mmm-yoso!!!

Carcassonne - FloridaBlanca, Aux Croissants des Lices, and Here We Go Again

After spending the morning in La Cité and having lunch at Adelaide we realized that we still had an entire afternoon (and evening) left. So, what to do now? We decided to head into Ville Basse and take a look around. So we headed down the hill and crossed the Aude at the lovely Pont Vieux.

The view of La Cité from here is quite nice.

And we ended up walking down what I believe is one of the main streets in Ville Basse, Boulevard Barbes. Which is named after Armand Barbès, whose statue is found along the street.

What caught our attention was a bit past the monument.

It was a Christmas Fair going on.

We wandered about for a bit, then decided to walk on over to the train station to see how far it was. In the end, we decided to make the 30 minute walk to the train station the next morning.

We were also looking for possible places to have dinner, but of course we were too early for the typical French dinner time and decided to head on back to the apartment. On the way back, we crossed the larger, more modern Pont Neuf. And the view of La Cité was amazing.

Once crossing over we headed to Rue Trivalle to see if we could find somewhere to have a meal....if not, we would just head back to Le Passage. Well, there was another place open, named FloridaBlanca.

By now, there was a steady drizzle going on, so we went on in. The place was buzzing....and guess what? It was another tapas restaurant!

   We managed to get a high-top for two. And along with the standard menu, the menu del-dia was presented. There was a nice, easy going, yet joyous vibe here. Folks were having fun. There was a group of folks, it seemed like employees from a company having a "very" happy hour. They asked me to take a photo of them. Of course, being American, I told them to say "cheese"....perhaps I should have had them say "fromage"?

And so we placed our order and soon enough our stuffs arrived.

This was nicely prepared simple dishes made in that tiny kitchen, prep was the key. The Aubergene Frite, was nicely fried slices of eggplant, nicely done, crisp with a creamy interior. The padrons were simply charred, just like you'd have in Spain.

And you'd play you're game of "pepper roulette" as well.

I saw the Jambon D'Agneau and just had to try it. The Server made sure to tell me; "it is lamb" twice! I just wanted to try this.

My goodness, this was so delici-yoso! Think of all the high points of lamb, good fat, mild sweet-gaminess, that "flavor of the pasture". Man, this was so good, I ordered another plate!

The Champignons Farcis, stuffed mushrooms were fine, but nothing special.

I just wanted more lamb. Look at the little leg compared to a jambon!

We got some Patatas Bravas, but it was served with the sauce on the side and wasn't as good as the frites we had the previous night.

And the Missus even got some dessert.

During our meal, the Missus and I wondered why there isn't something like this in our 'hood. It ain't hard, there are places that "claim" to do tapas, but we're not impressed. Perhaps folks here aren't really interested in these type of simple dishes? And then, we also wondered; what's up with Carcassonne and these tapas places? I know that Carcassonne is one of the stops along the route to Spain, could this be the reason?

Anyway, we had a fun time and enjoyed this meal.

FloridaBlanca
22 Rue Trivalle
11000 Carcassonne, France

As we were finishing our meal, I went and checked our train timetable using the SNCF app and found that all trains out of Carcassonne were canceled. Sigh...so here go again! So once we got back to the flat, I found out that there was a train derailment and all trains had been cancelled. And even though it said it would be for a day or two....heck, this is France..... So, I went and reviewed options and eventually booked us a bus from Carcassonne to our next stop; Toulouse.

The next morning, we cleaned up a bit and headed on out. We'd be walking to the train station where we'd (hopefully) be catching our bus to Toulouse.

We happened to come across this Boulangerie and decided to pick up some sandwiches for the trip and a croissant.

Really nice folks working here! So friendly, patient, and helpful.

Aux Croissants des Lices
4 Rue Georges Clemenceau
11000 Carcassonne, France

Getting to the train station we could see the tracks were taped off. I could also see our bus on the schedule board and confirmed with the very helpful station staff.

It was now time to have my croissant.

