Monthly Archives: October 2013

Assorted cheese plate – La Perle

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Assorted cheese plate - La Perle
Planche de fromages. Bleu d’auvergne AOP, emmental, Cantal AOP, camembert. 13€
La Perle, Paris FR

Omg, when this came out we were unsure if we had miscommunicated with the waitress and were subsequently served 2 orders of the cheese plate. Our French is nonexistent and she wasn’t completely fluent with English (god bless her for baring with us). There was SO much cheese! Instead of worrying about it, we decided to just go with the flow and eat. We if had to pay for 2 cheese plates we were fine with that. The cheeses were delicious and very filling. I was fooled by the hard pat of butter on the plate which I mistook for another cheese, lol! In my defense it really tasted different from American butter, hehe. I’m still puzzled why they serve butter with cheese and charcuterie as if any more fat is needed. There was no way we were going to finish this cheese plate so we ate as much as we could. It ended up being a single order! Sheesh, how can anyone eat that much cheese. 🙂

Sliced baguette - La Perle
Sliced baguette. Complimentary

The Wall for Peace

The Wall for Peace, Champs de Mars. Clara Halter and Jean-Michel Wilmotte, 2000. Inspired by the Wailing Wall of Jerusalem.

Croque madame – La Cooperative

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Croque madame - La Cooperative
De pain de campagne, frites et salade. Ham and cheese sandwich topped with fried egg, country bread, French fries and salad. 9,90€
La Cooperative, Paris FR

I thought I’d try a croque madame in France! Hmm, I’m not sure if this is how they’re supposed to be normally, but I wasn’t a fan. The bread was really toasted, as evidenced by the dark broiled cheese and dry edges, so it was hard and difficult to eat. I’m used to croque madames that are softly oozing with melted cheese and perhaps some bechamel thrown in for added moisture. This plate was gigantic though so it was a great value. I could only eat half of it, but the girl at the table next to us had no trouble finishing hers off, omg! The fries were also limp and bland.

Louvre Museum
Louvre Museum. Everything is so huge in Paris! The number of beautiful buildings is astounding so it’s not difficult to constantly be snapping pics. We walked the grounds of the Louvre but never made it inside. We didn’t want to bother with the long line and we were getting too tired to fully appreciate such a large museum once inside.

Ham and cheese omelette – Le Rostand

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Ham and cheese omelette - Le Rostand
Omelette mixte (jambon et fromage). Garnished with chopped chives. 10€
Le Rostand, Paris FR

This cafe is conveniently located across from the Luxembourg Garden. There’s plenty of seats outside and they’re all covered by their awning. The staff is very nice and professional and the food was delicious. Omg, this omelet was huge! And perfectly cooked. It was soft and oozing with cheese – a perfect meal to kickstart a day of sightseeing.

Coffee - Le Rostand
Coffee.

Palais du Luxembourg
Palais du Luxembourg. This beautiful is the seat of the French Senate. Wow, what a great work location! And it’s in the Jardin du Luxembourg which is a picturesque setting.

Crepes au Grand Marnier – Feria Cafe

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Crepes au Grand Marnier - Feria Cafe
8€
Feria Cafe, Paris FR

We came here during a late-ish night of walking around in the perfectly warm summer air. This area was definitely a tourist trap section with packed restaurants and abundant outdoor seating. Our feet were tired and we were hungry so we snatched a seat at Feria Cafe. I guess it’s supposed to be a tapas restaurant, but their extensive menu has a bit of everything to please any tourist who happens to chance by.

I could have ordered Spanish tapas, burgers or any number of random fried food from the menu but I was in the mood for crepes. This was probably not the best place for crepes, but I always cave in to my cravings. I mean, does it really matter if the crepes are horrible if they’re drenched in orange-flavored cognac liqueur?! LOL! Ok, I guess it does because the crepes were still bad. They poured so much Grand Marnier on the crepes that only part of it burned off after they flambeed the plate. It was like eating crepes dipped in pure alcohol. Lame!

Cafe Viennois - Feria Cafe
Cafe Viennois. 5,50€
So this version is apparently more a Wiener Melange (cappuccino) than an espresso con panna (espresso with whipped cream). Oh well.

July Column

July Column, Place de la Bastille. For some reason, I thought that this area would have some kind of Bastille museum, but it’s just a square with a column in the center. It’s also a major roundabout so the traffic is busy.

Heinekens – La Perle

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Heinekens - La Perle

50 cl 6,70€
La Perle, Paris FR

We came to this cafe for a late afternoon snack because it had really good online reviews. And boy was it popular! There was no place to sit outside when we arrived so we just grabbed some beers and waited for a table to open up. Like I said, hardly anybody eats inside here unless it’s during the heart of dinner service. We finally got a seat, ordered some food, chatted, and watched all the random people walk by – a perfect way to spend an afternoon.

