Paris Day 7 - 2014 A Quiet Day in Paris, dinner at an "American" restaurant

January 1, 2014 - Happy New Year!

The first day of 2014 was rainy in Paris. Instead of walking like we normally would, we took the metro to L'Arc de Triomphe and walked down the Champs Elysees when there was a break in the weather. Champs Elysees is lined with shops and was fairly busy for a holiday but quiet compared to a "normal" day. Only half the stores were open so I imagine it would've been more crowded on a non-holiday.

Laduree (next post) was open on the Champs Elysees and other than a visit to the famous store, we didn't do much shopping. We tried going to Bon Marche but they were closed for New Year's. Lunch was at a casual, point-and-choose Chinese restaurant but I was getting weary of taking pictures of food places and what we were eating (I know, shocking) so I don't have any record of it.

After an afternoon of rest, downloading pics onto my laptop and catching up on my blog, I rallied for dinner though. My nieces and I had originally hoped to try out a crepe place and we had earmarked one from yelp that got great reviews which was within walking distance of our hotel. Unfortunately, when we headed out to find it, it was closed. It was raining again too so we had to find another option. After walking around a bit longer and checking out the sidewalk menus, we ducked into one restaurant too quickly for me to take a picture of where we were so I waited until after dinner to snap the shot above.

4-cheese pizza

I don't have a picture of the inside but, like most places in France, it was on the small side, with a larger room partitioned off to make 2 smaller rooms. We were shown to the room in the back and seated at a table right next to the kitchen which was mostly closed off except for the steel counter where they placed the finished orders and the wait staff came to pick them up. Some people may not like that kind of location but it turned out to be a great place to sit as we could watch the mouthwatering dishes being plated and see what made its way out of the kitchen onto the tables. The menu was mostly Italian with pizzas and pastas and the decor reminded me of Sardi's in New York with wall art depicting movie stars. Not quite the French experience you expect in Paris but we were hungry and lucky to get a table on New Year's without a reservation so we went with it. Besides, remember my mantra that it's probably impossible to eat bad food in Paris. This was no exception. We did "French-ify" our order though with the pizza. When in France, you have to have everything with cheese. So we went with the 4-cheese pizza. This was good (it's cheese, it's France). The only jarring note is one of the cheeses was bleu cheese and it tended to overpower the other cheeses.

Pesto Pasta

The pesto pasta was also tasty. You can taste the freshness and assume the chef probably plucked the basil leaves off the plant minutes before serving this up. I had a birds' eye view into the kitchen and it was really amazing to see how quickly they plated the food yet there was no one rushing around frantically and no histrionic sounds of tempers flaring. Instead, the 2-4 people I glimpsed all moved efficiently but weren't rushing or panicked. No reality TV restaurant shows in the making here.

Banana and Nutella "pizza"

Dessert was the "banana nutelle pizza" but it came out more like a calzone, hot with fresh caramelized bananas and nutella packed on the inside. We made short work of it and were happy. It also seems pretty easy to make and in between bites, I was advising my nieces on replicating the dessert: buy the fresh pizza dough from Trader Joe's, roll it out in a thin circle, spread nutella over it and lay sliced bananas over half of the dough, fold over and seal the edges to make the calzone and bake until brown. Easy. And don't think I'm not going to make it myself someday.

We were armed with knives and forks - the banana nutella "pizza" didn't have a chance

The joke was on us when we left the restaurant and I was able to take a picture of the outside to see where we actually ate at: an "American" restaurant that serves Italian food. I couldn't find them on yelp or google so I don't think they have much of an internet presence but it was a good find on a cold, rainy night. If we had planned better or if more places were open, we might have had a more typical French meal but for an American restaurant serving Italian food, it served our needs just fine.

Les Bateaux Parisiens - lunch cruise on the Seine

Les Bateaux Parisiens - lunch cruise on December 31, 2013

Thanks to my friend, we went on a lunch cruise on the Seine with Les Bateaux Parisiens. "Bateaux" means boats in French and Les Bateaux Parisiens offers a lunch cruise, dinner cruise and a sightseeing cruise. The boats depart from the dock near the Eiffel Tower so they're not hard to find. When we checked in at the pier, we were given our table number and handed a menu of our lunch selections. We made our way to where our boat would depart just in time as it started to rain when we got there. Fortunately the boat was flat-bottomed and fully enclosed so we could enjoy the views in dry, warm comfort.

