Encore Paris - 2018

On Thursday night we went to another favorite restaurant from our 2014 trip, Au Passage.  It was one of the first small plates restaurants in Paris and we remember interesting food in an extremely casual setting.  We enjoyed our dinner but see similar restaurants all over Paris now so Au Passage isn't the special experience it used to be. Our dinner -- and, again, apologies for forgetting to photograph everything -- started with a pork terrine.  The interesting part was pickled chile peppers rather than the usual cornichons. Next plate was a variety of radishes (so pretty!) with two different composed butters -- seafood and herb. Tom had beef with shallots -- the best dish of the night. And I had lobster with a vanilla butter sauce which was delicious, as you can see... We had started the evening with cocktails at the Red Door, the place Tom discovered the previous week.  I had a bourbon cocktail from the menu.  Tom challenged the barte...

We saw posters for a free light show at Notre Dame, which is a short walk from our apartment.   We're not entirely sure what the commentary was describing -- the history of this church at the center of the country? But seeing the light show was worth it.  Some pictures: And the next night we went to the monthly celebration of the full moon on the Pont des Arts bridge.  Everyone brings something to eat or drink and you talk in sight of some of Paris's sights:

Frenchie's restaurant has been on our list since our last trip to Paris four years ago.  We weren't able to get reservations then so we settled for the restaurant's casual sibling, Frenchie's Wine Bar which doesn't require a reservation, just a possible wait in line.  We love the Wine Bar and that made us even more anxious to try the Restaurant.  We finally did this week and it was worth the wait! The menu was 8 different dishes -- 2 amuses and 6 courses including 2 different dessert courses.  We ordered the recommended wine pairing but it was only okay so no photos. 1st amuse -- Bacon maple gougere.  We each received one but we could have eaten a whole plate of these.  The platter was on a shelf next to us and Tom almost did!  So delicious! 2nd amuse -- Eel with olive oil on a seaweed chip.  Tom's version had radish but still included the seaweed chip, a misunderstanding on the part of the restaurant since it was still fishy t...

While Maxine was baking and later in the week heading out for a walking tour, I was doing other things... Thursday I tried to go to a Lagunitas beer tap takeover.  Three years ago Heineken bought control of them so we've been seeing Lagunitas beers around town.  Unfortunately, a tap takeover in Paris isn't the same as in Portland where there can be 20 or 40 taps to "take".  This place had only 4 and the beers were ones I'd had before, so I didn't stay.  Somewhat somberly, I discovered that this bar is down the street from where the 2015 Bataclan shootings happened. Stuck in a neighborhood that I didn't know, I went to my sightseeing app, Mapstr, where I've tagged anything in the city that I thought might be interesting.  In one direction I saw there was a good beer bar that we'd visited a couple times in 2014.  In another direction, a cocktail bar that I only vaguely heard of.  Decided I was done chasing beer I went for cocktails at The Little ...

On Thursday and Friday, I (Maxine) took a 12 hour bread workshop at Le Cordon Bleu.  It was very hands-on and I was able to see and, in many cases, do all aspects of making traditional French bread.  And, best of all, I took home a LOT of bread. Day 1 Brioches in 2 different shapes -- as a loaf and as a "crown".  This is the dough before the 2nd proofing. And after it's baked. These are baguettes before the resting stage. And ready to go into the oven. This is Pain de Campagne (country bread with both white and rye flour in the oven. We also mixed the dough for tomorrow -- for croissants and baguettes Tradition (which has more proofing and different flour for a denser bread than the simple baguette. And this is what I brought home from the first day of the class -- Fougasses Provencales with olives and sun-dried tomatoes, Pain de Campagne (country bread), baguettes, Pain Complet (whole wheat bread) and brioches in the 2 different shapes. ...

After a busy week in Champagne, with what might be the last of the good weather in the immediate future, and with more busy-ness ahead of us, we’ve been taking it slow.  So, some random observations and photos: Emmy on the Pont des Arts. And trying to fit in at the apartment. The Moulin Rouge A craft cocktail bar, the Prescription Cocktail Club Halloween is coming. And it seems to be celebrated more than 2006 or 2014 Compared to our last visit in 2014, there seem to be many fewer homeless people evident. There are also more retail spaces empty and looking for renters. There have been many more people out on the streets and in the stores. But, we’re reserving judgment on this until the weather gets colder. Could be the economy is good or it could be the tail end of tourism. Setup of lights and displays for Christmas has begun. I ran into some younger people wearing plaid (the official color of my home of Portland). ...

We just returned from a 4 day road trip to the Champagne region with a stop in Chartres on the way home.  All of this starts with renting a car and slogging through the narrow old streets of this complicated city to get out of town... We arrived ahead of our friends and started with a tasting at Ruinart which is owned now by LVMH.  They're the oldest Champagne house in existence.  We weren't particularly thrilled with the cost/value here but we did get to taste some fairly high end stuff and discover that we didn't enjoy it nearly enough to pay the prices! You could pick 2 tastings out of the 4.  Collectively these bottles retail for over $700. We also stopped at something called The Museum of the Reddition.  It's where the agreement between the Germans and the Allies was signed that ended WWII.  A very moving experience to be in the room... We then met up at the Chateau (hotel) with our friends Stan & Sarah (we call them Lord Andrew a...