mmm-yoso!!!

Paris - Boullion Republique

After lunch at Maison de Chengdu, we walked the short block back to the apartment and relaxed. After a short nap, we cleaned up the apartment a bit, we'd be leaving for CDG early the next morning. We then did what had become a tradition over this trip "Le Goûter", tea time and we chatted about what it was like spending 4 weeks in France and the last 2 in Paris.

From our arrival in Paris.....

And finally getting a chance to visit the Cluny.

Then heading off to Montpellier a city of contrasts, with tons of history, yet young and vibrant. I was told that one-fourth of the population are University Students.

Then it was off to the medieval city of Carcassonne.

The massive La Cité looming on top of the hill. Of course, when spending such a long period of time in a country you'll bound to have some hiccups and on the day we were supposed to leave Carcassonne by train there was a rail strike, but having been thru similar events before we looked for and found transport to our next destination by bus.

That destination was Toulouse, the fourth most populous city in France. Much more laid back than Paris, but still with great history and architecture, we really enjoyed the city. 

We actually had the main Christmas Market right out our hotel door! This is one city I'm sure we'll return to.

And then of course it was back to Paris. Staying for two weeks straight meant we could take time to visit places a bit further afield, like the Cimetière des Chiens, the oldest pet cemetery in Europe.

And venture to other places that perhaps weren't so high on our "list" like Jardin des Plantes.

Our location in the Marais allowed us time to visit the National Archives Museum and take advantage of the "free first Sunday" at the Musée National Picasso.

And staying in an apartment near to the metro made it easy to take a day trip to Chantilly.

Or even spending two nights in Strasbourg to enjoy the Christmas Markets.

It was indeed an amazing month!

And here it was; our last meal in Paris. We wanted to keep it simple. During the first leg of the trip in Paris, the Missus really enjoyed the simple, yet tasty food at Le Petit Bouillon Pharamond. So, I went looking for a Boullion and found that Boullion Republique was jusy a 10 minute stroll form the apartment. So, we decided to head on over a bit before the usual Parisian dinner time, getting there at 530. Even at this ungodly early dinner hour in Paris there was a short wait, but soon enough we got a table

The Missus had a glass of the Brut, I had a Kir and in keeping with how we enjoy dining, we went with 3 entres (starters) and some oysters.

The Missus really enjoyed the Ouefs Mayonnaise, basically devilled eggs.

Of course the Missus loved this; wonderfully creamy, the yolk-mayonnaise mixture was so smooth and rich. Of course, the addition of block truffle did not hurt things one bit. There was a touch of acidity to balance out the flavors.

The Terrine de Campagne,  country style pate was nicely made.

Porky, with a touch of offaly tones; there's a nice hint of wine-anise tones as well. And the cornichons to refresh ones palate.

The Missus has become a big fan of Escargot, so we made sure to order some.

These were decently plump, with a good amount of olive oil to saturate your baguette. Could have used more garlic in my opinion, but not bad.

The oysters were excellent.

Not overly briney, quite refreshing, no off flavors. All I needed was a small squeeze of lemon.

Now, for the interesting part, you can actually pay via QR by table. Would you like to see our bill?

Now, translated to dollars that around $37/US! Two drinks, 3 appetizers, 6 Oysters.......what the heck would that cost here in San Diego? Yes, Boullions are kind of considered to be an affordable and straight forward eating establishment serving traditional dishes. And this place sure delivered.

As you can tell by the line waiting for a table when we left. All were speaking French as far as we could tell. At this price, you could eat at an Boullion a couple of times a week.

It was a fitting last meal in Paris.

Bouillon République
39 Bd du Temple
75003 Paris, France

That would keep us....until the next time the "City of Lights" beckons. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Paris - The View from Galeries Lafayette Haussmann and Lunch at Maison de Chengdu (Yet Again)

I really didn't want it to end; but here it was, our last day in Paris. We decided to spend our last morning doing what we've done so many times in the City of Light. I went to the corner Boulangerie, of which there were three and had a croissant at the apartment. And then we headed on over to Rue Montorgueil and had our Cafe Allonge at Café du Centre like we've done so many times.

No, it's not about the coffee really. Even the caffeine snob...the Missus loves this. It's about watching life walk past you and breathing in the city.