Decently flakey, it was a bit too doughy for my taste. I also thought it needed more butter, but it suited me fine.

We watched as a news crew arrived to interview the delayed and stranded.

Soon enough a bus arrived at the front of the station. And we started queuing up. The news team actually came over to me for an interview, but I told them I don't speak French. To bad, it might have been funny having my face on the newscast, huh? Maybe I need to work harder and learn more French?

We stowed our luggage and boarded the bus and were on our way to Toulouse. And while we would take twice as long to get there; the Missus and I were just happy to be on our way!

We had enjoyed Carassonne. Two nights and one full day was the perfect amount of time for us.

Next stop, Toulouse! 

Carcassonne - More of La Cité and Lunch at Adelaide

After a wonderful night's sleep at the flat we were staying at, we were ready to do more exploring of La Cité. The previous day had been quite interesting with the medieval city almost empty. While it made exploring easy, it gave the place an almost eerie atmosphere.

There had been sporadic drizzles from the night before so we took our umbrellas with us. Instead of taking the same route up to Porte de l'Aude like the day before, we swung around the city. Passing Rue Trivalle where we had dinner the night before.

We took a walk down the street and did notice that many of the restaurants on the street were closed for the week.

We skirted past the hotels on Rue Gustave Nadaud and made our way to what is considered the main entrance to La Cité, Porte Narbonnaise.

The gate with two huge towers and drawbridge is quite impressive.

    As you walk to the gate you can't help but notice the bust to the right. Who is this you might ask? It is the bust of Lady Carcas, the namesake of the city. So, why is the city named after her? Well, according to legend, and yes it seems that this is a legend, while under the rule of the Saracens, the Franks under Charlemagne surrounded the city hoping to retake the city that was once theirs. At the point where the siege had gone on for over five years the citizens of the city were running low on food and water. Lady Carcas, the widow of the former chief requested an inventory. She was told that there was some grain left and a single pig. She ordered that the pig be launched at the Franks. Charlemagne seeing this pig launched toward his army believed that the city had enough surplus supplies that it could waste food, lifted the seige! As the Franks retreated Lady Carcas ordered the bells of the city to be rung, which led people to exclaim "Carcas sonne" - "Carcas Rings"! You gotta love it.

 One thing that is easily noticed as you cross the drawbridge into the city are all the formidable battlements and defenses. There's a huge metal gate to crush you, notice the curve as you cross into the city, that serves a defensive purpose as well; to slow you down as you attacked the city.

The place was very quiet, just as the day before. The intermittent drizzle set the mood as we walked along the cobblestones, winding streets, passing medieval structures. Even the TI was closed!

Though unlike the previous day, some of the shops were open or opening.

And the Basilica of Saints Nazarius and Celsus was open as well, so we decided to take a look.

We spent a good amount of time walking the avenues of La Cité and before we knew it, the clock stuck noon. We were lucky enough to notice that one of the places I had on my "list", Adelaide was open! So, we headed on in.

The place had just swung open its doors for the day, so we were the first customers.

The folks were very mellow and friendly, of course there was one key item on the menu that the Missus was raring to try. 

We started with some salads, not "just greens" mind you. The Missus got the Foie Gras mi Cuit de Maison (22€).

We loved the greens here, crisp, fresh, tossed with a nicely balanced vinaigrette. Of course, you're wondering how the foie gras was, right? Well it was quite good, somewhat rustic, light funky-offal tones, that caramelized onion jam was the perfect foil for it.

I got the Salad Adelaide (17€)

  Which included the same salad, some fois gras, but much more. There was a nice cured duck breast and more importantly, what you see at the bottom of the plate in the photo above, Gesiers de Canard, duck gizzards. I had really enjoyed the version we'd had in Sarlat la Caneda years ago and couldn't wait to try this. We could not believe how tender these were, they basically melted in your mouth. Loved the flavor we call "funky-ducky", it was so good!

And the Missus and I split a main, the house specialty and one of the reasons we traveled to this area; the Cassoulet (15€).

