Saturday, 10/31
We arrived at Ana and Bertrand’s in La Varenne just in time to head to dinner at Le Garden, a fairly new restaurant nearby.
It’s beautifully decorated, service is impeccable, and the food is out of this world. I can see a Michelin star on the horizon. Here is the menu:
Les entrees
LA COURGE BUTTERNUT, courge butternut confite à la citronnelle, sauce mimolette truffée – 29€
LA BETTERAVE, betterave rôtie, moutarde, hibiscus, pickles de Chioggia, brousse, shiso rouge – 28€
L’ŒUF PARFAIT DE SAISON, œuf parfait 63°C, polenta crémeuse, châtaignes, figatellu, pickles d’oignons jaunes – 30€
LE BAR, carpaccio de bar, leche de tigre, gel de kiwi – 32€
Les plats
LE CŒUR DE FILET DE BŒUF, sauce shiso, cèpes rôtis, crème miso blanc de topinambour, chips de topinambour – 51€
L’AGNEAU, épaule d’agneau confite, fregola, chou-rave, piquillos – 49€
LA LOTTE, lotte basse température, chou romanesco, huile de poireau, pistache, chou kale, sauce herbacée – 48€
SAINT-JACQUES, Saint-jacques snackées accompagnées de coques, salicorne fraîche, pak choï, coulis de cresson et beurre nantais – 49€
Fromages
ASSIETTE DE FROMAGES (+15 €)
ASSIETTE DE BRIE DE MEAUX DU MOMENT (+16 €)
Desserts
LE PANAIS, panais rôtis, mousse de panais, pickles de panais, glace noisette – 21€
CHOCO CAFE, pâte sucrée cacao, crème mascarpone, crémeux café, glace Baileys – 23€
LA POIRE, poire pochée poivrée, crème vanille de Madagascar, biscuit sablé amande,
crème glacée poire verveine, sirop verveine- 22€
PISTACHE, ORANGE, FLEUR D’ORANGER, biscuit moelleux à l’orange, ganache montée fleur d’oranger, crémeux pistache, confit orange, glace pistache – 24€
The 3-course prix-fixe, one choice each for entree, plat and dessert, is only 72 euros.
Sunday, 11/1
This was our day to spend at home, buying food at the Sunday market, Stanley cooking the afternoon meal and I doing the evening.
Monday, 11/2
We began with a visit to the Jacquemart-Andre, which we have been to a number of times. There is always a special exhibit worth seeing, and the building itself is magnificent.
This time the exhibit was Tintoretto.
From there we took an Uber to lunch because the train we needed wasn’t running. Lunch was at Gemellus, where we had been a year ago and loved.
We will plan to go back next year as it’s a great deal for what they offer.
Next we went to Notre Dame, which I was able to get a reservation for on their website (admission is free). The cathedral has been beautifully restored.
Then on to dinner at Le Radis Beurre, where we got together with American friends who live in Nice but happened to be visiting friends in Paris. We had an outstanding dinner.
The highlight for me was the perdreau (partridge), but everything was superb.
Tuesday, 11/3
We relaxed at home in the morning and then set out for lunch at Alliance.
The menu is a 4-course tasting, plus dessert, based on the chef’s whim and your own preferences. The dishes we had were: Crab mousse, potato with girolles and shallots, St. Pierre (John Dory to Brits), colvert (wild duck) and chocolate mousse. This doesn’t begin to describe the complexity of the dishes, and there were many small additional tastes. With wine and coffees the bill was 350 euros, and worth every penny.
We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Picasso museum, which we enjoyed immensely.
For our final night’s dinner, I chose Eels.
This was something of a disappointment. The food was very good, but not good value, and the wine list was way out of line. I find its popularity surprising.
Stanley began with the poultry and sweetbread galantine, which was superb. My eel appetizer was good but not really special as I would have expected from their signature appetizer. Next I had the pike-perch and he had the roasted pork. For desserts we had the pistachio and fig dish and the savarin. With wine, the total was 215 euros. This was equivalent to what we spent at Le Garden and there was no comparison. Le Radis Beurre was also a much better deal at 142.
