Eating Rue Cler.

Rue Cler. 7e

Rue Cler is invariably recommended to tourists visiting the 7th as a street that you must visit.  It is routinely described as cute or quaint for good reason.  It is.  This is a lively pedestrian only shopping street, closed to cars and full of restaurants, cafes and very traditional looking Parisian shops that have preserved their character.  A great mix.

But when it comes to the subject of food, eating on Rue Cler is a bit, well, schizophrenic.  In a sense the food reflects the nature of the visitors to the street. While the local stores which serve the residents are very good, the restaurants which cater to the tourists are mediocre to poor serving unimaginative food.  That’s not to say you shouldn’t stop and have a coffee and watch the crowds go by.  It is just a reality.

The stores that populate Rue Cler are typical of the mix you would expect to find, featuring bakeries, fish shops, butchers, etc.  It has everything you want during your visit if you are staying in a flat or apartment.

One place where Rue Cler really stands out is cheese, featuring two very very good cheese shops.  The first is La Fromagerie.  The second is Marie Anne Cantin, whose van is pictured below.  Both are well-known, but Marie Anne Cantin holds the famous gourmet designation as an affineur (yes they are located on a side street just off Rue Cler to be accurate).

We also enjoy the bakery at the corner of Rue Cler and Rue De Grenelle  for their amazing assortment of if you need to eat something good on the run to-go baked goods.  Just look at all that Quiche.

So are there exceptions to the restaurant rule?  Here is one.  Le Petit Cler.  It certainly fits the cute designation, doesn’t it?

We wandered into Le Petit Cler late on afternoon hoping that despite its classic front that they might still be open after 3.  They were and the lunch that followed was simple and good.   We each had a salad and I settled on a safe choice, a chevre chaud or warmed goat cheese salad, a go to when in doubt. After a few glasses of a very dry saumur (13 euro for a 500 ml pichet) it arrived and I was very surprised.  Like the restaurant it was gorgeous and good and worth the 12 euro.

Innovate presentation, a wonderful slightly sweet balsamic reduction and enough to eat without being heavy or traditional.  Good service too.

Another option is Cafe Rousillon. We also stumbled onto Cafe Rousillon one morning while searching for a croissant in the middle of a long walk.  

It was by far the most French establishment we found on Rue Cler.  At 10 in the morning it was full of residents and people who worked in the neighborhood having a coffee or red wine before starting the day reading the newspaper and wishing they were still able to smoke at the cafe.  No one was speaking English and even our average to poor French got replies in French.  Nothing fancy here.

That was just how it was.  Unpretentious.  Not cute.  Something refreshing in this area which is often inundated with English speakers.

Later in the week when coming home from a late dinner when we hit it again for a beer around midnight.  The place was alive. The draft beers were large, cold and  5 euro, not 10.  A reality check away from vacation.  A place to go when you are tired of being a tourist and want to be ignored.  Finally you are just another guy having a beer in a French Bar that is not trying to hustle you by giving you the wrong change (sorry Monsieur, was that a 20?) like Le Zinc on Ave La Motte Piquet will.  But that is another story.

How to get to Rue Cler from the Yellow Flat.  Leaving the apartment walk north to Avenue La Motte Piquet.  Turn left, cross Suffren and past the Ecole Militaire which should be on your right.  When you come to the Place Ecole Militaire be careful that you continue on  Avenue La Motte Piquet and there are many choices.  You will reach Rue Cler and turn left to begin your walk.

Ecole Militaire

Marie Cantin. 12 Rue De Champ De Mars.  www.cantin.fr  01 45 50 43 94

Le Petit Cler.  29 Rue Cler.  01 45 50 17 50

Been to Rue Cler and want to add a good experience to this list?  Please comment.

