From Wales to Cornwall via Paris - a flying visit by train.
Jan 13th, 2011, 02:59 PM
#1
From Wales to Cornwall via Paris - a flying visit by train.
This is not the sort of trip that I would normally [or indeed ever] recommend - but as it was the only weekend that we could find to get to see the Monet exhibition in Paris, we were desperate to make it happen.
The task we set ourselves was this: we had to get DS to uni in mid-Wales, then get to Paris, and finally return to Cornwall, all in the space of 4 days. We looked at all the possible flights - we could fly from Cardiff, Bristol or Exeter - but whichever we chose, we ended up with barely a day in Paris itself. Then DH, who hates the hassle of plane travel anyway, came up with a brainwave - letting the train take the strain. we could get a train from Bristol Parkway [ample parking] to Paddington, then the eurostar to Paris [cutting out the horrors of CDG], stay two nights, then reverse the journey, giving ourselves over a day and a half. Perfect.
we decided to stay as close to the centre as possible so as to maximise our sight-seeing time, and after searching on TA, came up with the Hotel Brittanique on the avenue victoria, which was not far from the RER B chatelet-les-halles [just one stop down from the eurostar terminus at the gare du nord] and just round the corner from the Chatelet stop on line 1 on the metro, which was perfect for getting to the grand palais for the monet exhibition. it turned out to be even better than we'd hoped - the room was very quiet, though it had a street view [shame the weather wasn't good enough for us to use the balcony!] we had a fruit bowl and bath robes, and best of all, a kettle, milk, and tea-bags. A first for a hotel in France - perhaps it's something to do with the name? pretty good for €175/night. http://www.hotel-britannique.fr/
by the time we arrived we were famished, so we made for the nearest restaurant, which turned out to be the cafe zimmer [http://www.lezimmer.com/] which though we didn't know it at the time, gets very good reviews on TA and deservedly so. although it was 8.30pm, and the place looked pretty crowded, we were seated straight away, and served very promptly by a very friendly waiter, who patiently indulged our attempts to speak french, and even completmented us, which showed what an intelligent chap he was. [or perhaps he was just after a bigger tip?]
we went for the €18 euro 2 course menu - terrine, pumpkin soup or leek vinagrette to start, and chicken or salmon for main course. We both had the terrine followed by the salmon for me and chicken for DH, and although not out-standing, the food was perfectly "come il faut", and the house wine was very acceptable. [frankly, as we'd been travelling for about 12 hours, I'm not sure we could tell!] the bill was €77 which seemd very reasonable considering the position of the restaurant and what we had.
After puds, [which sadly I've forgotten] we had coffee, and went for a stroll along the seine, just in time to see the twinkling lights on the Eiffel Tower be turned off, and then back to the hotel for a cognac each in the hotel bar.
Although France is an hour ahead of Britain, we were well ready for our bed, and knowing we had a busy day ahead, we wanted to be up fresh and early. Sadly this was not to be, not because of any extraneous noises, [the room was very quiet] but because we were knackered, so we weren't ready to go out until about 10am. For reasons that I hope will become apparent, we decided to miss breakfast apart from helping ourselves to some of the contents of the fruit bowl, and then took ourselves off to the metro stop just outside the cafe zimmer to catch the metro up to the grand palais. we had been able to buy a "carnet" [10 individual RATP tickets, valid on all central metro, bus and RER lines] at St. Pancras, so it was simplicity itself to jump on the metro [line 1] up to Franklin D Roosevelt, and walk down to the grand palais.
it was entirely the fault of another fodorite that we knew anything about this exhibition. Back in last autumn, there was a thread recommending it very highly, and being fans both of Monet and Paris, we could hardly resist. Plus the grand palais has romantic memories for us as it was the site of the first exhibition we ever went to in Paris, on my first visit there. Any reader who remembers when the Manet exhibition was, [yes, MANET, not MONET,] will know just how long ago that was. of course it took us too long to decide we were going, which meant that all the timed tickets had sold out by the time we'd got our rail tickets, so i had had to splash out on a "Sesame" ticket, which though very expensive, it did mean that we could [and indeed still can until the end of august] get into any exhibition in the grand palais at any time.
in theory. By the time we got there, the queue even for those of us with sesame tickets was about 30 mins long, [they have boards telling you how long the wait will be] and for those optimistic souls who turned up without tickets, [called the "sans cullottes" by the french chap we were chatting to in the queue] I expect that they are still there! once we were inside, it was as packed as we had expected, which is to say very packed, but not unbearably so, once we got past the first few rooms.