National Museum of Natural History
National Museum of Natural History, Jardin des Plantes. Omg, we walked here one sweltering afternoon and I was sweating like crazy! The grounds were beautiful though and there were plenty of plantlife to admire. I really couldn’t check out all the plants though because it was just too hot under the direct sun. I do love how all the trees were perfectly trimmed to form beautiful walkways and there were plenty of open areas and benches to rest and relax.

Croissant and fruit – United Airlines

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Croissant and fruit - United Airlines
Cantaloupe, honey dew melon, butter.
San Francisco (SFO) to Paris (CDG), United Airlines

Nothing says, “Welcome to Paris!” quite like an United Airlines breakfast – NOT! This was a veritable slap in the face, lol. The croissant was limp, chewy, and rock hard in some places. And they served the cheapest fruit you can buy. Huh, I’m really not surprised at the quality and item choice from United though. I’ve never associated United Airlines with delicious food or outstanding service. C’est la vie!

Styrofoam Hummer H1
Styrofoam Hummer H1 (low mileage, always garaged), 2005, Andrew Junge, SFO Terminal 3.

Sandwich mixte – La Cooperative

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Sandwich mixte - La Cooperative
Ham, swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise. 5,90€
La Cooperative, Paris FR

After a long day of sightseeing, we really needed some food on our way back to the hotel. We came across La Cooperative on our walk from the Louvre. It looked like a cute cafe and the clientele appeared to be a mixture of business people, locals and tourists so we decided to give it a try. The food was fairly good, but the service was really erratic. We were served by two different waiters both of whom were really difficult to wave down when we needed anything.

While this sandwich was pretty standard, the bread was really good. I also prefer the mayonnaise they use in France. It has a better consistency and flavor.

Drinks - La Cooperative

Coca-Cola light. 50 cl 7,20€
Kir au Sauvignon. 25 cl 5,70€
OK, I’m still baffled why drinks are SO expensive here! We spent more money on soda and water than we did our food. Am I just being a ridiculous American that I think this is outrageous?! 😦

Fountain of Warsaw, Jardins du Trocadero
Fountain of Warsaw, Jardins du Trocadero. The Gardens of the Trocadero are beautiful and a great place to view the Eiffel Tower and take photos. Of course I did a customary “jump” photo with the tower in the background, lol.

Pain au choco-framboise – Miss Manon

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Pain au choco-framboise - Miss Manon
Chocolate raspberry croissant. 2,40€
Miss Manon, Paris FR

French breakfast pastries, yay! This was pretty good. It was flaky and buttery, and the fillings were delicious. I have to admit that I wasn’t blown away though. A friend of mine gave me a false expectation that French pastries were gonna absolutely blow my mind. I mean, they were good but I think that some of the local San Francisco bakeries can hold their own.

Medici Fountain
Medici Fountain, Jardin du Luxembourg. This is a very peaceful section of the garden where people relax on benches on either side of the pond.

Grilled lamb chops – La Comete

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Grilled lamb chops - La Comete
Cotes d’agneau grillees aux fines herbes. With haricot vert and frites. 12,50€
La Comete, Paris FR

Mmm! While the lamb chops were tasty, they weren’t butchered very cleanly. The cuts looked beat up and a bit ragged and sad. The French fries weren’t as good as those of our previous meal, but at least they weren’t gross and greasy. But I do love green beans!

Wines - La Comete
Red and white wines.

Menu - La Comete
Menu.

Place Vendome Column

Place Vendome Column. This beautiful column is covered with 425 spiraling bas-relief bronze plates and topped with a statue of Napoleon.

Roast chicken – Ma Bourgogne

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Roast chicken - Ma Bourgogne
Poulet fermier roti. Served with French fries (frites). 18€
Ma Bourgogne, Paris FR

Wow, this roast chicken had an intense chicken flavor! I’m not sure it they added extra chicken flavor seasoning or if the chicken was just that good, but it tasted unreal compared to American roast chicken. I will say that the sauce/drippings was kinda salty, but the chicken itself was tender and juicy. The fries were also rockin’! We later came to find out that you can’t avoid the “frites” added to most dishes, argh!

Red wines - Ma Bourgogne

Beaujolais Villages. Verre 15 cl 5€
Sancerre rouge. Verre 15 cl 6,50€
I mean you can’t have a meal without red wine, right?! 🙂

Notre Dame Cathedral

Cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris. This cathedral is SO frickin’ large that I couldn’t fit it into a single shot. They also had risers set up in front in celebration of its 850 anniversary so that also obstructed from taking a clear head-on pic. Wow, 850 years! It’s also amazing on the inside!

Sweet and sour chicken – United Airlines

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Sweet and sour chicken - United Airlines
Served with fried rcie, side salad with ranch dressing, dinner roll, butterscotch brownie.
San Francisco (SFO) to Paris (CDG), United Airlines

Ugh! I would say that this was a joke of Chinese food, but I’m pretty sure sweet and sour chicken is an American invention in the first place. I’m just gonna say that this was NOT good, yuck!

Hanging art installation

Hanging art installation, SFO Terminal 2.