Take Your Wife To Paris. Make Her Cry. She Will Love You For It. The Pont Des Arts

This post is about romance. It’s about being together with someone you love in Paris.  And not just any kind of romance either. We are talking about romance in the most romantic city in the world.  Let me share an experience with you that will have him or her loving you more (or show you that there is something seriously missing in your relationship).

By no means is it limited to wives or marriage.  So while I am writing about my moment with my wife, this could be about anyone you love.

It will take a little planning but not too much.  You need to know where you are going.  You are going to a bridge on the Seine near the Musee D’Orsay known as the Pont Des Arts.  It is a stylish pedestrian only bridge between the Quai de Conti (left bank) and the Quai Des Tulieries (right) with a killer view.

Here is the link to google maps to help you find it:

http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&rls=en&oe=UTF-8&q=map+paris+seine+pont+neuf&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x47e66e20543f3c1b:0x25ba22d83585ed07,Pont+Neuf&gl=us&ei=e5aqT7_xEOa02gXe8s2lAg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CB8Q8gEwAA

Take some time and look at the map or load it into your phone, this little bridge can be difficult to find.

You will need a padlock.  Now don’t get kinky on me, just bring a padlock and make sure that you have the key.

Plan the day so you arrive in the late afternoon, just as we did with the sun setting on a later winter day.  Take a long walk on either side of the river.  Visit a museum (Branly, D’Orsay) or the Tuileries.  Have a great lunch (the cafeteria at the Musee D’Orsay is great) and some wine.  Or spend the day wandering the 6th and shopping.  Just make sure that your route has you walking along the Seine heading towards the Pont Des Arts as the day winds down.

When you get there suggest that you cross the bridge to look at the view.  And why not; look at it!  This should soften her up immediately.

Once there she may or may not notice something unusual about this bridge.  And in my case she didn’t for a while, although eventually she caught on. The bridge is covered with locks.  Lots of locks of all sizes.  And they are all attached to the bridge. They are called love locks.

I am not sure where this tradition of love locks started but it has become a world-wide phenomena.  The city of Paris is not happy with these locks, they cut them off in 2010 but you can’t stop love, lovers and locks.

Wait until it is your moment.  You know when it is, she has seen the locks and has said how romantic this is, or how cute or maybe she is just staring off at the view of Notre Dame on one side or the Grand Palais on the other.  You will know when the moment is and if you are smart, you let it build.  Then when the time is right, you pull the lock out of your pocket. Maybe you took the time to write a message on it, maybe not, it is not that important.  Put the lock in her hand, give her the key and let her lock a piece of you both onto that bridge.

Now here is the extra fun part.  Seal the deal and throw the key into the Seine together.  I think at that point I said something about renewal.

Is she crying yet?  My wife sure was. Maybe she expresses herself by laughing with joy?  Is she laughing?  Has she hugged you?  Well if she is a little shy, then hug her.  Stand there together.  Let the moments wash over you and let them sink in. Take your time.  You are together on a beautiful bridge overlooking one of the prettiest most romantic scenes in the world.  You took the time to come to Paris and to plan this experience and unless I am missing the boat entirely, you nailed it.

Pont Des Art.   20 minutes from the Yellow Flat by metro, 30 minutes walking.  Metro station Saint Germain Des Pres.  Take Rue Bonaparte towards the Seine and walk out onto the bridge.  The rest is up to you.

The Best Eclair In Paris? Patisserie Stohrer.

Best eclair?  Eclairs are a subject that are dear to me and that is just what I heard about Patisserie Stohrer, a famous bakery located on rue Montogreuil in the second.  So off we went, exiting at Metro Etienne Marcel, heading up Rue Etienne Marcel to Rue Montogreuil and turning right up this busy pedestrian only street that connects Les Halles/Pompadou  to Blvd. Reamur and points north.  (As an alternative you can take Metro Sentier or use it to return after the walk).

 

The rue Montogreuil is a treasure.  One of the pedestrian only streets that retains the character of old Paris. It is replete with bakeries, poisonneries, cheese shops and restaurants, a walking tableau of food and drink.  You walk the street and you feel a sense of the past that is timeless, ongoing and healthy.

