Paris Journal 2009 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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Our walk down the avenue Félix
Faure yesterday evening brought us a nice surprise. When we were almost at the end of it, we
turned on the rue Vasco de Gama to check out L’Os a Moelle, a great
restaurant, but alas, one of those places where you must order the entire
5-course prix fixe dinner. That’s just too much food for me
anymore. So I was secretly pleased to
see that the place was still closed for August vacation. We circled around back onto the
avenue Félix Faure and continued in the direction of home, but Tom noticed a
cute restaurant just off the avenue at the corner of the rue Durantan and the
rue Plélo. According to its awning,
the name of the restaurant is Le Granite. The rue Plélo was named for
Louis Robert Hippolyte de Bréhan, the count of Plélo (1699-1734) and
ambassador for France at Copenhagen.
Formerly, it was named for Antonin Proust, a journalist and politician
who killed himself in 1905. Why the
street changed names I’m not sure, but probably it has to do with the fact
that there are two other streets in Paris named Proust, and when the village
of Vaugirard (the lower part of the 15th arrondissement) was
annexed to Paris, some street names later had to change to reduce confusion. Félix Faure, by the way, was a
wealthy industrialist turned politician who unexpectedly became president of
the Republic in 1895. While president,
he amnestied anarchists in exile, who were then able to return to France. The most remembered event of
his presidency is the Dreyfus affair which earned him the ire of people like
Emile Zola, Georges Clemenceau, and many others. Félix Faure died from a seizure
while having sex in his office with a 30-year-old woman. So French. Back to Le Granite: this is a brand-new restaurant, just opened
this summer. The proprietor appears to
be the somewhat young woman who runs the front of the house. The menu is all written out on a big,
three-panel blackboard, except for the wine list which is handsomely printed
and bound. The restaurant is very
tastefully decorated in shades of maroon, gray, and brown (the colors of the
moment, I’d say). The cuisine is
fairly traditional, minus the really heavy, rich sauces. We both shared a starter course
of tiny ravioli’s in a light garlic-and-herb cream sauce. Then we each had a main course of rack of
lamb, served with a good ratatouille and a bit of nicely steamed broccoli. The lamb was perfectly cooked,
and came with a sauce that was pretty much just its own juice, browned and
reduced a bit. Tom had a fresh, seasonal fruit
salad for dessert, and I had the crème brulée, which was very good. Even though wine by the glass
was not on the wine list, I asked for just one glass of the Touraine
Sauvignon (white), and that was no problem.
The entire bottle would have been 18 euros, and they charged me 6
euros for a glass, which I think was reasonable enough. There are some bottles of wine on the list
for as little as 15 euros, a low price that you normally would not see in a
good restaurant. Tom consumed a large bottle of
mineral water for 6 euros. Our entire dinner was 66
euros. Not bad at all for an elegant
restaurant in Paris. Le Granite is located at 19 rue Duranton in the 15th
arrondissement, telephone 01-45-58-43-17. About that dead rat picture, at
right. Supposedly, the city council in
Paris has said that there are four times as many rats as humans in
Paris. The river, canals and
restaurants make Paris rat heaven. The Aurouze family has been in
the rat killing business in Paris since 1875.
I included photos of
their shop in last year’s journal; it is the inspiration for the dératisseur shop in the movie Ratatouille. Click
here for more photos of the Aurouze’s and their shop. |
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
A
handsome boat making its way along the Seine on a very warm Sunday.
Living
aboard on the Seine.
A
young man rudely stepped right in front of me as we walked along the Seine,
blocking my view and causing me to ALMOST step on this dead rat. |
