We stayed at the Young and Happy Hostel in the 4th arrondissement. The reviews online said it had good breakfast and surly staff, but it was reasonably cheap, so we figured the staff wouldn't bother us too much. Turns out that the reviewers (mostly American- high service, low food standards) had it backwards. The gentleman at the front desk when we checked in asked what region I was from, and was *gasp* shocked that I was American. That must be one of the levels of fluency: can-convince-French-person-am-French-from-different-region-if-only-3-minute-conversation.
After checking in, we decided to go to Montmartre first because it was the furthest tourist destination from our area, making it harder to combine with other sights. We took the metro out there, and I found the combination of old/new in the stations rather funny. There are screens that tell you exactly when the next train is coming, and unlike Boston, they're never late. The chairs in the station look like they're straight out of IKEA. However, to get into some of the trains, you still have to pull a quaint looking lever, and the walls in the metro look as they must've 50 years ago. Montmartre itself seemed much more "touristy" than I remember it being the last time I was there. Middle Eastern looking men selling cigarettes surrounded the metro exit shoving the boxes into the faces of anyone coming out. Dark African street vendors who look as if they need about 50 baguettes kept grabbing our arms to try to get us to buy these little string things that they must braid around your wrist or something. One of my classmates told me when we got back that it's a scam- one distracts you with his "craft" and another steals your wallet. It was more intimidating than anything else. Once we got up to the top, we looked around at the artists painting, but most things looked like pretty, but boring replicas of each other and the prices had ballooned compared to other tourist shops farther away. When I was there in high school, my tour guide sat at a bar and had a snack while we explored, so we went there for lunch. The food was good by American standards, but we knew from our Reims experience that it was only so-so according to French standards. Overall, that area is one that should be seen once, but that is rather disappointing when compared to everything else France has to offer.
We walked back, taking whatever route we felt like, checking out the sites along the way. When we got back to the hostel, we sat and sipped a bottle of wine that we'd bought next door and started talking to some of the people who were staying in our 10-person dorm. It was funny that we were in France, so I assumed the other Europeans there would want to speak French, but no, our "Salut" was returned with "Hi," so we spoke to everyone except the front desk in English. The Italian guy who works for a music magazine had been at concerts in Paris to write about them, and was on his way to Norway or Denmark to write about music there. The Italian girl was participating in Erasmus and hoping to work on her French. I'm not usually a very social person, but they were pretty talkative, and we ended up realizing around 8:30 or so that we needed to leave for our 9 pm dinner reservation.
We ended up being quite late (1/2 hr) for our reservation, but there were only about 5 other tables, so it wasn't a big deal. The waiter and maitre d' were very proper with us at first, explaining the dishes and the wine pairing with the utmost professionalism. That was nice, but we much preferred it later in the meal when they warmed up to us and started smiling and joking. Short of a few culinary vocabulary words that I will never be able to look up because I wouldn't even know how to spell them (the liaison between words makes it very hard to tell where one ends and another begins if you don't already know what a word is), we understood them perfectly. Below is the menu that we ate, with translation/notes and my additions for the courses that weren't on the menu list.
Amuse- rascasse (a kind of red fish) salad with a side of chilled carrot soup topped with creme fraiche.
Foie gras confit dans un vin d'épices, mangue aigre douce
Foie gras at room temperature wrapped in duck fat in a spiced wine reduction (spices included cardamom-mmm) with a mango salad. This was served with dense brown bread slices on which to spread the foie, but I much preferred it plain!
Montlouis-sur-loire 2003 F.Chedaine- white wine was light, slightly sweet, with honey and tropical fruit.
Langoustines croustillantes, pak-choï et bouillon à la passion
Langoustines are the size and have the taste of jumbo shrimp, but look like lobster when in the shell. Ours were breaded and fried in something that looked a bit like coconut, but I don't it was. They were served on a bed of bak-choi with a delicious, sweet passion fruit sauce on the side.
Limoux "Autan" 2007 Toques et clochers - white wine with notes of pear
mini course addition here- a little gazpacho with creme fraiche on top.
Bar de ligne, fondue d'oseille, risotto au safran et aux crevettes, pousses d'épinard et bouillon aux herbes
Chablis 2006 R.Lavantureux - she skipped this and had red wine :-)
Du pigeon fermier :
-Cuisses fondantes en pastilla
-Filets cuits rosés, flan de céleri, miel de bruyère et dattes medjoul
This was my main course- farmed pigeon two ways- ground and cooked in a pastry shell and then roasted to medium rare with au jus, celery flan (much better than it sounds!) and honey covered dates. The description doesn't include the fact that the wings were in a little pot of juice on the side. I was surprised how red the pigeon meat was, and didn't feel bad at all about eating the relatives of the obnoxious birds that followed us around all the time. No picture yet as Maggie hasn't uploaded it.
Cairanne "la Perdendaille" 2006 Les vins de Vienne- full-bodied red, can't remember the correct tasting description.
Figues rôties aux épices, sorbet aux pruneaux
Roasted figs with spices (mostly cinnamon) and plum sorbet. The sorbet was fantastic, but I think I prefer figs in jam. Forgot to take a picture until we were almost done.
Parfait praliné aux noisettes caramélisées et crème choco-noisette
Parfait in the English sense is a misnomer here. These were little squares of delicious cream with the texture of cheesecake and carmelized hazelnut chunks with a thin cookie on top and a warm chocolate hazelnut sauce to pour over the top.
Muscat de baumes de Venise 2007 Domaine des Bernardins Right around the main course was when the staff became friendlier, probably because we were obviously enjoying their food and their language. Anyway, the description for the wine following the boring appellation information went something like this "To best taste this wine, you must close your eyes, put your nose deeply into the glass and inhale, and you will be transported into a garden." He wasn't lying. I could drink that wine for dessert every day. I realized when Maggie was about halfway done with her dessert, which was equally delicious, that I hadn't even touched mine yet because I was still sniffing away.
Absolutely perfect dinner! Got back to the hostel around midnight or 12:30 to find everyone in the room fast asleep. Where are the Europeans that like to go out until 4 in the morning every night of the week? It's Tuesday, who cares? So in the spirit of our new European friends, we went to bed, too.
Non-food pictures from the whole time we were there are on Facebook- posting is too much work here.
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