 

 

 

 

While some quality ‘chain’ stores have crept in (Planet Sushi, Eric Kayser) the street retains a fierce sense of independence and quality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Located at no. 51, Patisserie Stohrer has been serving pastries since 1730.  That’s right, for almost 300 years.  The room itself is a show stopper, with a hand painted ceiling, marble fixtures and crystal chandeliers.

But I wasn’t here to visit a museum. It was pastry that I was after.

The patisserie did it’s best to tempt me away from the task at hand with mountains of financiers and palmiers to no avail.  I was on a mission to find those eclairs.

Eclairs are defined as a pastry made with a ‘choux’ dough filled with cream and topped with icing. They have long been a hidden secret of my otherwise bitter/sour/spicy taste preferences.

Finally I saw them. Lots of them. At first I was taken aback.  They were kind of skinny compared to the eclairs I knew.   To make matters worse, there appeared to be different kinds.  I needed help.  So, at the recommendation of the server, I ordered her favorite, the coffee eclair, abandoning the traditional cream.

 

A few moments later I went outside and bit in.

It was good.  In fact it was very good and very different. It was the filling that stood out. For one thing, you could taste it. Without mounds of dough or whipped cream to hide behind, the slightly bitter coffee filling complimented by the dark chocolate frosting dominated the flavor profile.  It was balanced and that is a word that does not usually equate with eclair. And thank god it was not overwhelmingly sweet.

 

Best eclair?  I don’t know. It was so far removed from what I think of when the concept of an eclair comes to mind.  I need to go back again and figure this out with a repeat tasting. Maybe a different filling too.

 

Care to nominate your best eclair in Paris?  Please post a comment.  I’ll be sure to enjoy one next visit.

 

Patisserie Stohrer

51 rue Montogreuil 75002

01 42 33 38 20

 

30 minutes from the Yellow Flat.  Take metro 8 direction Creteil and transfer at Opera station to line 11 direction Mairie de Lilas and exit at Sentiers (the reverse of the way we went that day).  5 minutes walk from the Metro.

 

Poisonnerie

Duck. More Duck. That Spells Magret At Au Petit Sud Ouest.

Au Petit Sud Ouest

It was only four or five years ago that the urge to eat duck asserted itself regularly into my eating habits.  Perhaps that is when I started ordering duck in France and fell in love with Magret, the meaty pink duck breast that is core to the cooking of Southwestern France.

We found Au Petit Sud Ouest while walking back from the Eiffel Tower one evening when we saw the green awning.  The warm exterior and obvious crowd waiting for tables drew us in.  Once inside, the hostess Chantal, who along with her husband Christian have owned and run this restaurant since the 1990’s, greeted us.  She is a bundle of energy and professionalism and while she could not get a table that evening we looked forward to coming back several nights later.  It did not disappoint except on one minor level.

Once seated, the house sent us a plate of dry saucisson and on the recommendation of Christian, her husband, we settled in to the recommend house wine of the evening, a perfectly aged 2004 Bordeaux (it was a Medoc and yes Merlot can taste good) for a very very reasonable 19 euro that he obtains directly from the winery and passes on the deal he gets to his patrons.  We wound up consuming several.  A really fine touch that was most appreciated.

The atmosphere was loud and convivial, people were having lots of fun and the feeling was contagious.  We had a very good time.

I ordered the Magret with chanterelles and cherry compote. Simply stated it was flawless. A large duck breast sliced diagonally, crisped brown on the outside yet still pink inside as it should be.  Along side the duck was a substantial mound of thank goodness not overcooked chanterelles left alone and the vinegary sugary taste of the cherries.  My vegetarian dinner mate made do with a salad and a specialty of the house, puffed potatoes.  My non-vegetarian dinner mate enjoyed a warm large portion of foie gras over salad as well the Magret.

