paris breakfasts: Vichy check

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

La Fontaine de Mars, 75007

For years I’ve wanted to eat lunch at La Fontaine de Mars on rue Saint Dominique in the 7th.

Its a terrific example of your classic red checked tablecloth Paris bistro and the ‘Top’ to boot quality-wise. A president had a date night there… I stayed in an apartment around the corner, passed it often and dreamed a little… But going on your own sometimes is daunting.

I looked over the menu online. Always a good idea. They have a reasonable daily plat du jour/daily special(23€). Bonnie said, when they stayed in the 7th, they would go at noon Sundays and get the chicken.

Visiter Ann was staying in the 7th. It didn’t take much arm-twisting to convince Anne we should go for Sunday lunch. La la la la la 🤸‍♂️

I made the reservation. So easy. They were so nice. They asked did we want to sit upstairs or downstairs. Downstairs (street level) I said. They really do prefer you make reservations ahead. Its not a museum. They need to know how many baguettes 🥖 to buy.

French restaurants open for lunch at noon and close at 3pm. They will not let you in, even 1 minute before. Its so much better to cooperate and play by their rules. Once you cross the threshold, you are in their domaine.

Being there early means you have the place to yourself and can take a good look around. Take pictures. Nice old-fashioned soap 🧼 dispensers.

When I do go into places alone, usually I know exactly what I want to eat and tell the waiter before they even bring the menu. I want them to know I won’t be causing problems or taking up too much time. Ann noticed the couple (spoke English too) next to us made a bit of a fuss ordering. In the end, they got exactly what they saw we were eating - the plat de jour 😊

On Sundays, Parisians usually arrive for lunch around one o’clock 🕐 They like to sleep in on the weekends.

There is a very pleasant convivial feeling to Fontaine de Mars. How was the chicken you ask? We both thought it was the best chicken 🍗 we’d ever eaten.

Thank you for all your wonderful Duvet advice. My iPad (so helpful aren’t they) popped up an ad and I bought it. Yay Hooray 🍾 If you like this post please support it by buying my Paris letters and watercolors. And do pass on to someone who might enjoy it. Happy Mardi/Tuesday dear PBers! 🍷 🍷🍷🍷🐻

❤️

La Fontaine de Mars Watercolor

Friday, May 10, 2013

F comme Fraisier

I've been working on my fraises/strawberries all week = an ongoing WIP/work in progress

The French Gariguettes in the marché go for about 5€ a 500 gr box (or 1 pound) and these babies are BIG and SWEET!

Honestly some are almost the size of a small pomme/apple. Eat two and you're full. No need to store them in the fridge either. They'll last for a few days too.

With the bounty of berries, gâteaux Fraisiers show up in all Parisian patisseries like crazy.

Louis XIV sent off to South America Amedee Francois Frezier, a French military engineer, mathematician, spy, explorer who is best remembered for bringing back 5 varieties of strawberries.

True there are now at least 600 kinds of berries to put in your tarte/gateau.

But what's with the red Vichy checkerboard on top? De rigeur for most Fraisiers and very pretty but I'd love to know the whys and where for...

Yesterday, Ascention Day in France and a major holiday was not the day to go looking for a good fraisier.

It was slim pickings all around but I made do. By the way, it must be genetic how the French can wrap up these delicate cakes in a bit of paper and Scotch tape and they arrive home completely intact. Don't even think of requesting a box in some small patisseries either. HA!

Intact yes. Inspiring? Non...

Today was different. We waltzed into L'Éclair de Genie (we wanted to see the stone cave/labo downstairs where the workers create 1,500 eclairs each weekend). We fell hard for the fraisier éclair in a big way. Absolutely fabulous so a definite candidate for an OFD entry.