It's not unusual for us to spend an hour or more here.

Café du Centre
57 Rue Montorgueil
75002 Paris, France

And of course, once we were done, we headed off....well, with no goal in mind, just to do that Flâneur thing. Which brought us to the Passage des Panoramas.

Where we could do that "other" thing we'd really embraced called lèche-vitrine ("licking windows" i.e. window shopping).

As we exited the passage I had an idea. Since we were close to Galeries Lafayette, why don't we head on over. Now we had already seen the holiday displays earlier during our stay, which were admittedly a bit strange this time around. But there was one other thing I'd always meant to do at Galeries Lafayette and I thought since it was a pretty nice day, this would a good time.

So we headed on over and entered the store.

And headed on up to the rooftop terrace, where you get great views of Montmartre.

And the Eiffel Tower.

We enjoyed the view!

Soon it was time to get some lunch. We decided to stay around the apartment and just go back to Maison de Chengdu. We had enjoyed this simple Sichuan restaurant a block from the apartment so much that we had already eaten there twice.

We were seated upstairs this time.

This time around it was a three-out-of-three. We got our two favorite dishes from our previous visits, the Intestine Dry Pot and Green Beans with pork. Both were just as good as on previous visits.

You can read about those dishes in my previous posts on Maison de Chengdu.

The "new" dish was the Sautéed Mountain Yam, what I call  yamaimo.

Whoa, in spite of the underwhelming look of the dish, this was quite good. The slippery mountain yam had achieved a bit of sweetness when stirfried. Yes, it was slippery, slimy, but quite nice with the earthy-sweet wood ear. It was so simple, yet quite satisfying.

Looking back, I think we were quite lucky to have selected where we stayed. Heck, our favorite simple, straight-forward Sichuan restaurant was a block away. And yes, the dishes we had here were better than the Sichuan in San Diego. Isn't that sad?

Maison De Chengdu (古味成都)
16 Rue Volta
75003 Paris, France

Paris - Dinner at Automne

Our time in Paris was winding down. We had two more evenings left. The Missus had enjoyed dining at a Boullion on the last night of our previous stay, so we thought we'd do that again. So, on the second to the last night, I thought we'd go with a fancier meal. I mentioned having made reservations at the Michelin Star Automne in an earlier post and then having it cancelled. On the bright side, we ended up having dinner at Les Enfants Rouge that evening, which has become a favorite of ours. I did still want to dine at Automne and on this visit I made a reservation for this evening. The restaurant is in the 11th Arrondissement, about a kilometer and a half from our apartment. We had a nice stroll on over. Like many of our preferred fine dining restaurants in Paris, the restaurant was helmed by a Japanese Chef.

We we greeted upon arrival and escorted to a nice quiet corner table. For dinner we selected the 7 course tasting menu and shared a wine tasting.

The pacing was relaxed, very low keyed. Of course things started with the amuse bouche.

Which I recall being delicious, but I got seriously distracted.

By what, you might say. Well, we had one of those wonderful "Paris moments". You know us and pooches. We saw the cutest furry pooch walking down the street. He looked like he was smiling and there was something about he and his owner that caught my eye. I brought out my camera to take a photo and wouldn't you know it. The woman saw me pointing the camera their way. Now, if you would believe those Paris stereotypes, you'd think that we'd be in store for some rudeness. But, like what has happened to us many times before, we had a moment. The woman smiled and waved and brought the pooch over to take their photo.

It was such a sweet moment! When I went and downloaded the photos I realized what had caught my attention. You know that folks say people start looking like their dogs....... What do you think? It's one of those unforgettable moments. The Missus and I talk about this encounter more often than we chat about the Louvre!

Anyway, on with the meal.

First up was a terrine with Smoked Eel and Foie Gras.

I wasn't sure about this dish at first glance; but it was quite good, the rich foie gras paired nicely with the smoked-savory-eel. The balsamic glaze and beets added sweetness to really help balance things out. The radish was slightly pungent which helped to reset the palate between bites.

The Scallops with Osetra Caviar was quite decadent.

I thought the scallops could be seared a bit more, but it was perfect rare, sweet-oceany, the caviar adding an interesting layer of flavor that was almost like intense walnut? The shavings of hazelnut added another layer of earthy-nuttiness to the dish.

