Burning the Inheritance

Food and Drink in Paris

Coming into Paris, our expectations in regard to food and drink were pretty high.  As was the case with Italy, we approached this aspect of our visit to Paris with lots of enthusiasm and research.  (Meaning, of course, lots of YouTube videos, but also episodes of Anthony Bourdain, and even the occasional written article!)  While we did come with a list of places where we hoped to eat, it was a short and not very hard list, as we also wanted to be able to have the flexibility to wander. 

That said, sometimes you do need a reservation (although we had some funny experiences in regard to this), so some advanced planning is occasionally desirable, if not necessary.  While there were certain specific dining experiences we were looking for, what we were after more than anything was some authentic dining experiences with locals, something that any restaurant you read about on the internet is automatically less likely to provide.

The Pastries in Paris

For both logistical and economic reasons (Paris is a very expensive city to eat and drink in), we usually ate lunch out and fixed dinner at home in our apartment.  This actually suited our culinary goals as what we were looking for was more common fare and less high-style cuisine.  Lunch tended to be late as many of the museums and sights don’t open until 11 AM, so it became our habit to “fortify” ourselves (as Colleen was prone to call it) with a coffee and pastry on our way to wherever we were going that morning.

We are pretty sure that this habit had its beginning at that pink pastry shop on our first morning in Vienna and developed in Italy, but there was that cinnamon roll and that semla in Stockholm and elephant ears in Buenos Aires, so who knows? Wherever it was that we acquired this addiction, it’s pretty safe to say that it fully blossomed in Paris!

While we did try some crepes (both savory and sweet), sampled some chocolates, and even eye-balled a macaron or two, pastries became our guilty pleasure in Paris.  There was a much larger variety of them than we might have expected and it became our unspoken mission to try them all.  Ritchard’s motto was “I never met a pastry I didn’t like, at least not in Paris” and, in truth, it became a search not just for the good, but for the best.

Perhaps surprisingly, probably the best pastry we had in Paris was, in fact, a donut purchased at a place called Le Donuteria on Tuesday of our museum marathon week.  Maybe not so surprising as, according to Google at least, the donut is “the most highly-revered American pastry” and, of course, we are not talking about just any donut here.  While we did see a lot of less appetizing donuts (pink polka dots seemed to be particularly popular), the donuts of Le Donuteria are actually pretty basic in terms of their types (frosted, glazed, filled) and ingredients (chocolate, Boston crème, peanut butter, and Nutella), but they are beautifully made and the donut itself is amazingly light and tasty and baked to perfection. 

We opted for one of the daily specials, something called Love at First Bite (which it was), stuffed with Nutella, frosted with chocolate, and garnished with white and brown sugar.  Fantastique!  

Maybe verging on sacrilege, but I have to add for our friends and family from the Northeast that, while Le Donuteria may not have quite as much variety as the Fractured Prune, it would be a pretty hard call to say whose donuts are better!

Paris Restaurants

One of the things we quickly became aware of is that tables in Paris cafes and restaurants are generally much smaller than in the U.S. and are placed much closer together than what we are generally used to (and probably comfortable with) in the U.S.  Perhaps it has more to do with economics, but for whatever reason, we often found seating in the cafes and restaurants we visited to be as close and crowded as in the subway during afternoon rush hour.

We experienced this phenomena at our first lunch in Paris on Saturday April 1^st, dining at La Terrasse du 7e, a large cafe which faces the Place de la Concorde where we were to meet for a bike tour later that day.  We sat outside in front of the restaurant, in a virtual sea of tables and chairs which seemed to churn like the ocean as people came and went, some for a coffee and pastry, others, like us, there for a full meal, with the tables and chairs around us shifting and sliding with the tide of diners coming and going. 

Like being at sea, it takes a little bit of getting used to, but we found that once you get your sea legs, such close seating makes it easier and actually quite natural to engage the people around you in conversation. Sometimes just a “hello”, but talk which may start with what one is eating or drinking but can sometimes lead to other even more interesting conversations.

At a “walk-on” lunch between museums at a restaurant (Le Lutece) in the Latin Quarter we were seated next to a Spanish family on Easter break who, as it turned out, were from Alacante Spain, not far from our next destination after Paris.  We ended up spending much of the meal talking about food, wine, and beer in that region and places we should try to see while there.  I think they were pretty intrigued by what we are doing and when we parted they had our blog address and we had their phone number and an offer to respond to any questions we might have about the Alacante region (including, if necessary, recommendations on wine!).

