Day 11: Paris

Day 11: May 20, Paris

Weather: Very cool to moderate (low 60s), light rain in middle of day, very pleasant in late afternoon and getting cold again at night (THB finally makes it up until it is almost dark)

Department of Amplification: Yesterday’s guided art tour was 350E; since we booked two tours (La Marais and St Germain), it was 50E less than if we booked individual tours (200E each). THB did not tip the guide and we have been discussing the reasons for/against tipping her since then. There does not seem to be an obvious answer.

Our building neighbors, just downstairs, no ATM

Our neighbors two floors down, we are in a work-live building

Department of Amplification, part 2: At the oyster (huitres!) bar last night, the menu was on an i-pad. Seemed like a good idea because they could present the menu in the language of the customer. Somehow, the name of an oyster in French is still in something in French that an English speaker can’t understand. Sorry, THB will not translate this Amplification into another language even though it doesn’t make sense in English. However the blog is available on an i-pad at #thbdoesntmakesense. (Further aside: MS Word thinks putting an “an” in front of “i-pad” is bad English…guess the know how to take a jab at Apple…TAKE THAT!)

Yes, Paris has utility boxes, they are very utilitarian

r.d.t.

THB walks down to Poilane at 7:15, it is cooooooold! Several croissants and an apple turnover, 6E. On the way back, THB passes an army squad of six soldiers, all carrying some sort of automatic rifle; a bit spooky since there is no one else about except guys cleaning the street gutters.

Today is our Paris by Mouth La Marais tour. THB and DB tried to get this scheduled earlier in the week so we could take advantage of the places we are going to try today. Since the tour ended this afternoon, we’ve been trying to decide if having the tour later in the week was better or worse for us. There does not seem to be an obvious answer.

Before the guide shows up, we are guessing these are other tour members; THB and DB are standing across the street IN THE SUN!!

The tour starts at 10:30, about 10 minutes from our apartment, just up our same street, Rue de Turenne, in front of Café de la Poste. Our guide is Claire, a part-time chef at a nearby small plates restaurant (Au Passage), who hails from Dublin. Or is it hales? It is so cold, THB thinks it will hail. There are 5 others on the trip: a couple from Denver (they got married in LA), a brother (he lives in Austin) and sister (she’s near Cantors in LA) and a woman from Rolling Hills in LA.

Decals on windows of recent awards

And the trophy

The award winner behind counter talking to our guide, Claire (red-head is sister in LA)

Lots of cidre for sale

After intros we start off at 134 r.d.t. (acronym for Rue De Turenne). 134 is now #1 r.d.t.: the baguette is tremendous, has won a city-wide contest, and the plain croissant and almond croissant are not far behind. Poilane slides into 2^nd place. The “white chocolate” baguette is easily the most unusual baguette in THB’s limited experience: subtle, looks more like cheese coating, and does not taste outright like anything chocolate. It does taste very good.

White chocolate baguette slice

The group motors on a few blocks to Thiercelin, a spice shop (maybe since 1809, if THB can get you to believe the label is accurate). Lots of spices, honey, syrops, flavored vinegars, flavored grains, and a few bottles of wine or sale. THB and DB may go back for miscellany shopping.

Another few short blocks and we’re near the covered market. Across the street is Maison RoMella, an upscale deli with many unusual (to THB) items along with standards: pates, terrines, soft-boiled eggs in “shells”, stuffed pastries, and standards like roti chicken, roast beef, etc. Another spot that THB and DB think we made revisit, except we don’t have that many days or meals left (and, we should be dieting, starting right now…)

Only when adding pics to the blog did THB realize the caps mid-name had struck MaiSon RoMella too

egg in nest

Across the street and in front of the covered market is Fromagerie (THB did not see if they had another name). They are an affineur, which means they buy cheeses from the makers and then store and age them before selling them. Their storage area is in a cellar below the store (we don’t see the cellar, we hear about it from Ms Rolling Hills).

Around the corner is Caracterie de Cochon, a tiny place where you can buy various parts of the pig, dried out, aged, sliced, etc. We sample several types of “ham” and can taste how the flavors differ. Both are a bit salty, not enough to camouflage the intended flavors. Ms Rolling Hills does not eat meat, so she waits outside. Not a bad thing, the places is dinky, we would’ve had to take turns anyway.

One of many 3-wheelers we see

Claire amongst hanging dried decorations and drying sausages (hoodie is up because we just got inside from rain)

The proprietor, originally from Madagascar; mirror nice design touch to make shop seem almost 10x10 instead of 5x7

From here, we cross the street to BiBoViNo, which THB thinks means literally drink wine (and the guy who decided to capitalize every other letter clearly had too much when deciding on the logo). The idea: put premium wines in a box and sell it for less than stuff in bottles while making people try and forget the slog they sold in boxes in supermarkets years ago. DoN’t BeT oN tHiS hApPeNiNg (from Conan Doye’s The Case of the Semi-Sticking Cap Key).

