mmm-yoso!!!

Big Island - Koana Again (Mountain View), Big Island Candies (Hilo), and Village Burger (Kamuela)

After having an encore viewing of Halemaʻumaʻu the previous evening we were tempted to stop by again to check things out in the morning but decided to just keep the amazing visions of the previous night fresh in our memory instead and head on to our next stop of our trip. 

The Missus had enjoyed the Geisha pour-over from Koana the previous day and wanted to have it one more time so we stopped there for our morning coffee.

On this morning a young lady was working. She was very friendly and the Missus got Her coffee.

 I enjoyed sitting right outside the shop. The view of the plantation style houses reminded me of our trips to Honolua "small kid time" to see my grandparents.

I'm sure we'll stop by again whenever we're in the area.

Koana
18-1325 Old Volcano Rd.
Mountain View, HI 96771

As we headed up thru Hilo, we decided to stop by another very familiar place, Big Island Candies. Waaay back when, a stop here was mandatory during our visits to Hilo.

It was right before Lunar New Year, so we made sure to get some goodies for my MIL.

And a bunch of omiyage as well.

And even "stuffs" that well....I'm still not quite sure about

Good lord, we bought so much that we got a free tote bag and a discount! Like I said before, when you visit "make sure to bring lots of money!"

Big Island Candies
585 Hinano St., 
Hilo, HI 96720

From here we headed up the Hamakua Coast, a drive we've made many times, past Honokaa, and finally into Waimea, which we call Kamuela. We were a bit early to check in at our accommodation, so we headed over to the Parker Ranch Center to get some lunch. 
If you've read our posts on the Big Island, you'll find that we really love revisiting favorites. And since we had enjoyed Village Burger so much the last time we were here we decided to grab lunch there.

 We had enjoyed the fact that everything from the pasture raised beef, to the brioche buns, to the mushrooms in the mushroom burger is local. The Missus had really enjoyed the mushroom burger the last time and of course, this being Parker Ranch territory, I needed to have that Big Island Beef Burger.

Of course, a decade has passed since we last visited, so we expected some changes. And yes, the burgers were smaller than what we'd had before.

Still, while there seemed to be a bit more "binder" in the Missus's Hamakua Mushroom Burger ($11), it was still full of earthy-umami goodness.

It used to be served on a sort of ciabatta type roll, but I think the yeasty-fluffy-mildly sweet brioche type roll does quite well to balance out the mushrooms. The Missus didn't order any mayo or mustard, which was a good choice as one could really enjoy the mushroom flavor.

I ordered my Burger ($11) Medium.

  This was cooked a bit past that, but the burger was so beefy! I requested just a touch of mustard, which combined with the wonderfully sweet and acidic tomato really helped to balance out the beefiness. The beef was a bit toothsome; but that's the deal with pasture raised beef made from cuts like chuck and brisket.

We both enjoyed this trip down burger-memory lane.

Village Burger
67-1185 Mamalahoa Hwy
Kamuela, HI 96743

We then took some time to explore Kamuela a bit and do some shopping.

And then we'd walk past a place.......

That would suddenly bring back memories from past visits.

And things just felt "right".

Thanks for stopping by!

Big Island - Koana and Mountain View Bakery (Mountain View), Chain of Craters Road, and Suisan (Hilo)

We had a wonderful first day and evening on the Big Island. Man, it's hard to believe that it had been a decade since we last visited.

And since we were staying in Volcano Village, we wanted to resurrect an old tradition we had. But first, the Missus wanted a nice cup o' joe. I had done a bit of research and found a place in Mountain View, about a 15 minute drive from Volcano Village that just seemed perfect for the "coffee snob" in the family. A place named Koana.

This specialty coffee shop only did pour over....like I said, this place would be perfect for the Missus, right?

The bright, rustic space was quite welcoming.

As was the owner; who kindly took time to explain everything they had for the day. 

In addition to the local coffees the place sold....

There were other local kine stuffs as well.

The Missus immediately homed in on the Paradise Coffee Kona Geisha Champagne Natural. The owner of Koana, Brian, told us that this coffee won the 2022 Hawaiian Coffee Association competition. Oh-kay.....

While we waited for our coffee we took a quick look around...the place has a real "old time" feel to it and reminds me of Honolua, way back in the 60's and 70's.

Meanwhile, I felt a bit peckish, so I walked on over to Mountain View Bakery. Man, the last time I was here was back in 90's, before I met the Missus.

This place is famous for their Stone Cookies and has been around since 1936! It's got a real old time, small town feel to it.

I got a taro mochi donut and a Spam Musubi. Breakfast of champions!

The mochi donut is made from glutinous rice and has a bit of a chew to it. It wasn't overly sweet. I liked it, but the Missus did not.

My musubi was perfect!

    The Missus loved Her coffee and wanted to buy a bag. So, we went in and took a look around and could not find the coffee. So we asked Brian who told us he had two bags left behind the counter. He sold us one. It was $95! The Missus just absolutely loved this coffee.

Thus is life in the mmm-yoso household. The Missus gets Her $95 Kona Geisha coffee and I get a......Spam Musubi! Sounds like a fair deal, right?

We also bought some other stuffs as well.

Koana
18-1325 Old Volcano Rd.
Mountain View, HI 96771

Mountain Vewi Bakery
18-1319 Old Volcano Rd.
Mountain View, HI 96771

From here we headed back into Volcanoes National Park and proceeded to do what has become sort a tradition for us; a drive down Chain of Craters Road.