I have to say, the cruise was one of the highlights of our trip, if not the highlight of the whole week and a half of vacation. When we boarded, we were shown to our table, offered a selection of nuts and libations and away we went. The tables are arranged so there's not really a bad seat. Since it's fully enclosed in glass, you could get a great view anywhere you turned. The tables right against the window were lower than the inside tables so even from an inside table, you had an unobstructed view of the sights.

Our starting point was the Eiffel Tower

Bread rolls, nuts and drinks to start off with while we waited to sail

But what really made the trip so fantastic was (of course) the food. I've been on dinner cruises before in San Francisco Bay and they've been fun but I can't say the food was really striking. Not so with Les Bateaux Parisiens. I'll be remembering this meal for quite some time and not just because I have a good memory when it comes to food. Everything was roll-your-eyes-to-the-back-of-your-head delicious.

Veloute of pumpkin, chestnuts and pine nuts

The menu lets you select a starter, an entree and either cheese or a dessert for the third course. For my starter I got the pumpkin veloute. Our very nice waiter served it initially with the cream in the center of the bowl then he poured the hot pumpkin soup into it in front of me. A completely nice touch, especially considering he and the other wait staff had to do that for every diner who ordered the veloute. The soup was hot, creamy and the perfect pumpkin flavor.

Duck Terrine with foie gras and fig chutney

Shyla got the duck terrine and Lauren the escargots. Both enjoyed their starters and they were literally a good start to our cruise. In the midst of the food being served, we were already under way, cruising the brown waters of the Seine. Since this wasn't the sightseeing cruise per se, they only made sporadic announcements of some of the sights we were passing, including Les Invalides, Le Musee d'Orsay, and La Bibliotheque Nationale de France but the announcements over the loudspeaker did offer some informational tidbits about some of the bridges and monuments we were passing.

Cassolette of escargots from Burgundy, 'Meurette-style'

For my entree I ordered the "Braised Pork spare rib with gratin Dauphinois". It was amusing for me to see the singular "rib" as I had in mind the American version of ribs, always in the plural. Were they going to give me one rib? Turned out the answer was "yes" but it was more like a boneless pork loin. Tender and very flavorful in a yummy sauce. I wish I had a better way to describe it other than, "wow, this is really good and I'm eating all of it". But my favorite part was the "gratin Dauphinois". The boat didn't have wifi so I couldn't look it up before I ordered it but I retained enough high school French to figure it was some kind of scalloped potatoes with cheese. OMG. The words "potatoes" and "cheese" are wholly inadequate to describe how good this was. Cheesy, perfectly cooked, and tender - did I mention cheesy?? They were so good. I never knew potatoes could be that good.

Braised Pork Spare Rib, gratin Dauphinois

Shyla got the shrimp and spinach in a crayfish sauce. The foam you see below is the crayfish sauce and she enjoyed that as much as I enjoyed my potatoes. As in, several hours later, she would burst out, "OMG, that foam was so good!" Yep, we're related.

Jumbo Shrimp, Spinach, Crayfish Sauce

Lauren got the veal stew. I didn't get the picture in action but, like my pumpkin veloute, it was served with an individual touch: our waiter brought her the plate then proceeded to spoon the stew onto it from an individual sized little pot. Very cute, very classy.

Paupiette of Veal cooked in a casserole dish, stewed vegetables

While we were eating, we were zipping along the Seine and I took random shots of what we were passing. Whenever I managed to look up from my plate, that is.

Le Grand Palais (I think)

The announcer over the loudspeaker also talked about some of the bridges we were going under but since I didn't write anything down, I confess I didn't retain the knowledge beyond our next course.

Since we were in France, our third and final course was a choice of cheese or dessert. We all opted for dessert but I managed to take a picture of the cheese plate before they delivered it to another table.

