Reuilly, Gordon and Mustafa

Tags

apartment, cinema, Gordon, Lézard Café, LB Café, Mad Max, meals, Montorgueil, movie, Mustafa, Paris, pools, Promenade plantée, Reuilly, rue Montorgueil, swimming

On Wednesday I went for a swim at the relatively quiet pool in Reuilly. While there were four to a lane most people did a lot of resting so I got in a good workout without too much stress. The pool at Les Halles is much closer but so crowded! And Reuilly is rather charming.

Cour Alsace-Lorraine, Reuilly

Maire de la 12ème, Reuilly.

I walked back to the Place de la Bastille via an old favorite, the Promenade Plantée, then jumped on the métro to meet Gordon and Mustapha at my apartment. After catching up we strolled down rue Montorgueil, settling in at the LB Café for an apéro. My favorite table — with a view down rue Tiquetonne — was taken! But when the owner noticed my distress he placed a new table for us in the perfect spot, right in front of the other one!

Gordon was delighted by all the handsome young men in my stylish neighborhood, and began surreptitiously photographing them with abandon. His camera is fairly unobtrusive, particularly since it has a fixed lens rather than a protruding zoom. But its resolution is so high that he can get a good photo by enlarging a tiny part of the image it captures.

After our apéro we strolled around the Village Montorgueil to select a restaurant. Some attractive places were full, and others didn’t appeal. But just as Gerry had done during his visit in 2012 Gordon honed in on Lézard Café, attracted by the hip young crowd. The attentive reader will remember that Yungpeng and I had very poor service there last weekend, and I had vowed not to return soon. This time, though we had to wait for a table to open up, the welcome and service were correct, and the food was quite good. And yes, the crowd was appealing, and photographable.

On Thursday Gordon and I went to the Musée d’Orsay. We both enjoyed the Impressionist galleries, then I saw the Bonnard exhibition while Gordon went looking for Van Gogh and Gaugin.

Me with a favorite Monet, Les Dindons. Musée D’Orsay

David sheathing his enormous sword, after dispatching Goliath. Musée D’Orsay

After satisfying our appetite for art we strolled across the Seine and had a simple lunch at a place in the arcade along the rue de Rivoli. It was drizzling a bit, which marvelously sped up our selection of a restaurant. The rain had stopped by the time we finished, so we walked over to the Place de la Madeleine to let Gordon do some shopping at Fauchon, a rather fabulous food shop. After that Gordon went back to his hotel to rest his feet (which were aching after too much walking in London earlier in the week). I headed home also, but as I got out of the métro I noticed that Mad Max: The Fury was playing at the Grand Rex.

The Grand Rex at night.

I had been meaning to see it, because I had enjoyed the original version long ago, and I was pretty sure that I could follow the dubbed French well enough to enjoy it. The timing worked perfectly so I bought a ticket. There were indeed relatively few nuanced conversations, which I seemed to follow without difficulty. Mostly it was just a long, violent chase — the same in any language.

After the movie I joined Gordon for dinner at Le 23 Clauzel – Julie Rivière, a classy restaurant near Pigalle. Mustafa couldn’t get off work in time to join us for dinner but he got a quick appetizer, and then we walked over to a theater at Clichy to see Briefs: The Second Coming, an Australian gay vaudeville show that I had noticed online. It was surprisingly fun, and the packed crowd was very appreciative, despite the fact that the narration was in English. As in Mad Max for me, the visuals transcended the language barrier.

A Weekend with Yunpeng

Tags

acrobats, Bastille, Chez Louisette, Cour Saint-Émilion, flea market, Lézard Café, Marais, Marché aux Puce, meals, Metro, Montorgueil, Parc de Bercy, Paris, Place des Vosges, Promenade plantée, rue Montorgueil, Saint-Ouen, Seine, singers, street acrobats, street performers, Yunpeng

Last year and again this year Yunpeng visited me for a weekend. He is originally from China but is working on his PhD in bioinformatics at a university in Bergen, Norway. It has been quite cold there but fortunately we had nice weather for his visit to Paris. Here are some of the highlights.

Just down the street from my place we saw a troupe of Brazilian acrobats setting up for their performance. I asked permission to take a photo, but then got invited to join in the picture.

Bob bonding with Brazilian street acrobats on rue Montorgueil.

One of the acrobats took a short video of an acrobat jumping over our arms.