It's something we've done on every visit to the Big Island since we got married years ago.

It all seems familiar, and yet, different on every visit.

It's a reminder of how amazing this "Blue Marble" we live on is. We make stops along the way. At familiar places, like the Hōlei Sea Arch.

And there's another tradition we have or at least had, which I mentioned in my post from all those years ago:

" We always drive to the end of Chain of Craters Road, park, it used to be that you'd park just a couple of yards from the flow, but now you walk about a half mile or so. I always take a photo of the Missus at the point where the lava is covering the road.

When we look back at the older photos, we've noticed that the flow has moved and even though things might seem the same when the picture is taken; looking at the photos all lined up reveals that nature never stays still. For us, this is a nice timeline of sorts....the Missus on the lava flow, moving, maybe at an imperceptible speed, but nevertheless, still slowly moving."

Well, with time comes change. What used to be this:

In 2012, is now this in 2023. Though it's chained off.

Of course soon enough the question of "what's for lunch" came up. Well, the Missus had Her heart set on Suisan, which has long been a favorite of Hers. We'd arrived in Hilo on a day when Suisan was closed. So off we went on an hours drive into Hilo!

    We were interested to see what effect the "time of Covid" had on Suisan and it was soon evident. Gone are the tables out front. You wait in line in front of the shop, there's a limit to the amount of folks they let into a shop at any one time.

Gone are the cold cases and the selection of poke is much smaller now.

We got a poke bowl with the Ahi Hawaiian and Shoyu Ahi ($15.50), a quarter pound Ahi Mango Habanero, and even went and tried the Scallop Lemon Shoyu and the Butter Garlic Prawns. We took our stuffs to the former location of the restaurant outside Suisan which is now closed and went for it.

 In terms of fish quality the ahi in the Ahi Limu and the Mango Habanero was excellent, tender and almost buttery. Some of the pieces in the Shoyu Ahi had "sugi" that made it chewy. I wish there was more limu in the Ahi Hawaiian, though the flavoring for all three poke was spot on, not too salty, but well prepped and seasoned. The Mango Habanero was a nice surprise, fruity spice, perfect salt, without being too sweet.

As for the "pupus", well, the Butter Garlic Prawns were really tough, not much garlic flavor.

The Lemon Shoyu Scallops were also really chewy and there was an amount of "grit" in it that we didn't enjoy.

Still, that poke did "hit the spot". We'd return one more time before leaving the Big Island; though we'd stay with just poke on that visit.

Suisan Company Limited
93 Lihiwai St
Hilo, HI 96720

Road Trip - Wupatki National Monument, Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, Dinner at Atria, and Single Speed Coffee Roasters (Flagstaff)

I had read a bit more about the Flagstaff area after our last visit and came across entries for Wupatki National Monument and Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument which caught my attention. I had never heard of these places before and was quite interested. Also, the two National Monuments are basically linked together on the same stretch of road so we could do both on the same trip. The visitors center at Sunset Crater was still closed at the time of our visit, so we headed up Highway 89 and turned off on Forest Road 545. We then headed to the Wupatki National Monument Visitors Center to pay our entrance fee.

As you exit the rear of the visitor's center you come across the paved trail for the Wupatki Pueblo. Wupatki means "long cut house" in Hopi. And the view is quite impressive.

You'll also see what is described as a round "ball court" and what is said to be a "community room or amphitheater".

We headed on down the trail. The main structure is said to have consisted of 104 rooms!

All of this built by Ancestral Puebloans. This place also ties into nearby Sunset Crater. It is said that the population of the area grew after the eruption of Sunset Crater as the ash improved the quality of the soil.

We read that this spot was used for gatherings.

While this one was a ball court.

Right next to the Ball Court is a blowhole.

There are supposedly several of them in the area.

Of course coming from Hawaii, I'm quite familiar with Blowholes, so I found this fascinating. More interesting info here.

The longer you stay, the more you start noticing things.

We spent a bit over an hour here. It was an interesting place to visit.

We then got back on FR-545 and meandered our way over the 19 miles or so, stopping at a few places along the way. The terrain suddenly changed as the road was lined with trees.

We stopped at the Cinder Hills overlook. And here you can see Sunset Crater.

Sunset crater is the youngest of the volcanoes that form the San Francisco Volcanic Field having erupted between 1064 - 1085. 

We drove over to the Lava Flow Trail area. Some of it is paved and we enjoyed the unpaved portion more.

I liked getting up close to see an actual spatter cone!

And being a kid from Hawaii, I was surprised to see an A’a Trail. In case you don't know, A’a is a Hawaiian word for a specific kind of lava! 

I think that having been to Volcanoes National Park at least a half dozen times gave me a really deep appreciation for this place. I know the Hopi had legends about Sunset Crater and will probably get a book one day.....I hope Madame Pele doesn't get jealous!

From here we headed back into Flagstaff and had a light lunch at Whole Foods then headed back to the hotel. After parking we decided to take a stroll and do some lèche-vitrine (window shopping).

We also took a stroll by the very distinctive gothic looking Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Chapel.

Then heading back to rest up before dinner.