Fromage (cheese)

On my foodie bucket list of "desserts to eat in Paris", Tarte Tatin is one of them so I was pleased this was one of the dessert offerings. It's essentially a caramelized apple upside down cake. For a traditional Tarte Tatin, you line a cast iron pan with sliced apples, prettily arranged if you're skilled enough (I'm not), cover the tart crust, bake, then flip over onto the serving plate once it was done. If all goes well, you have a beautifully caramelized apple top with the tart crust underneath. If all doesn't go well, er, like when I made it in culinary school, let's just say, mine never came out looking like the one below. This was also good but it's hard not to like a warm apple tart. In Paris.

Tarte Tatin

Pot de creme (pot of cream)

Lauren got the pot de creme which is literally a pot of cream. Just like the creme brulee from Bistro La Petite Rotonde, this was sinfully rich and creamy and very good. And I say that as someone who doesn't often like cream-type desserts. Creme brulee and pot de creme are notable exceptions.

Praline Paris Brest

Shyla chose the Paris Brest which is a pate a choux filled with mousse. That was good too but each of us only had a bite to taste. She was already full and Lauren and I were focusing on our own desserts.

The Paris version of the Statue of Liberty

Did you know there's a Statue of Liberty in Paris? It's a smaller version of the one in New York City and was a gift to the city in 1889 from the American community in Paris on their centenary. Pretty cool. I think we passed this somewhere along the dessert course or shortly after so I did actually notice something other than what I was eating.

Coffee to end a delicious meal

The whole cruise took a little over two hours and we went along the Seine at a pretty steady clip, enabling us to circle the route twice while we ate. We got lucky in that our waiter served us first so we had plenty of time to enjoy our food before the cruise ended. We got even luckier that the rain stopped before the cruise ended so by the time we emerged, we could continue our travels without getting (too) wet. If you're ever in Paris, this is a fun cruise to go on and a great way to enjoy more delicious food.

Paris Day 6: city tour and Eiffel Tower by day

Day 6: Paris, France

Thanks to a great friend with awesome connections, our first morning in Paris included a city tour arranged by the Paris tourist office. We were driven around for an hour by our tour guide, Travis, who picked us up from the hotel in a cute little car that fortunately fit all of us. The car had to be that small in order to fit in some of the narrow streets Travis drove down. And I mean narrow.

Travis drove us around the Left Bank, pointed out Notre Dame, took us down the Champs Elysees and circled L'Arc de Triomphe, showed us the far-off view of Sacre Coeur, and stopped for a photo opp at the National Academy of Music.

At Acadamie Nationale de Musique

Sacre Coeur from a distance

L'Arc de Triomphe

We had a lunch cruise on the Seine planned for that day, also courtesy of my friend, so we had Travis drop us off at the Eiffel Tower so we could explore the area until our cruise. There's a cute little market just in front of the Eiffel Tower where we wandered around for a bit. The stalls sold everything from souvenirs to clothes to all kinds of food including waffles (or gaufre in French), paella, chocolate, coffee and teas. They also had tourist prices since it was so close to the most popular tourist attraction in Paris but it was still fun to walk around and explore even if we didn't buy so much as a gaufre.

Lots of paella in very large paella pans

Would you believe I didn't buy any? I just liked to look at it all.

But the definite highlight of Day 6 was our lunch cruise down the Seine, courtesy of Les Bateaux Parisien. Stay tuned.....

Restaurant Review: Bistro La Petite Rotonde, Paris, France

Bistro La Petite Rotonde - dinner on December 30, 2013

I've always blithely maintained that you can't eat bad food in Paris even if you tried and you'd have to be trying really hard. I've only been to Paris twice now but whether I eat at a hole in the wall or a formal restaurant, the food isn't just good, it's amazing. Bistro La Petite Rotonde was just down the street from our hotel so it was the most convenient place to eat when we first arrived. We didn't yelp it or go looking for anything in particular. We just glanced at the sidewalk menu, determined the prices wouldn't break our wallet and went right in.

The interior all decked out for Christmas

The menu was in French but I retained enough from my 4 years of high school French to remember the French words for most food: "poulet is chicken, "canard" is duck, "beouf" is beef, etc. And when that failed, the bistro had free wifi so we could also look up anything we wanted to know on google translate. Ha, the wonders of technology don't leave you with any excuse to be ignorant.

Smoked Salmon Pasta

My nieces got the salmon pasta (which came as smoked salmon) and a chicken mushroom pasta. I sampled the chicken pasta and it was delicious. I don't like the texture of mushrooms but they made for a flavorful sauce and the chicken was like very delicious rotisserie chicken - yum.

Chicken and Mushroom Pasta

My own order was the Quiche Lorraine and I must say, it was the most creamy, wonderfully cheesy quiche I've ever had. I'm predisposed to like quiche anyway since I love eggs and cheese but this was probably one of the best quiches I've had in terms of taste and texture. I don't know how or why but the food always tastes better in France.

Quiche Lorraine

Creme Brulee

For dessert we shared the Creme Brulee and Crepes Suzette. The creme brulee was to die for, so sinfully rich and creamy it was worth every calorie and then some. I've made creme brulee before but mine has never tasted this good. I know you can get creme brulee anywhere but seriously, no one does creme brulee like the French.

So good....

The crepes Suzette is a traditional French dessert but this was the first time I've had one in France. Our waiter doused it in Grand Marnier and lit it on fire while he turned it over and back to soak in the syrup. It was good but the orange liqueur taste was quite strong. I'm not big on alcohol so I focused on the I'll-pay-for-this-later-on-the-treadmill-and-that's-just-fine-with-me crème brulee.

Might be hard to tell but it's aflame

Day 5: London to Paris, a little snafu in our travel plans, Eiffel Tower at night

Day 5 - Travel Day from London to Paris via the Eurostar - December 30, 2013

Do you know the first rule of traveling is to roll with the punches? It goes with the second one to be flexible and remain undaunted when snafus happen. I was forcibly reminded of this as I herded my nieces to Kings Cross/St Pancras to catch the Eurostar to Paris. I had booked our tickets online and printed them at home to bring with me. I had our Paris hotel booked, our travel plans laid out and we were on schedule. Until we got to the train station and our printed tickets didn't work. It turned out the time I was marching us towards was the arrival time in Paris, not the departure time in London. So....we missed our train (insert feeling stupid here). Doh!

Fortunately, we were able to get to the ticket office at the train station and the most helpful, kindest ticket agent helped us rebook 3 new tickets on a later train. It wasn't direct, we would have to change in Lille and it took us to Disneyland Paris instead of Gare du Nord in the heart of Paris so we would have to take an extra metro ride to get to our hotel. But my nieces are troopers and instead of complaining at having an entire day taken up with more travel between destinations, they rolled with those punches and treated me to a leisurely brunch at Le Pain Quotidien at the train station while we waited for our new train.

Croissant with jambon (ham) and grueyere cheese

Florentine Quiche

 

Quiche Lorraine

We boarded our new train without further incident and were underway. I've traveled on the Eurostar before when I first visited London and Paris and it's a pretty easy ride. The direct train ride is a little over two hours and although we had to transfer at Lille, even that didn't seem so long.

It was a bit more of a pain once we reached Disneyland Paris to find the Metro and secure the right Metro tickets to get us to where we were going but Lauren was pretty accomplished at getting around in Europe after her months in Madrid so we were soon on our way. After more than an hour on the Metro, changing at Chatelet Station (hauling our luggage up and down the stairs was not fun and a good reminder to always pack light!), and emerging at Montparnasse where our hotel was, it took us more walking around and asking people fluent in French but not so good in English to find our hotel but we finally made it.

After traveling all day, we relaxed at a nice bistro for a good dinner (fortunately, it's almost impossible not to find great food in Paris). After sitting most of the day, it was a good time to stretch our legs. Despite the cold, we set out for a walk after dinner and, since we were in Paris, it was easy enough to walk towards its lighted iconic beacon, otherwise known as the Eiffel Tower.

Along the way, we saw this cathedral which I'm sure is famous but we didn't get close enough for me to figure out what it was. I just liked it though because it was beautiful, especially at night.

But, for me, nothing says Paris like the Eiffel Tower. I imagine the locals are used to it but I'm not. I couldn't take enough pictures of it. The Eiffel Tower is to me in Paris what Big Ben is to me in London. Beautiful, majestic, breathtaking and if it wasn't freezing out, I could've stood there all night and just stared at it. It was a great way to end a long travel day.