Friday, June 13, 2008

Paris 2008 - 10 Juin

Mardi - We did it. We finally did it. We found an area of Paris that we absolutely hate. We took the bus up to the Pére Lachaise métro area. The idea was to find a nice restaurant and have lunch. We thought that perhaps the restaurants right there might be too busy, with all the tourists and such. So we started checking out the area and found a nice place just across the street, but off the beaten path. We settled into a table on the café terrasse and awaited the waiter. He informed us that the only thing they had was salads. So, we took off to find something else. We walked to the corner, looking down the street. We saw a lot of restaurants that seemed to be considerably less crowded. We looked at one after another until we finally gave up in disgust. They were all filthy. One even had a table that had been shit upon by a bird, and they didn't even bother to clean it off. After seeing the table, I noticed the chair was in even worse condition. This might seem like I'm prejudiced, and maybe I am now, but this was a predominantly muslim area, and the restaurants were almost totally muslim owned and run. We couldn't get away from there fast enough. We finally settled on one of the tourist places we had previously shunned.

After the fiasco near Pére Lachaise, it was such a pleasure to go to a new restaurant, l'Angella, in our neighborhood, just next door to the Chinese place to which we went for lunch the other day. It's all very modern with interesting furniture and a large waterfall just opposite the front door. I think our waiter was the owner, but I'm not certain. He was quite charming and we learned that, though he is French and his wife is Italian, he spoke Japanese, among several other langauges. The food was quite good and not dished out in family-sized portions. I had Spaghetti alla Carbonara and Robb had Osso Bucco. Robb's dish was clearly the better of the two, although mine was very good. They presented the veal as meatballs and the whole thing was covered in a delicious tomato-basil sauce. Dessert for me was very thinly-sliced pineapple with cerise. Robb again had the best, coffee ice cream with chocolate sauce. After our café, we left with the definite intention of returning one evening.


Plus à venir, mes amis.

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