For dinner I had selected a place that seemed to have interesting appetizers. As I've mentioned before, we've often found that the most enjoyable dishes in the starters section of the menu. It seems that chefs will often provide more tasty interesting dishes as appetizers as thy don't have to stick to the "big protein" formula of mains. The menu at Atria, a block from our accommodations opened in the winter of 2021 and the menu seemed to be a good fit for our appetite.

Atria claims to serve "Modern American" and farm to table cuisine. Our Server, I wish I could remember his name, was outstanding, efficient, friendly, and a lot of fun.

The place was fairly quiet when we arrived but quickly filled up by the time we left. The Missus thought the wine selection at Brix was better, but still found a couple of glasses She liked.

I had a cocktail called "Beyond the Pines - Notes of Flagstaff in a Glass" which I enjoyed.

Things started off with the Smoked Trout Salad.

This was such an interesting amalgamation of tastes, the anise of the fennel, bitter from the arugula, the salty-briney olives, the cucumbers. We also enjoyed the pistachio "hummus". The Missus didn't enjoy the smoked trout too much, nor did She like the oranges in the salad. I was fine with this.

The Bone Marrow was quite the show stopper. The dish arrived on its own portable grill.

Man, that buttery, smoky bone marrow on tasty toasted bread! The slices of mushroom might have been overkill, but it worked fine here. This was so good. And then our Server arrived with a shot of Bourbon. When I asked what that was for, he smiled and said, "for your luge of course!" Now how did he know? So, I did the luge, it was delici-yoso! And when I noticed the shot wasn't on the bill, I was told "it's on me"!

Now Flagstaff in nowhere near the ocean and we would never think of ordering mussels here, but the Missus was interested in the Steamed Mussels. 

The mussels were cooked perfectly, plump, moist, and tender. We didn't much care for the "banh mi" toast, which had a strangely flavored pate on it. "Mopping duty" would have been perfectly fine with the toasts that accompanied the bone marrow.

We enjoyed the gamey flavor of the lamb in the Malloreddus.

The gnocchetti was perfectly cooked, slightly fluffy, with a mild chew. The green peas were quite sweet and the watercress added a pleasant peppery-bitterness. The Castelmagno cheese was a nice touch, really good in small doses on this dish.

Since there was a beef tartare on the menu; well, I had to order it. I was shocked to see that it came with quite a large portion of rather ordinary crinkle-cut fries.

 I initially thought the beef was cut a bit too large, but it was very tender. The "garlic cloud" added some decent savoriness, but would have loved a bit more briney-citrusy tones to cut thru the richness. Still, this was a pretty good version.

While some of the dishes were a bit over-the-top we enjoyed this meal, the service was wonderful. We had a fun time here and would gladly return.

Atria
103 N Leroux St.
Flagstaff, AZ 86001

The next morning we got up bright and early. It was a four hour drive to our next destination so we weren't in a rush. After grabbing breakfast at the hotel we made one last stop in Flagstaff at a little coffee shop somewhat disguised as a bike shop named Single Speed Coffee Roasters.

This place roasts their own beans and coffee nerds will have fun here.

While waiting for the Missus's Pour Over, I went up the stairs and had a look at the cozy seating area.

We got our coffee to go as we wanted to "hit the road".

The Missus thought Her pour over was ok, but I really liked the cold brew.

Nice place, friendly staff.

Single Speed Coffee Roasters
1000 E Butler Ave.
Flagstaff, AZ 86001

Next stop, Cortez Colorado!

Road Trip - Brix Restaurant and Firecreek Coffee Company (Flagstaff)

Back in September of last year the Missus and I took a wonderful road trip. For our first stop, it was between Phoenix, Sedona, or Flagstaff. While the Missus enjoyed the hiking in Sedona, we didn't care for the restaurant scene that much. And we'd do a bunch of hiking during this road trip and there was one stop I was interested in close to Flagstaff; so FLG it was. The drive was pretty long, it took us over 8 hours. We did stop for a quick lunch in Phoenix at Flower Child and headed back on the road. We got in just after 430pm and checked into the Residence Inn. We liked this location when we were last in Flagstaff and our dining destination for the two evenings here were in walking distance.

We had dinner reservations for 6pm and headed out a bit early just to stroll around the historic downtown area.

Just a couple of blocks from downtown, in a former carriage house that was built in 1909 was our dinner destination; Brix Restaurant and Wine Bar.

While the service was a bit slow, the staff was very friendly and this was far from being a stuffy fine dining destination. The Missus enjoyed the wine list and I started with a nice cocktail.

We started with the Elk Tartare and the Wood Roasted Mushrooms.

The Elk Tartare was nicely chilled, though it was on the mushy side in terms of texture.

 Those yellow dots were an egg yolk emulsion...I would have preferred a drippy egg yolk as the emulsion really didn't add much to the dish, the horseradish was also strangely mild in flavor. The celery leaves did add a nice boost of palate restoring flavor. Perhaps if they chopped it a bit smaller you could get more than three bites.

The Wood Roasted Mushrooms was another dish that suffered from having a bit too much going on.

The local mushrooms were so earthy, with a mild sweetness and had been nicely roasted which created a layer of smokiness. The miso black garlic puree was so salty and just overwhelmed the wonderful mushrooms. 

The bread soon arrived. Like many other places, Brix is now charging for bread and butter. It was $5 at the time of our visit.

I had ordered the Cavatelli.