It was the potato ‘pillows’ that created the minor issue.  Oh, they were delicious, cooked and then recooked, they were golden brown beauties, sort of an adult tater tot but really good. And during dinner when Chantal strolled by she asked if we would like some more the answer was easy.  We did.  What we didn’t know until the bill came is that the potatoes were 11 euro, about 15 dollars, a portion. One order might have been ok, but the second plate wasn’t necessary and we felt that we were just a bit up-sold.  Yet in the end was our fault. And it wasn’t like we didn’t finish both plates.

Oh well, lesson learned, when a dish is offered to you in a restaurant your antenna should go up and the rest is up to you.

This should not take away from the quality of that duck breast.  It alone is worth the walk across the Champ De Mars from the Yellow Flat.  Less than 10 minutes away is a dish that I can still taste sitting here in Berkeley thousands of miles away.

46 Ave. De La Bourdonnais

Paris 75005

01 45 55 59 59

www.au-petit-sud-ouest.fr

BHV. Drills, Silk Sheets, Keys, Locks, Cashmere Sweaters, Silverware and Unagi.

BHV

Department store shopping has never been of great interest to me when visiting Paris with one notable exception, the food court at Galeries Lafayette.  That basement features an epicurean feast which commands a visit to the store for that reason alone.  But for the average visitor the leading departments stores are expensive crowded and difficult to navigate.  I prefer the smaller more unique shops and think that most of us do.

There is one exception to this and that is BHV.  BHV is simply a shopping mecca.  An emporium that sells just about everything you can imagine in one giant store located on the rue de Rivoli just across from the City Hall at Rue De Lobau.  Add some  surprisingly decent sushi in a quiet food court on the 5^th floor and you have a shopping experience worth searching out.  Imagine Macy’s, Home Depot, Blowfish SF and Crate and Barrel in one store. As background, BHV stands for ‘bazaar hotel de ville’ and has been in business for over 150 years .  There is one main branch in Paris with the men’s store located in a separate building a few blocks away and a number of specialized satellite stores (paint, bikes, etc.) exist throughout the city.

By far the most interesting section of BHV (at least for the guys) is the hardware store located in the basement level. It is a veritable toy store of the odd featuring a broad assortment of gear from strange ornate locks and keys to unusual light fixtures, precision drills and cutting tools.  You can find everything from nails to glue to BBQ’s all made and sold with a peculiar European twist that makes it all just a bit, well, different and fascinating.

Once you head up the elevator the store you move through more traditional areas, women’s fashion, house wares, kitchen goods, lighting of all kinds, art and posters, mirrors and on and on and etc.  It is all there from lingerie to garden tools.  There are multiple choices for everything sold, you don’t find one frying pan,  you find what seems like hundreds of them from Tefal right through to gourmet Swiss and Italian lines I have never seen in a kitchen store that implores you to spend spend spend.

Like most stores it is terribly overheated during winter and after a while this gets to me.  That and hunger.  What BHV also features is a respite, an escape from the crowds up on the 5^th floor.  We almost gasped when we stumbled onto the sushi bar, it was that beautiful.  Now, I know that Sushi Store is a chain, but as you will see from the photos, they put a lot of money into building this oasis and it has an incredible atmosphere.

 

Other eating alternatives exist including a decent café with what looked like good pastries and a deli selling splits of white and red wine as well as champagne.Being on the 5th floor, there are great views as well.

Refreshed by a bowls of miso, avocado and unagi rolls and several cups of green tea, we were ready to shop again and did.

Later we visited the BHV homme store, around the corner.  Even though many things were on sale that day, it was remarkably expensive and very youth fashion driven.  Here is Olivia in “doudouland’ a family favorite destination.

It also has a chic café on the first floor when you are in need of caffeine as being enjoyed by Olivia’s boyfriend Guillaume, seen below.