if there is anyone reading this who is not familiar with the works of Monet, [a passing martian for example] I can only say that his art, as demonstrated by this exhibition, started off being quite figurative but soon became les distinct and more "fuzzy" or impressionistic. the curators have combed the museums and galleries of the western world to collect the works on display, so that you can for example see all 6 paintings that he did of the front of Rouen Cathedral, even more of his studies of hayricks, and many other works from private collections, including the very sad one he did of his first wife lying on her death-bed, the day after she died. They also have two of our favourites - the lilacs, and the fog on the thames - which we eventually tore ourselves away from, and sadly left after about 2 hours or so in the exhibition.
Prior to our next stop which was for lunch, we decided that we'd like a quick drink and so went into the brassserie opposite the grand palais, which though full of sunday lunchers, also had some tables for drinkers outside in the sunshine. on the way, DH had joked that every time you sit down for a drink in Paris, it costs €20, and he wasn't far wrong here - for a small beer and a perrier, the bill was €10. However, that was small beer compared to our next stop ,which was at le cinq restaurant in the four Seasons hotel. This was the fault of another fodorite, who mentioned that you can have lunch at this 2 michelin starred restaurant for €82, any day of the week, including sunday. Now I know that's not cheap, but we found it impossible to resist the opportunity to eat at such an iconic institution, given that restaurants of that calibre aren't very thick on the ground where we live in Cornwall.
the building itself is quite intimidating for those of us unused to eating and staying at such establishments, starting with the top-hatted flunkies at the entrance to the revolving doors, but actually they were very polite and helpful in directing us to the restaurant . Inside, the chandeliers and mirrors are dazling, but it's a measure of the place that our not terribly smart raincoats were handled as carefully as the most valuable furs, and we were greeted as if we ate there every week. Of course, I'd forgotten that they give you a little stool for your handbag [do you get two if you bring your chiwawa?] but again that was dealt with with minimal fuss. Those who are really watching centimes should refuse the offer of a glass of champagne to start, but it would be a shame not to be able to sip it gently whilst nibbling at the basket of perfectly cooked deep-fried prawns and squid on your specially designed spear [a sort of crochet hook with a V on the other end], and perusing the menu. [french at the front, english at the back if you want to sneak a peak to make sure that you've understood how the delights on offer are to be presented and cooked].
we tried not to linger too long on the a la carte section, as the price of most of the entrees was in excess of the total price for the 3 course "dejeurner en liberte autour du marche" menu, and moved to what we could afford, which looked pretty good anyway.
this is what was on offer on the day we were there:
Foie gras de canard grille
Huitres speciales Gillardeau
Chair de tourteau frais
Coeur de saumon en pot-au-feu
Blanquette de joue de veau
fromages de charriot [an extra €12]
Cristalline de pomme facon tatin
Biscuit fondant au chocolat Caraibes
Vacherin givre aux framboises/litchis
Sadly, those of you who are salivating will have to wait to find out what we had, and how it tasted, as it's time for bed. good night!
The task we set ourselves was this: we had to get DS to uni in mid-Wales, then get to Paris, and finally return to Cornwall, all in the space of 4 days. We looked at all the possible flights - we could fly from Cardiff, Bristol or Exeter - but whichever we chose, we ended up with barely a day in Paris itself. Then DH, who hates the hassle of plane travel anyway, came up with a brainwave - letting the train take the strain. we could get a train from Bristol Parkway [ample parking] to Paddington, then the eurostar to Paris [cutting out the horrors of CDG], stay two nights, then reverse the journey, giving ourselves over a day and a half. Perfect.
we decided to stay as close to the centre as possible so as to maximise our sight-seeing time, and after searching on TA, came up with the Hotel Brittanique on the avenue victoria, which was not far from the RER B chatelet-les-halles [just one stop down from the eurostar terminus at the gare du nord] and just round the corner from the Chatelet stop on line 1 on the metro, which was perfect for getting to the grand palais for the monet exhibition. it turned out to be even better than we'd hoped - the room was very quiet, though it had a street view [shame the weather wasn't good enough for us to use the balcony!] we had a fruit bowl and bath robes, and best of all, a kettle, milk, and tea-bags. A first for a hotel in France - perhaps it's something to do with the name? pretty good for €175/night. http://www.hotel-britannique.fr/
by the time we arrived we were famished, so we made for the nearest restaurant, which turned out to be the cafe zimmer [http://www.lezimmer.com/] which though we didn't know it at the time, gets very good reviews on TA and deservedly so. although it was 8.30pm, and the place looked pretty crowded, we were seated straight away, and served very promptly by a very friendly waiter, who patiently indulged our attempts to speak french, and even completmented us, which showed what an intelligent chap he was. [or perhaps he was just after a bigger tip?]
