jean-Paul Hevin for some confections and Comptoirs Richard for some tea for later in the trip and took our time walking back to the hotel. On Rue Saint-Denis, right across from Raviolis Chinois Nord Est is a church named Saint-Leu-Saint-Gilles de Paris which was built in 1235! On Rue Saint-Denis? I had wanted to check the place out on our last trip but it was closed the entire time. It must have been my lucky day because it was open!
There was one main reason for my visit. I'd read that the relics of Saint Helena were kept in the church. According to Atlas Obscura:
"As history tells it, in 840 a monk from Hautvillers, France returned from a trip to Rome with a surprising souvenir. He admitted he had broken into St. Helena’s tomb and stolen part of her body while he was there. Instead of ordering its return, the pope allowed the relic to stay in France since the item itself hadn’t protested the theft by miraculously stopping it (as other relics reportedly had)."
And in 1819 the relics were moved here. We found the stairs to the crypt were closed and only opened during certain hours. But again, fate intervened as a woman came by with the keys and went down the stairs and waved us down.
I'm guessing she is a regular worshipper here so they gave her the keys. She lit some candles, said a prayer, then left.
Apparently, parts of Saint Helena's body is wrapped and kept here.
It was an interesting stop.
From here we decided to extend our walk and visit some other familiar places before dinner.
It was a lovely day in Paris and we wanted to make the best of it.
Walk in, order, pay, find a seat inside or outside.
There are menus above and on the wall as well as physical laminated menus. 
The Mister ordered a Soup and 1/2 sandwich plate ($10.75)
He chose a hot half sandwich-grilled Pastrami and Swiss on toasted sourdough (instead of grilled rye). Russian dressing, lettuce and tomato were offered and since this order wasn't traditional, he got it all. This was very good.
There are four homemade soups offered here: Chicken Noodle, Chicken Tortilla, Broccoli Cheddar and Clam Chowder. The chicken ones are priced at $5.50 and $6.40; the vegetarian is $5.25 and $6.15 and the chowder is $6.50 and $7.75 if purchased as an individual cup or bowl. No extra charges for the combo plate. Clam Chowder it is, and it is wonderful. Creamy, rich with clam juice and a lot of clam meat. Tiny diced potatoes and celery. Perfectly seasoned (no need to add salt or pepper), this was really the best we've had out here. 
I ordered a grilled chicken salad ($13.75) with the house made ranch dressing (as you can see, three containers of ranch are given). The fresh vegetables and nicely grilled chicken made for a really great meal. 
I noted in my previous post that there's quite a bit more filling these days and on this visit they went a bit overboard on the chipotle. This was much spicier than I recall, though perhaps my tolerance has waned over the last couple of years? I also noted that they have changed the bread in my last post as well; it's quite yeasty and much lighter than what I used to enjoy. Regardless, the combination of eggs, beans, cheese, salsa performed adequately as my late breakfast on this day. Though perhaps I would have appreciated a bit more beans.
So, I peeled back the bread to reveal watery, runny, flavorless eggs, and though the Spam slices were fairly thick they lacked color. I recall trying to order a 
The tri-tip was pretty tender, though mild in terms of smokiness. It's nicely seasoned with a good amount of black pepper, though I'm going to ask them to go easy on the lemon-garlic mayo. Which, while it adds rich-creaminess and a mild acidity, was too much of a good thing this time around. I really like the use of Gouda on this sandwich, you can actually taste it.
As I walked toward the shop I noticed several gentleman sitting facing the front of the store and then noticed that they have a television facing the parking lot, so folks can watch from outside of the place! Funny thing. Though I'm quite used to the Vietnamese Men "doing coffee" thing…..I don't ever recall seeing them watching Paw Patrol before, which is what was streaming at the time I entered the shop.
The bread seemed to be at that overly dry, almost stale stage as it was quite crumbly and hard. Check out all the cilantro, that wedge of cucumber, and all those pickled veggies! I guess they wanted to make I was getting my daily allowance here! Of course that threw the balance of the banh mi off a bit. The jalapenos weren't overly spicy, the pate nice and funky, the Cha Lua sliced super thin, and the Thịt Nguoi standard issue. 
They closed on August 21st and the signage is already down.
And I've got quite a history with them; from the days at 
It's the unit between 
It turns out that online, this relatively new (it opened in April 2020) shop is called Solomon Bagels and Donuts. However on this day, there were no donuts (I overheard that something wasn't working that morning). We weren't looking for donuts anyway.
The menu includes beverages, hot/cold/vegan sandwiches, a variety of toppings as well as donuts and donut holes on most days.
We were here around 10:30 in the morning and a lot was already sold out. Good for this local business!
I chose to try the Ukrainian Everything bagel with cream cheese. A pumpernickel base with typical 'everything' seeds on both sides of the bagel, this was wonderful! A good, chewy, New York style bagel (smaller than you find at the larger chain bagel stores). I enjoy the rye flour base of pumpernickel. 
We also tried the countertop special of a Pastrami (on toasted rye, of course) ($8.99) with sauerkraut. Lettuce, tomato and onion are also standard add ons for sandwiches. The pastrami was of good quality; no pepper crust (which neither of us like). Quite a large sandwich and another excellent, seeded rye, chewy bagel.
their hours were now only from 8am to 3pm Mondays to Fridays. I did pass by on a Saturday and I noticed activity in the place. And then it dawned on me…..all that bread you see 
The banh mi here have always been on the "hefty" side in my opinion and this was no different. First off, the bread was really crusty, I felt perhaps a bit too heavily baked? One bite resulted in crusty "shrapnel" flying in all directions. Still, this was much better than what I've 