The pasta, which is similar to shells was pretty thick and overcooked, making it quite mushy. I could have used more basil in the pesto and more pine nut flavor. The preserved lemon was quite strong in flavor and as with the mushrooms, it over powered the dish. The fava beans were wonderful, adding a nice nutty flavor to the dish.

The Market Fish was cooked to perfection.

Crisp skin, moist flesh, and that watercress added a wonderful crisp bitterness. The cannellini beans were undercooked and hard...and you know how the Missus us about Her beans, right? The tomato consomme was salty, but added nothing else to the dish. It was kind of sad since the fish was done so nicely.

In the end, the friendly folks working outshone the food. Yes, service was a bit slow, but the staff were so nice. I just wish the dishes were more to our taste.

Brix Restaurant & Wine Bar
413 N San Francisco St.
Flagstaff, AZ 86001

On the way back to our room I wanted to take a look at the Hotel Monte Vista. 

 

Why you might ask? Well, the Hotel Monte Vista has been named the most haunted spot in Arizona (check out the stories on that website)! There are supposedly several, ahem, "guests" who have never checked out. There's a "phantom bellboy" that knocks on the door to room 210...in fact, John Wayne is said to have reported this ghost to the staff several times. You can even read about some of those "ghosts" on the hotel's website. And also on this website as well. You know me and stuff like this, right?

Why didn't we stay here? Well, having already having spent a couple of nights at one of the most haunted hotels in the US, without any disturbances, I really didn't feel like pushing my luck. Plus, I was pretty tired after all that driving and wanted a good night's sleep, which is what I got.

In the morning we woke and I went downstairs to the breakfast buffet and took some stuffs back to the room. I then headed out to grab us some coffee. I had a place located just two blocks away named Firecreek Coffee Company on my list so I headed on over.

The gentleman working was quite nice and friendly. I got the Missus and Ethiopian Pour Over which She said was ok and I enjoyed my Cold Brew.

I'd gladly return here.

Firecreek Coffee Company
22 Historic Route 66
Flagstaff, AZ 86001

Having had a light breakfast and bolstered by caffeine we were ready to head on out.

Montpellier - Café Bun, Jardin des Plantes de Montpellier, and Brunch at Le Guru

We'd had a wonderful afternoon and a amazing dinner the previous day. So we were excited to see what surprises Montpellier had in store for us on this day.

It was a bright and sunny morning as we headed out to do some exploring.

And so we headed out to get our caffeine fix from a place I had on my "list" heading thru Place de la Comédie (of course). 

Remember I mentioned that there always seemed to be something going on in Montpellier. Well, we noticed part of the square was blocked off. Specifically the street we were headed down, Rue des Étuves. Soon enough it became clear what was happening. There was a Cancer Run going on.

The sign says "La Courstache", which I believe means "the course", but we also noticed some of the folks had drawn moustaches on themselves.....so I'm thinking there's some funny "pun" in the works here.

Meanwhile, the runners were being cheered on from the folks sitting at the cafes.

Right past the Opera House was our destination, Café Bun.

The place was buzzing! The Missus got some kind of special roast and I got an Americano, which was quite good.

The croissant though, was not. It lacked butter, wasn't flaky and crisp, and was too doughy.

And one interesting fellow kept trying to converse with us in several languages. I spoke back in English and he looked surprised, but we had a nice little chat. Then I noticed the gentleman in the business next door could not open his front gate. A bicycle had locked itself to the gate and in the process locked the two sliding pieces together. I walked over to help. Of course the gentleman thought it was my bike, but I made it clear it wasn't. I helped him get to the point where he could squeeze himself onto the street. He then went to the café, but it wasn't anyone from there. He then started ringing up all the apartments across the street. And guess what? He got his man and was able to open his shop. It was quite an interesting morning so far.

Café Bun
5 rue des Etuves
34000 Montpellier, France

When the Missus and I did have a few minutes to chat during our coffee, I opened up the map and we came up with an outline of where we'd be walking this morning.

So, we crossed back on Place de la Comédie and I took another photo of the interesting building we were staying in.

I sent a copy of it to Cathy who replied in what I think is the quintessential Californian response; "Earthquake"!

We veered left and headed North thru Esplanade Charles-de-Gaulle a wonderful green space with restaurants, cafes, and lots of family friendly things to do.

After passing the park we took a left and went strolling thru the Ecusson (the old city).

And passed some lovely squares.

Winding our way until we came across the impressive Cathedral Saint-Pierre a massive structure.

We checked to see if the place was open, but it was not. I'd later do some checking and found the hours of operation and we'd return.

Right next to the Cathedral is the Faculty of Medicine. Montpellier is home to one of the oldest Medical Schools and there's a Museum of Anatomy we wanted to visit, but it has been closed since the beginning of the pandemic; so hopefully one day....

Right past all of this was the Jardin des Plants which was established by order of King Henry IV and is the oldest Botanical Garden in France; established in 1593. And even better; it's free! 

It was winter so there wasn't a whole lot going on; but it was a nice escape from "the city".

We headed back to the apartment, thru the meandering old town, trying to decide on a place to have an early lunch. Just by sheer luck, we came across a place I had on my list, Le Guru. And though I mainly had this tiny corner restaurant on my list for the interesting Asian Fusion dishes, they served up a prix fixe brunch during weekends, so we thought, why not?

We got one of the tiny tables on the ground floor of the restaurant.