If you are in Paris and you need something and you can’t figure out where to get it the odds are that BHV will have it, especially if you are renting an apartment for several months or forgot that thing at home.

And they do it in style.

BHV. 20 minutes from the Yellow Flat by metro, line 8 direction Creteil, transfer at Concorde line 1 Chateau de Vincennes stations. Exit Hotel de Ville.

The Hotel de Ville Paris With Ice Skaters.

BHV rue Rivoli

www.bhv.fr

0977 401 400

What Makes A Gourmet Food Store Great? Tasting Cognac Makes It Easy.

Julhes.

Julhes bills itself as a Maison de Gastronomie.  Located on the bustling rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis, it stands out in this traditional yet transitional part of the 10^th, nestled among the halal butchers, African beauty shops and Indian food stalls.  It is not really the thing that you would expect on this street, but there it is, waiting to entice you to spend heavy with a carefully selection of cheeses, wines, charcuterie and spirits.

We wandered into Julhes on a Wednesday afternoon after walking the neighborhood, an experience in and of itself. It was full of shoppers, very alive. I was drawn inexorably to the rear of the shop where rows and rows of wines and spirits stood.  I saw a wall of Cognac and Armagnac arranged by year and producer that rivaled my previous favorite, the shops at Gallerie Lafayette. But there was something going on that I could not understand.  Many of the bottles were clearly open and some stood as much as ½ empty.

Yet this was not a bar.  This was confusing.

It was about that time that we were approached by a well dressed young gentleman.  He turned out to be Nicholas Julhes, one of the owners of the store. After he explained a bit about his family and how they had founded the shop in the mid 1990’s, I asked him about their cognac collection and why so many bottles were open. The answer was simple, because we are always tasting them with our customers.  Here we are (clearly Nicholas is on the right).

What an idea!  Although it was three in the afternoon this was no time to say no.

We worked through 4 Cognacs and an equal number of Armagnacs in succession. As we tasted them Nicholas explained that they regularly purchase large barrels of aged Cognac from smaller artisan producers and then hold them several years before bottling them.  His current favorite, a grande champagne produced by Jean Grosperrin, this one over 10 years in the barrel before bottling.  What surprised me most about this cognac was how it was powerful yet light and balanced at the same time with lots of fruit.  Again, Nicolas had the answer. He reached out and took out a bottle of the well-known producer Martel and poured a taste for both of us.  As we swirled the dark brown cognac in our glasses he asked me: “What do you taste?”  What I tasted was cloudy, thick and caramel driven.  He went on, “What you taste in Cognac produced by major houses is sugar added during the blending process.  They blend without regard for year or producer and use additives to create a consistent flavor.”

Now I understood why I got those headaches from drinking Cognac all those years. For 35 euro this light amber honey colored cognac had great taste and was a great value as many of Grosperrin’s cognacs sell for much much more.

We finished the tasting with Calvados, a personal favorite due to family history (another story). I purchased a 50cl bottle made by a small batch producer, Christian Drouin from 2006 (26 euro).  We served it at a dinner party last week alongside a dessert of crepes. It was true to its apple fruit heritage, without a lot of dissonant clutter and no burn.

Nicholas talked at length about his passion for food and his store. They also have pasta a shop a few doors up and a second store in the neighborhood and make their own chocolates.  I only wish we would have had more time.  What was clear to me was his deep intuitive understanding of artisan production and local values, thankfully being preserved in France despite the onslaught of commercialization and homogenization assaulting every aspect of the marketplace just as it is here in the US.

And all of this for a tourist who may or may not have the opportunity to return to shop.  Well I did, on my next visit to this gem of a shop later that week to show it to the family,  I purchased several more bottles for gifts.

If I lived in Paris I would be in this shop often, they regularly host tastings of wines, cheeses, desserts, rums, whiskey and on and on.  I will have to settle for less frequent visits but will go back for this is the definition of a gourmet/gourmande experience.
Now if I can only figure out how to get stores in the US to taste Cognac.  That would make for a better world.