ReAlLy?

In BiBoViNo (THB does not like this name, he really, really does not like this name), the group settles in for a picnic of deli items, cheese, wine, and baguette. Except for Ms Rolling Hills, who makes a short trip to the photography store. Turns out she isn’t wild about cheese either, though apparently she has a cheese tour lined up for later in the week.

Note: purse on empty seat, Ms RH is off somewhere off-tour

Le picnique (pronounced peek-neek):

Six cheeses (two sheep, one fresh and one aged a bit longer; a Roquefort, a Conte, a Brie, and was there one more?), and a bit of quince (Ms Rolling Hills rejects all but one of the cheeses…THB thinks he heard she’s going on a cheese tour).

Four types of wine (white blend of semillion, Rhone style red, another red blend, and a sweet port-like wine to go with the last cheese

Baguette from #1 r.d.t.

Duck rillettes and a pate

The picnique rolls along for about an hour…lots of time to drink wines out of boxes and consume much cheese and pate and rillettes. And look like you aren’t really enjoying le peek-neek (Ms Rolling Hills).

Still, what’s a food tour without dessert. Another short walk and we are just about back where we started: across the street from #1 r.d.t. is Jacques Genin, selling mostly chocolates, in a huge setting with one sales assistant. More tasting, and the most interesting part of the tour: the sister near Cantor’s says to Ms Rolling Hills, “will anything make you happy, anything at all????” and Ms. Rolling Hills holds up a chocolate covered Genin  marshmallow, takes a bite, and gives broad semi-facetious smile. It was a moment!

Must be eaten within 15 hours?

3 weeks for the caramels

One sales asssitant, and this is just part of the store

Easter Island "head" in chocolate

Is there anything that will make you happy?

The tour ends around 2pm, 190E for two and a 30E tip. Why did THB tip today and not yesterday? It’s complicated….THB will include an analysis as part of the Paris Observations (if he remembers!). And Ms Rolling Hills passes out her business card: helping turn out professional bar and bat mitzvah videos. In the land of no comment, this one comes extremely close to unbelievable.

must be eaten NOW

why is this adult pecking at a hello kitty? 

To round out the afternoon (and to avoid taking a two hour nap), THB and DB go shopping and have success: two very light, very intriguing necklaces (one in homage to JOB, since THB and DB brought her back light, intriguing necklaces from many of their trips).

Dinner is at Spring, highly recommended by MR and DR from their last Paris trip, and the Denver food tour couple confirmed it was terrific (best meal they had in Paris, which included several more famous “starred” places). We shall see!

Okay, we’re back from Spring, and THB is totally stuffed. The food is great, the service is bizarre. We also went for the wine pairing (“only a half bottle” per person…).

The good news: inventive dishes and the food tastes just like what it is; it’s the best version of it that you have had in a long time, if ever. They do not tell you what you’re eating until it comes to the table.  Everybody gets the same thing. Everybody gets it very fast. We asked to slow down the meal or we wouldn’t finish the first glass of wine.

• Amusing boochie of small round slivers of fois gras, smoked eel and crunchy eggplant; pairing was a prosecco like wine
•  Smoked mackerel on mint puree with peas and something else small; a pinot gris accompanied (along with half a glass of wine #1)
• Slow cooked “poached” egg with morels, green asparagus and ham; paired with Jura. We send the Jura back before the dish came, it smelled and tasted oxidized. So it was supposed to be, according to the sommelier, especially chosen to go with this course. We still sent it back, got a chardonnay instead. Turns out they had used the Jura in making the dish. No matter, we were thrilled to send it back. It stunk. Good news: it didn’t ruin a great dish!
• Veal with carrots was the main course, paired with a red from Corsica. OOOPS! Another main course comes with the main course: sweetbreads with roasted potatoes. Both main courses exceptional. Wine excellent. THB gets 80% of sweetbreads, DB gets 80% of veal. Everybody 100% happy.
• Three desserts come simultaneously (that means together, not on the same plate): clafoutis (a thickish crepe) with hot fruit on top; strawberry sorbet; and chocolate mousse; Some half-semillon, half-muscadet sauterne-like wine. All desserts and wine excellent
• Trying to finish the wines…THB fails
• Two decaf cappuccinos...THB fails at finishing his coffee too
• Grand total of 300E, an excellent value; our meal went from 6:40 to 8:45 or so. In our area, there were three other couples, all from the Bay Area. One of them sat down at 7:30 and was finishing up when we were (they did not do the wine pairings). Sort of a gourmet ghetto ghetto.

THB may be getting a menu via e-mail, they don’t do paper versions. DB found a review from 2011 in the NYT: the place has changed a lot since then, maybe even since the Denver couple ate there a few days ago.