Paris Days 6 and 7

Paris Days 6 and 7

Days 6 and 7 were really busy days for us. 

On day six, we ended up walking all around the Salvador Dali Museum in Monmatre, walked through the Place de la Concorde and a few parks and gardens, and watched the sunset at the Arc de Triomphe.  For lunch, you guessed it, more sandwiches and quiches!  Today we went with a curry chicken and egg sandwich, and a mushroom quiche, with a giant pistachio macaroon.  I mean this thing is as big as my face!

For dinner, we ordered take out from a Caribbean Cajun restaurant called Chez Louie.  It’s a really small place that is staffed and run by the owner.  He is also a very kind and helpful towards tourists.  We’re not the best French speakers and a rather rude group of teenagers laughed at our poor attempt, but he promptly stood up for us and scolded the teenagers for being rude.  For dinner, we ordered the pepper fritters, the shark touffee, the poulet colomb, and a Tarte de coco for dessert. 

The shark touffee was a piece of fish, though I’m not sure what kind and I don’t think it was really shark, cooked in a tomato sauce.  The sauce was tasty but was very bland.  The fish was nice and juicy and had very mild taste. 

The poulet colomb was a nice Caribbean style curry.  It is not as strong a typical Indian curry and seemed thicker than an Indian curry.  It had great flavor, and the chicken was so juicy and tender and soaked up all the flavors of the curry sauce.  I’m more of a fan of in your face Indian curry, but this would be a great entry into the curry world for those of you who are new to it.

Now if you like in your face spiciness, then you need to try some of Chez Louie’s house hot sauce.  It’s made from Scotch Bonnet peppers.  Throw a bit on their pepper fritters and your mouth will be on fire.  The pepper fritters were battered and fried and had a slight taste of fennel and curry; not too spicy on their own, but together with the hot sauce, it was a delicious and crispy treat.  What a great feeling I tell you.  Your sinus cavities will be cleared immediately.  But aside from the instant heat of the hot sauce, there is a great sweet and sour flavor that paired well with all of the dishes we tried. 

For dessert, we opted for the Tarte de coco.  Unfortunately, it didn’t travel as well as we liked but it was still tasty – a gooey vanilla and coconut cream tarte.  It was a light dessert that instantly cooled down the mouth from the heat of the hot sauce.

Day 7 was our busiest day yet.  We spend all day at the Lourve.  Can I tell you this place is huge?  Our game plan was to see as much as we could and set aside some time at the end of the day to see the main attractions if we had not seen them yet.   We definitely made it through the entire museum, but be prepared to have to spend more than one day here.  We felt like we ran through the entire place to see everything.

For lunch we didn’t even want to leave the grounds for fear that it would take away from our museum adventure so we walked out into the nearby food court and had a nice meal at McDonalds.  J 

It was pretty much what you expect, but there were some neat extras that you wouldn’t find at home like the fry sauce.  It’s like spiced up mayo and Thousand Island dressing.  Not my cup of tea, but it was definitely interesting to try! 

I also had to try the McCafé.  They had macaroons!  Can’t pass up a macaroon!

After a long day of walking and quick meals, we treated ourselves to a nice dinner at the Mini Palais.  It’s located inside the Grand Palais Museum.  It has its own entrance off to the side of the museum so it’s not under the limitations of museum hours.  It’s a beautiful restaurant with a very luxe feel.  The atmosphere was the stereotypical vision of what a typical night in the city of Paris should be.  It was also the largest restaurant we visited while in Paris. 

For starters, we order the cheese platter.  It came with the Brie, Camembert, blue, a soft light cheese, and a hard cheese that is similar to Parmesan.  It was served with slices of crusty bread.  We also enjoyed the flaky and fluffy cheese popover with the cheese platter. 

For our main dishes, we ordered the roasted chicken breast and the beef tenderloin.  The chicken was served with potato gnocchi with sage and Parma ham.  The chicken had a crispy skin and tender and juicy meat.  It was savory and paired nicely with the creamy gnocchi.  The ham was definitely a great addition to the gnocchi; its saltiness toned down the sweetness of the gnocchi and cream. 

The seared beef tenderloin was served with caramelized onion mousseline on top of creamy mashed potatoes.    The mousseline was very flavorful and was a great sauce for the beef.  The meat was cooked to the perfect temperature and the mashed potatoes were oh so creamy and fluffy. 

Mini Palais is nothing short of a royal meal.  The views were amazing, the food was good, and the staff was pleasant and helpful.  If you are looking for a Paris experience from the movies, this would be the place to get it. 

Here are your tips for this week:

• Do your research before you walk outside your hotel room.  Know where you want to go and what you want to see before you walk into any museum.  There are a million other things that look interesting that you want to see, but don’t forget the reason why you went there in the first place!  You can easily get overwhelmed with all the artifacts around you. 
• Plan your visits to museums on days they open later.  An extra hour or two can save you having to make a second trip on another day.
• The Mona Lisa is called La Jaconde in French.  And it is really small compared to the other works of art around it.