La Terrasse

As noted above, we had our first Paris lunch at La Terrasse du 7e, a large cafe which faces the Place de la Concorde.  Our first Paris meal was what one could call classic, if not cliché. It consisted of French onion soup (the first of several ventures at this) and croque monsieur, the French equivalent of a grilled cheese sandwich with (of course!) French fries on the side.  We were still grappling a bit with the little French we have and had meant to only order one sandwich, but ended up with two, which was OK, but left room no room for pastries that day!. 

This would not be our last encounter with either French onion soup or croque monsieur, both of which were pretty good at La Terrasse.

Over the course of the next 16 days, we ate in a lot of restaurants including one Indian one (New Delhi near Pass Brady) and a falafel place (Mi va Mi in Marais – a substitute for another on our list which was closed), both of which were very good.  With one possible exception, I don’t think we had what we would consider a bad meal in Paris, but some were certainly more memorable than others, and we were able to try a few of the restaurants on our list. 

Les Mormottes

One of these was Les Mormottes in the 3^rd arrondissement, know for its raclette – melted cheese which you eat over potatoes or bread.  It’s sort of a French variation on fondue (which Les Mormottes also does).  They have a special device which heats a half-round of cheese and allows you to sort of scrape it off as it melts. 

It was kind of fun, but not sure it was worth the price and pretty sure it’s not something you need to do more than once.  Les Mormottes is one of those places which strongly recommends reservations, which we made, but there were quite a few open tables when we dined there. (Perhaps we should have taken this as a clue?)  In any case, if not great, the meal was certainly memorable.

La Jacobine

Another of the places we hoped to dine in Paris was La Jacobine, a restaurant located in a small alley in Saint Germain de Pres in the 6^th arrondissement, which is reputed to have the best French onion soup in Paris.  While reservations are strongly recommended, you can’t make them online but must instead call for them and, unfortunately, it turned out to be impossible to get anyone to answer the phone.  Undeterred, we made our way to Saint Germain for some mid-day shopping and decided to stop by the restaurant at Noon when they opened to scope things out. 

When we arrived, they were already full, but Ritchard had a conversation with the manager explaining we had tried to call for reservations.  The manager acknowledged that their phone was out of service and (oddly?) seemed to take a liking to Ritchard and said to come back in an hour.  We idled about the area doing some window shopping (St. Germain is a great place for this).  When we returned to La Jacobine, there was a long line of people waiting to get in, but we checked in with the manager and were seated almost immediately at a corner table next to a couple from Spain.

The restaurant itself is very small and about as cramped as any we dined in in Paris.  The interior is decorated with large murals depicting the Jacobins, a political movement popular at the time of the French revolution.  The murals suggest that, in addition to stirring political unrest, Jacobine activities included eating and drinking merrily and (or so it appeared to us) dispensation of wine in exchange for political support.  

Along with the French onion soup (Soupe A L’Oignon) we had come for, we had a great cheese board, truffle ravioli, and a half bottle of moderately expensive wine.  A great meal and, yes, we agreed it was the best French onion soup we have ever tasted and definitely one or our best Paris dining experiences.

La Petit Vendome

Perhaps the most authentic meal we had while in Paris was at a place called La Petit Vendome which is (not surprisingly) near the Place Vendome.  Colleen heard about this place from an obscure source we were later unable to identify and it was reputed to be one of those restaurants favored by locals rather than tourists.  We happened to be in that neighborhood one day and, although we had not made reservations, decided to check it out.  The place appeared to be pretty packed, but much of this was locals waiting for take-away (usually a good sign regarding the quality of the food) and, as luck would have it, a table opened as we arrived and we were seated immediately.

While we can’t swear that we were the only foreigners in the place, the atmosphere was friendly and festive and, although packed in like sardines, we thoroughly enjoyed it as well as the food.  Colleen had French onion soup while Ritchard had the home-made duck “confit” and we shared a cheese board.  To cap it, we shared a pistachio crème brulee.  All of it was amazingly good and not too pricy.  

 So, great food + great atmosphere = great dining experience.

Le Chalet des Bosquettes

In fairness, not every meal we had in Paris was as amazing or great as these.  One of the potential downsides of “free forming” your travels and venues is sometimes finding yourself with limited choices on where to eat.  Such was the case one day when we were trekking between museums through the Bois de Boulogne, a large wooded area west of central Paris. We were pretty hungry and ended up having lunch in a corral next to a rustic shed called Le Chalet des Bosquettes (Cottage of the Groves – lipstick on a pig?), the only affordable place to eat within a mile or more.

The experience was a little reminiscent of an old Saturday Night Live skit where we tried to order various things from the menu but eventually figured out that all they had was croque monsieur (“No hamburger, croque monsieur!”).  Let’s just say that it was a nice sunny day and the fries were good and leave it at that.

