This post has been in my drafts for such a long time now. I had written it all down in a few weeks after we came back from our 13 day trip to Paris, Florence and Rome. I felt it was too old a post to post now, but after reading it, I just felt like I should post it anyway. It just brings back so many memories! 
Paris really spoiled me with the most awesome pastries I have ever had in my life and of course the near perfect cafe au lait and espresso, irrespective of where you order it. It almost felt like everyone there went to some secret school of how to make amazing pastries and coffee! I am generally not a fan of eating sweet something for breakfast. I can eat anything sweet anytime, thanks to my sweet tooth, but I do need something savory in my breakfast along with the sweet thing. So, I wasn’t really sure how this eating pastries for breakfast will go with me but I should say that I loved it – loved eating sweet chocolate or custard or nuts filled pastries and loved the idea of something sweet for breakfast! I loved it so much so that these days my morning coffee doesn’t feel complete without a croissant to go along with it 😉
That was the first cafe au lait we had in Paris at a small cafe near the Notre Dame.
Paris at night!
After a visit to the Notre Dame and a cruise on River Siene, we headed out for dinner. We went to this little street Rue St Andres des Arts and found a Boulangerie – Les Arts Gourmands tucked between a gelateria and an Irish pub. We were real tempted to go to the Mediterranean place right across the street, but we decided to stick to local flavors while on our vacation.
This Boulangerie had an amazing collection of savory and sweet crepes and some nice paninis too. As in every other place in Paris, it was a lot cheaper to get a take out rather than to sit in and eat. But we were tired from the jetlag and the walking that we decided to sit in and eat. I ordered a Quattro Fromage baguette sandwich – simply a four cheese grilled baguette and AJ had a Oeuf Poulet Frommage with Champignons Crepe – an Egg Chicken and Cheese Crepe with Mushrooms. My sandwich was, well, cheesy. I mean, what else could I have expected in a four cheese sandwich. AJ’s crepe was really tasty with the egg, chicken and mushrooms along with the cheese. We also had a Creme de Marron crepe for dessert. I did not at that time that Creme de Marron was Cream of Chestnut. I ordered it because I had already had a Nutella crepe in the afternoon 🙂 Nevertheless, both of us loved the subtle sweet in the Creme de Marron and with that we called it a day!
Streets of Montmarte
The other meal worth mentioning in our almost 4 day trip in Paris is this really cute Creperie on Rue Cler that we went to for dinner one evening. We found out about this Creperie from Rick Steve’s guide. There was a cafe and this creperie that Rick Steve had recommended as two good places to eat on Rue Cler. The cafe was crowded and there didn’t seem to be any place to sit outside, which is all we wanted to do all throughout our trip. Such snobs we were, we wouldn’t eat at a place if there was no outdoor seating!!
So anyway, since that did not work out, we set out looking for the second place on that street. This was a much smaller, more “eclectic” kinda place than the cafe and we were lucky find outdoor seating too. At first we read the menu for take out crepes and were disappointed with the choices but thats when the owner of the place, a very lovely old woman, came with a different menu for sit down dinners. That had a more varied option and I was glad to find many vegetarian options as well.
On our last day here, we roamed around the Bastille area, headed to Marais and had a late brunch at l’Ébouillanté. It was a cute little café by the river and right next to an old church. We got to sit outside and ordered a few glasses of wine. I ordered the “Brick” – their extra crispy Tunisian fine semolina crepes, mine was filled with egg, tomato, swiss cheese, onions, goat cheese, cream and coriander! WOW, that is a mouthful! And it was, and it was delicious!! AJ had the Blinis a la Russe which had pancakes, smoked salmon, salad and fresh cream. He seemed to enjoy it too, especially the smoked salmon. We ended our meal with some chai, yes you heard it right, chai! It was a little too milky and sweet, but chai in Paris, yes, I’ll take it
Walking around Marais
Now as I am reading this again after a few years from our trip, I miss Paris a lot. We had such a great time there and there are still so many wonderful places I would love to go to if I go there again!
Leave a Reply