we went for the €18 euro 2 course menu - terrine, pumpkin soup or leek vinagrette to start, and chicken or salmon for main course. We both had the terrine followed by the salmon for me and chicken for DH, and although not out-standing, the food was perfectly "come il faut", and the house wine was very acceptable. [frankly, as we'd been travelling for about 12 hours, I'm not sure we could tell!] the bill was €77 which seemd very reasonable considering the position of the restaurant and what we had.
After puds, [which sadly I've forgotten] we had coffee, and went for a stroll along the seine, just in time to see the twinkling lights on the Eiffel Tower be turned off, and then back to the hotel for a cognac each in the hotel bar.
Although France is an hour ahead of Britain, we were well ready for our bed, and knowing we had a busy day ahead, we wanted to be up fresh and early. Sadly this was not to be, not because of any extraneous noises, [the room was very quiet] but because we were knackered, so we weren't ready to go out until about 10am. For reasons that I hope will become apparent, we decided to miss breakfast apart from helping ourselves to some of the contents of the fruit bowl, and then took ourselves off to the metro stop just outside the cafe zimmer to catch the metro up to the grand palais. we had been able to buy a "carnet" [10 individual RATP tickets, valid on all central metro, bus and RER lines] at St. Pancras, so it was simplicity itself to jump on the metro [line 1] up to Franklin D Roosevelt, and walk down to the grand palais.
it was entirely the fault of another fodorite that we knew anything about this exhibition. Back in last autumn, there was a thread recommending it very highly, and being fans both of Monet and Paris, we could hardly resist. Plus the grand palais has romantic memories for us as it was the site of the first exhibition we ever went to in Paris, on my first visit there. Any reader who remembers when the Manet exhibition was, [yes, MANET, not MONET,] will know just how long ago that was. of course it took us too long to decide we were going, which meant that all the timed tickets had sold out by the time we'd got our rail tickets, so i had had to splash out on a "Sesame" ticket, which though very expensive, it did mean that we could [and indeed still can until the end of august] get into any exhibition in the grand palais at any time.
in theory. By the time we got there, the queue even for those of us with sesame tickets was about 30 mins long, [they have boards telling you how long the wait will be] and for those optimistic souls who turned up without tickets, [called the "sans cullottes" by the french chap we were chatting to in the queue] I expect that they are still there! once we were inside, it was as packed as we had expected, which is to say very packed, but not unbearably so, once we got past the first few rooms.
if there is anyone reading this who is not familiar with the works of Monet, [a passing martian for example] I can only say that his art, as demonstrated by this exhibition, started off being quite figurative but soon became les distinct and more "fuzzy" or impressionistic. the curators have combed the museums and galleries of the western world to collect the works on display, so that you can for example see all 6 paintings that he did of the front of Rouen Cathedral, even more of his studies of hayricks, and many other works from private collections, including the very sad one he did of his first wife lying on her death-bed, the day after she died. They also have two of our favourites - the lilacs, and the fog on the thames - which we eventually tore ourselves away from, and sadly left after about 2 hours or so in the exhibition.
Prior to our next stop which was for lunch, we decided that we'd like a quick drink and so went into the brassserie opposite the grand palais, which though full of sunday lunchers, also had some tables for drinkers outside in the sunshine. on the way, DH had joked that every time you sit down for a drink in Paris, it costs €20, and he wasn't far wrong here - for a small beer and a perrier, the bill was €10. However, that was small beer compared to our next stop ,which was at le cinq restaurant in the four Seasons hotel. This was the fault of another fodorite, who mentioned that you can have lunch at this 2 michelin starred restaurant for €82, any day of the week, including sunday. Now I know that's not cheap, but we found it impossible to resist the opportunity to eat at such an iconic institution, given that restaurants of that calibre aren't very thick on the ground where we live in Cornwall.
