Lunch, Wine & La Seine
I read this book titled The Sweet Life in Paris by the American chef living in Paris, David Lebovitz, last year when I just moved to Paris. I remember he mentions that people often ask him, "What do you do all day in Paris?" He goes on explaining how people expect him to spend his days hopping from chocolate shop to patisserie when in reality, daily life in Paris is not as sweet and romantic like that. It basically goes on with endless list of errands and chores that go on and on and on...
So yeah, when I just moved to Paris, my friends often asked me what I do during the weekend. I so wanted to tell them, "I walked along the Seine river this afternoon, hand in hand with my Parisian lover. And then, we wrote our names on a padlock, locked it at Pont des Arts, and threw the key into the Seine. We then went to lunch at the second floor of the Eiffel Tower at Alain Ducasse's Le Jules Verne. After that, we browsed through the wonderful collection of Impressionism works at Musée D'orsay..."
As much as I want it to be true, that just isn't the case. What if I told you I spent last weekend watching Project Runway marathon at my tiny apartment? What if I told you I then sobbed like crazy when the winner was announced and she cried her happy tears? What if I told you I spent that whole Saturday in bed, in my so-not-sexy pajama, ate microwaveable frozen food for dinner, and the only physical touch I had was with my beloved laptop?
Luckily pour moi, last weekend was one of the nicer one as I gave my pajama and laptop a rest. I grabbed lunch with my friend at Lapérouse, this historical restaurant located just along the Seine river.
It was quite easy to reserve a table there, I did it online on their website here. When we got there, we were ushered upstairs and given a table by the window. There were only 2 other tables, and they were already halfway through their meals, which meant yayy, we would get to monopolize the whole dining room to ourselves!
Couldn't stop looking out the window and wish this was my bedroom view.. err.. not really, as it could get too busy out there. But you get the idea.
So this isn't exactly our table but I took this picture cause it's better composition wise.
My friend and I shared an entrée or appetizer, which was the crispy asparagus. It was great, then again, I'm a huge asparagus fan so I might be biased.
They also gave us this concoction of cucumber and I honestly forgot what else was there. Anyways, the crispy asparagus is the one being all blurry in the background, can you see? No? Hmm, sorry I guess I'm trying too hard to be a little more artistic there haha..
Veal for my main course paired with red wine from Bourgogne. It was pretty good but I expected way more from the restaurant.
At the end of our meals, I excused myself to go to the restroom. I came across the private dining rooms on my way there and thought to myself, "Wow, it must be nice to have dinner with my Parisian lover in one of these." And then I remembered, my Parisian lover is not real.. sigh..
Overall, I think Lapérouse is an interesting place to dine at. Would I come back? Hmm, unfortunately no, because like I said for a restaurant with a rich history and background, I expected something more in terms of taste and service. It's just my personal opinion.
Oh yeah, my friend and I decided to walk along the Seine (not hand in hand though) to get our dessert at Odette for delightful choux à la crème or cream puffs. I'll talk about it on the next post cause this one is annoyingly long already. See you soon!