As part of the menu, one had to choose between two Oeuf Benedicte....hmmm, Eggs Benedict, not the Missus's favorite thing......She was having second thoughts, and this wasn't cheap at 23 Euroes a person. But we decided just to go for it.

Things started with a Smoothie and Boissons Chaude, hot chocolate.

The hot chocolate lacked flavor and was quite watery; but the passionfruit smoothie was tart and refreshing.

When the Viennoiseries arrived we started getting an understanding about the price. Holy smokes.....

The croissants were mediocre, but the sourdough bread was outstanding.

And then the Benedicts.

   For the eggs, you could get either Smoked Salmon or Bacon, so we ordered one of each. The frites were nicely fried; hot and crisp, the small salad refreshing. As for the "Benedicte", well, to my surprise the Missus really liked the smoked salmon version. The Hollandaise sauce was creamy, but not overly assertive in that eggy-overly buttery manner. The smoked salmon was excellent; lightly briny and with a great smokiness, it reminded us of what we'd had in Scotland, The "bacon" was no slouch either; thick cut, but not tough, perfect salt, nicely smoked. The egg was a nice runny orb and "muffin" on the bottom was actually pretty light.

This meal turned out better than we thought and was well worth the price.

Le Guru
36 Rue de l'Argenterie
34000 Montpellier, France

And we enjoyed our "short escape" from French cuisine.

We had a nice stroll back to the apartment, which seemed quite close now. Montpellier was getting smaller by the hour it seems!

Paris - La Maison d’Isabelle (Yet Again), The Cluny Museum, Au Pied de Cochon, and Le Train Bleu

When planning for our trips I'm careful not to over schedule ourselves. Yes, we could probably do three museums in a day, but would we really enjoy it? And especially when we return to our favorite locales, I tend to sprinkle out our planned activities, knowing that we'll probably return in the future. And since we'd be spending a good amount of time in Paris, I only scheduled or made reservations for about every other evening.

On this day, I made plans to visit the Cluny Museum whose collection covers the Middle Ages. I had always wanted to visit the Cluny for one main reason which I'll detail a bit further on in this post.

But first; did you know that there are 8 fontaine petillantes; that is, sparkling water fountains in Paris? Yes, for real, these fountains will dispense sparkling water at the press of a button. For free. There was one close to our hotel next to Les Halles so we decided to try it out.

I liked it; the Missus wasn't impressed. Perhaps if the weather was hotter it would have made more of an impact. I did think it was pretty neat though.

From here we headed off to the 5th passing all those familiar places.

And soon we were close to our destination. But first......the museum is located in the 5th Arrondissement which gave us an opportunity to revisit our favorite croissant purveyor yet again. Man, we could smell the butter a block away. And the line at La Maison d’Isabelle, which always moves quickly anyway, wasn't very long at all.

The shop is located right at one of the metro exits, just think, you'd be coming up the stairs or escalator from the Maubert - Mutualité metro station to be hit with the scent of butter in the air?

We got our croissant and headed on over to Square Samuel-Paty just like the last time to devour our croissants.

And it was a good as ever.

Crisp and flakey exterior, fluffy on the inside, great butter to salt ratio.....

Still our favorite in Paris.

La Maison d’Isabelle
47T Boulevard Saint-Germain
75005 Paris, France

And the Cluny is located basically across the street from Square Samuel-Paty. We arrived right after the 930am opening time, so the museum wasn't very busy, which made for a relaxed visit.

   And while we loved the heads of kings of Judah that originally graced Notre Dame and were severed during the French Revolution ("off with their heads I say!!!!") in what is called vandalisme révolutionnaire, wonderful jewelry, Limoges Enamel, and the stunning stained glass from Sainte-Chapelle that depicts the story of Samson; there was one collection I wanted to see.

It's a series of 6 tapestries completed around 1500, famously known as The Lady and the Unicorn. Upon entering the room we were stunned; it is one of those times when seeing a renowned work was actually more impressive in person.

The 6 tapestries, made of wool and silk were amazing. It is generally accepted that each one represents one of the senses.

Though you might ask, "why are there six tapestries". The sixth work has the inscription “À mon seul désir” (To my only desire) and has been interpreted in many different ways.

As for me....well, I happened to see Frankie in the tapestry and perhaps he knew we would be visiting on this day! We'd have another reminder of F during this trip as well. We were comforted knowing he was watching over us.

Seeing this was one of the highlights of our trip....

I have a feeling we'll return; if only to see that tapestry again!

Musée de Cluny
28 Rue du Sommerard
75005 Paris, France

We strolled back to the hotel and took a nice break. We'd be headed to Montpellier the next morning. We had enjoyed our meal at Le Petit Bouillon Pharamond at the end of our last trip to Paris, a big plus was that it was very close to our hotel, that we went to see if we could get a table. Man, there was a line to get into the Boullion, even at the ungodly dining hour (for Paris) of 6pm! So, we needed a "plan B". There was a place I'd had on my "list" for a while, it seemed a bit touristy, but has quite a history. Au Pied de Cochon was founded in 1947, at that time Les Halles was still considered the "belly of Paris" and Au Pied de Cochon fed the hungry masses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We thought it might be fun just to drop by and see if the place had an open table.

And this quite colorful brasserie still had tables available. You gotta love the decor as it just oozes almost stereotypical Frenchness.

As you can figure by the name of the place, pork is king here.

