Paris on foot and by Metro

Susie and I spent much of the morning relaxing in the apartment -- for me it was a perfect opportunity to work on getting my body to shed whatever virus had made the cruel decision to seek refuge in my system.

We eventually got our selves together and headed off for the St. Ambroise metro where we took the 9 to Republique and switched to the no. 8, alighting at the Ecole Militaire stop in the 7th arr.

After exiting we quickly got our bearings -- leaving a metro can often be a bit challenging to one's sense f direction if not sense of proportion -- and headed up Avenue de La Bourdannais keeping an eye out for the tiny Rue Augereau, a short angled street that was our clue to our next Clotilde treasure.

A few minutes' walk brought us to Augereau and we turned down this quiet little side street following it all the way to the end, where it stopped at Rue Saint Dominique. Our objective: Les Cocottes des Christian Constant (the chef not the chocolatier).

Opening the door we found ourselves inside a long narrow space lined with a bar with stools on the right and several high tables at the far back end of the restaurant. Clotilde describes this as a snack shop but we thought it much more than that.

Now apparently a "cocotte" is a type of casserole dish, made of cast iron that can go from the stove to the oven with ease, and can be round or oval and seem to come in all sizes. They use the Staub brand and in fact sold them right there in the restaurant. (Curiously, it seems the French use the word "casserole" to refer to a saucepan.)

We each ordered one of their signature cocotte dishes: crispy cod with legumes in an incredibly delicious broth (photo above). For dessert I had the Basque cheese with blackberry jam (Christian Constant is from the Basque part of France) and Susie had the Clafoutis "mirabels" (plums).


After lunch we strolled down Saint Dominique in the direction of Les Invalides we came across several patisserie and boulangerie sporting wonderful-looking products in their windows and cases.



It probably goes without saying that there are far too many to document in this city. The real challenge is finding the good and great ones, and that's where Clotilde comes in. The additional benefit, by the way, of using her suggestions is that you find yourself, well at least we find ourselves, strolling through parts of Paris we would never have otherwise taken the time or trouble to have seen before.

Along the way we also passed, oddly enough, St. Clotilde church, where Cesar Franck had once been employed as organist.

Continuing on eastward along Rue Saint Dominique, we passed Les Invalides and strolled on past the various drab and characterless French governmental buildings until we reached the Solferino metro. There we got on the no. 12 heading for Vaugirard. After we left the Metro we walked to Le Cordon Bleu so Susie could say hi to Julie, one of the most pleasant people Susie had the good fortune to meet when she first came to LCB as a student more than two years ago.

After saying au revoir to Julie we walked back to the Metro and headed for the Pasteur stop. Our next objective was one of the few patisserie owned by a woman, "des Gateaux et du Pain," located on Blvd. Pasteur. The design and decor was sleek, modern, and very black and sterile, with a staff to match. Certainly not your traditional patisserie.

The layout was more museum-like than one would expect a patisserie to be, in any case. Plus I was somewhat taken aback by being prohibited from taking photos -- the other patisserie seemed eager to have me photograph their space. Perhaps the people at "des Gateaux" were afraid I was there to steal their incredibly pretentious design ideas. Who knows?

Susie bought some multi-grain bread, which as it turned out was very good toasted with jam. Anyway, we quickly left the shop.

Back down Blvd. Pasteur to the Metro and then the no. 6 to Place d'Italie. This large shopping complex located on side of an even larger roundabout, was one of our key resources for household goods when we live don Rue Poliveau. Oddly as it may sound, we wanted to return to the Champion supermarket to pick up a couple of jars of Dutch peanut butter ("Calvi" brand) that we had come to enjoy so much. These will be going in the luggage for the return trip.

From Place d'Italie it was back on the Metro, this time the no. 5 for Richard-Lenoir and from there a quick stroll through the back streets to our apartment.

Aside from stepping out to a nearby cafe for an aperitif we just hung out at home, dining on leftover roasted chicken, veal sausage and a potato salad with mustard vinaigrette and cauliflower.

Wish you were here,

Steve