 Man, this was not to our liking. It was super salty, the duck confit dry, the sausage tough and bland, and worst of all the beans were hard and undercooked. I did appreciate the piece of pork rind at the bottom of the pan. But overall, this was not very good.

Man, after those salads our hopes were high, but the cassoulet had us crashing to the earth. There were two other couples in restaurant as we left and we noticed they were having cassoulet as well. I'm wondering how they fared. Well, at least the price at 15 Euros for the cassoulet was not bad.

Adélaïde
5 Rue Adélaïde de Toulouse
11000 Carcassonne, France

As we made our way back to the Porte Narbonnaise, we ran into a few people.

We had enjoyed our time in La Cité, but it was still mid-afternoon and I could tell the Missus wanted to do more.

So now what to do?

Stay tuned!

Carcassonne - Exploring La Cité and Dinner at Le Passage

It was a nice hour and fifteen minute train ride from Montpellier to Carcassonne.

And we arrived on schedule to Carcassonne Station. The station is located in the "Lower City"; Ville Basse and based on Google Maps would be about a 30 minute walk to our AirBnb which was just outside the medievel La Cité. Instead of fussing around in an unfamiliar location, we decided to get a taxi to the flat. The apartment was wonderful, bright, modern, clean, with fast Wifi, something we don't take for granted here. And I had timed our arrival to the self check-in time. We got in, freshened up, put in a load of laundry and decided to do some exploration. I also wanted to make some restaurant reservations for places that I wasn't able to online, so we'd hit up those places on the way back.

The flat was located just down the hill from Porte de l'Aude right next to Eglise Saint-Gimer. So, of course we headed right up to La Cité.

La Cité does make quite a statement when you first see it.....

And looks quite imposing as you walk up Cote De La Cite.

We had purposely chosen to visit Carcassonne during this time of the year to avoid the crowds and well, we sure did! As we saw nary another person on this afternoon!

It is said that Carcassonne has been occupied since the 5th Century BC; first by the Iberians, then by the Gallo-Romans, who started work on the walls of the city, which were completed in 333AD. There are two sets of walls in La Cité, the inner rampart was completed in 485AD. It is said that there were 40 towers and up to 40 entrances to the city.

Look at that moat....no, it wasn't filled with water and carnivorous creatures, but was basically a ditch, and from what I read it was dug even deeper than what is in place today. Can you imagine crossing that bare space? See all the slits and windows? You'd be pretty much an easy target!

To get ourselves acquainted with La Cité, we took a walk across the city, on the silent streets.

And found one of the places on my dining "list"; Comte Roger, which was closed during the week of our stay! Sigh.....

We exited at the opposite end of the city at Porte Narbonnaise. There's an interesting cemetery right outside the gate and we took some time to explore.

Heading back into La Cité, we decided to take a walk along the outer ramparts.

Where we actually saw another "hooman" and his four legged friend having a stroll.

We turned back into La Cité at Place Saint Nazaire and took a quick look at the Basilica of Saints Nazarius and Celsus.

This was Carcassonne Cathedral until 1803, when the title was moved to the present Carcassonne Cathedral located in the lower city.

From here we waked along the ramparts, the view was quite lovely.

We could see clouds coming in and the sky was darkening, so it was time to head back to the apartment. I used Google maps and found what we thought was an exit to the city.

Which strangely led us to a dirt trail. Oh well, we scrambled on down.

We eventually made our way back to the apartment and took a break.

When dinner time came along, we headed up the street we were staying on, Rue Barbacane which curved right, then turned onto Rue Trivalle. I had three places on this little street in my "list". No talk about bad luck; all three places were closed for the week. What I didn't know and really didn't find any information on....it seems many places take a winter break during the last week of November! So, I was oh-fer-four right now. We walked along the street and noticed this lively place.

Named Le Passage. A quick check revealed that this was a tapas place. Well, there weren't many or even any other choices left on the street so we ambled on in.....to quite a lively scene.