the building itself is quite intimidating for those of us unused to eating and staying at such establishments, starting with the top-hatted flunkies at the entrance to the revolving doors, but actually they were very polite and helpful in directing us to the restaurant . Inside, the chandeliers and mirrors are dazling, but it's a measure of the place that our not terribly smart raincoats were handled as carefully as the most valuable furs, and we were greeted as if we ate there every week. Of course, I'd forgotten that they give you a little stool for your handbag [do you get two if you bring your chiwawa?] but again that was dealt with with minimal fuss. Those who are really watching centimes should refuse the offer of a glass of champagne to start, but it would be a shame not to be able to sip it gently whilst nibbling at the basket of perfectly cooked deep-fried prawns and squid on your specially designed spear [a sort of crochet hook with a V on the other end], and perusing the menu. [french at the front, english at the back if you want to sneak a peak to make sure that you've understood how the delights on offer are to be presented and cooked].
we tried not to linger too long on the a la carte section, as the price of most of the entrees was in excess of the total price for the 3 course "dejeurner en liberte autour du marche" menu, and moved to what we could afford, which looked pretty good anyway.
this is what was on offer on the day we were there:
Foie gras de canard grille
Huitres speciales Gillardeau
Chair de tourteau frais
Coeur de saumon en pot-au-feu
Blanquette de joue de veau
fromages de charriot [an extra €12]
Cristalline de pomme facon tatin
Biscuit fondant au chocolat Caraibes
Vacherin givre aux framboises/litchis
Sadly, those of you who are salivating will have to wait to find out what we had, and how it tasted, as it's time for bed. good night!
Jan 14th, 2011, 02:15 AM
#4
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We are staying 5 nights at the Britannique in June and I'm glad your experience was so positive. Our first trip to Paris - I had a difficult time choosing. Other restaurant suggestions in the are most welcome.
Jan 14th, 2011, 09:29 AM
#8
thanks for the feedback folks. nice to know there's someone out there.
Maudie - <<great to know we can buy a carnet at St Pancras. Can you let me know where exactly?>>
when you get into the departure lounge at St. Pancras, there is an information desk on the right. as well as the carnet, they have museum passes, metro maps, and other things that may be of interest. there is also an ordinary cafe and a more french one, AND two ATMs dispensing euros.
FYI, the toilets out on the st. p concourse are state of the art and FREE. we were glad that we'd waited and not used the grotty 30p ones at Paddington.
Oliver and harry - we didn't eat anywhere else in the immediate vicinity, but if you turned right out of the hotel, there were two or three grouped together right ahead of you, a trad french one, a japanese and ???
we didn't have the €13 breakfast in the hotel either day, but we did have breakfast at a cafe opposite the sainte-chappelle, which for €8 each gave us cafe au lait, orange juice, a very buttery croissant, and a half ficelle with butter. we had to ask for the jam but when it came, it was free.
Chartley - for 3 days [Sat 12 noon to 8pm Monday, which meant we had to pay until 12 noon the next day] it cost £16.35 to park at Bristol parkway. I paid on my credit card, so i didn't need to find all that in change. the good news was that as we were ariving on a saturday, we could park REALLY close to the station building. it was expensive, but no more than parking at the airport, i think.
Irishface, Mucky, CW, the next installment is coming up soon.
Maudie - <<great to know we can buy a carnet at St Pancras. Can you let me know where exactly?>>
when you get into the departure lounge at St. Pancras, there is an information desk on the right. as well as the carnet, they have museum passes, metro maps, and other things that may be of interest. there is also an ordinary cafe and a more french one, AND two ATMs dispensing euros.
FYI, the toilets out on the st. p concourse are state of the art and FREE. we were glad that we'd waited and not used the grotty 30p ones at Paddington.
Oliver and harry - we didn't eat anywhere else in the immediate vicinity, but if you turned right out of the hotel, there were two or three grouped together right ahead of you, a trad french one, a japanese and ???
we didn't have the €13 breakfast in the hotel either day, but we did have breakfast at a cafe opposite the sainte-chappelle, which for €8 each gave us cafe au lait, orange juice, a very buttery croissant, and a half ficelle with butter. we had to ask for the jam but when it came, it was free.