Friday evening we had dinner at Lézard café, which I had enjoyed in prior years. This year the welcome was chilly and the service was simply terrible. The food was ok, but mostly pre-made. The crowd was young and attractive but I don’t think I’ll be going back any time soon.

On Saturday we had a picnic in the Place des Vosges, then took a stroll along the Promenade Plantée, which follows a disused railway line from near Place de la Bastille. The first half is elevated and the second half is below grade, with occasional bridges.

Yunpeng in the bamboo grove of the Promenade Plantée.

Bob and Yunpeng at the reflecting pool on the Promenade Plantée.

We continued on to the Cour Saint-Emilion shopping area to have gelato, where we saw several fine soul singers giving samples of their work to promote an upcoming concert.

A soul singer at the Cour Saint-Emilion mesmerizes a young fan.

We then strolled through the Parc de Bercy, then across the Seine on a graceful footbridge.

Bob in the rose garden of the Parc de Bercy (wearing Yunpeng’s stylish hat).

We strolled across this graceful foot bridge and had a drink at this lively riverbank bar.

I was impressed by all the multi-cultural options at this place, but we ate dinner at a Malaysian place instead.

I was impressed by the multi-cultural cuisine offered by this place: Indian, Middle Eastern, American, Italian, Bretonne.

We took the 14 métro line home. Like the 1, the 14 is fully automated so there is a big window in front where the driver would otherwise be. I was finally able to capture a video of the view from the front of the train as it goes through the tunnel and pulls into a station.

That evening we went to a remarkable dance bar that Antoine had recommended: Tango, in the Arts et Métiers neighborhood. The decor and ambiance is straight out of the 1950s. Very accomplished couples — mostly but not all same-sex — danced to music from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. Many others, like ourselves, just looked on and sipped their drinks. We didn’t stay too late, but it was clearly the kind of place where it would be easy to strike up a conversation with people at a neighboring booth.

On Sunday we slept in, then had lunch at a local fish place I had first tried with Matt and Chris, La Criée.

Yunpeng with his lunch at La Criée.

Then we took the métro up to the Marché aux Puce (flea market) at Saint-Ouen.

A rainbow display of teapots at the Saint-Ouen flea market.

I steered us to a drink at Chez Louisette, where a soulful singer did not disappoint.

A soulful singer at Chez Louisette in the Saint-Ouen flea market.

Yunpeng headed home on Monday after a lovely weekend.

Sweet Sorrow

Tags

Art, beur, contemporary art, fashion show, L'Hédoniste, Lézard Café, meals, models, Montorgueil, Palais de Tokyo, rebeu, Stohrer, verlan, weather

The London trip was quite active — two ten-mile days in a row — so I mostly rested on Thursday. That evening I invited Lisa, Ali and Zhizhong Joël Yao over for an apéro and dinner at L’Hedoniste, which Lisa and Ali had enjoyed with Alexis a few years back, and which we liked again this time. I had been wanting to introduce Lisa and Ali to Zhizhong, since he is still forming a friendship community here and they have several things in common: working in academia, living on rue de Tolbiac, and being very nice. It was a lovely evening, but tinged with the “sweet sorrow” of parting.

Ali, Lisa, me and a cousin-to-be-named-later. Photo credit to Zhizhong Joël Yao, whose “rounded forms” motif brilliantly tops my own previous shot in this genre.

Zhizhong Joël Yao at 59, rue Saint-Sauveur.

Friday morning I set out to finally see the oriental museum, Musée Guimet. The top two floors were closed, however, and I just missed a big Japan exhibition opening July 3. Discouraged, I passed on it once again and grabbed a sandwich for lunch. Looking at my TripAdvisor City Guides app (which I highly recommend) I noticed that the Palais de Tokyo was nearby, and decided to have a look. This is an avant garde contemporary art museum that I had been underwhelmed by on an earlier visit. There was a lot of buzz this time, however, and right off the bat I stumbled on a photo shoot out front. Naturally I joined the fun!

Famous model at photo shoot for fashion show at Le Palais de Tokyo.

The guys turned out to be models at a jam-packed young men’s fashion show. The hoi polloi weren’t allowed to watch the show — except through a chain link fence! — but another of the models agreed to a snapshot as he was leaving.

Famous model after fashion show at Le Palais de Tokyo.

