Paris - Les Cocottes Four Years Later

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

Comments

[kat]

bummer dinner, but love eiffel tower

[Jason]

That's too bad, especially when traveling, you only have so many meals in the location... it stinks when one of them is bad, especially when it used to be really good. Too bad the new owner didn't keep the standards high.

[Kirk]

It's a view we never tire of Kat!

Yes, totally true Jason! We were lucky to be spending two weeks in Paris so there was some leeway....

[Junichi]

That would explain why there were only tourists dining there. Maybe they don't know about the owner change and are going by old reviews?

[Kirk]

Perhaps not Junichi! Les Cocottes, because of the location always had a good amount of tourists; but I recall a good local following as well.