Dinner in Paris

Our first dinner in Paris, we head away from our hotel to a find a restaurant that we truly enjoyed last year, L'Annexe.  As we wander down the street, we don't see it and ask the hotel where it went.  We're told that L'Annexe is no more, but that the same location has a new restaurant with the same chef and a different cuisine.  We decide to give it a try and are glad we did.  La Table Verte focuses on fresh, organic cuisine, using products from their affiliated Green Grocery next door (9 rue Saussier Leroy), and we have a great meal!

Risotto with pancetta

Lightly-seared Ahi tuna

Getting started at La Table Verte

On our second day, as we walk from our hotel to Musee Marmotan Monet, we pass a restaurant we haven't been to in a few years and decide to come back later for dinner.  Le Poincaré is on Avenue Raymond  Poincaré, one block from the Trocadero and 1.5km (.9 miles) from the Arc de Triumph.  We originally walked in several years ago after checking out the restaurants on the circle at Trocadero and deciding that they were too touristic.  We then walked just one block away from the tourist sites and there it was, warm and welcoming with good smells and a happy local crowd.

It's the same now, there is an after-work group in part of the restaurant that winds down as we dinner folks start to drift in.  That makes for a happy sounding room that slowly transitions to more serious focus on food.   We start with pate, served on slate and fantastically-creamy French onion soup.  Then I have a sausage, served with beans and mustard, while Laura has a lifetime supply of charcuterie.

 Starters: pate and creamy French onion soup

 Sausage and charcuterie plates

 And for desert, chocolate, two spoons

The menu

We ask about a dish I really enjoyed previously, sardines in a can with toast, and learn that the source of the sardines no longer carries them and the chef is looking for a new supplier with just the right sardines to match his vision of the dish.  We'll have to come back next year and see if he finds a replacement.  Our server admits that was her favorite dish also.

After dinner, we walk one block over to the Trocadero to watch the lights on the Eiffel Tower and then stroll along the Seine to Place de la Concorde, then back toward our hotel (both to see the beautiful sites and because Laura needs to walk off the 20 pounds of charcuterie).  But, just past the hotel on Avenue Wagram, we spot a cafe named, appropriately, "The Place to...?", a welcoming spot for an after-dinner drink, and we take a table outside for some wine.  And, we come back the next night after dinner also.

 

The Place to ...?

As we leave The Place to...?, we take a quick twirl to the music, dancing on the sidewalks of Paris (others are dancing inside the cafe) and get a resounding "Bravo" from one of the outside tables.  We give them a quick double thumbs up and head back to our hotel, having properly filled the day with Parisian experiences.