It was an interesting crowd, obvious locals who knew each other watching the World Cup, folks staying at the hotel above the restaurant, and us. 

The guys working were quite jovial and we ordered some tapas, which were actually fairly large portions.

Starting with the Medallions de Foie Gras (16€ - $17.50/US).

 A very generous portion of terrine mi cuit, with a lovely apple jam. The accompanying sea salt and a touch of jam went well with the lovely, rich and buttery fois gras.

We got a kick of how baguette was served here.....in a tower.

The Missus loved the frites (5€ - $5.50/US) here.

Crisp exterior, creamy inside, the potatoes had a nice starchy sweetness to it. We enjoyed it so much, we got a second order!

We also ordered the Moules Gratinees (10€ - $10.85/US).

   Not a big fan of this dish. The mussels were overcooked and on the tough side and there was a bit of grainy "sandy" bits. Also, we didn't care for the milky creamy flavors which really detracted from the briny - sweet mussels. 

Of course this came with its own "baguette tower" as well.

Overall, this was a fun meal. Nice folks and really reasonable prices. We enjoyed the friendly, neighborly vibe of the place.

Restaurant Le Passage
15 Rue Trivalle
11000 Carcassonne, France

It was drizzling as we headed back to the apartment. We were looking forward to a nice night of sleep.

Thanks for stopping by!

Montpellier - Antigone, L'Arbre Blanc, Dinner at Le Bouchon Saint Roch, and Maison Bonnaire

As we were trying to decide what do for the afternoon it started drizzling. But that didn't deter us once we made a decision. I knew the Missus got Her fill of the Old Town, so how about checking out the "Neoclassical" side of Montpellier? We decided to take a walk to Antigone. Heading thru the Polygone Shopping Center.

Much of Antigone was designed in the Neoclassical style by Spanish Architect Ricardo Bofill. There are some pretty grand structures.

That's the huge Place de l’Europe.

It was quite grand. Though all the restaurants seemed very corporate and chain like in the area.

As we crossed the Lez River we came across the most distinctive building, which the Missus called "the White Cactus".

   This "interesting" building is L’Arbre Blanc designed by Japanese Architect Sou Fujimoto. It drew the Missus and I like moths to a flame! We didn't quite know if we liked it or hated it. And it seems many feel the same way, see the comments for this article. Still, once you see it, you'll never forget it. In fact, after I got home, I watched an episode of House Hunters International. I really don't watch a whole lot of television, but I will watch some episodes of HHI to see cities that we've visited. And guess what? It was taken in Montpellier (and the couple was moving from San Diego)! Plus, Adrian Leeds cracks me up. Anyway, one of the properties shown was a unit in the white spiked bladder stone porcupine!

We headed back thru Place de Thessalie.

And Polygone Shopping Center.

Where we stopped by the madhouse of a pharmacy for some eye solution.

And then back to the apartment where we took a break. For dinner, much like our last two getaway meals in Paris, I wanted something a bit more traditional.  A Boullion or Bouchon would seem like a good bet. So, of course I went to this older Montpellier post from Edible Reading, where I saw a mention of a place named Le Bouchon Saint Roch. I went ahead and made a reservation for 7pm online before we left on our trip. Of course, 7pm is almost an ungodly, early dining time....and would severely interrupt the heart of "apero time" in France!

And of course, when we arrived the place was empty.

The dining room was decorated in what we might call almost "stereotypical brasserie le cochon" as piggy posters and art was everywhere. And of course, the red checkered tablecloths and all that....

The two folks working were quite cheerful! As with the name, the restaurant's menu leaned Lyonnaise.

The Missus wanted some Escargot (9,€ ). I remember those days when the Missus (thought) She hated escargot; until our first meal in Dijon. She's been on the escargot wagon even since then!

This was decent; though we prefer a stronger garlicky-olive oil-parsley flavor. You know, because half of the enjoyment is dipping your bread into the drippings. The gastropods were on the chewy side, but acceptable. The plain salad had a decent Balsamic dressing.

