A month in Paris - 6

Friday - March 27





Up at 5:30 and on the road by 6:00. It is an easy drive from Bergerac to Limoges on the autoroute and we arrived at the railroad station in Limoges by 8:30, just in time to buy our train tickets and eat breakfast - my first and probably last pain au chocolat of the trip. A large coffee in France is not large so it took two large coffees to satisfy the morning call for coffee.





The train trip was smooth, pleasant and uneventful. We were back in the apartment by 14:00. Now after all those phenomenal meals it was time to scratch together lunch from whatever remained after a week away. That consisted of spaghetti with store bought tomato sauce and leftover carrots which, after a week in the refrigerator, left a lot to be desired. Pruneaux d'Agen provided dessert. What a comedown!





The rest of the day was spent doing laundry and bringing this blog up to date. A most uneventful day.





Saturday - 28 March





A return to the morning ritual of going down for a newspaper and bread felt great. Unfortunately, I am always a bit too early for the baguette aux noix and so had to settle for the seed bread which is quite good also.





The morning passed quickly and at about 11:00 we started off for a new restaurant which was written up in an old issue of the French version of Saveur magazine which Yvonne had. It is near the Luxembourg Gardens - Les Papilles, 30 rue Gay Lussac, Paris 75005, tel number 01.43.25.20.79. The restaurant is small seating perhaps 40 people and also carries wine and other tempting products for sale to take away. At lunch on Saturday (and perhaps on other days also) there is a fixed menu. There is the owner chef, a sous-chef and a server. This is a "worth a detour" restaurant for anyone in or near Paris.





The first step is to select a bottle of wine which is sold at the take-away price plus 7 Euros. There are bottles of red and white for every taste and price range from under 10 Euros to over 200 Euros. The proprietor suggested a red, Domaines de Ravanes, Les Gravieres du Taurou , vin de pays des Coteaux de Murveil 2005 (a good year Thierry had informed us).





For lunch the menu started with a cream of celery soup which was brought to the table in a large tureen. The soup bowls arrived with a melange of goodies in the bottom which I didn't recognize but, after ladling in the soup and tasting it, the combination was delicious as well as quite rich. The tureen provided two good size bowls of soup each and, in other circumstances would, along with the excellent bread, have provided a normal meal for us. But this is not a normal experience.





Then came a Beef Daube, a beef stew cooked in red wine for about 8 hours and including tiny potatoes, carrot slices, mushrooms and lardons. Another triumph which was also brought to the table in a copper casserole and which we could not finish. Then came a wedge of blue cheese from the Auvergne served with a stewed prune and for dessert there was a small bowl of a creamy pudding which may have been prepared with fromage blanc and topped with a strawberry sauce. With the coffee they provided a small cup of chocolate and cocoa covered walnuts. If only we had more time here, it would be wonderful to go back for dinner when a regular menu is available which, according to the Saveur article, includes an excellent brandade de morue. Next trip this place is a must!





As we left the restaurant it began to rain and rather than walking about, we took the metro directly home where the dinner and full bottle of wine led to a nap. After that lunch, dinner was out of the question.



Notes on the French language:



Be careful of words which look the same in French as in English.

1. French - l'avertissement = caution or warning in English

English - advertisement = la publicite in French



The French sometimes prefer the negative to the positive. For example, there is no French adjective for convenient. You must essentially say it is not inconvenient. And whenever I have said to someone, "it is cold" they have almost always answered " yes, it is not warm". All languages have their peculiarities.



Sunday - March 29



The last day to visit the marche Richard Lenoir. With only two days left in France it would seem that we would need very little but still we returned with quite a load- fish, brussel sprouts, radishes, mache, cheese, eggs and some goodies to bring back home. I'll miss that market. It is about three blocks long with three double sided rows of stalls and has so many delicious looking and smelling things to eat.



Back at the apartment we prepared lunch and then decided that this was a day for R&R. So I caught up on the blog, did the Sunday Times puzzle and just puttered.



Monday - March 30



Tomorrow we leave and we will have lots of luggage to schlep so it seemed like a good idea to find the best way to get to the RER, the train to CDG, without changing metros and with minimum up and down stairs. Chatelet les Halles is the best bet even though it is a fair walk from the apartment. But this is an immense station covering an underground area about 10 blocks long and 4 blocks wide. In order to scout out the best approach and find elevators and excalators if they existed, we walked over and checked the station out. It serves 3 RER lines and 6 or 7 metro lines. We think we have found the best approach for getting to RER B, the line to CDG. Hope we can find it again tomorrow.



Other than that, packing is the next important step.

Tuesday - March 31

Time to go home, but I don't want to leave. We walked from the apartment to the RER stop at Chatelet. It is about a mile but it is all flat and is easier then changing trains at a metro stop because of the stairs. We easily made it and all went well until I tried to drag two suitcases through the wide entrance, wider than the regular gates. I didn't go fast enough and the doors are viscious. They started to swing shut with such force that they knocked me and my suitcases to the floor. Fortunately no broken bones but I have a sore hip and a black and blue spot. So goes it.

Trip back was smooth and on time. Even got an earlier flight from Boston to Baltimore so we got home before 21:00.

Hope to be back in France next year. Au Revoir.