I ate and drank everything without a care and gained nary an ounce, hereby confirming that the fried potato is the enemy. (It must be a embedded in my Irish peasant genes; I can never resist.) Certainly a country filled with bread and pastry and wine is going to be high on my list.
Will I remember, I wonder, the smell of the lillies in the Rodin Museum? Or the sound of the rain on the gravel path?
Or the feeling of getting on a bicycle for the first time in thirty years as the young woman gave the seat a shove and said, “Don’t worry! Momentum is your friend!”?
I hope that I do. I will certainly remember our last lunch, our best meal. He had his tenth piece of beef, so rare he could barely cut it, so delicious he could barely pause to speak. Though he’d tried a variety of things, escargot being the most memorable, he refused a bite of my pate. A foolish move.
“If we didn’t have to leave tomorrow, if we could stay as long as you wanted, how long would you stay?”
“I would stay for years.”
That meal was unforgettable.
We received so many wonderful recommendations for food that it would have taken years, indeed, to try them all. These are a few favorites. Brasserie Fernand, Polidor, Le Bouldogue – where we actually ate twice we were so charmed (and not just by the three French Bulldogs in attendance), and Le Comptoir de le Relais. The last was our best meal, as it had been promised to be. We’d been instructed to wait if there were a line. There was. We did. We were glad.
I hoped your boy would fall in love with the city, sounds like he has.
Oh goodness. Le Comptoir is our single favorite restaurant in Paris, but we've never gotten a seat in the summer, only off season. Happy it was the most memorable for you, too. Tony Bourdain did a great No Res. on some lesser known bistros – a resource for your NEXT visit. xo
Thank you for such a beautiful post. I appreciate your willingness to share such wonderful moments. And I appreciate your blog more and more. The serenity and graciousness is very appealing, especially in contrast to some of the other blogs that I read. Mrs. Blandings is my blog palate cleanser. I save it for last, since it is the best.
Yes you will remember it all, forever!
And you will yearn for it…
Your boy sounds wonderful, so glad he fell in love with the food, as well as the aesthetics. What a rich trip you had in one short week!
How exciting that you found somewhere new for ME — I loved your post about that personal collection at L'Orangerie, and I've always heard about Le Comptoir but have never been. You'll find me at both spots in December.
Loved to hear that you'd been to Deyrolle and see that you went to the Rue Mallet Stevens, both so eye opening.
Have a great Summer's End.
I'm re-reading The Moveable Feast by Hemmingway, and am glad to read these Parisian posts. I haven't been on in a few weeks, was visiting family…but am envious of your trip. Play some Edith P. and pour a glass of wine, you'll feel like you are there again. Almost.