We also got the "Oeuf Poché à la Crème de Morilles, Parmesan et Ses Toasts" (11,€), whew talk about a mouthful! Basically poached egg in morel creme with Parmesan and toast.

That sauce with a bit of cheese on the toasts was really nice. Good earth-slightly sweet mushroom tones, perfectly salty, the egg added an additional layer of creaminess and egginess to the dish.

We got a third starter, the Bone Marrow (10,€).

Man, this was so creamy and savory. Perfect amount of salt and the toasts and even more bread was needed to finish this!

About this time folks started arriving; several groups of students....most of them got burgers; go figure!

The Missus and I split a main; the "Quenelle de Brochet Sibilia, Sauce Nantua, Riz, Poêlée de Légumes" (19,€). The Missus really enjoyed the Quenelle we had when visiting Lyon so we ordered this.

The darkness of the Nantua sauce threw us off a bit; but it was pretty tame with regards to seafood tones. The quenelle was a bit tougher than we like but was quite mild in flavor as is typical. The rice was on the hard side and the cooked vegetables was actually "légumes trop cuits" and really mushy.

By this time the more "French" crowd started arriving.

I've been enjoying having cheese for dessert and ordered the Saint Marcellin (7,€ ), the menu said it came with "olive oil" which I thought would be interesting for dessert.

Saint Marcellin has a somewhat fruity-nutty flavor and this was no exception; along with being so creamy. Along with the olive oil, there was a Balsamic glaze which helped things along. I'm thinking this might actually be a nice starter.

As we left the place started filling up. This was a nice meal and a great way to end our time in Montpellier.

Le Bouchon Saint Roch
14 Rue du Plan d'Agde
34000 Montpellier, France

We slept in the next morning, then I decided to get a croissant to have with my last coffee in the apartment. We had also become converts to the French way of traveling on the TGV.....having a sandwich or something similar for lunch on the train.

We had passed an interesting looking Boulangerie/Pâtisserie several times during our walks and decided to stroll on over.

The name of the shop is Maison Bonnaire.

And along with the usual baguettes and croissants, the window had many temptations, the eclairs looked especially tempting.

We got a croissant and two tartes for the train ride and headed back to the apartment.

  The croissant was dark, flaky, and light. But it really lacked the butteriness I like and was on the dry side.

Maison Bonnaire
45 Rue Saint-Guilhem
34000 Montpellier, France

I did a final cleaning and bade the apartment farewell right at 11am.

We took the short stroll to the train station. Our train wasn't leaving until 1pm so we had some time to kill. Like much of the architecture in the city, the Montpellier Saint-Roch Station has an interesting design.

We found seats and relaxed, grabbing some coffee from the outlet of Paul in the station and bought some water from Casino. Soon enough we were on our train.

We had the Tartes which were pretty good, the one with the roasted tomatoes and tapenade was the better of the two. But the crusts were crisp and flaky.

And this did a good job of holding us over.

Perhaps we stayed in Montpellier a day longer than we should have; but I enjoyed myself.

But now I was looking forward to our next stop. Carcassonne!

Thanks for stopping by!

Montpellier - Cuisine S, Cathedral Saint-Pierre, and Famiglia (In Les Halles Castellane)

Night drew its shades quite quickly in Montpellier. One moment I was staring out from the balcony, albeit with a sweater on, then "bam" darkness had descended. And along with that came a drizzle, not heavy mind you, just enough to be irritating. 

And then the cold arrived.

We'd had decent luck with non-French cuisine thus far and thought some soup would be great. I did some searching for ramen, but those places didn't look to promising. I did better with pho and one of those shops was fairly close to where we were staying, Cuisine S. Getting there was a bit interesting and round about as the place was fairly close to the train station. We walked past several Thai Restaurants and countless Indian places, all of them sparsely occupied. The street seemed dark and quite empty, the Missus was getting a bit nervous. It was a pretty dramatic change when we arrived at our destination.

