Paris Journal 2011 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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On that subject of how to get the server to bring you the check in a French restaurant, Lennie commented that even when you ask for the check, the server may still think that you want to sit and chat for a while, because you are sitting and chatting. I think this is often true. That must be why those nonverbal cues such as getting up to go to the restroom and gathering up your things or putting on your jackets seem to work. Cynthia sent a cool link to information about all those statues in the Luxembourg gardens. I’ve seen this info in a booklet in the Senat’s bookshop, but it is nice to have it available on the web now. I think I gave my booklet away. Tuesday was one very rainy day. We stayed in, reading and writing, then watching the Tour, until evening when the rain stopped and we walked around in the neighborhood again. At 7:30PM, we peeked in the door at Cristal de Sel on rue Mademoiselle – a restaurant that has been recommended to us. The staff was eating dinner, so we started to go on, thinking we’d just stop by again at 8 to see about dinner. But I decided to go back and put their phone number (posted on the menu outside) into our cell phone. Then I went ahead and called for a reservation. The gentleman who answered nicely told me that the restaurant was already booked up for the evening. That is a good sign. We are definitely going to dine there sometime soon. We walked over to the brasserie called Le Bistro du Quinzieme (behind the church at the end of rue du Commerce) because we’d noticed that this year, it looks appealing, whereas it hasn’t looked so good to us in the past. Somebody bought it and spiffed it up, I guess. The link above has a couple recent reviews (in French). Sleuthing on the web tells me that this bistro was taken over or started by a 38-year old woman named Linda Lopez in February 2010. She could well have been our server; tall and thin and casually fashionable, she looked like a former model. We liked the looks of the menu and the few people who were already there. The windows were clean, and the place looks like somebody cares. So we entered and were graciously given a nice table by the window. I ordered the lamb shank with couscous – similar to what I’d eaten at Le Terminus Balard, but without the apricot and with a dark, rich reduction sauce. I adore that kind of sauce. It was an appropriate dish for a cool, rainy day. Tom had a small steak (filet de l’entrecote, which is offered in two sizes at two price levels) and sautéed potatoes. Everything was delicious and attractively presented. Service was smiling and attentive. Prices were very reasonable. Tom’s steak was every bit as good as the steak at Le Tipaza, maybe better. “Just like an American steak,” Tom pronounced. We’ll be back. Don’t worry – we did eat our vegetables. In the afternoon, I had roasted a mélange of vegetables. Included were tomatoes. I’ve noticed all the roasted tomatoes being served to us, and I noticed that the tomatoes here have a thicker skin than American tomatoes do. That makes them easier to peel with a vegetable peeler. Peeled, roasted tomatoes are much better than unpeeled ones, but I’m not sure why. Maybe a chef like Christian Vivet could tell me why. So into the ceramic baking dish I put two peeled, cored tomatoes with pesto inside, a cut-up potato, some peeled carrot pieces, a quartered onion, drizzled olive oil, freshly ground pepper and some more pesto. All was covered lightly with foil instead of a tight-fitting lid. After roasting for an hour and a half (!) the mélange was ready to eat, just in time for the last 20 kilometers of the day’s stage of the Tour. The veggies were like an early starter course for dinner. I recently finished the best seller, The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain – an excellent book that I highly recommend. It is written from the point of view of Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley Richardson. So now I must read Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast. No problem. This apartment has 10,000 books in it, a least (no exaggeration), and Tom found the requested book in short order, right there in the living room. It is a great life. Sign
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Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Sidewalk
décor on the rue Saint Charles.
Window floweres on the rue de l’Eglise.
Pigeons in
the grass, alas, in the Parc Violet.
Tom
watching the pigeons instead of reading his French newspaper, Le Parisien. |