The next dish featured, black truffle, wild game bisque, and a salsifis timbale.

The bisque was a bit too much and overpowered the dish. But of course, we could minimize the exposure and enjoy the truffle and salsifis. This also had really earthy and savory pied blue mushrooms.

The line caught sea bass was cooked to perfection.

Crispy skin, moist and flaky, the sauces, broccoli, rapini, and one that seemed like a mild foam with hints of lime all added a different dimension to the dish.

The Roasted Venison was cooked to a perfect doneness for me.

Nice mild gaminess, the one item that was amazing in this dish were the mushrooms. I was told it's called Trompette de la Mort "trumpets of death"! Also known as black chanterelles. My goodness, the sweet-nutty-earthiness was amazing.

The Poached Pear with Cocoa Tuile was not overly sweet.

And all in all, this was a fine meal.

One of many that we've had in Paris over the years!

Automne
11 Rue Richard Lenoir
75011 Paris, France

Paris - Bercy Village, Kodawari Ramen Tsukiji Revisited, and Takumi Patisserie

It was a winter Sunday morning in Paris and after my morning croissants we had to decide what to do for the day. We had already spent nearly two weeks in Paris and the Missus was getting fidgety and really needed different stuff to do each day. So, I thought that Paris might be pretty crowded on this day, so why not head out to Bercy Village, formerly wine storehouses the area was converted into  a "shopping village" in 2001. It was just a 15 minute metro ride from Chatelet to Cour Saint-Émilion. Plus, we'd never really visited the 12th Arrondissement.

It was an easy walk to the Village.

It was a nice paved, pedestrian street. Surprisingly quiet for a Saturday morning. 

We'd arrived just before most of the shops opened, at about 945. And just strolled up and down the courtyard. The Missus explored some shops, but didn't find anything of interest. There were quite a few chains represented; Sephora, Five Guys, Nicholas, etc. I'm thinking this must be nice for locals, but it was not very interesting for us. Except for a few things.

There is a really nice park right across the street from the mall and we really enjoyed our walk there.

Then we decided to head on back. While on the metro, the Missus decided that She wanted the ramen from Kodawari Tsukiji again. The Pyramides stop was just one further from Chatelet.

The shop still had open seats in this most interesting seafood market themed ramen shop....

Not being too hungry, we got the Sea Bream Tatare.

Loved the shiso in this dish as it added a nice palate cleansing mintiness to the dish. The fish was tender; the rice a bit mushy, but the beany-sweet miso and shiso tones carried the dish.

Like on our previous visit; we got the Sea Bream Paitan Ramen.

And any doubts about the Missus having truly enjoying this on our previous visit was erased as She loved it just as before. Maybe She is ready to have niboshi ramen again on our next visit to Japan! The broth as a bit richer this time around, the noodles slippery with a nice chew. As you can see, that tamago was perfect and still warm....you know my pet peeve regarding cold eggs. The sea bream was tender and we finished the entire bowl...again.

Looks like the Missus has Her favorite ramen spot in Paris now!

Kodawari Ramen Tsukiji
12 Rue de Richelieu
75001 Paris, France

The Missus wanted something for Her "tea time" and I thought that perhaps getting some Japanese Cheesecake might fit the bill. It would also be interesting to see how that measured up in Paris. And since we were in the area of the city dubbed "Little Tokyo", I thought it might be fun. I had a place named Takumi Patisserie on my list which was close by on Rue des Pyramides, so we headed on over.

There's quite a selection here. The young man working was really friendly as well.

The Missus inquired about the cheesecakes and then decided upon Her "test". She asked about how "jiggly" the cheesecake was. Apparently, the young man was ready for this as he brought out a cheesecake and proceeded to show us how it jiggled like a true Japanese cheesecake. The Missus was sold. So we bought one. And when it became  le goûter (tea time) the cheesecake was presented.

So, this was bit sweeter and more dense than what is preferred for Japanese Cheesecake. It wasn't bad. And.......when I tried to wiggle it around; it didn't do the "jiggle". Hmmmm. To this day, the Missus and I joke about seeing that jiggling demonstration at the shop. We think they have a "stunt cheesecake" on hand to show folks!

