I don't usually quote lyrics by the Dixie Chicks, but my last post was September 1, 2010 and it has indeed been a long time since I've posted to my blog. I think this is primarily due to laziness and the ease of use of Twitter, which I use multiple times each week.
But now I'm in Paris for a month and have more to share than fits in the 140 characters of a tweet, so I'm actually going to post a post. Whee! How exciting -
I have been tweeting away while here, with lots of links to my Google photo albums, which I hope you're enjoying. I'm mostly using my aging Nikon D100 digital SLR camera as a point and shoot and not taking advantage of its magic powers, but I think I'm at least sharing some of the visual flavors of Paris.
And we've started taking advantage of the literal flavors of Paris in the past ten days or so and making some new friends. We had lunch at Les Gourmets de Ternes with Toby Ruckert and Margit Brusda from Stuttgart, Germany, New Zealand, and India, as well as Nabil Hanga from Lagos, Nigeria. It's mostly a meat place, serving slabs of the cold blue beef the French seem to admire, but 4 of the 5 of us had fish instead. Brad really enjoyed the baba au rhum dessert, but I didn't love the celebrity-obsessed owner and don't need to go there again, especially since there is a world of dining splendor surrounding us.
The next day we had lunch with Cliff Shaw and Christy Clark from Boulder, Colorado at Restaurant Dominique Bouchet which I felt was our first "real" French meal. I had salmon carpaccio with pink peppercorns and Granny Smith apple bites, tuna and avocado stack for Brad, giant pasta tubes with lobster for both of us, and dessert of chocolate tart for me. The experience was similar to the meal I enjoyed and blogged about at Les Bouquinistes in April 2005. The space was clean and modern, with contemporary art on the walls and a simple decor. I would have happily gone again during our time in Paris except that, in the Parisian way, the restaurant is closed from July 14th through August 29. So French.
After our now normal afternoon siesta, we had an excellent high-end meal that evening with Rodrigo Sepulveda Schulz and his lovely lawyer wife, Anne, at Laurent in the outdoor garden in the Parisian twilight overlooking the Champs-Elysees garden. Although I'm allergic to wine, which is extra unfortunate and difficult in France, I could smell the incredible Domaine Francoise Raveneau 2000 Chablis Grand Cru Blanchot even though I couldn't drink it. My beautiful lobster helped comfort me. And dessert was a comfort, too.
The very next night we were delighted to have dinner with longtime New York friends Fred and Joanne Wilson at Les Fines Gueles which Joanne blogged about here, complete with fun photos. If you squint you can see my fun French scarf in the background of a shot or two. Les Fines Gueles is one of a crop of wine bars I keep reading about on the Parisian food blogs I've recently subscribed to. One of my favorite reviewers, David Lebovitz, reviews it here. I would eat here every week.
The next day we walked down to Sunday lunch to meet Jerome Camblain and Nathalie Besancon at Cafe Marly, trying to burn off at least some of the accumulating calories. The best thing about Cafe Marly is that it overlooks the glass pyramid entrance to the Louvre. As is usual for places with superb views, the food and service are inversely proportional to that view - but what a view!
And the next day, because we hadn't been eating enough food, we had a legendary Top Ten List meal with Jeff Clavier at L'Arpege, which is probably worthy of its very own separate blog post. Truly amazing meal. Here's a photo of L'Arpege lobster from another one of my new favorite Parisian food blogs, Paris by Mouth.
Brad is very relaxed and happy from lots of sleep and an exploration of French wine. Here's his list of his first week in Paris.
I'll do another post soon (famous last words?!?) about eating at Saturne and the upcoming repeat vists to Top Ten List restaurants Le Cinq and Guy Savoy.
Bon appetit!
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