Return to Paris

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Just finished having breakfast, possibly the final croissant of the trip, I will miss them, but my waist line will not. The breakfast room was packed several groups of retired people just finishing up to get on their tour bus for the day. We shared a table with a nice retired French woman, of course we could not converse.

We have about an hour before our taxi arrives to take us to the TGV station and our train to back to Paris. Jerry is doing the last-minute packing so I thought I would get a head start on today’s entry.

It has been really nice not knowing what is going on in the world, or hearing about the orange man we have as an imposter president. That will soon be over when we return home and the bombardment of the news media.

Back to Aix, it is another beautiful sunny day here in Aix as we get ready to leave. Before I forget, as much as we love this hotel and particularly this room, this is a 2 star hotel, and while it is by no means 2 star in quality, cleanness or service, there is one big disadvantage, as far as we know none of the bathrooms have a shower, they are tubs only with a movable shower head, and no walls so you have to kneel or sit to bath each day.

The terrace is very nice but doesn’t get a lot of sun. There are pair of pigeon roosting, one of which looks like she may lay a dozen eggs very soon. Tarragon would love the terrace, even with the AstroTurf for grass, there are still several plants and dirt he could explore. The walls are high enough that he would not have to be on a leash, because I doubt, he could jump up on the wall to get out.

With our trip nearly at an end, I am ready to go home, normally I would be ready for week three, but this trip has been just a bit more difficult, not because of our age, but mainly because I am still recovering from my broken ankle back in December. In addition, we did cram a lot into that first week in Paris, that wiped us out a bit and took a couple of days in the South before we were back up to full speed. Tarragon, our cat, I am sure is ready for us to come home as well. He has had daily visits from the cat sitters, who give him a great deal of love and us pictures and reports every other day, but he is use to someone being on call to him 24/7. No, he isn’t spoiled.

We are packed and ready to go and have another hour before the taxi arrives, so we will just relax in the room a bit.

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The TGV to Paris

The Aix Gare TGV is basically in the middle of nowhere. You drive about 6 miles outside of town and then there is the modern structure that is the TGV train station. Only TGV’s stop here. The parking for 1 day is 100 euros, I don’t know who is paying that price to park for a day, but it wouldn’t be me. However, it was a 40 Euro taxi ride as well.

Again, the trains are very efficient in France, and TGV stations even tell you where to stand to get on the car you are assigned. We were once again very lucky with the luggage situation and managed to store all of our luggage with little difficulty. The trip it self was very quick about 3 hours from Aix to Paris, with only one stop. The seating was also more comfortable than on the train down. There was a family in the 4-seater across from us, at first, I was concerned because there was a small child with his dads and grandma. Turned out the child was very well behaved and only cried when he first woke up from his brief nap.

The country side goes by pretty fast at 327km an hour, but it was still better than driving back to Paris or the hassle of flying. We finished off the sausage and cheese and Jerry walked to the café car to get us some water and a small bottle of rose.

When we arrived in Paris, traffic was pretty hectic, we took a taxi, because we didn’t really want to deal with the steps in the metro. Traffic was pretty bad, but we did get a first real glimpse of the damaged Notre Dame up close, sorry no picture.

We are now in our hotel room relaxing before heading out to our final dinner of the vacation, one last taste of Paris before we return to New York. We both miss Tarragon and hopefully he misses us and isn’t totally taken with his two cat sitters. We are staying in the Maison Astor a Hilton, in a very nice room with a terrace that has a view of La basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre. The room was free, I used Hilton points for our last night here.

When we first checked in, we headed to the ATM and then the store to get some wine for our last night. When we returned, I took a shower, it was great to take a real shower after three days of the bath in Aix. Will likely be an early night as our plane leaves at 9:45 am and we have to get to the airport. Jerry has already done the rearranging of the packing, so not much to do in the morning but get up and go.

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So, it is Saturday, May 4, and we are now home. It always seems the last blog entry doesn’t get finished until we return. The last dinner in Paris, was exceptional. We ate at Tomy & Co, another of the restaurants owned by Constance (former cooking class instructor of mine) and her husband. He is actually the executive chef. Before I discuss the meal, a few more words on our hotel room.