After I got over being dazzled by all the fashionistas I saw the current exhibition, Nouvelles Vagues. It was an enormous hot mess, its 21 big rooms each being curated by a different young artist. As usual I hated nearly everything, but enjoyed the overall experience, and found a few pieces that gave me a chuckle.

Two surrealist pieces by Martin Soto Climent.

Witty concept piece by Alice Tomaselli. She invited each of the artists in her curated room to contribute a fresh flower for this vase. She then added an artificial rose as her own contribution. The wilting of the other flowers — and eternal freshness of her own — are intended to symbolize the transiency of the other artists and her own enduring fame.

Mariechen Danz, Book 2 (unlearning), 2013

After the museum I strolled down to the Pont d’Alma, and recalled something about newly-opened improvements to the nearby quais. These turned out to be a series of floating gardens that resemble New York’s High Line and Paris’s own Promenade plantée.  The gentle rocking of the floats added a pleasing touch when I stretched out on one of the lounges for a bit.

This evening’s farewell dinner was with Colin and Jamie Blasina, with whom I had enjoyed an afternoon at Rosa Bonheur at the very start of this year’s petit séjour. They are both leaving Paris shortly as well, but they will be back in Cambridge, as housemates of my book-group friend John O’Connor, in the fall.

Jamie chuckling as street urchins steal the helium balloon attached to his chair.

Jamie and Colin at our 2013 farewell dinner, at Lézard Café.

I had hoped to be able to watch the Paris gay pride parade the following afternoon, but cleaning my apartment — comme d’habitude — took forever and I had to cancel. As I was scrubbing and mopping I did wonder, however, why I clean my Paris apartments so obsessively. Initially the habit may have come from anxiety about being charged a cleaning fee, and I have heard horror stories about landlords that complain about every water spot in the shower. But my cleaning goes way beyond what could reasonably be expected — taking most of a day. And in this particular place they always bring in a cleaning lady anyway, who after my efforts must feel frustrated (actually delighted) by her inability to find anything to clean. To add to the absurdity, the owners of this place like and trust me so well that they don’t even look around. Another year perhaps I’ll try to ease up a bit!

Zhizhong Joël Yao had planned to stop by on my final evening to leave me a gift for my Boston roommate Vikram, and to pick up some Paris guidebooks that Colin had returned. He surprised me with a lovely little music box, playing La Mer, that he had bought for me in a boutique at Palais Royal. We looked around the quartier for a nice and really affordable restaurant but eventually decided to make a meal from two frozen dinners I still had, along with smoked salmon, olives and a few other random items. It was a (previously frozen) feast! For dessert we shared a puit d’amour (Well of Love — props to Geoff for calling attention to it) from Stohrer, the famous traiteur just a block or two down rue Montorgueil.

Bob admiring his puit d’amour from Stohrer.

These last few days have reminded me of the final week of last year’s visit:  “The days are getting cooler, and the evenings downright cold: time to move on.” But wait, that was September and this is June! My first week this year was lovely — albeit cool — but the rest of the month has been on-and-off rainy and cloudy, and quite chilly for June. I’ve had lovely days, and taken good advantage of them, but the weather overall has been only so-so. The winter and spring in Paris were truly terrible, though, so I can’t complain.

Leaving to catch my flight home in half an hour! Au revoir, Paris !

Mot du jour: « rebeu ». This is a slang term for French residents of North African ancestry, with a particularly interesting etymology. Since the 16th century there has been an argot of French called le verlan in which two syllables of a word are reversed. The term « verlan » itself derives from reversing the phrase « à l’inverse ». In the 1980’s the term « beur » started being used for North Africans in France. This was a verlan transformation of “Arab,” reversing the “r” and the “b.” More recently, the term « rebeu » arose, especially among young beurs, as a further verlan transformation, again reversing “b” and “r”. Props to Zhizhong Joël Yao for being the first to explain verlan. Our Pig Latin has a slight resemblance to verlan, but verlan generates new slang words rather than applying a simple transformation to any word.

Jared at les Buttes-Charmante

Tags

Bastille, café-au-lait, Fills Monkey, Jared, L'Open Café, language, Lézard Café, Le Sentier des Halles, Marais, meals, Montorgueil, Open Café, Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, Place des Vosges, rue des Rosiers, temple de la Sibylle, un crème, une noisette, Vélib

The morning started with a nice surprise: for only the second time during my stays here my house guest got up before me and bought our morning baguette. At first I was puzzled at my good fortune, then I realized that Jared has been reading my blog and noticed the remark I posted when Brian did the same last week. It felt a bit odd — but not unpleasant — to realize that what I write here has the potential to affect my future experience as well as recording my past.

