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Pony
and donkeys taking two little girls for a ride in the
Guys
playing basketball in the Champ de Mars.
Lilac
and la tour. (Correction: buddleia, or butterfly bush, |
Saturday, September 1 I had to take a break from the journal for a few days
because we had to finish up moving the last of our things from the 15th
arrondissement to the apartment in the 6th. I’m tired from all the work of it, but happy
to still have another month in this gorgeous city. We saw John and Linda from Sanibel on Wednesday. They’ve rented a beautiful, huge apartment
in the 9th arrondissement.
It was quite a treat to see them and this lovely abode. They even have a view of Sacre Coeur from
their balcony. On our toughest moving/cleaning day, we dragged
ourselves, exhausted and starving, down to the Tour Eiffel
Brasserie at the end of our trendy rue du Commerce, across from
the church. I’ve been having the best
luck ordering from the blackboards in brasseries lately. I ordered a “saumonette” prepared
Basque-style. Ron from Oxfordshire had just been telling us how you
can tell if a salmon is farm-raised or wild.
If farm raised, he said, it doesn’t have much muscle around the
tail. If wild, it has plenty of flesh
around the tail, and you can feel it when you pick it up by the tail. A “saumonette” is evidently the tail of a wild
salmon. It had an abundance of
excellent flesh all around. It was
expertly baked with the Basque-style vegetables (roasted peppers, eggplant,
onions, tomatoes and plenty of garlic and spices). The rice served with it was okay, nothing
to complain or rave about, but the fish, sauce, seasonings, and veggies were
wonderful. Tom tried to order the veal special, but it was 4PM and
the brasserie had run out of veal. So
he ordered the onglet, a
steak. For French beef, it was pretty
good. Then he had great success with
dessert of the day. He ordered the tarte tatin, and it was terrific. The fairly young couple who own/manage this place are
watchful to be sure everyone gets
good service. Our server was absent
minded, and the owner had to keep reminding him to do the next thing he was
supposed to do. Every detail is being
well tended in this brasserie, and it is hugely popular with the locals. I think this young couple is going to do
very, very well. Today, Tom had to wait for a FedEx from So we went to the Bistrot de la
Grille at 14, rue Mabillon, across from the Marché St. Germain-des-Pres. I’ve been wanting to go there for a couple
years because people have told us that it is good. And I’ve recommended it to others; they
liked it. But last year, when we tried
to go at peek dinner time, we had not been able to get in. We made it there for lunch. I ordered from the blackboard. The starter course, which we shared, was a
home-made terrine with candied onions on the side. It was perfect. Then I had a cannette a l’orange served with a mousseline de celeri, a truly original main course. It was spicy – spicier even than the Basque
food. The celery mousse was much like
puréed potatoes, but with a far more interesting taste, and it had been
jazzed up with garlic and plenty of white pepper. The duck was okay, but the sauce was
divine. They even included chunks of
orange, slightly cooked, in the sauce.
I think they snuck some curry into the orange sauce – not very French,
but very yummy. Tom ordered the faux
filet from the blackboard, and it was not great. I wish he’d stop trying to get good steak
in |
