What says I love you better than a paperless post, strawberries, a bottle of good champagne and tacos? Hello?! Your first valentines as a Mr. and Mrs.?! Why not enjoy Paris and use this as an excuse to live it up at a fabulous restaurant in the St. Germain des Pres?? Believe me, I thought long and hard about pulling that card. But first, let me just tell you a little story about our Valentines dinner last year....let this story be a lesson to everyone: never, never, go to a restaurant on Valentines day. I don't care what country you live in.
The Mr. made a reservation at an Alain Ducasse restaurant in DC (one I had been dropping hints about for several months) Great boyfriend right? That's what he thought too until what he thought would be a nice extravagant dinner turned into the bank account scandal of the decade. Old Alain Ducasse, along with most other restaurants that like to make money, has discovered that all rules of free market capitalism go out the window on Valentines day. Long story short, what we thought was going to be a five course menu at x price, turned into a three course menu for double x price. On top of that, the unconscionably tiny portions left the Mr. starving for a drive through run after we left the restaurant. Needless to say, we decided against a restaurant this year.
Instead, we compromised on a menu and settled with champagne, strawberries, and tacos on the side. (A common Valentines spread, I'm sure).
The Mr. also surprised me with flowers, potted hyacinths (one of my favorites).
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| In love. |
Finally, chocolate covered strawberries. Who can resist?
Don't fret though, although we didn't take the Parisian route on Valentines day, we have been learning new things about Parisian culture all weekend.
Pate
We finally got into a restaurant that we have been turned away from twice in the past three weeks, La Cremerie. The tiny four table restaurant in the 6th was well worth the wait. They have a small blackboard listing all of the offerings of the evenings and shelves full of wine encasing the walls. They have many pate/terrine offerings, so the Mr. decided to take the plunge and give the new delicacy a try. We started with a pork pate which was fabulous. From a guy that likes to stick to his hamburgers and ice creams, I was tres impressed. Washed down with an olive oil marinated chevre, I was in heaven.
Les Papilles
Saturday night we enjoyed a fabulous dinner at Les Papilles. A small little grocery store/restaurant in the 5th near Luxembourg gardens. No menu. You get to choose wine from a rack on the shelf and the chef serves four course, predetermined menu for the evening. We started with a delicious zucchini soup with feta and croutons, followed by a slow roasted pork and beans with a phenomenal pesto sauce on the side, a blue cheese with fig to follow, and finally a banana pancotta dessert. How do they eat so much food?? I was stuffed after the cream based zucchini soup. Of course I found room to power through and finish all courses, but really, I can't understand how this much food is the norm for these people? And they are so skinny? Baffling.
Although all of this was truly scrumptious, I am still waiting on my Italian...
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