Since it was a lovely day we decided to spend it outdoors. Our first stop was the Hôtel de Ville to pick up Jared’s Vélib’ card. Thus began a SNAFU that lasted nearly all day. The folks at the Hôtel de Ville told us that the card had to be registered on the Internet. I couldn’t get the wifi system at the Place des Vosges working but eventually he was able to register on my phone at another park. When we finally decided to bike home, however, at first we couldn’t find a working bike, even after visiting several Vélib’ stations. Then when we did find a couple of bikes the station would not accept his registration. To make a long story somewhat shorter it turned out that (1) the confirming email had gone into his spam folder, (2) it said that his registration wouldn’t be effective until a specified time that afternoon, (3) when he tried again after the specified time his account was locked due to too many failed attempts, but he was able to speak with a Vélib’ rep from the station who fixed the issue, and (4) to add insult to injury it turns out that you don’t need a card at all for a one-week membership, only for longer terms (like my own annual membership). The multiple failures during the day had cast a pall on Jared’s mood, which lifted noticeably after he took his first bike on a maiden ride around Montogueil. While there was a happy ending concerning his membership this did nothing to ameliorate the issue of all the bikes being taken from so many stations: a problem of success, but still a problem.

We got falafel — which Jared remembered fondly from prior trips — from one of the take-out places on rue des Rosiers in the Marais. There was a weird moment as we ordered. I noticed a 50 euro bill on the sidewalk, under the foot of the young man who was taking our order. As I picked it up Jared said something about my having dropped it, even though neither of us saw where it came from. I assumed the young man had dropped it so I gave it to him. He took it and gave us 40+ euros change. No hypothesis fully fits the facts, but my best guess is that I had put the bill loose in my pocket a few nights before, since I was going to a sketchy nightclub opening and didn’t want to bring my wallet. Either that or we got very lucky — and someone else very unlucky.

We munched as we walked, in true American fashion, then finished up on a bench at the Place du Marché–Sainte–Catherine, a little out-of-the-way square that I had stumbled on my first year.  I then played one of my standard friendly tricks by walking Jared down to rue Saint Antoine, then suggesting we duck into the Hotel de Sully so I could wash the falafal sauce out of my beard. That took us through two lovely courtyards and then — surprise! — right onto the Place des Vosges. As a mathematician Jared particularly appreciated the eight-fold symmetry of the square. My eye was drawn, however, to the lovely fountains.

Lovely fountain in the Place des Vosges.

After lunch we got coffee on rue de la Roquette, at La Fée Verte (this is a slang term for absinthe, but it was still a bit early in the day). I ordered une noisette for myself but I couldn’t remember the term for the other type of coffee with milk so I asked sheepishly for a « grande café-au-lait » for Jared — realizing that this French-ish Americanism isn’t used in France. All went well until we wanted the check;  I could not catch anyone’s eye despite lots of meaningful looks and writing in the air; finally I went up to the counter and demanded my addition. Strangely, the handsome waiter, who had not once looked our way for the previous ten minutes, then became very friendly. He asked where I was from, commiserated about the Boston bombings, and explained the two terms for coffee with milk: une noisette (an expresso with a dash of steamed milk) and un crème (masculine because café is implied even though crème itself is feminine). Possibly verging on linguistic TMI, he further explained that some misguided French people order un noisette, for the same reason, but that this is erroneous.

Jared at La Fée Verte with the last of his (masculine) crème.

We explored some of the cool little bobo streets around Bastille, walked up Avenue Parmentier (with an obligatory stop at the odd doll repair shop I had photographed in 2011), then headed up rue du Faubourg du Temple and rue Belleville (as Lisa and I had done on our first epic flâne), with side trips down the legal grafitti street, rue Dénoyez, and other odd by-ways. Eventually we hung a left and stepped into the park that Jared had heard — not inaptly! — as Parc des Buttes-Charmante (the park of the charming hills). It was the third time this year that I had introduced a friend to the park, but the experience didn’t seem old in the least; I love the place and each time I see it anew through my guests’ fresh (and usually wide) eyes.