Takumi Patisserie
29 Rue des Pyramides
75001 Paris, France

Strasbourg - Scenes from the Christmas Markets

**** Not much food in this post. Quite a few photos from the always colorful Christmas Markets in Strasbourg though.

I did an earlier post on our visit to Strasbourg and walking around Petit France. We actually spent a good deal of time enjoying the Christmas Markets during our two evening and one day stay. I thought I'd just do a single post as more of a photolog.

We had really enjoyed our visit to Strasbourg way back in the winter of 2017. We especially loved the Christmas Markets, lively, with everyone in a joyful frame of mind, we found it to be a relaxing change of pace from Paris. And at night, the place looked so beautiful and enchanting. We found it no less so on this trip.

From the wonderfully decorated streets to what seems an endless supply of Christmas ornaments, the 13 Christmas Markets in Grande Île just bring out the kid in me.

And at night, the Grande Île comes alive.

Our first evening was spent enjoying the markets, especially the window displays. And of course we had to get the Missus Her Choucroute.

Sadly, all the photos of the food....I believe it was the lighting around the eating area, caused my photos to turn out looking like this!

As I detailed earlier, we spent the next morning checking out Petit France. Of course we passed thru several Christmas Markets along the way. Each market seemed to have a theme and several had folks "in character" to make things even more fun.

We stopped by a booth at Place du Temple Neuf and got some Truffle Risotto.

Then headed two blocks away to bustling Place Broglie.

And went back to the same stand as the night before.

Where the Missus got Spaetzles à la Choucroute et Aux Lardons, which She thoroughly enjoyed.

I got a Tarte Flambée from a nearby stand.

And as always, we enjoyed people watching.

We then headed back to hotel to rest up.

When evening arose, we headed back out.

Again enjoying the colors and booths.

We made our way via a now familiar route.

To colorful Place Kléber which is considered by many to be Strasbourg's central square. The Christmas tree in the square always garners your attention.

At this point, we had to decide on what to get for dinner. After two meals of choucroute, the Missus decided that some Asian food might be really good on this chilly evening, which is when we headed to Lamian.

Like on our previous visits; I've always loved the Christmas Markets in Strasbourg. Though there's much more to see. You can click on these links if you'd like to see and read about Strasbourg Cathedral and Petit France.

I'm sure we'll return if we are in France from the last week of November onward.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Holidays!

Paris - Aux Crus de Bourgogne Revisited

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.

Paris - L’Éclair de Génie and Fondue 9

Man, the first ten days of our two week stay in Paris just seemed to fly by. At least for me. On this bright, but chilly Saturday morning, we decided just to do the flâneur thing as we headed down Rue Vieille du Temple. We found a couple of shops that caught our attention.

And had fun browsing.......

Man, I want to find an English edition of this book.....

Right across the street was a lovely park and garden.

This is the Jardin de l'Hôtel Salé.

Further down the street is a large community center; the Halle des Blancs Manteaux. Since it was Christmas season, there was a large craft fair going on.

We had a fun time exploring.

We made our way down to Rue Rivoli and saw this Eclair shop on Rue Pavée.

The Missus had been wanting to try some elcairs so we headed on in.

There was quite a collection of beautiful looking eclairs.

After some hemming and hawing, the Missus made Her selection.

And we headed on back to the apartment.

L’Éclair de Génie
14 Rue Pavée
75004 Paris, France

After storing our purchases, we gave some thought to lunch. For some reason, we felt pretty cold on this day. I mentioned a hot pot place we'd seen on Rue Saint-Denis a few days before. Hot pot sounded like just what we needed, so we headed off to Fondue 9.

The restaurant seemed a bit tiny, until we realized that there was dining upstairs as well. Can you imagine carrying hot pot up and down stairs....one false move! We also noticed that the customers during our visit were all Chinese, a bit of change since we'd seen pretty much a 50-50 mix during our visits to various Asian restaurants in the city.

After checking out the menu; we decided on the "lunch special".

After which we headed straight on over to the condiment bar to get our "stuffs".

Not much in terms of spicy sauces and no fermented bean curd. And we started to worry that the hot pot was going to be a bust.

But as our Yin Yang hot pot made it's way to the table we knew this was going to be ok. You could smell the herbs and spice.

Lots of white pepper.

All the usual suspects arrived.

Even frozen tofu! The noodles were quite stretchy.

