The Peabody Papers: Paris 2017
 

When I found cheap air (JFK to CDG, $398 RT pp) last spring, I sprung, choosing early September. We stayed at the Hotel Claude Bernard in the Fifth. The location was convenient for Metro and bus, there are plenty of nearby shops and restaurants, and the facilities and price were right. This was Mrs. P and my seventh Paris visit, so we knew what we wanted to do.

We bought 6 day museum passes and used them to the fullest. Tentative plans for daytrips to nearby chateaux were scotched by a 10 day lousy weather period with only 2 half days of sun. We did a lot of eating and walking and our fill of shopping, so had a good time.

The museum pass gets pretty cheap per day after the first 2 days. We visited the Picasso Museum, some of which was closed, the Jewish History Museum nearby, The Rodin Museum, the Quai de Branly, the Pompidou (half closed), the Orangerie, the Pantheon, the Louvre (Egyptian and antiquities only) , the Orsay, Cluny Middle Ages (half closed), on the pass. It was a joy to flash our passes and join the short line at each place. Bought the pass at Cluny, a short walk from the hotel and no line.

More in next segment.

AJ

My kind of Paris trip. Good for you!

More on museums. Also visited the Guimet (Asian art), the Modern Art Museum of the City of Paris, and the Marmiton (half closed). None were on the pass, so were visited after the pass expired.

The repeated habit of museums being half closed for renovation or rehanging or whatever charging full admission was annoying, both for the unseen art and the financial overcharge. Several museums had special exhibits with an extra charge, even if you had the pass. Pompidou, unlike the others, required payment of full admission plus the extra charge even if you had the pass, so we passed on Hopper. The Paris Modern actually has no admission charge, but they sold everyone the special exhibit tickets.

A few observations on the museums: The new Picasso setup was nicer than the old setup. The Jewish Museum was cultural and artistic, with some amazing artefacts, and avoided almost all persecution history. The Rodin has been enhanced by an extensive addition of plaster maquettes. Its sculpture garden remains a joy, and the food at the outdoor cafe was both very good and reasonably priced.

The special exhibits at the Paris Modern were a bit confusing until I realized that the curators were forcing the visitor to see thing in a new way, which was instructive. I only wish that there was some reasonable path through the place that didn't involve multiple turns and stairways. And the world's largest oil painting, Raoul Dufy's huge mural La Fée Electricité, had a huge room for itself. The free parts of the museum were otherwise less impressive.

Seeing Monet's Water Lilies at the Orangerie and then the smaller ones at the Marmiton was a pleasure. The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries at Cluny also worth quite a long look. Cluny also had a concert of medieval music on the day we chose to go, and the singing was worth more than the fee.

The Guimet had an extensive special exhibit of Japanese woodcuts and an overwhelming collection of Asian art. Luckily, they allow admission on two days from the one ticket, so we left when saturated and returned a day later to complete seeing the collection.

We came very close to needing resuscitation from museum overload syndrome, a well-known maladie of Louvre visits. The Louvre and the Guimet especially were like displays of a hyperactive hoarder, where 10 examples are better than one, and 100 of the same thing are even better. Best to pick only the best thing in a room and ignore the rest. Other museums gave a sense of logic and instructional purpose, which I like. The only one that combined both ideas was the Branly, which had the most wonderful extensive displays of non-western art and artefacts in dramatic presentations, without much repetition.

Next up: Food!

That's plenty of museums for a 6 day. Glad you enjoyed them.
For me, 2 museums are probably the maximum for such a trip.

And yes, Paris's weather this year was not that great, it's grey most of the time.

Actually, the museums were spread over all ten days. The pass was only for the first 10. And several were half closed, remember. We didn't want to be too excessive.

Breakfast: A day without breakfast is a day without two times 12 euros for the hotel, and anyway there was a coffee and tea maker machine in the room. Then off for a 4 minute walk to Eric Kayser for superlative breakfast pastry. Croissant. Croissant au chocolat. Croissant aux amandes. Croissant aux chocolat et amandes. Linzer Tarts. Chocolate Linzer tarts. And other equally delicious sources of butter, sugar, and calories. And, since three days a week there is a street market at the Maubert Metro stop and a refrigerator in the hotel room, we had perfectly ripe fruits.