Jared on the suspension bridge at the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont.

The lake and Temple de la Sibylle at Parc des Buttes-Chaumont.

Due to my mix-up we arrived at Le Sentier des Halles half an hour before I had intended, but there was already a line (actually an orderly crowd) so it was probably a good thing. The show, by a two-man drum group called Fills Monkey, was terrific — fun for kids as well as adults, and completely language-independent. I was very glad, however, that Jared snagged me a set of ear plugs from a bowl in the lobby since I had forgotten mine and I would otherwise have been unhappy with the volume.

After the show we had a very nice meal, served by yet another beautiful and friendly waiter, at Lézard Café. I was initially bemused to be given the English menu, but I had to agree with Jared’s observation that neither of us would have known to avoid the gizzards if we had gotten the French one. We were careful not to have too much wine, so as to still have enough thirst to finish the evening with a couple of beers on the terrace at — where else? —  L’Open Café.

A slightly less benignant effect of having read my blog was that Jared wanted to top the mileage I had racked up during my walk in the country on Saturday. I was skeptical that we would achieve this — and of course the point is the texture of one’s experience rather than the distance walked — but at the end of the day it turned out that we had set a new record, of 13.34 miles, by less than 100 steps.

Mot du Jour: « gésier ».  Gizzard.

The Beginning of the End

Tags

Au Rocher de Cancale, Channa, Houellebecq, L'Ecoute, Lézard Café, Les Halles, Palais Royal, rue Montorgueil, Saint Eustache

My last week started on a muted note, with Gerry’s departure for Antwerp.  We took our last walk around the quartier and enjoyed our last lunch, at historic Au Rocher de Cancale.  Even though I have another week here I felt a distinct sense of “second-hand nostalgia” — seeing Paris and especially rue Montorgueil for the last time (this year, anyway) through his eyes.  In just a few days this will be my own personal experience.

After Gerry left I strolled over to the garden of the Palais Royal to read a bit more of Les Particules élémentaires by Michel Houellebecq, which I had scarcely looked at since my first week.  The fall flowers are lovely, but inevitably pale in comparison to the spring flowers that thrilled me my first year.  This year I noticed for the first time “The Little Cannon of the Palais Royal.”  It was placed there in 1786, and fired at noon on sunny days until 1914; since 1990 it’s shot off every day.  Is public safety perhaps the reason why the pelouse in front of it is interdite?

Le Petit Canon du Palais Royal

My walk home included a pedestrian walkway through the gigantic work-site for the Les Halles project.  This affords an impressive view of Saint Eustache, including, if you look closely, a huge sculpture of a head that is one of the few elements of the prior configuration that is destined to survive.

Saint Eustache from the Les Halles Chantier

I had made no special plans for dinner until Channa, a med student friend from Boston, messaged me to say he was in town for a few days and would like to get together.  The plan was jeopardized by a bout of food poisoning, caused by his eating a canary (where or why I never ascertained!) but happily he had recovered by evening.  I picked him up at his hotel at Châtelet, because he was still getting his bearings, and we strolled back to my place for an apéro.

Channa and Bob at 59, rue Saint-Sauveur

We had kir and dinner at Lézard Café.  The food was good, although it arrives so quickly that you wonder whether it’s mostly prepared in advance and just heated for each diner.  The waiters were charming and efficient, as usual.  A young Indian waiter turned out to know five languages, and engaged in a lively conversation with Channa in Sinhalese.  After re-grouping back at my place, and plugging in Channa’s iPhone for a much-needed charge, we went for a refreshing swim to finish off our evening together.

Art, Food, Friends, Family, Fun

Tags

Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Élysées, Experimental Cocktail Club, Gerhard Richter, Gerry, Jacques, Lézard Café, Louvre, Marais, meals, Mona Lisa, Montorgueil, Pompidou, rue Montorgueil, Saint Sebastian by Pérugin, Tuileries

If it’s Wednesday this must be … the Louvre!  I walked Gerry over since he was still getting oriented (and still waking up around noon).  My initial thought had been to leave him to it, since I’ve been so many times, but there was hardly any line, so I was swept along into another encounter with its vast beauties.  As a first-time visitor, Gerry made a beeline for the Mona Lisa.

