Paris - Part 1 - The Limo and some Sightseeing

We had a limo pick us up at the airport.  I thought it would be a good idea to have a limo in each city.  By Hamburg, I realized this was a bad idea.  I thought limo drivers would be more like I was when I was a limo driver.  They weren't.  Essentially, they were just drivers.  You had to know where to go to and guide them.  I expected more of a tour guide like I had been.

For example, our driver, Arnaud, though a nice guy, when asked for a vegetarian restaurant, took us to one where every menu item had a meat dish.  He finally took us to a place that served vegetarian food.  Then at one point, I asked if we could go to the Arc de Triomphe.  He told us it was the other way and kept on driving. 

We did see a few things and asked to be let out at the Eiffel Tower because Rose had promised her friends a little dance in front of it. 

Paris - Part 2 - Privé de Dessert - A Different Dinner Experience



Privé de Dessert is a different kind of restaurant – it is an opposite day kind of place.  Appetizers and entrees look like desserts and desserts are dressed up to look like appetizers and entrees. 

Imagine a 40 by 40 room in an old building with tables squeezed in every which way to seat about 40 folks. Add fantastic wait staff and interesting food choices and you have Privé de Dessert.

There are 4 locations in Paris. You HAVE to make reservations in advance and the place was packed.

It was absolutely an amazing experience and at about $100, not really too badly priced. That included wine and a cocktail too.

The menu below has our selections rather crudely highlighted. 

Entrees is the French word for appetizers.  Main courses (what we in America call Entrees) are called Plats (or plates.)  Desserts have the same name.  Under the dessert menu, right below the last highlighted item, Avocado Toast, is Me-Cuit Chocolat Suprise - in French it says "Attention, this is the only real dessert on the menu!"  Now I wish we would have tried it, but I guess we wanted the opposite, rather novel, experience. 

Prices below are in Euros - add roughly 10% to convert to American Dollars.

Tarte Au Citron Meringuee



It was not lemony or meringue-y at all. The balls on top were a creamy cheese and the chocolate sauce was vinegar. It was REALLY good – but yet I disliked it. Why? Because I wanted it to be sweet and it wasn’t. Totally fooled my senses.

Main Course

We each ordered an Entree but really we ordered a “Plat”. When you think about it, Entrees should be the first course because they enter first. Perhaps Americans call them Entrees because we skip the appetizer or Americans are playing the opposite day strategy as well.

Sundae Caramel

Rose ordered the Sundae Caramel which “looked” like a sundae but really was a very good rice risotto. This was our second favorite dish. 

The Rice Risotto was wonderful and the top was NOT whip cream but a whipped up cheese. The thing that looks like a cherry was really a cherry tomato. The only downside was the cracker which was a Parmesan baked wafer but it had a bitter after taste.

Pancakes

I had the Pancakes which was not bad, but was our least favorite entree.

This wasn’t bad and very filling – once again not sweet and we only ate half though I wouldn’t order it again. When we sent half back, the manager came out asking why we didn’t like it. He was quite upset that they had provided something not to our liking. I had to explain we had ordered 3 desserts and wanted to leave room.

Spaghetti Bolognaise

Our overall least favorite was the Spaghetti Bolognaise.

The stuff that looks like ground beef were sweet crumbles of something and the white stuff that looks like spaghetti was a soft mixture of almost bitter something. The red stuff was sweet spicy something. Yeah, I know, not much to go on but here’s that it says on the menu:

• Creme Pamplemouse – that’s grapefruit cream. Probably the bitter spaghetti
• Sablé Cacao- Sand Cocoa? Guess that’s the brown stuff
• Coulis Fraise-Poivron – strawberry coulis pepper

Loved the chocolate bits (of course!) and the red stuff was ok, but disliked the grapefruit cream. In order not to piss the manager off again, I forced myself to eat the chocolate bits and kind of stir around the white stuff to far flung corners of the plate.

Tarrine de Foie Gras



Rose ordered the Tarrine de Foie Gras which means Bowl of Goose Liver pate. 

It was really good. It had 2 layers, praline-hazelnut ganache, lemon cream, and a rich honey layer with a very nice shortbread. We found those things had to be mixed up then eaten with the shortbread. Extremely good when mixed up. Otherwise the lemon flavor topping overwhelmed the praline-hazelnut ganache.

Avocado Toast

The item we both liked the most was the Avocado Toast. 

This was both of our favorite dish. Made of pistachio cream, toasted sweet brioche and fresh fruits on top.