Paris Journal 2015 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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By the time we were ready to go out, it was practically 4PM – rush hour. So we headed for the Allée des Cygnes, away from the noisy traffic. The Allée is on the Isle aux Cynges. The southwestern end of that island in the middle of the Seine is the location of the largest of three or four Statues of Liberty in Paris. The other end of the Isle is the picturesque Pont de Bir Hakeim – the site of many weddings and wedding photos in Paris. With all this scenery, we weren’t surprised to see a notice posted on the Allée, announcing that a movie was being filmed there yesterday and the day before. (Such notices never seem to say what film is being made.) Sure enough, when we’d nearly completed our circuit on the Allée, we noticed a couple vans parked off to the side and one moving right toward us. Normally, there are no vehicles at all on the Isle aux Cygnes. Then we saw a water tank/pumping truck parked up on the Pont de Grenelle. The movie scene must have called for a bonfire or some other kind of fire near the Statue of Liberty. The still-dripping water truck pulled away just as we reached the bridge. The remaining filming didn’t require water, I guess. There is no plumbing on the Isle aux Cygnes. We walked around in the Beaugrenelle mall for a short time, but it just seemed like malls elsewhere, anywhere, in the world. The Allée des Cygnes is unique; the Beaugrenelle mall is not so unique. Tom wanted to visit the pharmacy on Place Charles Michel again, so we did. Last time we were there, he didn’t bring the generic name for Benadryl with him. This time he did. French pharmacists have never heard of Benadryl; but they know what diphenhydramine is. That’s Benadryl’s generic name. Now we have some diphenhydramine. The pharmacist was cute. She wanted to warn Tom that the diphenhydramine would make him drowsy. So she placed her hands together and leaned her head against them, as if she were about to take a snooze. We understood, giggled, and Tom promised her he would not drive an automobile while taking diphenhydramine. It is an easy promise; we don’t drive cars at all for the entire three months that we’re in Paris every year. In the evening, we strolled down the rue due Theatre to the rue Saint Charles, where we had a table reserved at O fil Rouge. We were surprised to see three tables already occupied when we arrived at 7:30PM. By the time we left, the place was buzzing, and practically full. We ordered the mussels for the starter course. Surprisingly, they were served on the half-shell, and each half-shell almost looked like a small, flat pen shell. The mussels were cooked in an escargot-like preparation: butter, garlic and herbs. The piping hot, buttery, soft mussels were served atop a small green salad. The dish was well-seasoned and excellent. We each ordered the magret de canard (slices of roasted duck breast) for our main course. The duck was topped by a slice of pear that had been roasted with the meat juices. That was a nice touch, but the dish was a little too bland. I had to add both salt and pepper. The star of the evening was the dessert, the brioche façon pain perdu, which we remembered fondly from our visit to O fil Rouge two weeks ago. The restaurant was far less busy that time. Last night, the restaurant was pretty noisy and the server was overtaxed by the time we left. I don’t know how a restaurant can operate like that, with just one person in the kitchen and one in the dining room, when it is that busy. But O fil Rouge did the job, and did it very well. |
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
O
fil Rouge, in a quiet neighborhood at 69 rue Saint
Charles.
The
magret de canard a la poire
(above) and the brioche façon pain perdue (below).
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