The tripe was a bit too tough; though the seiche; the cuttlefish was surprisingly tender.

What was most surprising of all was the fish, which had been nicely velveted and rubbed with chili oil.

It was wonderfully buttery and tender after a brief swim in the broth.

The meat were of good quality; especially the lamb, which was so gamey and tender.

This was quite a satisfying meal for us. We had found a solution to the cold; at least for a while.

Fondue 9
168 Rue Saint-Denis
75002 Paris, France

We headed on back to the apartment and took a short nap.

When we woke; it was "tea time" for the Missus. Time to break out the eclairs.

These were a bit too sweet for me.

The Missus, it turns out, is not a fan of crème pâtissière, the custard fillings used for eclairs.

But of course, we had to eventually try elcairs....because, when in France, right?

A Day Trip to Chantilly and Dinner at TenZen (Paris - Since Closed)

I knew that when spending two weeks in Paris, I'd need to break things up and plan some side trips, we'd already spent two evenings in Strasbourg exploring the Christmas Markets and for an encore, I thought that since we'd already done Versailles and Chartres, a nice day trip to Château de Chantilly might be fun. I'm not sure I mentioned, but Annabel Simms wonderful book, An Hour From Paris is a wonderful resource. We caught the TER, Regional Express Trains from Gare du Nord, and arrived at Chantilly Gouvieux in 25 minutes!

The Château is a couple of kilometers form the train station. Instead of following the standard signs along the road, we took the path described in the book to get to the Château, and then walked thru the village on the way back. 

We loved the forested path.

It was lush and green, birds were singing, even though it was winter. The trail is clearly marked and cleared.

We even had our own "escort" for part of the walk.

You'll past the racetrack before arriving back at the main street and the Musée du Cheval. 

These days, unless we're on a tour, we try not to pack too many things into our explorations. We were just going to visit the Château. On Rue du Connétable, you take the road as it curves right, becoming Route Pavée and you'll soon come to this wonderful sight.

That's Château de Chantilly. You saunter thru the gates.

Up to the ticket booth. I'd bought my tickets in advance and then the Château is yours.....to visit of course....

It's quite impressive. There are actually two château here, the Petit Château, and the Grand Château, which is where the entrance is.

We loved the statues of the dogs that "guard" the entrance to the château. The one above are named Lumineau and Seduisant and were actual pooches belonging to Henri d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale, who commissioned Augustus Cain to create these.

The Grand Château was actually destroyed during the French Revolution and rebuilt in the 1870's. The original structure was built in the 1500's by the Montmorency family, but eventually taken over by the Orléans family. Henri d’Orléans had the château rebuilt and that is mainly what we see today.

The Chapel of the Condé Hearts, Suites, Dining Hall and the huge Reading Room are something to see.

But beyond all of that there was one area we really wanted to see.

The Musée Condé.

Consisting of over 2500 drawings it is the second largest art collection in France next to the Louvre. You'll notice some interesting arrangement of paintings. This is because the Duke d'Aumale, who bequeathed this to France, had some conditions, one being that the collection be shown in it's original location; the works cannot be moved, nor can any of the works be loaned out. So, if you want to see these works by Raphael you'll have to come here.

For some reason, we enjoyed our visit here much more than Versailles.

Perhaps it was the lack of crowds or the atmosphere......we kind of enjoyed the peacefulness. 

Yes, it's not a palace, but it is quite stunning in its own way.

After our visit, we headed back to the train station via the village of Chantilly. It was getting close to our designated train time, so we quickly grabbed a sandwich and caught our train back to Paris.

After the full morning, we rested up, before heading to dinner. I had read about a small tempura restaurant located under the quite popular Zen Restaurant in the 1st Arrondissment. This little 12 seat underground restaurant was named TenZen and featured a multi-course meal featuring...well tempura of course. Staying in Paris for the length of time of our visit, meant we could really "eat like we would at home", which meant...well, Chinese and Japanese cuisine. Sadly, TenZen closed mid-2023, but I thought you might enjoy the photos.

Zen restaurant is a bustling shop in the area of Paris we call "Little Tokyo". You enter the restaurant, show the hostess the reservation and were guided downstairs.

This was the realm of chef Jiro Kondo. He does all the cooking.

For the three hours, we really felt like we were back in Japan.