The bread provided was a nice and crusty baguette.

Which came in handy since the Missus, wanting Her beans, ordered the Cassoulet de Pied de Cochon ( 27 €).

She liked the beans, thin skinned and creamy. The garlic sausage was decent as well, though all that pork was a bit over-the-top for Her. This also needed some salt as well. The Missus did a nice job of finishing this off!

I got what is possibly the signature dish of the restaurant; the Tentation de Saint-Antoine ( 27 €) - "Temptation of Saint Anthony". If you recall from a previous post, Saint Anthony de Abad is the patron saint of pigs.

In case you're keeping score at home; this consists of breaded and fried pig's feet (pied de cochon), very tough and undercooked for my taste, snout, chewy and quite meaty went well with the Bernaise sauce, ears, too hard (still trying to find a version that lines up with what we had at that little Izakaya in Hiroshima, and the winnah, that pig tail...which was fairly tender with some nice crunchy bits, and was oh so porky. Maybe all the "stuff" that stuck to that tail when in use added to the flavor????

The Missus had a taste of all of this and agreed, that tail was good. The French couple sitting next to use had two tails as appetizers. I didn't see it on the menu; but we'd definitely come back for that.

Overall, a fun meal, and service was quite good as well. 

Au Pied de Cochon
6 Rue Coquillière
75001 Paris, France

Needless to say, it was a food coma evening.

We awoke early the next morning and relaxed a bit before heading off on the metro to Gare de Lyon. I will often try to schedule our trips on the metro at hours when I believe things won't be too busy, especially when we have luggage. It's not always possible, but I try. I also try to schedule and coordinate check-out times at our locale with check-in times at our destination, and our scheduled arrival by train. We got to Gare de Lyon a bit early; this was because I wanted to grab some coffee and tea for the Missus at a place I'd heard about located in Gare de Lyon named Le Train Bleu. I had heard of Le Train Bleu, but had never really given much thought to visiting the place even though we'd been through Gare de Lyon a couple of time before. However, after listening to one of my favorites Podcasts on Paris; The Earful Tower, which I started listening to when I was missing our travels during Covid and after reading Oliver Gee's post on Le Train Bleu, I wanted to check the place out, if only for some coffee and tea. And so we got to Gare de Lyon, and found the rather discreet entrance to Le Train Bleu. And you can see why you might want to have at least some coffee here......

Le Train Bleu was originally built for the Paris Exposition of 1900 in the Belle Époque style. The setting is so regal, elegant, grand, and beautiful. It transports you to a different age. 

And in the morning, it is perfectly fine to have coffee, tea, and maybe some yogurt while waiting for your train if you aren't keen of having lunch or dinner here.

The prices aren't cheap, but not bad overall.

And man, I could just keeping looking at paintings for hours.....

You might also want to read this post on Le Train Bleu.

Le Train Bleu (In Gare de Lyon)
Place Louis-Armand
75012 Paris, France

Thanks for stopping by!

Paris - Au Petit Versailles du Marais Revisited and Dinner at Granite

We were really enjoying our day in Paris and decided to just keep on strolling to Tuileries Garden.

Familiarity had changed our perception of distance in Paris. Places that used to seem quite far now seemed relatively close.

And we got to Tuileries Garden in what seemed to be no time at all. The Tuileries Christmas Market was being set-up and we could see that the Ferris wheel was already in place.

It would be in full swing when we returned to Paris.

Even though it was fairly chilly, the sun was out, so you could count on Parisians and a tourist or two (i.e. us) taking time to enjoy the day at the fountain and pond known as the Grand Bassin Rond.

It made for a relaxing afternoon.....

I'm not quite sure if it was the weather, something in the water, perhaps the air, or the environment, but we would readily adopt, the French equivalent of "Afternoon Tea", known as Le Goûter. We just seemed to flow into it. And it started on this day as the Missus decided She wanted something sweet and a spot of tea from that place She had come across when I took my baguette class on our last visit. So we headed back to the Marais and Au Petit Versailles du Marais.

After ogling the dessert collection.....

We headed over to the tea salon, grabbed an outside table, ordered the Missus's selected pastry, tea for Her, and coffee for me.

The woman working here is a hoot....she works real hard at wooing folks in who look at the menu sign and always says "best choice...best choice...." when you select one of the pastries.

I gotta say, I even enjoyed the Royal Caramel as it wasn't overly sweet.

Au Petit Versailles du Marais
1 Rue Tiron
75004 Paris, France

After our snack we headed back to the hotel and took a break.

I had made reservations for dinner with a restaurant I'd had my eye on since reading about it in Alexander Lobrano's blog named Granite. It helped that the restaurant was less than a 10 minute walk from our hotel.

Located on Rue Bailleul, Granite does modern French, and the chef Tom Meyer worked under Anne-Sophie Pic at the 3 Michelin starred Maison Pic.

The place looks quite modern.

The service was quite warm and yet professional and we got the 7 course tasting menu with a single wine pairing which the Missus enjoyed.

Things started out with an oyster course.

The brininess of the oyster was balanced out with a bit of sour tartness from green apple and the celery like flavor of lovage. The menu stated that kimchi was used in this dish but I couldn't detect that. Very clean and refreshing overall.

We both loved the Cepe; porcini mushroom which was wonderfully earthy.

The mushroom was seared perfectly with almost a buttery texture, though the other items on the plate added a bit too much sweetness for us.

