Paris Journal 2009 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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Yesterday, I did a thorough job
of revising the Google
map that goes with my restaurant
recommendations, which I’ve also been gradually revising this
summer. In doing so, I went through
the impressive collection of restaurant business cards that we’ve
amassed. That exercise brought to my
attention a few places that escaped inclusion in the recommendations, for
reasons that I can’t explain. But here they are: Le Tournesol is an attractive bistrot in a part of
the 16th arrondissement that does not have many restaurants at
all. That’s why the restaurant’s
business card says “votre bistrot du
16eme,” an easier claim when there isn’t much else. It is located at 2 avenue de Lamballe, at
the intersection with avenue President Kennedy, overlooking the Seine – or
rather, overlooking the highway that occupies the right bank of the Seine. We
discovered it by taking long walks in the 16th, and needing to be
refueled before going home at the end of the day. The food is wholesome, good traditional
fare prepared using fresh ingredients.
A little Asian influence is thrown in here and there to add
interest. And the prices are fair, not
très seizieme. While this place could succumb to
mediocrity due to lack of nearby competition, it hasn’t done so. It offers service 7 days a week, and advertises
wifi access. Telephone 01-45-25-95-94. La Brasserie Saint Benoit is located in that busy Saint Germain
area at 26 rue Saint Benoit. Very
attractive, with a mirrored wall at the back making it look twice as big as
it is, the brasserie offers friendly service and good traditional fare
prepared correctly at reasonable prices.
We’re the kind of people who do not go to Café de Flore and the Deux
Magots just BECAUSE they are too famous and trendy. We prefer a brasserie like this, just
around the corner. Telephone
01-45-48-29-66. Café Hugo is where we go when in the Marais, and
in particular, when we’re in the Place des Vosges. I love their big salads. But they offer other good things, too. My friend Heather likes their onion soup
and club sandwiches. I’d say the food
is light, and corners are not cut here.
Prices are very reasonable, and you just can’t beat the setting, in
the arcade of the old and attractive Place des Vosges. Check out this photo. This is a super place for lunch or
tea. 22 Place des Vosges, telephone
01-42-72-64-04. Le
Minzingue, far away
from the tourists and across from the charming St. John the Baptist of
Grenelle church at the end of the rue du Commerce in the 15th
arrondissement, brings something of the provinces to the big city. Specifically, it brings the cuisine of the
Auvergne, artfully presented to you by Jean-Louis Piqueronies. If you have the nerve to try traditional
Andouillette A.A.A.A.A., this would be a good place to do it. The wine list is extensive and you can
order just about any wine by the glass.
Address is 5 place Etienne Pernet, telephone 01-45-32-48-54. Last night, we went back to Chez
Maître Paul for the second time.
This time we weren’t so rushed to place our order, and our server was
a more experienced young professional.
We ordered one menu at 36 euros (three courses plus a half bottle of
wine), and one main course at 24 euros.
We shared the starter course of an aumonière
of shrimp and finely julienned vegetables, and Tom consumed the dessert of
the day, a mirabelle (yellow plum) tart.
Well, I had one bite of the tart.
(We’ve had some pretty great mirabelle tarts this summer; this one,
while not the best, was very good.) Tom’s main course was a veal
chop – thick, hearty, and delicious – served with a foie gras juice as a sauce.
It also came with potato pancakes sautéed to crispness in generous
amounts of butter, and a few veggies.
I ordered the poulette fermière
again (roasted chicken) with a creamy mushroom sauce and wild rice. The sauce was even better than last time,
and the chicken almost as good as last time. My one complaint was the shrimp
in the aumonière. It had been not just cooked, but
massacred. As a south Floridian, I
know I am a harsh judge when it comes to shrimp. But what they served at Maître Paul was way
too overcooked, dry and tough. The
vegetables and sauce in the aumonière
were good, but the pool of lobster or shrimp sauce that the aumonière sat in was inexplicably way
too salty. Nevertheless, because of the
main courses, plus the lovely terrine, tart, and walnut cake we’ve had there,
I’d say this is a keeper. I just would
not trust them with seafood, that’s all.
With the 36 euro three-course-plus-wine fixed-price menu, the prices are
okay, and the ambiance of spacious, quiet elegance is very nice. Address is 12 rue Monsieur le Prince,
telephone 01-43-54-74-59. Before dinner, we’d taken a
walk down through the Luxembourg Gardens again and along the boulevard
Montparnasse to the rue Campagne Première, where we’d read about an
interesting apartment whose living room was on a ground level and had a glass
ceiling. I wondered if it could be in
one of the old ateliers (workshops) that you see in the lower parts of some
of the left bank arrondissements. Sure enough, after we rounded
the corner, on the left side of the street, we caught a glimpse into the big
openings at numbers 5, 7 and 9. There
were the ateliers, along cobbled lanes, and some had glass roofs. One the sidewalk is a historical marker
explaining that after the exposition of 1889, some of the glass and other
materials from the expo were used by some entrepreneurs to construct light,
airy ateliers. We continued our walk along
that charming street with several interesting looking bistrots, turning at
the boulevard Raspail to go back up to the boulevard Montparnasse to find
newspapers to buy. It was getting a
bit late for buying papers, so we needed a busy area like this near the
Montparnasse train station in order to be successful. We were successful, but we had to go to two
different newstands to complete our purchases. Then we went back along the rue Vavin,
catching another glimpse of the charming rue Bréa. We were just in time to cut through the
Luxembourg Gardens again before closing time. |
Friday, September 4, 2009
One
of the four towers of the Mitterand Library, which doesn’t look so bad from
here.
One
of the Velib bike stations, not far
from the Mitterand.
The
vibrating Passarelle Simone de Beauvoir connects the area around the
Mitterand Library with the lovely Parc Bercy.
The
Pont de Bercy reminds me a lot of the Pont de Bir Hakeim. Both support cars and line 6 of the metro.
More
flowers at the Square Tino Rossi along the Seine. |
