Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Paris Food

The French eat better than we do.
There is just no two ways about it.  We had some wonderful meals, saw some exquisite shops, and each of us, Mary and I, also had some truly memorable experiences...come along and bring your appetite!

Our first stop after checking into our hotel was Angelina's, a tea shop where Coco Chanel and Audrey Hepburn used to go on the Rue de Rivoli across from the Louvre.

The African hot chocolate was truly to die for.

Mary is here having her first crepe.  The Nutella ones were good, but here she was really hungry and ordered one with egg and cheese.  Just scrumptious, and cheap too.

 For our first restaurant experience, this little place looked so quintessentially French!  In we went...but alas...

Mary ordered brains by mistake.  Before we left on our trip, it was the one thing she had said she would not eat in France.

I thought it was hysterical, as only an older sister can.  But my turn was next.

Chartier was highly recommended as a landmark restaurant, not fancy, but venerably serving the working classes with great food for over 100 years.

You had to walk through a little courtyard to find it.  We were so excited!

The waiters scrawl the orders on the paper table cloth..

Our starters were fine, hard boiled eggs with rich homemade mayonnaise, leeks en vinaigrette, and pate.

The grilled anduille sausage, not pictured because it looked SO GROSS, was next to the fries here.  Three bites was all I could manage.  Mary got even with me for laughing at her!

We saw this shop window on our walk home from Chartier, and wished we had eaten here.

The food at the humble sidewalk brasseries was much better.  Salad du Nord and Crock au Madame, yum yum, yum!

We loved going into the little shops, just to see how they have their food arranged so beautifully. (But then, everything is beautiful in Paris.) Fruit on one side, vegetables on the other.

This was a greek "deli".  Everything looked so good, but we were just window shopping.

This little table of pasta was in the Italian deli next door to the Greek one.

The French onion soup was truly the best we ever tasted, the real deal.

Our favorite meals were picnics.  Here is a typical boulangerie where we bought bread and pain au chocolat.

The peaches straight off the shelves were juicy and perfumed...real fruit, not bred for shipping with no flavor like ours.  ;-(  The cheese was brie and glorious.

 The evening picnics on the Seine are our favorite memory....

 For our last picnic we found this extraordinary cheese shop in St. Germain des Pres.

I was not supposed to take pictures in there, but I did anyways.  We found the most incredible Camembert  that just defies description.  We got drunk on it.

And where else to go for a late night desert than a chocolate shop?

We walked so many miles every day that we didn't gain any weight....and agreed that the cheese was our favorite food...I need to go back and do some serious study of the pastry!

In my next post I'll write about trim shopping in Montmartre....
Adieu!

11 comments :

Sparkly Rock Girl said...

So funny re the andouille! We had four star andouillette in Troyes, supposedly the best you can get, and it was disgusting! On the other hand the boudin noir in Lyon was great. I always memorise the terms for the types of offal I am not prepared to eat before travelling - saves the brains experience.

Lovely photos - it looks like a great trip.

Alison
Godalming, UK

Anonymous said...

Hope you're catching up from your travels, Allie. Sorry you were under the weather for a bit. I can only imagine the fun that you and your sis had enjoying new things and making new memories. Thanks for sharing your trip here and via FB. Can't wait to see what was in your DMC Goodie Bag !!! Jane in the UP PS Wonderful photos ... I can smell the bakery ...

Kay said...

How funny! This makes me want to go back to Paris.

Rian said...

Mmmmmm. Yep Allie, I know what you mean about the food in France. Every earthly morsel is elevated to an otherworldly level. Thanks for sharing.

Marty52 said...

Le Sigh....

Pamela Kellogg said...

Oh Allie, everything looks wonderful! I do tend to go for plain food so the fruit and cheese would be right up my alley! And of course, the chocolate! Can't wait to see and read more!

Hugs, Pam

Rebecca Grace said...

Tell your sister that I know her pain! There is a restaurant in the Latin Quarter called Le Procope. (http://www.procope.com) It is the oldest café in Paris, founded in 1686. Who has eaten there? Oh, no one but Napoleon Bonaparte, Benjamin Franklin, and other folks we've never heard of. So I asked the waitress, in my crippled French, to please recommend one of the meals that is a house specialty, that has been on the menu the longest, so I could feel like I was One With Napoleon. And I ordered Tete de Veau, the Calf's Head Stew, and I KNEW what it was and I ordered it anyway because I blindly trusted that French people would not eat this for 300+ years if it was gross, and I wanted to be a brave, sophisticated traveler.

I am sure she was laughing at me in the kitchen. Ew, spongy slimey calf brain BLECH!!!!! Stick to the escargots...

The worst thing about my calf brain debacle is that Le Procope is VERY expensive. And the woman I was dining with ordered something edible and delicious, and there I was with my nasty brain stew.

I hope you had a wonderful time in Paris, Allie! It is better to be eating something yucky in Paris than to be eating something delicious just about anywhere else. :-)

Deb Hardman said...

Beautiful funny post. I wish I could take at rip like that with my sister. What a blast!

I've only ever been in the airport in Paris. Even the airplane food on Air France was the best airplane food I ever tasted!

sharonb said...

Yes I have to agree with you the French eat well - I really enjoyed the food but kept much of it simple as I prefer it that way- loved it. Now we are in Arles the cooking is different but still just as good!

Our photos said...

Your photos look so yummy!
Greetings, RW & SK

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