Like the mushroom, the scallop was seared perfectly, the interior was perfectly rare and sweet.

Though there was a bitter component in the dish that distracted from our total enjoyment.

The Artic Char was wonderful.

Tender and buttery in texture; the lentils were wonderful and almost nutty, and there was a light sweet earthiness to the dish which elevated the flavors. The sauces really enhanced this dish.

Of all the items presented for this meal, we enjoyed the Pigeon Course the most.

 We were instructed to start with the "naan", basically a buttery cube of flatbread with wonderfully flavored fowl in it. The skewered liver was wonderfully gamy and delicious. 

But the real "winnah" was the seared pigeon breast which was quite tender, wonderfully gamy, the sauce featured chocolate which was more savory than sweet. There was so much complexity in the flavors. This was amazing!

The rose foam was a perfect palate cleanser.

I enjoyed the Pomelo Meringue as it wasn't overly sweet.

The Missus loved the chocolate; which was very decadent, without being overly sweet. The Earl Grey sorbet was wonderful as it added a grounding, almost lemon-orange flavor which went so well with the chocolate.

We enjoyed the service and pacing. And while I don't think we'll be returning; there are just too many options in Paris, this was a pleasant meal.

Granite
6 Rue Bailleul
75001 Paris, France

 

Paris - Chez Alain Miam Miam and Église Saint-Leu-Saint-Gilles de Paris

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.

Paris (2022) - Matamata Coffee Bar, What's Going with Notre Dame, Le Saint-Regis, and Still Our Favorite Croissant from La Maison d’Isabelle

On the morning after our previous evening's "carb-fest", we arose nice and refreshed. I had just planned for one place to visit during the day, so we could just kind of make things up as the day went by. The Missus wanted to try someplace different for this morning's coffee, so we headed over to Rue d'Argout right off of Rue Montmartre to Matamata Coffee Bar.

Man, all these boutique coffee places seemed to have popped up over the last couple of years. Anyway, the Missus ordered a pour over and I got a coffee and a scone to start my day.

The Missus thought the pour over here was a bit weaker than Motors. I enjoyed the scone. Service was quite nice. 

Matamata Coffee Bar
58 Rue d'Argout
75002 Paris, France

It was a bright, sunny day and our destination for the day did not open until 2pm, so we could just do our Flânerie thing.

We stopped while crossing Pont au Change when we saw what looked like the police dive team either doing an exercise or perhaps actually searching for something?

 We decided to swing by Notre Dame to see what was going on in terms of restoration and construction. Like so many, we were horrified to see and read about the fire at Notre Dame back in April of 2019. 

I had read that Notre Dame is scheduled to reopen in 2024 and we were curious to see what work was going on.

Illustrations and photographs of the fire, damage, and restoration are posted on the boards surrounding the church.

And it's really difficult to determine what work is going on from where we stood.

We do hope that Notre Dame returns better than ever.

We walked the length of Île de la Cité and crossed over to Île Saint-Louis via Pont Saint-Louis. We were just here the previous day, but things seemed even more serene on the Wednesday.

Check out this outdoor dining set-up! It's basically taking up a parking stall!

We decided to take a break and grab one of the outside tables at Le Saint-Regis, which  seemed to be a very popular café.

It was a great place to people and pooch watch as it was just steps from Pont Saint-Louis.

We could watch folks as they crossed back and forth, going about their daily business and routines.

The Cafe Allonge was quite good as well.

As was the service. I'm sure we'll be back to relax and people watch, possibly getting a breakfast as well. This café seemed quite popular.

Le Saint-Regis
6 Rue Jean du Bellay
75004 Paris, France

Bolstered by our caffeine fix, we crossed over to the 5th Arrondissement. We were still a bit early for our visit....so we decided to see how busy our favorite boulangerie for croissants was.

Must have been our lucky day, the line wasn't very long and unlike our previous visit, they weren't out of Croissant aux Buerre,

Things moved quickly and we were in and out in a flash.

La Maison d’Isabelle
47T Boulevard Saint-Germain
75005 Paris, France

Well, we decided to find a place to have our croissant. Close to our destination was a little park; Square Samuel-Paty.

This used to be named Square Paul Painlevé, but was renamed for teacher Samuel Paty who was murdered by an Islamic Terrorist in October of 2020.

It's a tiny park, but a nice peaceful green space, full of sculptures. We were surprised to see a copy of the Capitoline Wolf, which we had seen in Rome.

We had a seat on wall in the shade and opened up the croissant....it was every bit as good as we remembered.

'

Light and crisp exterior; fluffy interior, slightly moist, perfect amount of butter and salt for our taste. It's still our favorite here in Paris.

After our last disappointing visit to a old favorite of ours, we were glad that La Maison d’Isabelle still delivered. We smiled as we headed off to our destination for the day.

Thanks for stopping by!

Paris (2022) - Raviolis Chinois Nord-Est, Motors Coffee (again), and Chez Taeko

We arrived in Paris from Edinburgh just before 8pm. We had some decent food in the Air France Lounge in Edinburgh and also on the flight.

We arrived at CDG close to 8pm, then caught the RER to Les Halles. We made good time and since we'd be staying for five nights, I managed to get us a VRBO I'd been wanting to stay at that had a 5 night minimum. Granted, Les Halles may not be the most glamorous of areas, but our flat was on the 6th floor (since this is Europe, it's the 7th floor by US standards), but it had a lift. And while you may not think this view of Les Halles is anything to write home about.