All those folks waiting outside are food delivery couriers waiting for their orders! The restaurant itself was three-quarters full and we easily got a table. But there was one table where no one sat and the packages of takeout a delivery items were placed there. There was a constant stream of food packages being placed on the table and folks picking stuff up!

The woman working was very nice and we were quickly given menus. We opened it up and started cracking up.

They sure were playing up Obama's Bun Cha experience with Anthony Bourdain! The Missus ended up ordering the Bun Cha avec 2 Nems.

I, on the other hand, got the Pho Dac Biet, which seemed quite pricy at 15 Euroes, but heck, this is France and perhaps the ingredients are difficult to find?

Anyway, soon enough my pho came out.

 There were no herbs and veggies on a plate; what little there was had already been dumped in the soup; which had a weird tinge that was almost grey. The broth tasted like salt water with some beef bouillon dumped in it. The slices of beef were tough and tasteless. The banh pho were of the thicker variety and were just a tad overcooked. Man, this was even worse than the stuff we had in Paris a few years back.

The Missus fared slightly better.

 The best item were the "nems", which we call Cha Gio, it was light and crisp and the filling while on the chewier side had a nice porky flavor. The bun was overcooked. The bun cha dry, tough, and bland. The nuoc mam cham suffered a from a serious shortage of fish sauce. I'm just going to stop here.....

And still, those takeout and delivery orders kept piling up......

Again, the woman working here was so very nice and sweet. She spoke English, so I asked her about all the delivery orders and she told me: "every day is like this"! Go figure!

In the end, perhaps I pushed for a "bridge too far" this time.

Cuisine S
20 Rue Aristide Ollivier
34000 Montpellier, France

We slunk back to the apartment.....

When we awoke the next morning, I could tell the Missus was getting a bit restless and was ready to move on. So, I quickly tried to figure out what to do on this day. I did some quick checks and found that the Cathedral, which we saw the previous day was open from 1030 - 1145. Luckily, the apartment was fully stocked with coffee pods and I ran downstairs....it was very convenient to have a Carrefour City right on the ground floor along with a large Monoprix in the Shopping Center. I grabbed a yogurt for breakfast. We made a plan for the day, I did a post, and then we headed out at around 945am.

By now I could tell that this part of Montpellier was getting a bit too small for the Missus.

We actually did a loop and followed the tram tracks, passing the old Ursuline Convent.

Which was built in 1641 and became a women's prison during the French Revolution and is now called the Agora, which houses the National Choreographic Center.

Then down the winding streets of the old town; up stairs, down stairs.......

Until we turned the corner and the massive Cathedral Saint-Pierre stood in front of us.

The Cathedral was open for visitors so we stepped in.

The structure was commissioned by Pope Urban V in 1364 and became a cathedral in 1536.

 The church is dedicated to Saint Peter. We spent about a half hour exploring a bit. It does really look like a fortress, especially form the exterior with the two huge pillars in the front. Indeed, it is often called "Fort Saint Peter".

After our visit, we felt a bit hungry; it was still fairly early for lunch in France, so we decided to head on over to Les Halles Castellanes and perhaps get something to eat back at the apartment.

After doing a couple of "laps" around the the market, we decided to get some pasta from a stand named Familglia.

All the pastas were made in the stand and they had some really good looking stuff. 

In the end we got the Ravioli de Truffe with Pesto and the Gnocchi with Truffe and Champignon (of course). The service was very friendly and nice.

We got back to the apartment and I reheated the pastas.

The Truffle Ravioli was a perfect al dente.

The filling was a mild cheese with a wonderful amount of truffle flavor! The pesto was very weak though. It really didn't have any pine nut flavor, so I'm thinking it was made with walnuts or something similar.

The Gnocchi was surprisingly good.

The texture was smooth and fairly light. The sauce was mushroom and truffle forward, just what we wanted. Decent amount of salt as well.

A pretty good meal from a random stand in the market.