Julhes

54 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis.  About 20 minutes metro ride (direct train number 8 direction Creteil) from La Motte Piquet station, nearest to the Yellow Flat.

01 44 83 96 30

www.julhesparis.com

julhesparis@gmail.com

Learn more:

Christian Drouin: http://www.calvados-drouin.com

Jean Grosperrin http://le-cognac.com/maisons/jean-grosperrin.html

Le Cristal De Sel: Great Food Alone Is Not Enough

Restaurant le Cristal De Sel

13 rue de mademoiselle Paris 75015

Each restaurant experience seemed to have a lesson for us this trip, a glimpse into the delicate formula that creates a great meal.  Many restaurants deliver great food but ignore enough other key elements such that the overall experience, the meal itself loses of the great taste in each of the plates when you look back at it.

Cristal De Sel, located just past the end of Rue de Commerce, is another example of the fine bistros that have opened in the 15e as many young chefs who worked at 2 and 3 star restaurants go out on their own to achieve their visions. Cristal De Sel has a very talented chef in Karil Lopez who trained at Hotel de Bristol.  Some the finest cooking that we enjoyed over this two-week trip.  Several of his dishes were over the top delicious, wonderful, light delicately nuanced and flavor forward with a commitment to what is the marketplace and fresh.

My meal began with what was described as a cream of pumpkin soup.  That did not do it justice.  By filtering out the fibrous elements of the pumpkin it became almost a rich vegetable bullion (it retained all of the flavor) laced with crisply sautéed chanterelles.  If that wasn’t enough a healthy spoonful of herbed marscapone anchored the dish with a few toasted almonds on top.  All three of us who ordered it gave it a wow.

Pot-Au-Feu is a dish I have stayed away from for fear of heavy overcooked meats, brown ill-defined sauces and limp vegetables. The pot-au-feu is considered to be their signature dish so we ordered 3. Again the fine hand of the chef shined.  Presented in a round cast iron dish, his rendition had an almost Asian feel with thinly sliced pieces of braised beef (brisket?) in a light beef stock with plenty of herbs and winter vegetables (leeks, carrots, turnips, parsnips, etc.).   All that was missing was udon.

Other dishes at the table were all enjoyed including lobster ravioli and crispy prawns with coriander and tandoori spicing.  Everyone was happy.

We shared two desserts, a financier (almond cake) with a raspberry coulis and vanilla ice cream.

We enjoyed our wine selections, a Bourgogne Aligote for the white (our go to in restaurants) and a Morgon for the red, both priced at or about 30 euro.
Total for 5 people 217 euro.  Not bad at all.

So what could possibly go wrong with this picture?

Our waiter although well-intentioned mumbled the dish descriptions and did not know many of them.  He was not prepared well at all.  Then when we asked for a menu we were told there was none and to look at the blackboard.  I for one have lousy eyes so this was meaningless to me.  It was a real struggle to order and as 3/5 of our table was French, language was not the issue.

I forgot to mention the amuse.  A puree of pea shoots accompanied by what seemed to be tortilla chips.  The chips seemed out of place but not bad.  Here was the stunner.  As we picked up our coast there sitting out on the bar in plain sight was an open bag of commercial tortilla chips. We were really surprised at that level of sloppiness in the front of the house.  I know that this stuff happens but it mars the evening and takes away all of the magic created in the food to see those chips.

My solution for enjoying this restaurant is to go back for lunch.  They have an 18-euro prix fixe and I will bet the food will be great.  Dinner for me is more than just good food. As this trip really showed, service is too big a part of the picture to be ignored and at lunch it does not matter as much.

An easy 10 minute walk past La Motte Piquet Grenelle down rue de commerce to the end.  Turn left and look for Rue De Mademoiselle.

Have you enjoyed other up and coming restaurants in Paris?  Let me know.