Paris Journal 2014 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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Tomorrow, we move to the 6th arrondissement, as we do in September every year. During this past week in the 15th, we’ve been visiting our favorite local spots because we might not be in this quarter much during the next three weeks. There is so much to do and see over in the 5th and 6th, you see. On Thursday evening, we had a delicious fish dinner at Le Granite. Dalila was late, so Chef Eric greeted us and took our order. We shared a starter of foie gras entier, and then Dalila arrived. She greeted us with kisses and asked what we were having next. Sole meunière for Tom and ocean perch for me, we responded. The fish was superb, but the delight of the evening was the “supris”, which Dalila explained in rapidfire, enthusiastic French. Getting the idea, I said, “c’est comme le pain perdu?” “Oui,” she said, “mais plus compliqué.” The “supris” (surprise) is a terrine made of scraps of whatever yummy pastries you have sitting around – like croissants, cakes, etc. It is put together with eggs and cream, I think, then baked, chilled, and sliced. The slice is served with a sprinkling of slivered almonds or something similar, crème anglaise, and rich dark chocolate sauce. Dalila said this is something her mother would make.
We shared one of those, and it was wonderful! And it was so nice to see Dalila and Eric again. We adore that pair of restaurateurs! Then last night, we went to the Bistrot d’En Face for the second time. We shared an order of five huge fried shrimps as a starter, and it could not possibly have been better. Frying is an art, and this chef at the Bistrot has mastered it. The shrimp were piping hot, crispy on the outside, not greasy, and tender and juicy on the inside. The dish came with two kinds of dipping sauces, and a bottle of sweet & spicy McIlhenny tabasco from Avery Island, Louisiana.
We each ordered the special of the day, the lamb shank. It was the best we’ve had in France. (I acknowledge that Chef Michael Patnode makes an absolutely delicious lamb shank at Traders Restaurant on Sanibel Island.) The carrots that had been roasted slowly in the pot had been left in their skins; that was different. A big crock of old-fashioned, grainy mustard was placed on the table for us to use as we pleased on the lamb.
The music playing on the sound system was American again, but oddly, it was disco music. This really isn’t a disco kind of place; the music should be jazz or classical, we observed.
The owners of the Bistrot were very nice to us, and we were, once again, incredibly comfortable in this place. We’ll go there again, most certainly. The reservation at the Bistrot made it convenient for us to walk up to the luxuriant subtropical garden of the Musée du Quai Branly again, and then down to the bank of the Seine, where we walked to the southwest, past the Bateaux Parisiens. Then we saw a group of swans being fed by a man sitting under the bridge, where a frayère (spawning basin) has been made for the fish. The swans were beautiful and not the least bit ill-tempered, as large water birds so often are. When we passed the tourist boat area with all the people and places to eat, we were in that long, calm stretch where we could walk slowly, admiring the picturesque house boats/barges. We ascended to the street level at the Pont de Bir Hakeim, partly because we noticed that the construction fencing had been removed from the center of this picturesque bridge, and partly because we didn’t want to be caught in the rain again on the riverbank. But it never did rain. The skies were blanketed completely by clouds, much the way they are so often in Ohio. This morning, the sky is the same. This morning, I finally received the ice bucket challenge, as I knew I would, inevitably. The challenge came from four members of the city council and the city clerk of Sanibel. One is supposed to accept or decline the challenge within 24 hours of receiving it, so guess what’s on the schedule for this afternoon?
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Saturday, September 6, 2014
Swans being fed in the frayère
(spawning bed) under the Pont D’Iéna.
Garden of the Musée du Quai Branly. That little thing sticking up in the photo
below is the top of the Eiffel Tower.
The Monument de la France
Renaissante (above) and the Viaduc de Passy on the Pont de Bir Hakeim.
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