23 December 2020

Je retourne à Paris

I am so enjoying looking at and re-processing photos I took in Paris in March and April 2006 that I can't stop now. That's why I say I'm returning to Paris — it's virtual. The first photo below shows a train like the ones that run on the line that passes through the Saint-Aignan area, taking passengers from Tours all the way to Lyon. We took one like this but changed in the nearby town of Vierzon to get to to catch a train on the north-south line that goes to Paris...


In my recent post about the studio apartment we rented for a week in Paris in 2006, I mentioned the advantages of staying in an apartment. One is that you can go to a boulangerie and bring back baguettes and croissants for breakfast in your own place. Here's a boulangerie that was just a few steps up the rue du Vertbois, where we were staying.


There were half a dozen restaurants within easy walking distance too. We didn't eat in many or any of them, though, because were spending time walking through other parts of the city, meeting up at lunchtime and dinnertime with our friend from California who happened to be in town too. I just saw on the internet that Le Clos du Vert Bois has gone out of business....


The restaurant called Chez l'ami Louis (below) is a very famous one, but we didn't eat there either. It seemed too expensive. Web sites that review restaurants say its prices are $$$$ (or €€€€) — too rich for my blood. I remember a TV news report about Brad Pitt and some of his movie star friends — maybe George Clooney — having dinner there a few years ago. I've also seen it called le dernier vrai bistrot à Paris. Maybe it would be worth trying it one day.


Our studio apartment was just around the corner from the triumphal arch below that's called La Porte Saint-Martin. It's located at the intersection of the rue Saint-Martin and one of the so-called grands boulevards where there are many restaurants, cafés, and theaters. Louis XIV had it thrown up there a few centuries ago.


I'll be headed to the special holiday market in Saint-Aignan this morning to pick up a chapon de pintade (guinea fowl capon) that we've ordered for our Christmas dinner on Friday. I'm hoping it doesn't start raining, but rain is what the forecast for today shows. Yuck.

17 comments:

  1. Awwww...so good to see all your great photos, Ill never get to France again so I am really appreciating all you blog about. Wishing you both a safe and Happy Christmas 2020 and New Year 2021

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  2. There it is again -- pintade. A couple of years ago when you wrote about pintade, I mentioned how difficult it is to find here. You replied that a search turned up a farm in Maine. I managed to get in touch with them, and it turned out that the farm was in NY state, but they were planning on selling it and relocating to Maine, very near me. Well, 2 years later they still haven't sold the NY farm, so we're thinking of visiting their current place in the spring. But by then the Canadian border might bye open, and there are some farms in Quebec where we've bought pintades.

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  3. Pintadje is so much better than turkey. So flavorful!

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    1. I'll agree that it's flavorful, but I wouldn't say it's better than turkey, just different. And it's partly dependent on how it's raised. I had one several years ago here that was pretty mediocre. In France it would probably be called a pintade industriel. On the other hand, I've never been disappointed by one in France. Nor in Quebec, maybe because of its French heritage.

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    2. Let's put it this way, it all depends where you have turkey. In France, turkeys are relatively small birds, a little bigger than pintades and they're very good. Here in the rehab facility in Faifax, Virginia, they serve any kind of industrial turkey and it tastes like improved cardboard. I don't touch any!

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    3. Industrial is the right word, chm. There's been volumes written about industrialized food in the US. Don't think I've ever had pintade and am looking forward to Ken's pictures. My aunt always made goose and I thought that was good.

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    4. I'll try to remember to take some photos of tne chapon de pintade tomorrow. I also bought two cuisses d'oie (goose leg-and-thigh pieces) from the poultry vendor at the market this morning. just because they were too beautiful to pass up.

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    5. chm, we had a turkey for Thanksgiving that I bought from a small Maine poultry farm, and it was very good. I paid $3.99/pound, which is even less than some other small farms here. Meanwhile, at the grocery store the week of Thanksgiving, I saw turkeys at something like $.49/pound. Those are probably like the ones you're talking about at the place you're at.

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    6. Our chapon de pintade was priced at about 16€/kg. In other words, the bird cost 45€. I'm sure it will be worth it. That's about the same price we paid for our Thanksgiving leg of lamb. We got about 6 meals (12 servings) out of that over a period of a week.

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    7. Ken, that's about what we just paid for the duck we'll have at Christmas. It's from a local farm, but it's just the Pekin breed, not the wonderful Muscovy ducks you find in France.

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  4. I hope the special Christmas market feels festive, and yields you a delicious chapon de pintade... and I hope that we get to see a photo or two!

    I'm enjoying your Paris memories, too!

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  5. That arch is one I've never seen, so it's great to have something to look for if (when) I arrive in Paris again.

    Out of curiosity, I googled l'Ami Louis' menu. The one from 10 years ago had foie gras at €62, a plate of asparagus for €64. Roast pigeon €55. Wow. Best to stick with Josephine Chez Dumonet.

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    1. Dumonet. ;-)

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    2. Just like you, Diogenes, I googled L'ami Louis' menus and, at first, I thought the prices were in Francs, but checks dated 2015 and 2016 dispelled that notion. I'd say that L'ami Louis is akin to haut brigandage!

      If sheeple want to be fleeced, why not?

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    3. I think you'll all get a laugh out of this article, a British review of L'Ami Louis: https://cumbriafoodie.com/2016/05/10/culinary-theft-at-chez-lami-louis-paris/

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    4. Wow, Diogenes. That makes the rip-off places in New York seem reasonable by comparison.
      Cumbria, as I recall, has a good foodie life, aware people, a number of small farms producing nice specialties.

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    5. I posted about some of the food we ate and didn't eat on our trip to Paris in April 2006. We had hamburgers, and we had pizzas! We had Lebanese food and Moroccan tajines. A lot of exotic foods that we were missing after leaving San Francisco and moving to the French countryside. And we walked and walked and walked. As for l'ami Louis le bandit, we can steam our own local asparagus spears and roast our own chickens at home. What he serves is certainly not haute cuisine.

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What's on your mind? Qu'avez-vous à me dire ?