Chartley - for 3 days [Sat 12 noon to 8pm Monday, which meant we had to pay until 12 noon the next day] it cost £16.35 to park at Bristol parkway. I paid on my credit card, so i didn't need to find all that in change. the good news was that as we were ariving on a saturday, we could park REALLY close to the station building. it was expensive, but no more than parking at the airport, i think.
Irishface, Mucky, CW, the next installment is coming up soon.
Jan 14th, 2011, 09:44 AM
#9
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Enjoying this so far ann, glad you had a great time.
For some reason I really like that cafe opposite Ste Chappelle - I always have a coffee or glass of rose there every on trip to Paris, it has become a ritual now!
Out of interest, what did you pay for your Eurostar tickets? Whenever I've looked into taking the train to Paris (from Gloucestershire) it always seems as though it takes more time and is more hassle than my driving to Bristol Airport and getting on an EasyJet flight. And The Airport Tavern near Bristol Airport would charge £15 for 3 days parking!
For some reason I really like that cafe opposite Ste Chappelle - I always have a coffee or glass of rose there every on trip to Paris, it has become a ritual now!
Out of interest, what did you pay for your Eurostar tickets? Whenever I've looked into taking the train to Paris (from Gloucestershire) it always seems as though it takes more time and is more hassle than my driving to Bristol Airport and getting on an EasyJet flight. And The Airport Tavern near Bristol Airport would charge £15 for 3 days parking!
Jan 14th, 2011, 09:55 AM
#10
hi julia,
you are in good company in that cafe - it was full of lawyers from the courts opposite. and us of course.
the eurostar tickets were about £100 each return, plus £50 each for the returns from B/Parkway to London ie £150 each return. that compared very favourably with the cost of airtravel for the dates we needed. the parking was about the same as was the mileage we would need to cover in the car. in theory the travel time was longer on the train, but because we could choose a later train on our last day, we actually got longer in Paris than we would done if we flew, when we would have been restricted to airpline schedules. and we saved €8.50 x 4 [the cost of the RER from CDG] AND avoided having to negotiate CDG itself.
you are in good company in that cafe - it was full of lawyers from the courts opposite. and us of course.
the eurostar tickets were about £100 each return, plus £50 each for the returns from B/Parkway to London ie £150 each return. that compared very favourably with the cost of airtravel for the dates we needed. the parking was about the same as was the mileage we would need to cover in the car. in theory the travel time was longer on the train, but because we could choose a later train on our last day, we actually got longer in Paris than we would done if we flew, when we would have been restricted to airpline schedules. and we saved €8.50 x 4 [the cost of the RER from CDG] AND avoided having to negotiate CDG itself.
Jan 14th, 2011, 10:26 AM
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It's sort of swings and roundabouts isn't it?
If I get an early morning flight from Bristol it takes almost exactly 5 hours from my home to Gare du Nord, including checking in the car, security, waiting to board, walking through CDG, taking the RER. (Leave home 5am, arrive Gare du Nord around 11am (GMT + 1 hour). My last 2 return flights have cost in the region of £50 and £70.
It's 2 hours to Paddington from home, considering the drive to the station and time spent parking.
Anyway, looking forward to more - soon - please!
If I get an early morning flight from Bristol it takes almost exactly 5 hours from my home to Gare du Nord, including checking in the car, security, waiting to board, walking through CDG, taking the RER. (Leave home 5am, arrive Gare du Nord around 11am (GMT + 1 hour). My last 2 return flights have cost in the region of £50 and £70.
It's 2 hours to Paddington from home, considering the drive to the station and time spent parking.
Anyway, looking forward to more - soon - please!
Jan 14th, 2011, 11:02 AM
#12
Right - you've had your hors d'oeuvres, now for the plats.
what you really want to know is - what did we eat?
it didn't take us long to work our way through the pre-started I mentioned above, but we still had some champagne left, so while we were sipping it, we were trying to work out what else to eat and drink. unfortunately we were distracted by the next offering, which was a slice of fougasse each, accompanied by loive oil, and two sorts of butter, both arranged into cones complete with glass covers. the unsalted butter was pleasant enough, but the salted one was a revelation. Salty, savoury, slightly sweet ... like oliver we just had to have some more bread to eat it with. and what was in it? our waiter's french description defeated us [our fault, not his] so we had to give in and ask for him to translate the main ingredients. which were salted butter from St. Malo, wasabi, [wasabi???] and ...seaweed. heston blumenthal eat your heart out.