From the excellent Otsumami.

To the decent quality sashimi.

This was all fine. But then, came the reason we visited.

My goodness, the tempura was just perfect, the batter light and airy, yet really enhancing each item.

My goodness, the Madagascar Shrimp was so amazingly sweet-oceany, such great flavors and textures.

The shrimp from Normandy was no slouch either.

Several of the items included Black Volcanic Salt from Iceland which really added a slight smoky component to things.

And the tempura finished off with a perfectly cooked scallop.

And things were finished off with a Kakiage Don and some miso soup.

Oh, and of course dessert.

After our meal, we were escorted out by the staff, just like Japan!

We were really sad to hear that TenZen closed as it was a place we wanted to return to on our last trip back to Paris.

TenZen - (since closed)
8 Rue de l'Échelle
75001 Paris, France

I hope you don't mind me doing this post as I want to remember and recall this wonderful meal.

Thanks so stopping by!

Paris - Petit Palais and Dinner at Onii-San

Our train from Strasbourg was on time and we got into Paris-Est right around 1230. From there it was a snap getting back to our apartment.

After two nights at various Christmas Markets and watching me enjoy myself whether it was doing the flanuer thing, spending the morning on Rue Montorgueil, or just deciding where I was getting my morning croissant from, the Missus was ready to get into "shopping mode".

And so we unpacked, put in a load of laundry, and headed on out.

Passing thru some very familiar places.

And places we had just recently gotten to know.

Past Place Venodome.

All dressed up for the season.

Down Rue Saint-Honore.

The Missus knew the way by heart.

As before, we were treated like royalty at our destination with a personal shopper, some light refreshment......

And as several times before, we left, the Missus happy, our credit card not so much....but such is life.

Chanel
31 Rue Cambon
75001 Paris, France

We then headed out, with no objective in sight, just enjoying the day and came across the Petit Palais.

Life many of the places we visited on this trip, we had passed by the Petit Palais many times and finally decided to visit. Free admission made things a lot more attractive as well. The Petit Palais is an art museum, housed in a beautiful building that was built for the 1900 Paris Exposition.

It houses many several well known works and also temporary exhibitions (of which there is admission).

We were here on a whim, so had no agenda in mind. We'd just be wandering and enjoying things.

There's a grand portrait of Sarah Bernhardt.

It is by Georges Clairin and is said to be a favorite of the Actress who kept it all her life. It was donated by her son after her death.

Being that we're in the Les Halles area a good amount of time during our stays, we enjoyed this work.

Which captures the busy, chaotic place that "the Belly of Paris" was during the 19th century.

We also noticed folks actually painting as well.

It seems like this is an art group or class enjoying Petit Palais.

We got some tea and coffee and settled in the Terrasse and just enjoyed the place.

Petit Palais
Av. Winston Churchill
75008 Paris, France

We then started to head on back to the apartment; doing our share of lèche-vitrine - window shopping (literally translated as "window licking" in French) along the way. Though not everyone wanted us "licking their windows" it seems!

The Missus wanted something for le goûter (tea time) and we decided to stop at Fou de Pâtisserie on Rue Montorgueil again.

She chose the La Tarte Citron.

It was a "tart" tarte indeed, not overly sweet and the Missus enjoyed it.

Fou de Pâtisserie
45 Rue Montorgueil
75002 Paris, France

When it as time for dinner, well, a few days previous, we passed what looked sort of like a modern Japanese restaurant. The tiny place was packed and I cracked up at the name "Onii-San" which means "older brother" in Japanese. So, we walked on in and made reservations for dinner.

We were welcomed and seated. Looking at the menu; it became apparent that this was a pseudo-Izakaya, featuring some interesting dishes. The staff; except for one person we saw in the kitchen was French, so this was going to be an interesting meal. I need to apologize for the photos as the lighting in the place was quite flakey.

We placed our order and soon enough, the dishes started arriving.

First off, the Tempuras de Legumes - Vegetable Tempura (14€/$15.25US).

The batter was a bit too thick and heavy for tempura, the dashi was actually pretty good, nice savory tones. The vegetables were too hard.

The Shiitakes (15€/$16.35US) was interesting.