Mona Lisa

In case you haven’t seen it in person I made a little video to capture the experience, which is interesting from a sociological perspective, though completely devoid of aesthetic content.  As usual, my own attention was caught by other genres:

Saint Sebastian by Pérugin (detail). Around 1490-1500.

As it happened, two friends of Gerry’s were also visiting the Louvre that day so we met up with them.  They were a nice couple, but I preferred to take my separate way through the collection. Moving between works and rooms is complicated even with one other person — tho Gerry and I do this comfortably — but with a larger group I find museum-going excruciating. By coincidence we all finished around the same time and met for a walk through the Tuileries gardens, across the Place de la Concorde, then along the Champs-Élysées, to the Arc de Triomphe.

Arc de Triomphe

I had to stand in the road, risking life and limb, to snap that shot.  Postcard-worthy, no?

Wednesday evening I had dinner with my good friend from two prior visits, Jacques. Here is his photo from the French-Asian float at this year’s Paris Gay Pride:

Jacques as an Asian Prince at Paris Gay Pride 2012

He is doing great, working hard at a top accounting firm and enjoying leisure time with his long-standing petit copain (boyfriend), who knows about and accepts our friendship.  It was great to see him again, and we planned one more meal together before I leave.

After Jacques headed home Gerry and I met by chance on rue Montorgueil and ended the evening at the Experimental Cocktail Club comme d’habitude (as usual).  It was another cozy interlude, with good music and atmosphere.  We got into a lively conversation with a good-looking young man across from us until his friends said to him (in French) “are you with us or with them?”  After which Gerry and I had to make do with one another’s excellent company.

Bob and Gerry at Experimental Cocktail Club

If it’s Thursday it must be … the Pompidou!  This is a fine collection of modern and contemporary art, in a building that is itself an icon of modernity.

Miró Blues

I enjoyed seeing the permanent collection again as well as an exhibition of the remarkably varied work of Gerhard Richter (which ends on Monday).

Gerry at the Richter Exhibition at the Pompidou

Thursday evening I had planned dinner with my cousin BJ, starting with an apéro at my place.

BJ at 59, rue Saint-Saveur

She emailed that morning to ask whether some friends she had also been meaning to catch up with could join us, and of course I said yes.  The new recruits turned out to be two of her former boyfriends and an interesting older woman.  When the first ex arrived he mentioned that he had just left two of his own friends at a café downstairs, so naturally we invited them up as well.  Before I knew it I was hosting a party for eight or nine people!  Several brought wine and I had some provisions on hand so it was a convivial start to the evening.  Most of us stayed for dinner at our new favorite, Lézard Café.  It was once again a really nice experience — good food and friendly (if slightly giddy) service.  At one point I did a double take because there was a handsome young man who I didn’t at first recognize sitting at the other end of our table conversing with animation.  With a pleasant little shock I realized that he was our waiter!

After saying farewell to BJ, her friend — and our new waiter friend — Gerry and I headed over to a bar in the Marais, Duplex Bar.  It was a lively place, with an attractive and friendly crowd and relatively low attitude.  We stayed until closing, at 2 am, lingering on the sidewalk to see whether two guys who seemed to have met for the first time that evening would go home together.  They left as part of a foursome, leaving us to wonder whether they were a ménage à quatre (“household of four”, playing on the phrase ménage à trois) or, perhaps (recycling a French friend’s witticism), a manège à quatre (“merry-go-round of four”).

Dining Off (and On) the Beaten Path

Tags

Aux Trois Petits Cochons, Ave Maria, Bouillon Chartier, Brasserie Julien, Breizh Café, Café de l'Industrie, Candelaria, Chez Louisette, Coffee, Dinner, Drinks, guinguette, L'Absinthe Café, L'Entrecôte, La Chaise au Plafond, La Crêperie de Bretonne, Lézard Café, Le Bistrot des Compères, Le Gai Moulin, Le Marsangy, Le Pré Verre, Le Relais de Venise, Le Relais de Venise - L'Entrecôte, Le Train Bleu, Les Enfants Perdus, Lunch, Marais, Marché aux Puces, Mariage Frères, Métropolitan, meals, Open Café, Pamela Popo, Pramil, Restaurant Hélène Darroze, Saint Paul, Tellus, Ze Restoo

Many Paris restaurants allow online booking on the TripAdvisor-owned website (and app) The Fork, and not infrequently substantial discounts will be offered there.