by now our waiter had got our measure, and he tactfully steered us towards the wine available by the glass, rather than the bottles, but I couldn't resist a peek at the wine list, and as DH pointed out, with the cheapest wine being €19 per glass, the bottles might be better value. with the help of the sommelier [who also realised that we were not going to be drnking any of his more expensive offerings] we chose a bottle of white burgundy that was a snip at €60. as you might expect, it went brilliantly with what we ate, which was...
but first, we had the amuse-bouches presented to us by the chef, being a perfectly cooked prawn, a mouthful of mango, and then a deep-fried prawn head. then our entrees of foie gras for DH, cooked in a coconutty frothy broth, and oysters for me, presented three different ways, all utterly delicious. the best ones were quite plain except for some ?caviar eggs, which somehow increased the taste of the oysters. [I'll be trying that with lumpfish eggs, the next time w have oysters!] of course we had to swap half way through, which sent the staff scuttling for fresh cultery for us both, but we each decided we preferred our own choices, so to avoid a repeat performance, we tried to avoid them spotting that we'd swapped back!
after a suitable pause [which they judged to perfection] out came our main courses, blanquette de veau for me, and salmon for DH, poached in a perfectly clear beef consome. each was accommpanied by any number of different garnishes - in my case, some ravioli stuffed with yet more veal, and some beautifully turned vegetables. this time, we were each too greedy to share any of it, so the waiters were spared the performance with the cutlery. but they did bring an extra napkin to cover up the stain that DH had made on the table-cloth! [lucky DS wasn't there, they'd have run out of napkins!]
we were getting pretty full by now, [thank goodness we missed breakfast] but the tiny sorbets they brought out before the desserts did their job, and we didn't find it too difficult to put away the vacherin in my case [frankly the least good dish I had] and the tart tatin in DH's, which he declared to be delicious.
finally, [and we'd been there about 2 hours by this time,] we opted for a coffee each, [a choice of jamaican blue mountain or puerto rican] which were accompanied by the chariot of sweets, loaded with sweetmeats from all round France.
and then the bill of course - those of a sensitive disposition should look away now! €317 was the damage, which of course is a lot of money for one meal, but for the standard of cooking, the ingredients, and the service, it was not excessive. and of course, we didn't have to have those two glasses of champagne, which increased the cost quite considerably!
what you really want to know is - what did we eat?
it didn't take us long to work our way through the pre-started I mentioned above, but we still had some champagne left, so while we were sipping it, we were trying to work out what else to eat and drink. unfortunately we were distracted by the next offering, which was a slice of fougasse each, accompanied by loive oil, and two sorts of butter, both arranged into cones complete with glass covers. the unsalted butter was pleasant enough, but the salted one was a revelation. Salty, savoury, slightly sweet ... like oliver we just had to have some more bread to eat it with. and what was in it? our waiter's french description defeated us [our fault, not his] so we had to give in and ask for him to translate the main ingredients. which were salted butter from St. Malo, wasabi, [wasabi???] and ...seaweed. heston blumenthal eat your heart out.
by now our waiter had got our measure, and he tactfully steered us towards the wine available by the glass, rather than the bottles, but I couldn't resist a peek at the wine list, and as DH pointed out, with the cheapest wine being €19 per glass, the bottles might be better value. with the help of the sommelier [who also realised that we were not going to be drnking any of his more expensive offerings] we chose a bottle of white burgundy that was a snip at €60. as you might expect, it went brilliantly with what we ate, which was...
but first, we had the amuse-bouches presented to us by the chef, being a perfectly cooked prawn, a mouthful of mango, and then a deep-fried prawn head. then our entrees of foie gras for DH, cooked in a coconutty frothy broth, and oysters for me, presented three different ways, all utterly delicious. the best ones were quite plain except for some ?caviar eggs, which somehow increased the taste of the oysters. [I'll be trying that with lumpfish eggs, the next time w have oysters!] of course we had to swap half way through, which sent the staff scuttling for fresh cultery for us both, but we each decided we preferred our own choices, so to avoid a repeat performance, we tried to avoid them spotting that we'd swapped back!
after a suitable pause [which they judged to perfection] out came our main courses, blanquette de veau for me, and salmon for DH, poached in a perfectly clear beef consome. each was accommpanied by any number of different garnishes - in my case, some ravioli stuffed with yet more veal, and some beautifully turned vegetables. this time, we were each too greedy to share any of it, so the waiters were spared the performance with the cutlery. but they did bring an extra napkin to cover up the stain that DH had made on the table-cloth! [lucky DS wasn't there, they'd have run out of napkins!]