There were only four halves of mushrooms in this...like 2 Shiitakes! The wakame cream was kinda weird in flavor, mildly savory-oceany, but also milky. There was a interesting bitterness to the dish. We later found out that there sansho pepper in this. The ikura were actually trout caviar and were quite good; salty, with a sweet finish.

The Aubergine (Eggplant - 15€/$16.35US) was another con-"fusion" dish.

The eggplant was on the undercooked side for our taste. We liked the blanched watercress as it had a pleasant bitterness that went well with the sweet-soy-wasabi flavors in the sauce. Not sure about the cheese though as it just didn't seem to belong here.

Things took a nice turn for the better with the Tuna Tartare (26€/$28.40US).

The tuna was chopped nicely; it almost melted in your mouth; the shiso really enhanced the dish as did the trout caviar The ponzu sauce added that savory-sour-tangy component and the wasabi cream added a nice richness. We weren't sure about the brioche, but this seemed more like Japanese milk bread and was quite good.

Speaking of Milk Bread, I saw Toro Sando (26€/$28.40US) on the menu and just had to order it. It was our favorite dish of te evening.

Initially, I took a look at the fish and it sure didn't look like toro; but it was surprisingly tender. The breading, while not the best, still had a bit of crunch. The bread was fairly fluffy, buttery, with a mild sweetness. The wasabi mayo was a perfect match and the ponzu shallot worked so well with seafood. This was a surprisingly good sando!

  On an interesting note; while searching for addresses I found that Onii-San opened a Sando shop named Ototo last years as well! Makes perfect sense.

While this wasn't a perfect meal, it was an interesting fusion, sometimes "Con"- fusion. While we've been used to French cuisine with Japanese touches; this place went in the opposite direction, with interesting results. Such is the ever changing state of food in Paris!

Onii-San
82 Rue des Archives
75003 Paris, France

Our accommodation was just 2 long blocks away. We passed the "very blue" Mairie de Paris Centre, the "Mayor's Office" along the way.

We had a day trip set for the next day, so it was off to bed early for us.

Thanks for stopping by!

Strasbourg - Exploring, Lamian Restaurant, and L'Atelier 116

One of the great things about being in Europe during the last of November until the end of the year are the Christmas Markets. We had really enjoyed the Christmas Markets in Strasbourg when we visited several years earlier. And the Missus just couldn't keep still for the two weeks we were in Paris, so I decided to book two nights in Strasbourg. It's less than a two hour train ride from Gare de l'Est. Because this was a rather last minute decision, I wasn't able to book anything on Grande Île. Instead, we stayed at the Hotel Tandem, which was quite comfortable right next to the train station.

It's quite convenient and just a short walk (or you take the tram) to the Grande Île. That first evening, we just wandered the Christmas Markets, which brought back wonderful memories and ate at the market. I'll do an out-of-sequence post on that when we get closer to Christmas.

The next morning, we had a light breakfast and coffee at the hotel and decided to do a bit of exploring. During our previous visit, we hadn't spent much time in the area known as "Petit France", a neighborhood which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, with lovely cobblestone streets and half timbered houses. You might be thinking "wait, but this is France, right?" Well, Alsace is right on the border of France and Germany and thus, has changed hands many times. The area named Petit France is not named after it's nationality, but as I mentioned in an earlier post:

"the name "Petit France" is not named for its architecture, but because of a 16th century hospital that treated "zum Franzosel" (the French disease), aka syphilis while still a free city in the Holy Roman Empire. Apparently, the citizens of Strasbourg believed the disease was the fault of the French. Basically, the idea was to isolate those with the disease in a structure in this district."

There was one structure we saw on our earlier trip that we didn't visit. On the River Ill stands the Barrage Vauban a dam and bridge.

That passageway on the bridge is the Passage Georges Frankhauser. There's a terrace and crossing above the passage with what looked like a nice view so we decided to cross into Petit France that way.

What I hadn't read was about the passage itself.

Lining the passageway were gates that almost looked like jail cells. And within the "cells" were various sculptures and castings.

And the view from the roof was quite nice.

From here we crossed the Ponts Couverts.

And we were in Petit France.....

Love the charming houses and streets......

And the canals.....

If we hadn't already done it on our previous visit, we would have taken the canal tour.

We wandered thru more Christmas Markets.

Before ending up at Place Gutenberg and familiar territory.....

