This is one of those zoom specials. We were having tea at the BHV cafeteria. This lady was enjoying a moment of coffee & solitude.
Seen from the BHV, silhouettes of statues on the Hotel de Ville.
A beautiful door & doorway. Very common in older buildings.
A gentle reminder of what we've got to get back into when we return. We're both feeling the effects of our Club SAR yoga classes being cancelled on July 1.=======
Today was "go to Montreuil" day. Montreuil is an eastern Paris suburb just outside the Peripherique, what we call a beltway. We were motivated to go based on a blog from Hip Paris. Check it out here. The text and images portray a sunny, bucolic place, easy to wander about.
The reality is a bit grittier. First, the Metro stops are further apart out here and second, the ever present on the corners of the buildings blue street signs in Paris morphed into not so ever present smaller white street signs maybe on the corners. And our weather stayed cloudy (rain came a bit later, twice) so I struggled to get sufficient light to take shots of people moving about.
We already knew the breweries were open to the public only on Saturdays. So we chose the market to see and one of the two restaurants recommended for lunch.
The market was wonderful, ethnically & racially much more diverse than in Paris. It was outdoors, but covered. The colors of the fruits & vegetables only really pop in the bright sunlight. With that in mind, here are some shots.
This fruit vendor spotted my activity and gave a wave.
Having two seacoasts, fish is always plentifully available.
Susanne has a look. Note the octopus, poulpe in French, pulpo in Spanish. And the squid behind it.
In addition to food there is clothing & just about anything you can imagine.
The knives in the apartment are very dull. I bought what seems to be a German made butcher knife for €1. We'll see if it holds an edge.
I call the above stall "Fredericks of Montreuil".
I tried to be discreet taking this shot, held the camera at my waist, faced away from the ladies & took the shot. I think the lady in the middle was on to me.By the time I got the camera organized, I missed the air kisses all around.
I kept coming upon this man all over the market until I got the message...take the photo!!
Lotsa stuff!! 
Outside the market was a large butcher shop with lots going on. Two ladies making a purchase while an employee was loading chicken onto the spit.
Here's a digital zoom of the above pic. The ladies (and some of the men) wear really colorful garb. Pattern conscious they're not.
On to Lunch!!!
This place is off the beaten path. No tourist will ever wander by. You're either local or you know about it in advance.
We walked into the restaurant at about 12:15pm. All the tables were empty, lots of staff being or looking busy. The maitre d' asked if we had reservations. We did not. He said we'd have to dine out in the patio. At first I thought he was kidding. He was not.
He led us out and seated us at the worst table possible, right at the doorway. (That seems to be a worldwide practice.) One of us would've had every server brushing by, in and out. He left, we moved to a better table.
There was a set menu, very inexpensive. Appetizer + main course is €15, add dessert, another €4. BTW, food menu prices whether in US$ or € are roughly the same because tax and tip must be added to the US price (approx. 28-30% total) but is included in France. And the exchange rate now is such that the € is about 33% higher.
As we were waiting for the appetizer, I looked inside through the window behind me; the place was jammed. They all looked like business people and as usual in France, wine for lunch is the way to go.
Our first course was cooked lentils in a delicious sauce, poached egg and a few narrow strips of air-dried beef to top it off. Very French.
We ordered a half liter of the house Brouilly, it was very, very nice. Oh yes, first off before ordering came a wonderful tapenade...black olives & capers were the dominant flavors but the server told us there was also garlic, anchovies, mustard & olive oil. Susanne is going to try it at home.
The second course was navarin d'agneau. The d'agneau I got...lamb. The French along with the New Zealanders are masters at preparing lamb. The server could not explain navarin in English, but in France, knowing it's lamb is good enough for us!!! (Back at the apartment, wikipedia says navarin is like a ragout, a stew.)
Here it is. The lamb was so tender, it fell apart. The noodles had a gentle herb infused flavor. The gravy with bread was terrific. Again, top notch!
It was very filling. Even between us, we could not finish it all. And there are no doggie bags in France.
For dessert, all I heard was "framboise", raspberry, my favorite berry. So we shared a framboise thingy...custard on the bottom with a raspberry infused crust on top, still slightly warm. Reverting to a childhood vocabulary....yummy!!!!!
Pardon the bites...was so anxious to dig in almost forgot to take a pic.
True to our variable weather, it rained while we were out there. Not to worry, they had umbrellas so all we received was an occasional drip. This photo had an unusual exposure...it almost looks like snow but it isn't.
After lunch, we walked along the main drag a bit, it started to rain again so we took the Metro back to the apartment.
There's a South African restaurant out here that we'll try for lunch next week. It's only about a 25 minutes Metro ride with a small change at Republique.
While in Montreuil, Cousin Mort called. We hope to get together next week...hadn't seen him and his wife our last few trips here.
Tomorrow we get ready to move & Saturday we move up the street to the new place. This is a long blog and it'll have to do for a couple of days.
Bye bye til next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment