Paris Journal 2008

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Last night, we took the metro up to the 10^th arrondissement to see if the restaurant there called “Le Tire Bouchon” is where our beloved “Le Tire Bouchon” of the 15^th had moved. But no, we found, it is not the same at all. Our beloved restaurant “Le Tire Bouchon” was a real restaurant, with a real, talented chef, Laurent Houry, and it served fine French cuisine. The brasserie “Le Tire Bouchon” at 118 rue La Fayette in the 10^th is a true brasserie, with simple food of the kind you expect in a brasserie. It has been there on rue La Fayette for about three years, according to our server. So it has nothing to do at all with the restaurant Le Tire Bouchon which disappeared from the 15^th within the past year. We ate dinner at the brasserie Le Tire Bouchon anyway, even though it was not the restaurant we had hoped for. For what it is, a brasserie, it is very good! It has all the simple food on the menu that you expect to see in such a place. And the fixed price menu for three courses was a very reasonable €19. We both started with a salad that involved leafy greens, a half of a small, fresh avocado, and fine fresh little popcorn shrimp. The dressing amused us. You know that stuff called “French Dressing” that we can buy in the grocery stores in the U.S. which is not like anything you can find in France? Well, this dressing approximated what that stuff called “French Dressing” is trying to imitate. But it did so very well. I sensed that the ingredients included lemon juice, puréed tomatoes, and a fine, non-mustard-based mayonnaise. The salad was small. It was not overwhelming at all. So we were ready for the next course. I thought Tom had made a terrible mistake by ordering steak, because steak, as a rule, is not as good in France as the U.S. It is one of those facts you can count on, like death and taxes. But somehow Tom has learned that when the steak cut is an “onglet,” and WHEN and IF it has been properly tenderized, and when it is properly cooked, it can be good. The cooks in this brasserie evidently do it right, because Tom’s steak was quite good. Not great, of course, but quite good. I ordered confit de canard, a duck leg that has been roasted in its own juices, accompanied by no special sauce whatsoever. Very simple. It is easy to overcook and ruin this dish, however. But once again, the cooks in this brasserie proved their technical skills. The duck leg was moist and tender, with the meat falling off the bone. Both main courses were accompanied by a simple, fresh little salad with the kind of dressing you usually get in brasseries (mayonnaise and vinegar based), and little round disks of sautéed potatoes, cooked just right – not greasy. The bread was fresh. It had been cut within the past few minutes, not within the past few hours. For dessert, Tom had a couple little scoops of fine Berthillon ice cream, and I had a crème brulee, which, once again, was prepared correctly. Very good. This is not fine cuisine. This is simple food done right, for the right price. And the portions are right. Notice how many times I used the word “little”? The 10^th can be a rough around the edges, literally. We had walked up the rue du Faubourg Poissoniere, which is the border between the 9^th and the 10^th, from the metro station Bonne Nouvelle. It was not a very pleasant walk. But the brasserie is located on Place Franz Liszt across from a little park that is in front of the St. Vincent de Paul church. That’s not a bad setting at all. The 10^th suffers somewhat from being the location of two large train stations, Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est. Evidently, there is a proposal floating around out there to re-develop the area around the Gare du Nord into a pricey business center. That would be good for nearby restaurants and hotels, I guess, but it would also require displacing many existing residents and businesses. I wonder if this idea will fly. My guess is that it will not. After dinner, we took a more pleasant walk down the rue d’Hauteville, toward the 2^nd arrondissement. This street is where you will still find furriers’ workshops. When rue d’Hauteville ended, we crossed into the 2^nd on a very charming little street (pedestrianized, partially), called rue Notre Dame de Bonne Nouvelle. There my cell phone rang for the first time. It was Elisabeth, and we had a very pleasant conversation in this pleasant, quiet, quaint corner of the 2^nd. While I was talking, Tom strolled over to the church by the same name as the street. There was a children’s choir making heavenly noises inside for some kind of late service. After the call, we walked on down through the Sentier neighborhood, which was buzzing with activity, along the rue Montorgueil. I described this lively area last year – click here for more. We kept walking, even though rain started spitting at us. We both had umbrellas, so who cared. We walked all the way down to the rue de Rivoli, where we could then walk under the protection of the arcades, across from the Louvre and the Tuileries. Finally, when we reached the Concorde metro station, we took the metro home to Commerce. This was a very long after-dinner walk! When I saw Maria, our building’s guardienne, this morning, she teased me about us actually staying out after 9PM for two nights in a row! I didn’t know she saw us – we are extremely quiet in our comings & goings. But she exaggerates. We are often out after 9PM. But we are not often out after 10PM, which we indeed have been for the past two nights. Last night, we arrived home at about 11:30, and fortunately we were not sleepy because a loud party was happening across the street. We read for a few hours and then went to bed as the wild party withered. 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Friday, July 11, 2008 The Allée des Cygnes, a great place to walk at rush hour to escape the cars. Decorative figures on deck on a residential boat on the Seine. Looking down the Allée Jules Supervielle at the St. Eustache church. There is also a poem by Jules Superveille called “L’allée.” Here it is: - Ne touchez pas l’épaule Du cavalier qui passe, Il se retournerait Et ce serait la nuit, Une nuit sans étoiles, Sans courbe ni nuages. - Alors que deviendrait Tout ce qui fait le ciel, La lune et son passage, Et le bruit du soleil ? - Il vous faudrait attendre Qu’un second cavalier aussi puissant que l’autre Consentît à passer. Singer from the Back Leg Breakers dances with a French girl he picked from the crowd on the bridge between Ile St. Louis and the Ile de la Cité.