 Beer in Paris

While we certainly drank a lot of French wine in Paris, Ritchard’s first love remains beer (or, more accurately, ale), which we also had our fair share of.  In addition to the local craft beer store near our apartment, and the Paname Brewing Company near La Villette, we visited the Brew Dog brew pub in Maraise, an area where we spent a lot of time shopping and visiting museums. 

Usually, Ritchard does some advance research and identifies brew pubs to visit should we find ourselves in a particular neighborhood and so he was particularly happy when Colleen wanted to visit a shop in the 10^th arrondissement just blocks away from the only Mikkeller brew pub in Paris.  (If you aren’t aware, Mikkeller, based in Copenhagen, is probably Ritchard’s favorite brewer in the world.)  This part of Paris, the 10^th arrondissement, is particularly steep, so we were able to work up a bit of a thirst climbing the streets and steps. 

Like the other Mikkeller brew bubs we have visited (3 in Copenhagen and 1 in Iceland) their Paris pub is small and intimate and was not crowded, all of which we love. We had planned our arrival to coincide with Mikkeller’s opening time of 5 pm but when we arrived, Colleen said she had some urgent shopping to attend to and left Ritchard to study the beer menu. 

It’s Ritchard’s preference to sit at the bar when he visits a new brew pub and he struck up a conversation with the bartender Phoebe and her roommate Angela who, due to the early hour was the only other patron in the place at that time.  Phoebe is from a Greek family and arrived in Paris by way of Buffalo, New York.  Angela is also American, but has been living abroad for some time, most recently in Paris.  Around two beers after Colleen returned from shopping, we were all the best of friends! 

These days, when we visit a brew pub, the first question is whether they have any sour ales, which Colleen has developed an affinity for.  There is a longer story here but, as Ritchard sums it up “the less it tastes like beer, the more she likes it!”.  We were happy to discover that amongst its 20 taps, Mikkeller had 3 different sour ales to choose from, as well as a couple in bottles.  Colleen was a happy camper which, of course, means that Ritchard was also happy. 

We hung out for a while, tried a few beers and got some interesting perspectives on living in Paris. Before departing, we bought a T-shirt for Ritchard and a few more beers to take home for whenever our thirst returned (the walk from the 10^th to the 18^th arrondissement is all uphill), and vowed to return again if we could (which we did a few days later).

Our second visit was a bit later in the day than the first and, perhaps because of that, the bar was noticeably busier.  Nonetheless, we again sat at the bar and, if anything, had an even better time, probably because we had a little more familiarity and comfort with the place.  Brew Dog was good, as was Paname Brewing, but, maybe because it is off the beaten path, Mikkeller was the best brew pub we found in Paris and it is definitely worth the extra effort to get there!

Paris Movies

While we were chatting with Phoebe and Angela about how they got to Paris, Angela mentioned that there were two movies she watched when she was considering her move to Paris: Disney/Pixar’s Ratatouille and Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris and highly recommended both.  This later prompted a conversation between us on the subject of movies set in Paris and, while we identified some others that we wanted to watch, we decided to start with Angela’s recommendations.

As is probably the case with most parents, we have watched a lot of animated films in our time. Jungle Book was the first one we discovered that could mesmerize the kids to let us get things like cooking dinner done with minimal distraction. Films from Disney/Pixar have been a particular favorite over the years. Toy Story was a staple once upon a time and, more recently, Coco, which we watched countless times with our foster grand-daughter.

But, for whatever reason, Ratatouille was not one we had ever seen.  It wasn’t at all what we expected and I have to say that we thoroughly enjoyed the unique view of Paris it provided (if you aren’t familiar with the film, the main character is a rat who is also a master chef!) and we even stumbled upon a Paris shop which is featured in the movie.

As a sidebar, we were surprised to hear that at least some Parisians consider their city’s rats to be kinder and gentler than their American cousins (perhaps even “cute”?). Happy to report that based on our own experiences in Paris we are unable to confirm or deny this assertion!

Neither of us are big Woody Allen fans, but we did very much enjoy Midnight in Paris with all its cameos of famous Parisians from the past and and appreciated its message about the so-called “good old days” and appreciating what you have.

With these two films under our belt Ritchard was finally able to get a commitment from Colleen to watch his favorite Paris movie, “Inglorious Basterds”.  Life is good!

So, that’s it for now, but there’s still quite a bit left to cover from our trip to Paris including its churches and museums and some of the amazing places we visited, including Mont Saint-Michel, so stay tuned!

END OF PARIS PART 3