Lunch: I was raised to know absolutely that pre-made sandwiches were for fools and the gustatorially impaired. Not in Paris. Just about every bakery and a lot of other places had a display of baguettes filled with various combinations of cheese, ham, charcuterie, tuna salad, vegetables, and even roast beef, all cheap and delicious. One lunch we found while wandering slightly lost in the Marais at a place making mostly salad and sandwich take-out but with five or six seats made from tractor seats. It was really good there, too. Or, if that wasn't what we wanted and we were near the hotel at lunchtime, there was cheese, a bread from Eric Kayser, French butter, and vegetables and fruits from the street market or the greengrocer. And a swig of rose wine from the 5 euro bottle I found at the wine shop didn't hurt either.

Next: Foodies eat dinners.

We stayed in Maubert area a few years ago and enjoyed. Although, with an Eric Keyser nearby, any area would be enjoyable.

Frustrating that Musee Marmottan was partially closed. We enjoyed it so much and were lucky that we got a bonus exhibition on Napoleon's sisters while there. Paris is Monet/Impressionism heaven. I am excited to finally visit Giverny on our upcoming trip in April (and plan to be at L'Orangerie the next morning to see those huge canvases right after seeing the gardens).

I look forward to more of your report.

Just joining in, AJP - so far so good.

Keep it coming!

I'm enjoying this report. I'll be staying for a few days in the same area in March, so getting a little sneak preview of my own trip.

We had a Nespresso machine in nearly every hotel-the best!!
I hate paying so much for breaky in the hotel when all we want is yogurt.

Food, Glorious Food

I had months to research restaurants. I looked for places that had menus that would suit restrictions of allergies and strong food preferences (OK, aversions) and that were highly rated but not extravagantly expensive, investigating places mentioned here, on John Talbott's blog, on the Fork, and in Michelin and other guidebooks, avoided Yelp except for pictures, and completely avoided Tripadvisor reviews. Naturally I considered all areas of Paris, but we ended up eating near enough to our hotel. Emphasis was on traditional French, which has disappeared at home.

The list was more than twice as long as we could reasonably eat at, since we don't do those day by day itineraries.

Eaten at:

Le Buisson Ardent. We had eaten here twice before on previous visits. This time we had a very nice meal of the gastronomic bistro type. The aps of a novel pissaladiere with crevettes and a cold rare quasi de veaux stood out. All courses were excellent, such as the pork chop with apricot coulis. Menu changes depending on market availability. Highly recommended.

Au Moulin a Vent. As trad as you can get. Loved the ap of warm gessiers (preserved duck gizzards that were close to corned beef in texture and taste) over greens, the vegetarian terrine with crevettes, the main courses (veal normande and entrecote with green peppercorn sauce), the huge portion of marvelously garlicky potatoes risolees, and the selection of Beaujolais wines (had Chiroubles 2015). Gratin of figs for dessert. Fine friendly service. Crowded, francophone clientele, very highly recommended.

La Pie Noir. Bretonne. Tiny friendly place. Big stack of razor clams aps, cod mains, HUGE profiterole and baba au rhum with unlimited pours of rum. Very happy tummy. Recommended, of course.

La Bievre. Stuffed ourselves with couscous. Eating here was a lucky consequence of our first choice for North African dinner cancelling our Fork reservations just before we left for dinner. Super meal both in quality and quantity.

Le Remenet. No quibbles on the food. The presse of foie gras was superb. But, and a big but: Consigned to the Foreigner Basement Siberia, a long overheated cramped cellar with no decor and indifferent service. Without the 50% Fork discount, the prices would be out of bounds. Designed to extract too much from tourists, probably due to the widespread guide-booking with top rating. Leave this place to the obligate anglophones. Cannot criticize the food, all was excellent, and a nice wine list to boot.

Le Cosi. Corsican. Between the copious and very good aps and huge hunks of delicious veal and lamb shoulder, no room for dessert. Seemed full of locals. Also has a very wallet friendly lunch menu.

Les Trois Carafes. Small unassuming place next to the Jardin des Plantes. Modern bistro food, inventive, well imagined and presented. Aps croustillante de crevettes, a rose of marinated salmon with added side flavor elements over a crispy potato cracker, mains of duck breast and cod, similarly encircled and enhanced by further elements, two great desserts and a bottle of Tavel. Could not ask for more. Highest recommendation.