Famiglia (In Les Halles Castellane)
8 Place Castellane
34000 Montpellier, France

Lunch was a success, but my next mission? Find something to do after lunch!

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!

Montpellier - Reflet d'Obione

I had a nice dinner planned for our first evening in Montpellier with reservations at the one Michelin Star Reflet d'Obione which I had read about in this post on the Edible Reading Blog. Being that we were spending an entire month in France I knew that we'd need to pick our "tasting menu" spots judiciously. We surely didn't want to burn out on these places. We both thought that having a nice dinner in Montpellier would be fun.

There was a reason we had taken our specific walking route earlier in the day. The restaurant was close to Porte du Peyrou off of Rue Foch, down a quiet side street so I wanted to have some familiarity with the area. Like many of these places, which really don't need to advertise, the entry was rather simple and discreet.

And the interior simple, but classy as was the service.

We took the larger "Horizon" menu which featured 7 courses and shared a wine pairing. All the dishes are sourced from the region and seasonal. Montpellier is located a short distance (+/- 10 kilometers) from the Mediterranean, so we were interested to sample the seafood,

The oysters were nicely presented and prepared.

Crisp and briny, with savory minced sea asparagus (salconia) and was topped with frozen, mildly tart shavings that we were told was yogurt (?!?). This was a very nice start to the meal.

The next item was a bit strange. They called it Alkaline Broth.

This was like a weak dashi with sprouted lentils in it. 

The scallop dish was outstanding.

The scallop was perfectly seared, rare, sweet, and tender. The charred endive was wonderfully sweet with a pleasant bitterness, the sabayon was light, yet rich, with a very clean finish.

The Missus loved the Guinea Fowl Quenelle.

Which was light and savory; but I think it's the celeriac puree, the Missus is not a big fan of celeriac, which went so well in this dish with a light celery-sweetness. The coffee veloute was a nice and savory surprise.

The Langoustine was sweet and tender.

And one thing we had noticed with this and all of the previous items; in spite of the rather elaborate presentation and combinations, the flavor of the primary ingredient shone thru. The minced butternut squash and puree went well with this.

The local line caught fish, in this case sea bass was again seared perfectly. Tender, buttery, with a hint of sweetness.

Up to this point we had enjoyed this dinner more than what we'd had at Granite a few nights previous. The one dish that we enjoyed more at Granite was the pigeon. Here the overall flavorings of the pigeon was too sweet and tart.

We did love the beetroot Napolean, though it added yet another layer of sweetness to the dish that was not needed in our opinion.

The entrements were good, refreshing, and very restorative.

The Missus enjoyed dessert.

And heck, even non-dessert lover me, enjoyed the Chocolate Fondant, which wasn't overly sweet.

It was rich and creamy; the praline crisp with the unique nutty flavor of chicory.

This was an excellent meal. The service was well paced, efficient, polished, and professional, while still being friendly. Except for the wine pairing and the pigeon dish, we enjoyed this more than Granite in Paris.

Reflet d'Obione
29 Rue Jean Jacques Rousseau
34000 Montpellier, France

Well, Montpellier who knew.....

Montpellier - Green Lab and Place de Peyrou

When planning our most recent trip to France, we knew we'd be spending our final two weeks in Paris, but where to go before then? The Missus wanted to visit places She had never been before and Brittany, Normandy, and the Loire was high on Her list. But I just didn't think visiting those locales at the end of November, beginning of December would be the best time. Nice and Marseille was high on that list, but in the end we thought visiting Carcassonne would be interesting and I'd always wanted to visit Toulouse, but we needed one more "leg" of the trip. We'd already been to the main cities in Provence....those posts never got done because like I mentioned in this post; after Israel, Palestine, and Jordan, we spent a night in Paris before heading to Provence, we planned 5 nights there, but got stranded because of a rail strike and ended up flying from Marseille to CDG and staying at the airport. This was at the end of 2019. So, while I started doing posts on that trip....well, you know what happened, right? Those posts on Provence never got done. Maybe one day I'll just to a COMC thing. Anyway, while I love train travel, the Missus has a "no more than 4 - 4 1/2 hour" rule when it comes to travelling by rail, which is why I have to plan on stays in places like Stuttgart, which is perfectly fine with me as I get to explore. After doing a bit of research, I developed an interest in Montpellier. Now you really won't find much about Montpellier in those guidebooks, but the city looked interesting; from the meandering old town, to having one of the oldest Universities in the world. And I'd read that fully one-fourth of the city's population is composed of students! That contrast would make for quite an interesting visit!