we were getting pretty full by now, [thank goodness we missed breakfast] but the tiny sorbets they brought out before the desserts did their job, and we didn't find it too difficult to put away the vacherin in my case [frankly the least good dish I had] and the tart tatin in DH's, which he declared to be delicious.
finally, [and we'd been there about 2 hours by this time,] we opted for a coffee each, [a choice of jamaican blue mountain or puerto rican] which were accompanied by the chariot of sweets, loaded with sweetmeats from all round France.
and then the bill of course - those of a sensitive disposition should look away now! €317 was the damage, which of course is a lot of money for one meal, but for the standard of cooking, the ingredients, and the service, it was not excessive. and of course, we didn't have to have those two glasses of champagne, which increased the cost quite considerably!
Jan 14th, 2011, 12:13 PM
#13
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Great lunch description, felt as though I was there. I love the part about the waiters scuttling about when you swapped dishes. I can just see it. This is something we need to try next we're in Paris.
Jan 14th, 2011, 01:44 PM
#14
absolutely cw. if you are not restricted to Sunday, like we were, a number of other top restaurants also do prix-fixe meals, mainly at lunch-times I think.
there is also the "la fourchette" website, which occasionally feaures discounts on "top end" establishments. Here's the link:
http://www.lafourchette.com/1_restau...urant_Paris/1/
next - the rest of the trip.
there is also the "la fourchette" website, which occasionally feaures discounts on "top end" establishments. Here's the link:
http://www.lafourchette.com/1_restau...urant_Paris/1/
next - the rest of the trip.
Jan 14th, 2011, 02:08 PM
#15
Dragging ourselves away from le cinq, we set off to find our way to the metro to go and see the other monet exhibition at the Marmottan. once we got out at la muette [5 stops down line no 9] we followed the signs to the museum across a small park full of parisian families and their children. there was ball games, a palyground or two, and best of all, pony and donkey rides. one of the donkeys looked just like one we had that died! aaahh.
There may have been queues earlier in the day, but by the time we got there [4.30pm] we were able to walk straight in. it was €8 each I think. the building is a straight-forward old fashioned mansion on the outside, but underneath there is a large modern gallery which they had mainly filled with water-lillies. I will fight to the death anyone who suggests that my memory of the exhibition is hazier than the pictures due to the amount we had drunk at le cinq; hwoever, i have to confess that my recall is not 100%. i do know that we liked it a lot, and i did absorb that the pictures that he did after he had trouble with his cataracts were brighter somehow than earlier ones, but otherwise, it's a bit of a blur.
After about an hour we greatly fancied a cup of tea, so we walked back up to the row of shops and restaurants, and found a salon de the where we sat outside under the heaters and drank some very weak tea. [why can't non-british europeans do tea?]. then we got the RER C back to St. michel and walked back to the hotel for a much-needed lie-down.
There may have been queues earlier in the day, but by the time we got there [4.30pm] we were able to walk straight in. it was €8 each I think. the building is a straight-forward old fashioned mansion on the outside, but underneath there is a large modern gallery which they had mainly filled with water-lillies. I will fight to the death anyone who suggests that my memory of the exhibition is hazier than the pictures due to the amount we had drunk at le cinq; hwoever, i have to confess that my recall is not 100%. i do know that we liked it a lot, and i did absorb that the pictures that he did after he had trouble with his cataracts were brighter somehow than earlier ones, but otherwise, it's a bit of a blur.
After about an hour we greatly fancied a cup of tea, so we walked back up to the row of shops and restaurants, and found a salon de the where we sat outside under the heaters and drank some very weak tea. [why can't non-british europeans do tea?]. then we got the RER C back to St. michel and walked back to the hotel for a much-needed lie-down.
Jan 15th, 2011, 09:00 AM
#20
Then twitches at the bill...lol>>
we twitched too, mucky. but we did have a fair idea of what it would cost before we went. it's not something we do every day!
glad you're all enjoying reading about it as much [well, maybe not quite as much] as we enjoyed eating it!
we twitched too, mucky. but we did have a fair idea of what it would cost before we went. it's not something we do every day!
glad you're all enjoying reading about it as much [well, maybe not quite as much] as we enjoyed eating it!
