May 22 Susie's in class, I'm in the cemetery and great food

After a leisurely morning breakfast of pastries and coffee we readied ourselves for the streets of Paris. The sun hinted at the possibility of coming out as we walked downstairs and out onto rue de Sevigne. We made our way through the neighborhood streets soaking in the atmosphere if not the sunshine.

near the Swiss Cultural Center

The plan, such as it was, would be to have lunch at Poilane's Cuisine de Bar, the one that just so happened to be in the Marais. One of our favorite places for lunch -- and especially for their tartines -- had been the Cuisine de Bar on rue du Cherche Midi. No Metro ride this time, though, just an easy stroll.

one of their rustic apple tarts

After a leisurely lunch (our theme this trip is being "leisurely") Susie headed off for her class at Alain Ducasse's school in the 16th arrondissement and I would go the opposite direction, to Pere-Lachaise in search of the earliest burials.

Devoted to "all things chocolate," Susie's class was fun, informative and made up of just her and one other student, a Japanese woman who had taken a number of classes from Ducasse before and who teaches pastry out of her home in Japan.

As for me, well, I no sooner got to the cemetery than it began to sprinkle but juggling my umbrella with one hand I could still take photos with the other. . . Anyway, after shooting for a while I hopped onto the Metro and headed across town to meet up with Susie after class.

We then headed over to another Clotilde recommendation, "Au Fils des Saison," for one of those ideal Parisian dinners: an intimate bistro, one person working out front and one (maybe two?) in the back, delicious food, house wines, reasonable cost. The way life was meant to be. As Clotdile says, "traditional French with a twist."

After dinner we paid, walked outside into the slipping twilight and made our way home along the streets of the 3rd and 4th arrondissements.

le menu

cheese assortment

asparagus risotto

beef with potatoes

Friday - Our last day in Paris

Another leisurely morning on rue General Renault, readying ourselves for the final day of our trip, taking in just being in Paris for one more day. Shortly before midday we head off to the Metro in the direction of rue Cherche Midi in the 6th and lunch at Cuisine de Bar, the restaurant arm of  Poilane Boulangerie. Known for their tartine (a fancy way to say open-faced sandwich) that's exactly what we had. We both opt for the formule: salad, tartine of the day, wine and dessert.

Curried chicken tartine

No, this is not a sub sandwich -- this was cut from a log of Paris-Brest dessert 

Cuisine de Bar. 8, rue Cherche-Midi (next door to Poilane Bakery), tel: 01 45 48 45 69, (M: Sevres-Babylon). No reservations.

We spent the better part of the afternoon scouting pastry shops. Always on the lookout for new ideas there's no better place to discover cool pastry ideas than Parisian patisserie, and so naturally Susie had compiled a list of places she wanted to visit. While we didn't get to them all we did manage to visit several. One in particular was in fact a spice shop recommended by David Lebovitz, "Epices Roellinger."

After many years as a successful chef-owner, Olivier Roellinger gave up his three Michelin stars and opened this wonderful spice shop in the heart of the Japanese section of Paris. His specialities are rare black peppers but he also carries a wide variety of usual and unusual spices. We picked up some fleur de sel and Susie was particularly attracted to his fleur de lune, a combination of sea salt and vanilla.

Epices Roellinger, 51 bis, rue Sainte-Anne, Paris 75002, 01 42 60 46 88, Metro: Pyramides. Closed Sunday and Monday.


One of the truly wonderful thing about strolling in Paris, casual strolling that is, without an agenda or itinerary, is you never know what you're going to come across, like Christmas trees made out of recycled plastic bottles near the Comedie Francaise. . . 

. . . or a delicate paper sculpture hovering just this side of incredible outside a gallery,

. . . located inside the Gallerie Colbert:

We wound our way toward the Place de la Republique and caught up with our friend Marie B. We were scheduled to meet her at the Clown Bar, a place recommended by another friend Diane T. and quite close to near the Circus d'Hiver. But it turned out the place was closed so the three of us walked to a bar not far from Republique where we found a table a ordered an aperitif.

It had been a couple of years since we had seen Marie, and although sharing information n the internet is certainly convenient, it was good to finally see her in the flesh as it were, to talk about things that were and things yet to be.

So French, so Paris, and so is much of life, so Paris.

Once again we found ourselves saying au revoir to someone whose path we keep crossing on this planet. As Marie headed off for the Metro at Place de la Republique Susie and I headed in the opposite direction down Boulevard de Temple. A couple of blocks later we popped into a bookstore for no particular reason other than it was a bookstore, and browsed for a while.

Fifteen minutes later we walked back out into the cold drizzle and 5 minutes later walked into L'Olivier, a Greek fusion restaurant we discovered in 2008. The place is small, intimate might be the term used in the foodie magazines, but warm and comfortable. The menu was significantly upscale from when we were there last but the food was delicious and the wines, Greek of course, incredibly tasty. Few diners joined us that evening -- curiously the Tibetan restaurant next door was packing them in though -- and we had a chance to chat with the chef owner and his wife, the back and front of the house respectively. Some years ago they moved from the Greek island of Santorini to Paris so he could broaden his culinary experience. My leg of lamb with hummus and feta was absolutely wonderful and the couscous gateaux with ice cream equally worth the trip and the money.

Restaurant L'Olivier, 15 Boulevard de Temple, 01 42 77 12 51, Paris 75003, Metro: Filles du Calvaire. http://www.olivier-restau.com.

Back out into the dark of Paris, with umbrella up and ten minutes later we were walking up the stairs to our apartment on General Renault. The evening was spent packing up our things but  we couldn't quite pack up our feelings. But then our trips have always leaned that way I suppose -- we have never been able to leave a Paris or France or Siena or Italy for that matter, really leave it I mean.

Wish you had been there, but then maybe you were. . .

Steve