The night before we flew out, too late to reserve due to packing bags, we just went around the corner to la Petite Perigourdine which always was packed. Food was average for France, meaning very good US: Duck leg confit and fish over zucchini plus a very nice dessert. Service was perfunctory but correct.

Each meal was accompanied by a nice wine, of course.

Found that the Fork (in English, la Fourchette in French aided by Google Translate) worked very well for reservations whether or not there was a discount, except we could not make a last minute resi after dinner service had already started. Occasionally had to remind the server to redo the bill with the discount. One place did so but then fiddled the second bill with the DCC pay in dollars scam, will be duly dinged by name when my credit card company finishes removing the double billing. All places were able to do English but tolerated my high school French, and Mrs. P is reasonably fluent.

Prices, with a bottle of wine but no coffee, for two, ranged from 100 to 160 euros, mostly the former.

Dieted to lose 13 pounds before the trip, gained half of it back.

Next up: The rest of my curated restaurant list, the path not traveled.

AJ - you always have to pay the regular admission fee in museums, then if you want to see the temporary exhibits, you will pay more.

The Fork or LaFourchette is not worth it, to me.
As you said, you get sat in Siberia with all the other complaining Anglophones.

I think you did well.

Tsk, tsk, Fuzz. I didn't complain to le Remenet, I just report here. They have been around a long time and know exactly what they are doing. And when the first floor has attractive decor and well spaced tables and the basement has plain cellar walls and touching tables, I know Siberia when I see it.

The Fork worked nicely for us tourists since we didn't have to cope with reserving by phone, always a problem for non-native speakers of somewhat limited conversational ability, and also for the discounts, when offered. I did notice that places with 40% and 50% discounts would have otherwise been overpriced, while the 20% places were in line before discount. None gave discounts on the reduced price formula menus and none discounted wine. The discount paid for the low end wine, and there is plenty of excellent low end wine in Paris.

As for special museum exhibits, the extra fee was expected. What I objected to was the Pompidou requiring the full admission fee in addition to the exhibit fee even though we had museum passes that covered regular admission, unlike all other museums we went to on the passes charging only the exhibit surcharge. Plus two floors of exhibits were closed.

Monsieur Peabody, enjoyed your list! I will check out a couple. I also appreciate The Fork for making reservations. Much less intimidating than navigating the phone in French!

I am taking full advantage of your curated list of restaurants, made note of all for my stay. I have passed Au Moulin a Vent a few times without stopping, as I have been headed to l'AOC next door. I also have eaten a few very good meals at Le Buisson Ardent.

My list is already too long, I'm hoping the rest of your list consists of places I have already noted or for some reason don't want to try.

Le Cosi is one of my favorite places in Paris!! Never knew how much I like Corsican food...

Restaurants from my list that we did not go to:

Reasons: Usually random, or not wanting something from their menu on a particular day, or a duplication of a style we already ate, or too far away and we were tired, or "complet" or closed that day.

La Table de Genevieve

L'Epoque

Le Gamin de Paris

Lilane

L'Atlas

Bon Vivant (wine bar plus restaurant)

Le Kitchen Ter(re)

La Ferrandaise (6th)

Rumeurs (wine bar)

Le Mechoui du Prince (6th) (cancelled our resi)

L'Ange 20 (in the 4th)

Josephine Chez Dumonet (6th) (telephone reservations only)

Since the restaurants I did not put on the list after research were all good but didn't meet our idiosyncratic criteria, the 20 or so unlisted places will remain secret.

Oh, all restaurants except those noted are in the 5th.

Loved reading about your meals, AJPeabody! We are headed to Paris over Christmas and your notes are coming in handy!

One more meal to report, not at a restaurant. I have a distant memory of a delicious cheese, Camembert, but every time I try to buy some in the US I get a bland blah disk resembling an unripe brie, but not as good. At the Maubert square there is a cheese store, Fromagerie Laurent Dubois, with beautiful cheeses. So I asked for a "Camembert lait cru pour aujourd'hui." Raw milk soft cheese is not available in the US. We bought good Kayser bread, butter, vegetables, a Charentais melon, and a bottle of wine, and in our hotel room had a dinner of the most fragrant earthy complex delicious cheese imaginable. It restored my memory of real Camembert. And French butter is a heck of a lot better than US butter.