I am lucky! I got the opportunity to spend a flash weekend in Paris. It is a goodbye weekend after all the adventures my mum and I had together (laser tag, Boqueria lunch, dinner dans le noir)! She was flying back home to the southern hemisphere and was stopping by Paris on the way!
A sweet arrival for this flash weekend Paris
My flight arrived late at Orly Airport on Friday evening. The first thing I did was indulge myself with a Ladurée macaroon, a symbol of Paris for me. Pistachio is my favourite flavour for now. You know, at the airport, they even have a tea room.
It took me more than one hour to arrive at the hotel. The Orlyval makes it easy to get to the city centre. But I got lost twice on my metro changes. It is like I did not live here for eight years in the past. Bouh! Our hotel was in the 13th arrondissement. We love this area as it is close to many interesting places for us: home to Chinatown but also to la Butte aux Cailles (a very cute and historical neighbourhood), the great Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the trendy bars and shops around.
Our first stop in the morning was an artisan bakery, Le grenier a pain. They make fabulous cakes. We share a pain-aux-raisins (a French pastry with raisins) and a litchi raspberry cake that was sooo buttery, sooo tasty and sooo refined for breakfast. This is why I love Paris. It is a food paradise for the one who knows where to go.
Discovering a new place to eat in Paris – closed
After running a few errands, we made our way to “La Fabrique de Bouchons” (Closed – 2022 Update) for lunch. It is a small place with cosy furnishings. They provide a cuisine de marché which is a seasonal cuisine with fresh ingredients. They only have one menu for lunch, which costs 20 euros for two dishes and 23 euros for three.
At first, I got disappointed by the very limited menu which had less than 10 dishes and just one dessert. I did not cross the entirety of Paris for a Parmentier (a potato and meat dish) but since I am seated, I’ll make do with it. Two parmentiers de veau confit au citron sauce aux champignons et épinards please. (On the photo: veal Parmentier with lemon confit mushroom sauce and spinach). La Fabrique de Bouchons offers revisited French cuisine. The Parmentier which I regard as comfort food is very light and had a twist (a “confit au citron”). It worked wonderfully and the confit was subtle.
The dessert was either cheese or a sweet dish. We ordered one of each. I am not a cheese fan, but I liked the sheep cheese, the Ossau iraty. It was actually amazing. THE best cheese I had in months. And it seems trendy because another in vogue restaurant I wanted to try out offered it too. The sweet dessert was a clementine carpaccio with a honey and lemon foam and some meringue. It was light and airy. Again, I was skeptical when ordering it. I did not come to Paris to eat clementine but, it was delicious.
We had two glasses of champagne and a bottle of sparkling water. In France, I like all things bubbly. In France, the bubbles are so thin and the taste so subtle and refined. You barely feel them and yet they “pétillent”. They lightly sparkle on your tongue. I love them!
Movie at Bercy Village
We ended the evening at the movies. But not anywhere though. In Bercy Village. This outdoor shopping area is very charming. All the shops and restaurants are inside old wine warehouses. Additionnally, some rail tracks are still visible in the middle of walking path. At the other end, you have cinemas. And do you know another best thing about this place? After the movies, you can go for a drink or for dinner in the same area.
Sunday walk on the Parisian canals
On Sunday, we decided to have our own made in Paris brunch, in our hotel room. A kind of “pique nique moquette” like in the movie Pretty Woman where she had champagne and strawberries on the moquette. Ahem… that is where the similarities end. We went to Nicolas, a chain that specialises in wine selling. They had a fantastic selection of champagne. And we got a bottle of Perrier Jouet, some other goodies and cakes from Le grenier à pain (again!). It was so yummy! A piece of heaven thrown on a bathroom towel.
Then, we left for our “Promenade du Dimanche” or to put it simply, our Sunday walk. The Canal Saint Martin was an area that I have always wanted to explore in Paris. But we got the wrong directions. Instead, we strolled around the Canal de l’Ourcq which was equally interesting with its autumn-colored trees, people walking and eating and the barges docked on the river. You can also rent boats or go on a tour on the canal. All this was so… Parisian!
We were fortunate, the sky was blue even if it was chilly. I am based in Barcelona which has mild winters. And I had my “winter” clothes on: a coat, boots, scarf and hat. Dressed in this way, I was still cold so what came next was a shock for me. I noticed the many tents lining the Seine River’s banks and some teenage boys dressed in a middle eastern way. I was walking among refugees.
The boys seemed quite happy while kicking a ball around. However, I am unable to fathom the kind of lives they are leading. I was freezing in my winter clothes. What about them sleeping on the stones by the river? It is still better than a country in war but what kind of hopes about their future can they have in those conditions? That was the saddest part of my trip.
The end of the flash weekend in Paris with Asian food
I feel for them but there is not much I can do for now. We kept on walking until we reached a garden, the Jardin Villemin. Up until that point, I had no knowledge of its existence until that day. It small yet well- fitted. It had no toilet though. We saw a pavilion with a Roma jazz band. Lucky us once more! We listened to the concert before moving on. As we were leaving, we saw a plate commemorating the massacre of Jewish kids and men and women during the WWII. Paris is also that, a city full of history, at times tragic, at times spectacular!
The time for dinner arrived. Ok. Now I can tell you why we love being in the 13th arrondissement. It is because there are a ton of amazing Asian restaurants there. A favourite of ours is Mondol Kiri, a Cambodian restaurant. Everything on the menu is excellent with the exception of the “porc caramel” (pork with caramel) and the owner is really friendly and always smiley.
The day after, we had lunch at Tang Gourmet, an eatery that specialises in Asian cuisine. Here you can find from Vietnamese sandwiches to lacquered duck. The same company also operates Asian supermarkets where you can find almost anything you want in the Asian sector. Here, the food is tasty. It is fast and it is cheap! We ordered half a lacquered duck with rice and crispy pork belly with rice. Yum!