I had so many great meals in Paris the past few years that it’s difficult to select just a few restaurants to recommend. But here are some relatively inexpensive favorites:

• Niçoise salad at La Rotonde, 105, Bvd du Montparnasse.
• 
• Dinner at gay-friendly Lézard Café, rue Tiquetonne, 2ème. Sadly, Le Loup Blanc closed in 2014.
  

  Bob at Le Loup Blanc

• I particularly liked a neighborhood place near Arts et Metiers, l’Absinthe Café. The food is ordinary but the atmosphere feels very authentic. Update 2014: I was shocked to see an English menu including touristy items. I didn’t eat there but I’m afraid it may have gone over to the dark side.
• I loved Café de l’Industrie, near Bastille. Good food, charming atmosphere and Cambridge-y staff.
  

  Alexis, Lisa, Julien and Colt after brunch at Café l’Industrie, Bastille.

• Dinner at either of two places in the Marais will offer a très-gai clientele and ok food at reasonable prices: Ze Restoo or Le Gai Moulin.
• This restaurant in the Marais is a bit more expensive but probably worth it: La Chaise au Plafond. Same kitchen and menu as the pricier Les Philosophes next door.
• An authentic Breton meal of of gallette (salty) and crêpe (sweet) can be had for peanuts at La Crêperie de Bretonne on rue de Montparnasse. I also enjoyed the more expensive Breizh Café with Zhizhong in the Marais in 2014.
  

  Zhizhong with our galettes at Breizh Café in the 3e.

• Bouillon Chartier is a restaurant whose stated aim is “to satisfy the belly without hurting the wallet.” You’ll be seated with other patrons if it’s busy, and I’ve gotten into some interesting conversations there.
  

  The business professor from Montpellier with whom I was seated at Boullion Chartier.

• Beyond touristy, but also strikingly authentic, is an old restaurant deep in the Marché aux Puces, Chez Louisette. The food is unpretentious and our waiter was downright surly. But the ambiance is gemütlichkeit, evocative of a riverfront guinguette, with a two-man band and a series of quite-good singers belting out French classics.
  

  Chez Louisette

If you feel like spending a bit more — but not insanely much — here are a few fancier options. You will find more tourists here, but they are busy for a reason.

• Dinner at Aux Trois Petits Cochons (The Three Little Pigs), formerly on rue Tiquetonne in the 2ème, has now reopened near métro Abbesses in Montmartre. I had a good (if not great) meal in the new location and it gets nice reviews.
• Steak, any time of day, at Le Relais de Venise – L’Entrecôte  at Porte Maillot.
  

  Alan Ryan Bob with Relais Hostess

• Le Marsangy was a charming neighborhood restaurant on Avenue Parmentier serving traditional cuisine. The service was impeccable: I had the impression that the entire operation was composed of the chef and the waiter, and that they had been doing this for a long, long time. I will not soon forget the millefeuille d’avocat aux écrevisses (photo). Unfortunately, it was sold in 2014 and under the new management it is no longer recommended.
  

  millefeuille d’avocat aux écrevisses at Le Marsangy

• One of the marvelous restaurants that my friend Jacques introduced me is Brasserie Julien, in the 10ème just beyond Porte Saint-Martin. The room alone is worth the price!
  

  Jacques at Brasserie Julien

• Mariage Frères in the Marais is 100% touristy, but also absolutely wonderful.
  

  Bob, Alan and Ryan at Mariage Frères

• Alexis introduced me to a good Provençal restaurant, Le Petit Niçois, in the 7ème (though on a subsequent visit in 2014 it was filled with tourists and the food seemed less distinctive), and to trendy Les Enfants Perdus in the 10ème, near Canal Saint-Martin.
  

  Alexis at Les Enfants Perdus

• I had some fine meals in prior years at Le Pré Verre in the Latin Quarter.  Update: In 2012 found the service brusque and sloppy, and it seemed that all the other diners had been referred by the Rough Guide (as I had been initially).  Off my list.
• Jason and I had dinner in 2014 at Pramil, a restaurant in the Haut Marais that I found in the Michelin guide. The menu was terrific and we thought the food was excellent, and good value for money. The only odd thing is that all the other diners were rich American tourists. If strings of pearls don’t bother you, then you should give Pramil a try.
  

  Bob and Jason at Pramil, in the Haut Marais.