Just raise your eyes a bit.

Yep, that's the Eiffel Tower to the left and Saint Eustache to the right. We would never tire of this view.

The Missus and I weren't quite ready to call it a night, so we headed over to our favorite street in Paris, Rue Montorgueil. Man, it was super busy, even on a Monday night.

Like I mentioned in one of my posts on the first leg of this trip, it was super busy, like Covid never happened. Well, at least this was outdoors.

We made our "rounds" then headed back down St Denis when we decided to grab a "small bite" to eat. The place we chose? Ravioli Chinois Nord-Est. To translate, "ravioli Chinois" = Jiaozi! We had enjoyed out time in Scotland, don't get me wrong, but the Missus was missing Asian food and some late evening Jiaozi sounded like fun.

The place was fairly busy, though there were a couple of empty tables. The customers were mostly Parisians with a few Chinese sprinkled in. I started to appreciate the varied tastes of Parisians on this trip as it seems they were quite open to trying and enjoying various cuisines. The Missus got to use Her Mandarin and we got the house beer....the namesake of Her hometown. Having come from Scotland where the weather was fairly cool, it just seemed so hot in Paris. So this helped pave the way to getting us adjusted.

We started with some Liang Cai - cold dishes, the stir fried potato strings and five spiced beef.

The beef had a nice five spice flavor, but was really dry and tough. The potato strings were fine, nothing special, but the vinegar helped cool us off.

As for the Jiaozi.....

We got the Pork and Cabbage dumplings....they used napa cabbage in this (whew). The wrapper was too brittle and lacked a decent "pull", the fillings though were quite tasty, well seasoned and moist and tender. This is pretty much on scale with the higher level jiaozi in San Diego.

While the food didn't blow us away, this was a fun stop, and the Missus and I had a nice time reminiscing about a trip that seems oh so long ago now. And man, the place seemed to be a popular late evening stop.

Raviolis Chinois Nord Est
115 Rue Saint-Denis
75001 Paris, France

We headed back to the apartment and enjoyed our view for a few minutes before heading off into dreamland.

The next morning we woke and just lounged around for a while. I had a baguette making class scheduled in the afternoon so we decided to do some shopping. 

But first we headed over to Motors Coffee and this time we had a seat outside on the sidewalk.

The Missus thought Her Geisha "drip", what they call a pour over here was decent. I had an Americano which was quite good. We'd end up visiting one more time during our stay.

Motors Coffee
7 Rue des Halles
75001 Paris, France

From here we headed over to the Marais and just did our lèche-vitrine (window shopping) thing. We stopped into a location of Signorini Tartufi, we had first come across this shop in Avignon....yes, never got those posts done because Covid just kinda waylaid my travel posts. Perhaps I'll do a summary one day because we had a fabulous time. Anyway Signorini Tartufi is a favorite for gifts and stuff for ourselves as well.

Signorini Tartufi Paris Bretagne (Locations all over France)
3 Rue de Bretagne
75003 Paris, France

We also "finally" (we'd walked past this shop several times in the past) took some time to check out Comptoirs Richard, a tea & coffee shop on Rue Bretagne.

The Missus spent a good amount of time here and even sampled some of the teas available. She ended up buying several bags as gifts and for Herself.

Comptoirs Richard
45 Rue de Bretagne
75003 Paris, France

She also bought some treats from La Maison du Chocolate as well.

La Maison du Chocolat Bretagne
14 Rue de Bretagne
75003 Paris, France

By now it was time for lunch. There was a place in Marché des Enfants-Rouges that I wanted to check out. Marché des Enfants-Rouges is the oldest food market in Paris, established in 1615! These days, as much as folks are shopping for groceries, the market is known for their food stalls. There was one in particular I was interested in.

This food stall is called Chez Taeko and serves up bentos, combinations, donburi, and the like. If you're eating at one of the counters or tables, you have a seat and they'll take your order. I got the Chicken Karaage and the Missus a Chirashi.  Even though there's some hustle and bustle, this is Paris, so folks aren't talking loudly, so we enjoyed the vibe.

We ate at the counter.

I enjoyed my chicken karaage, the batter was more on the crunchy side, but it was good. The sauce had a nice sweet-soy flavor and the chicken was moist. The tempura broccoli was nice, light and crisp as were the tsukemono. The rice however was terrible, hard and chewy.

That rice situation made the Missus's Chirashi not as enjoyable as my bento.

The salmon was quite good, nice and fresh, the maguro was just passable, not the highest quality; the ebi was fine as well. That rice however....man, a whole bowl of it!

We did enjoy the service, which in spite of all the customers was really efficient and the staff, all Japanese were so pleasant. So, when I walked up to pay our bill, the woman spoke to me in Japanese, I understood some of it. But when I submitted my credit card she switched to English. This was when it hit me....they knew I was American as soon as the chip on my card didn't work by tapping it on the device! I started noticing this at other businesses as well. Interesting, huh?

Chez Taeko
Marché des Enfants-Rouges
37 Rue Charlot
75003 Paris, France

We headed back to the apartment to drop off our packages.

Before we headed back out.

I would be taking a baguette class for the rest of the afternoon and the Missus would be exploring Paris solo. This was going to be interesting.