In fact, we could see the contrasts from the time we arrived. The apartment we were staying in was a mere ten minute walk from the train station. We went thru a tunnel that connected the tram line to quite a modern area with a mall. The apartment was in the interesting looking building connected to the Ibis Hotel.

We had a very nice view of the city.

Just steps away to the east was a large shopping mall named Le Polygone. Just to the west is the main square of the city, Place de la Comédie. This lively and lovely square features restaurants, fast food joints ("McDo" does great business with the students), cafe's, a movie theatre, and the lovely National Opera. Because we didn't have a map of the city, we stopped by the Tourist Information center and got the "detailed" map (,50 €) which we used along with Google Maps to get around.

At the heart of the square is the Fountain of the Three Graces.

The square is nicknamed L'Oeuf ("egg") because of its oval shape. From here there are arteries heading in all directions. We decided to take one of the side streets, away from the Ecusson (the old city), down Rue de Verdun for a light lunch at a place I had on my list; Green Lab.

Because of the large student population, I thought that there would be some nice casual eateries with diverse cuisines and with just one notable "fail", these places delivered. Green Lab features Lebanese and Middle Eastern influenced vegetarian and vegan dishes in a "fast-casual" type set-up. You order at the counter and they'll bring out your food to you. The plates looked pretty large so we just ordered the Falafel and Hummus (9,99 €) which ended up being enough for the both of us.

While we didn't care much for the pita, which was too dense, hard, and "bready" for us, we thought the falafel were quite good. Crisp outside, mildy creamy interior, nice nutty herbaceousness, this was actually better than what we'd had at L'As du Fallafel in Paris! The hummus was quite rustic, the nutty - savory tones came thru quite well.

This was actually better than we expected and enough to hold us until our Michelin Starred dinner.

Green Lab Comédie
12 Rue de Verdun
34000 Montpellier, France

We headed back to the square and decided to do some exploring. We headed up Rue de la Loge, one of the main shopping/downtown streets in Montpellier. We had arrived on a Saturday and I had thought that things might be a bit crazy....but we found that Montpellier had a relaxed, fun, community loving vibe to it. We got a kick out of this band with an interesting "cast" of characters playing on Place Jean Jaurès.

And as we headed further up the street, the Missus quickly noticed these tags on the ground.

Well, I didn't know that Montpellier is on the Camino de Santiago!

We enjoyed wandering up the streets of the Ecusson.

And we arrived at this.

Yep, Montpellier has it's version of the Arc de Triomphe, the Porte du Peyrou which was completed in 1693 and is actually modeled after Porte Saint-Denis, which I mentioned in this post. Right past the Porte is Place Royale de Peyrou.

Which has a striking Water Tower designed to look like a Greek Monument.

Which actually used to store water!

With an aqueduct.

That used to route water to the cistern in the tower.

There are gardens and a promenade.

And on this day it looked like a large meeting of motorcycle clubs was going on.

As we walked back toward the Arc we heard chanting and drums.......it was a protest.

Which made its way into Place de Peyrou.

It was interesting, anti hate protest meets biker clubs.......with no incidents. You gotta love it!

On a lively Saturday in Montpellier.

On the way back to the apartment, we started taking notice of the public art along the side streets.

Along with churches and other grand structures down alleyways and side streets. This is the Église Saint-Roch.

Montpellier was turning out to be quite an interesting stop.

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