We have stayed in this particular hotel before, back then it was in serious need of a remodel. Well it got the remodel and the bed is very comfortable and the terrace was great, but for a 4- or 5-star hotel in Paris, the design of the room left a lot to be desired. The desk had no lighting, so I could not see what I was typing on the laptop, the coffee maker didn’t work, the climate control was impossible to understand so the room was hot, unless you left the terrace door open, which meant anyone could get in your room, because the terraces from adjacent rooms are not all that separated. There was little lighting in the bathroom, no closet and you had to unplug the phone to plug anything else in next to the bed. I am just glad it didn’t cost anything but Hilton points.

Tomy & Co.

The restaurant turned out not to be very far from our initial hotel in Paris. It was back in the 7^th and just a few blocks from the Invalidies. The street was lined with other restaurants, all which looked very mediocre. We were a bit early, we had a 7:30 reservation and they open only for dinner and promptly at 7:30. When we were first seated, there was only one other table, by the time we left the place was packed and people were being turned away.

The cliental was a mixture of locals, people there on business and tourists. Numerous languages were being spoken. The staff all spoke English and the menu was in both French and English, for us not “so clever” Americans.

We had our final glass of champagne for the trip and toasted to our wonderful vacation. We reviewed the menu, there was a chef’s tasting menu with wine pairing, but we opted to not do that, because we really didn’t want to go through the list of food allergies and try to explain that we hate beets, Kale, etc. The choices were vast and a very interesting mix of contemporary French, with a bit of Southeast Asian flair. The chef is French Cambodian, hence the Asian influence. While it was not traditional French food, it was solidly based upon French techniques and yes, the sauces were still there, it simply isn’t French without a sauce.

We went with the three-course menu. For this last entry I am going to do everything in courses.

Entrées

Jerry: Garden peas with mint ravioles, crispy haddock and a lemon butter sauce.

Chris: Farm eggs and asparagus duxelles, with crispy bacon and potato foam.

Jerry’s dish was very good, the ravioli was filled with a mixture of peas and mint, with a bit of crispy haddock in the sauce. My dish was very deceiving, at first glance you don’t really; see the egg, as it is underneath the asparagus duxelles and potato foam (ok they are really very whipped mashed potatoes), but once I took a bite and broke through the egg, the beautiful yolk just mixed in with everything. They both were exceptionally flavorful.

It should be noted, that most of the vegetables came form their own garden. We are not sure where it is located, but the produce that came out of this garden was some of the best of our trip.

Plats

Jerry: Pork neck, asparagus, polenta, pesto and olive tapenade, with a rich veal sauce on the side. I don’t have words to describe, the veal sauce was rich yet not heavy, the pork melted in your mouth. There were so many flavors, that every bite was like a different dish.

Chris: Crispy veal cheek & Morels, with salad romaine stuffed with vegetables. Let’s start with the romaine this is actually a dish that Constance taught us to make in my very first cooking class in Paris. You started by blanching the romaine so it is a bright green, then you stuff it with what ever you want, in this case a mix of vegetables, then it is either pan seared or oven roasted so the romaine gets a slight char. It was a great side for the star of the plate, which was not the veal cheeks, yes, they melted in your mouth, but the true star was the Morel sauce on the side. It is beyond words, when you combined it with the veal it was a perfect bite, but just eating it alone was almost a religious experience. None of that sauce went to waste, the bread was used expertly to get every last drop.

With our dinner we had a very nice bottle of Burgundy from Beaune, it was a 2015 premier cru and went perfectly, with both of our dishes.

While we ate, we also got a bit of a ugly American show, a couple tables to my left was a room that as Jerry described, was Tonya Harding Trash, now, I love Tonya, so I would not be that harsh, but this particular woman did appear to be on the white trash side of the scale and rude on top of it. Another couple came in and the woman did not like the location or type of table, they didn’t have a reservation but insisted on a table that was reserved for the next couple. She was so obnoxious they just gave in and let her have it. Perhaps she choked on her food later. Fortunately, the couple the table was reserved for was a young American couple who were just happy to be in Paris.

At this point in the evening, all that was left was dessert, so we thought, I am not sure what happened, maybe Constance knew we were there and we got some extra greats, but at this point, food just started showing up.