• Jaime and I enjoyed a dinner in 2014 at Métropolitan, in Saint-Paul. We had no reservations so we ate under a strict time limit, but nevertheless really enjoyed ourselves.
  

  Jaime with his main course at Métropolitan, amidst an agreeable group of diners.

• I had a terrific meal with Jacques at Pamela Popo on rue François Miron in Saint-Paul  in 2014. Food, service and ambiance were all excellent. Not cheap, but worth it.
  

  Bob with the main course at Pamela Popo.

For a special occasion, when cost is no object, I can suggest two restaurants where I’ve had extraordinary experiences:

• Quite possibly the most beautiful restaurant in Paris is Le Train Bleu, in the Gare de Lyon. Jacques took me there for my farewell dinner last year.  The room is absolutely stunning, and the service was impeccable.  The food was good, although in all honesty not as impressive as the rest of the experience.  Here are all the photos:  LeTrainBleu
  

  Impeccable Service at Le Train Bleu

• Both 2010 and 2011 I had lunch with friends at the Michelin one-star Restaurant Hélène Darroze. The food in both cases was truly spectacular. Our waiter was the same both times and he was superb.  I had an odd feeling in 2011 that the assisting waiters were a bit abrupt, even surly. Taka and I ate dinner there in 2015 with his partner. I had booked a 65 euro prix fixe menu for the less-expensive downstairs dining room but it was full so we were bumped upstairs, for the same price! The entire experience there was wonderful — ambiance, food and service — right up to the end when there was a long wait for our dessert and again for our check. I’m sorry not to be able to give an unqualified recommendation, since the food itself was wonderful.
  

  One of the two fabulous desserts. Milky Jivara chocolate (in three forms), thyme and lemon flavored cream, lime mousse and cacao shortbread.

Coffee or drinks?

• My gay friends will inevitably find themselves meeting for drinks at L’Open Café, on rue des Archives in the Marais. It’s a wide-open place, friendly in the afternoon and jammed in the evening.
• My favorite gay bar in Paris is Le Duplex (not to be confused with the straight club near Etoile of the same name). It’s a neighborhood place at which you can meet someone and actually have a conversation. The crowd is on the mature side but the fulll age range is represented.
• A trendy restaurant near Canal Saint-Martin is Chez Prune.  They require you to eat a meal during dining hours though, and the servers have a serious case of attitude. The last time I went they were positively rude, though I was wearing my ridiculous floppy hat so I may have deserved at least some of their scorn.
  

  Gerry at Chez Prune

• La Gare at La Muette (16ème) is quite classy. I just have coffee there because the rest of the menu is quite expensive.
• Yet another good place for a later afternoon drink is Café Beaubourg, a stylish bar overlooking the plaza in front of the Pompidou Center (of all places!).
• Later on in the evening if you want to hang with the cool kids — and don’t mind paying $15 for a cocktail — check out the Experimental Cocktail Club in the 2ème (or several other places). It’s actually friendly! Update 2013: I gather that on weekends they now have a rule that men must be accompanied by women. I would like to think that this is to keep out rowdy straight guys but it has the effect of keeping out gays.
  

  Experimental Cocktail Club

• Alexis introduced me to a similar cocktail bar in 2014: Candeleria. You enter through a tiny, garishly-lit taco place, then go through a door at the back (like an old-time speakeasy) to a large, classy bar. The cocktails are dauntingly complex, and pricey at 12-14 euros. But the overall experience is special. Reservations are recommended, but when Jaime and I were turned away we were redirected to the Mary Celeste, a few blocks away, whcih is similar.
• Almost as cool, and much cheaper, is Avé Maria in the 11ème. Can be a bit of attitude here, tho.

Suggestions from other sources, that I haven’t tried myself:

• New York Times piece from Jaffar: In Paris, Restos for Fashion’s Restless
• I ran across Abri at Paris by Mouth.  Alexis and I almost walked by it because the space is a sandwich shop during the day.  Worth a try sometime perhaps but the ambiance is fast food.
• Alexis suggested Albion.
• Elliot’s suggestions:
  • Le Grand Véfour – At the Palais Royal.  Expensive but worth it.
  • Michelin three-star Epicure at the Hotel Le Bristol – Crazy expensive but one of the best restaurants in the world.
  • Le Berbère – Moderate but very good.
  • Le Temps en Temps – Also moderate but very good.
• Looks like I’ll have to come back to Paris!