We grabbed a light lunch at one of the Christmas Markets and headed on back to the room. We took the ever popular Grand'Rue back to the Canal du Faux-Rempart to get back to the hotel.

Along the way, we passed a Boulangerie I had on my "list". The Missus wanted to get something to have with Her afternoon tea, so we stopped in.

Man, the place was super busy, but the line moved quickly and the Missus got Her treats.

She enjoyed these and we decided to head on back for some croissant and coffee before catching our train the next morning.

L'Atelier 116
116 Grand'Rue
67000 Strasbourg, France

We relaxed then once the sun set, headed on out to check out the markets and lights.....

Soon enough, it was time for dinner. The Missus had already had Her fill of Alsatian Christmas Market cuisine and because our trip was made at the last minute, I wasn't able to make reservations at any of the places I as interested in.

So, we decided on......well, Chinese of course! There was a noodle soup shop I had on my "list" and while the Missus was highly suspicious of my choice She went along. The shop was also along Rue du Fossé-des-Tanneurs, on the way back from Place Kléber. The name; Lamian.

The place was pretty busy when we arrived, but there was no wait for a table. There was one of the chefs working the "lamian" action for all to see.

So yes, they made their own hand pulled noodles here. Of course, we had to order that.

We started with a nice cold beer and some Cacahuetes au Vinaigre Pimente (3,5€/$3.75US), basically boiled peanuts with vinegar and chilies.

As for our noodle soup, we got the Soupe de Nouilles au Boeuf Braise - Legerement Pimente (14,9€/$16.35US), basically Beef Noodle Soup, slightly spicy.

  No, this wasn't cheap, but the meat, while being a tad more chewy than I prefer was quite beefy, the broth had a nice beefiness, was decently rich, with good five-spice tones, not overly salty, with a mild spice to it.

The noodles, were slippery and stretchy and quite good as well.

The boiled egg was overcooked, the yolk hard and dry.

We got the Canard Laque (5,5€/$6 US) - literally translated to "Peking Duck". This was not quite Beijing Kaoya, but the skin was fairly crisp, the flesh on the dry side, but the flavoring wasn't too bad.

And for the equivalent of six bucks US, this was perfectly fine. The version of "duck sauce" was terrible though.

We also ordered some Jiaozi, the Raviolis au Bouef et Celeri (5,5€/$6 US).

 The dumplings were quite large; the wrappers too brittle and chewy. The filling for the jiaozi were very beefy, with nice celeri tones, seasoned quite well, but quite tough. We were surprised that the black vinegar-soy dipping sauce was not half bad. This was our least favorite dish of the meal.

Half the fun was watching all the customers; about one-fourth were Asian, the rest were not. We got a kick watching the woman on the table next to us eat Her noodle dish. She used a fork to twirl the noodles, like you'd do with Italian pasta. She was really enjoying her meal and seemed to relish her Tsingtao! She ordered a second one, but wasn't able to finish. And at the end, she went and made sure to take some photos of the noodle maker.

Adorable! We had fun watching French folks eating Asian food on this trip; whether it was Jiaozi, Ramen, A Sando, Sichuan, hot pot, or yes, Niu Rou Mian, they seemed up for it!

There was quite a line when we left.

After all, what better on a chilly winter evening but some noodle soup, right? Even in Strasbourg.

Lamian Restaurant
20 Rue du Fossé-des-Tanneurs
67000 Strasbourg, France

We headed back to the hotel and had a nice night of sleep. The next day, we awoke our train back to Paris wasn't scheduled to leave until 1044, so we headed back to L'Atelier 116 to get some espresso and a croissant Au Buerre.

The croissant was nothing to write home about; the exterior was decently flaky, but it needed more butter and was too doughy. 

As we were enjoying ourselves, an interesting thing happened, the Missus heard someone call Her name! Oh my, it was one of Her coworkers! She was visiting Strasbourg with her parents to check out the Christmas Markets. The woman's parents were so much fun; they had just come from....well, Paris of course! And loved France. We had such a great time talking to them that we had to force ourselves to leave in time to check out and catch our train. Such a fun coincidence; running into the Missus's coworker and her parents, at a random Boulangerie....in Strasbourg! 

Life is amazing, huh?

Thanks for stopping by!