First, Ossau Iraty: French paprika, sheep cheese and a cherry jam. You take a bit of the cheese, rub it through the paprika, then dip in in the jam. A flavor explosion occurs in your mouth, spicy and sweat with the smooth cheese. This came with a class of Port, which only added to the taste sensation.

Dessert

Jerry: Blanmange, Chocolate ganache & salted hazelnut ice cream, with toasted hazelnuts sprinkled on top. Blanmange is a small meringue with a bit of chocolate on top, the ganache was like ice cream and the hazelnuts, tasted like actual hazelnuts.

Chris: An Oregonians dream. I ordered a Strawberry tart, with basil jelly and meringue, served with strawberry ice cream and basil dust. What came out was a rhubarb dessert, I can’t even describe it, but it was very good. Yes, I also got the strawberry tart, so now I have at the same time something I haven’t had in years, strawberries and rhubarb, there is absolutely no better combination than that especially for an Oregonian. Again, the strawberries were almost as good as Oregon and the ice cream, well I couldn’t have made it better myself.

It was a perfect meal to end our trip. In fact, it was definitely in the top three meals of the vacation. The only downside was that he staff was a bit to American in their service style, a bit too much checking in, which really just doesn’t happen in most restaurants in France.

We thought about walking back to the hotel, but ended up taking the metro. Finished the wine that was opened earlier then went to sleep.

The Trip Home.

I normally don’t blog about the trip home, but this was very different than normal. First, the Star Alliance Lounge needs some help. The Polaris lounge in Newark was 100 times better. Second, we were on the ignaural flight of a 2-week-old 787. It had been flown before; it was just the first flight out of Paris.

This meant that the crew had to go down on the tarmac and get their picture taken with the plane. There were extra safety checks, so we were delayed in boarding by about an hour. I am not a great flyer, so extra safety checks, while a good thing, also make me nervous, have they never been on the plane before? Do the pilots even know how to fly this Plane? Why are all those fire trucks out there? Let’s just say sugar plum ferries were not what was in my head, more like a massive fire ball hurly to the ground with me in it.

Turns out, that because it was the first flight for this plane out of Paris, they have a tradition of a parade through arches of water, sort of like, hitting a ship with a champagne bottle. We finally boarded, the champagne was served and I settled in to watch my first of 4 movies. What I didn’t know was that I would finish the first move before we ever got in the air. We taxied out to the runway, then stopped. Finally, the captain came on the PA system and announced that a maintenance light was on and they couldn’t get it to go off. Gin please. We ended up going back to the gate so they could have maintenance check it out. It was fixed, then of course we had to refuel, because we used to much sitting on the runway for 2 hours. We finally, took off about 2 hours late, but we got home just fine.

Wrap Up

It was a perfect 14-day trip. We couldn’t ask for better weather, almost every meal met or exceeded expectations, the hotels were good, the people friendly and the wine, well the wine, what else is there to say. This is the point in my blog where I list our best of. This has been one of the more difficult decision to make, because there were many great lunches, dinners, and experiences.

Best Overall Experience: This goes to the day in the country side of Provence, our drive to Grass, the lunch in the gorge, it was just a perfect day.

Favorite New Place: Carcassonne, we could definitely retire there. Not to big, not to small, has everything you need and the tourists don’t really invade the main part of town, they focus mainly on the cite on the other side of the river.

Best Dauphinoise Potatoes: Le Bistroit des Philophes in Aix, with a very close second going to Bistro Henri.

Best Lunch: This is truly a toss up between Chez Josephine (best béarnaise ever), Auberge Gorge de Loop, and brunch at Café Caumont. And the winner is Chez Josephine, the steak was cooked perfect and the sauce, nothing can beat that.

Best Dinner: This is even more difficult. Is it Jardin Marazin in Aix? Bistro Henri in Paris, L’Ecurie in Carcassonne? The winner here is Bistro Henri. Again, just good traditional French food, excellent dauphinoise potatoes and great overall atmosphere.

Another vacation done, next up Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, this November.

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Photos

Veal Cheeks and Morel Sauce
It really is all about the sauce

Comments

[Connie Craddock]

Happy for you
I am glad that you are home safely and had a great trip. Your ankle should be 100% for your fall excursion! It is always an enjoyable experience to read your travel blogs. You see a lot!