Monday, May 8, 2000
Returned to Paris via Eurostar, returned to the Saint Honore, this time a single for 1 night (290 francs), then a double for 2 nights (760 francs). Today I did laundry. Dinner at Benjamin. Here are some notes I have about Paris but I don't recall which day I made them: There's a great little restaurant at 4 Rue de Mauvais Garcons ("bad boys street"!) in the Marais you go up a short flight of steps and the door enters right into the dining room with a curtain of some sort covering the entrance. At dinner, candles provide dramatic lighting to the unpolished but charming décor. The whole restaurant is really not much bigger than a suburban American living room. Everyone sits really close together, and there's a house bull dog that runs free in the dining room. (Yes, I guess the health laws are different in Paris.) Run by just a couple of guys—friendly, accommodating. If you order a steak, remember that "bleu" in French means "very rare"—not "blue cheese." If you don't have wine with your meal, they will know you are a tourist. Dinner: duck with orange sauce, pepper steak, creme brulee with honey, chocolate fondant cake, salmon ravioli, salad with hot goat cheese. To drink: mineral water, a house Bouguiel from 1999, cafe au lait. Also somewhere in that area is a clothes shop where I bought a pair of French army pants. They're better than American army pants because American army pants have pockets which cover (and hide) the ass. Not the French—they know the beauty of a French soldier's ass, so they don't put pockets down there! The guy behind the counter could very well have been a porn star—another reason to go shopping. Hopefully you'll see some real French soldiers while you're there. They're quite tasty!