11.06am - I had assumed that by this time of day, I would already have stuffed myself with an assortment of croissants, pains au chocolat, brioches and the like. But alas, it's 2am LA time, and in spite of all best intentions, there was just no way I could get myself to eat anything. I did get up early though to walk around and explore - and after a good bit of idle strolling ended up here: This is the window at Laduree, with what are supposedly the best macarons in Paris.
11.06am - more macarons at Laduree
11.11am - and these are the ones I actually managed to eat - thank god they're tiny: mint, violet-cassis, orange blossom and licorice. The mint one was the best, surprisingly. I had expected it to taste kind of like After Eight, in that fake mint kind of way, but instead it smelt and tasted like a fresh bundle of peppermint. Or some peppermint tea. You get the idea, real mint. The orange blossom one tasted a bit like soap, though. Violet-cassis was nice, considering it had a jam filling instead of ganache, and even licorice was good, not too obtrusive. Now I know where Paulette in Beverly Hills got their inspiration...
2.14pm - some amazing baguette de campagne, at Le Bistrot d'Henri on Rue Princesse, after an extensive outing to La Grande Epicerie at the Le Bon Marche (kind of like the Food Hall at Harrod's). My booty to feature on this blog in the future. to the extent that I can carry it back to LA...
2.15pm - salade d'haricots verts (green bean salad) with an incredibly delicious tarragon dressing (and I'm no friend of tarragon), at Le Bistrot d'Henri.
2.27pm - escalope de veau a la normande, avec des pates fraiches (veal escalope with a butter mushroom sauce and home made pasta), at Le Bistro d'Henri
2.51pm - un petit cafe creme
2.58pm - my bill - no idea how they get through the day with bills as vague as this and wildly diverging prices for their dishes. All it says is: 1 appetizer, 1 entree, 1 coffee.
3.14pm - and strolling back to Laduree - couldn't help myself...
3.24pm - Laduree have an interesting orientalist-colonialist tea salon in the back, and I still had hopes of trying one of their incredible, otherworldly looking cakes or puff pastries
3.35pm - but all I could fathom after that heavy, buttery lunch was something light and fruity: a passion-fruit raspberry tarte and an orange blossom tea. Not bad at all, but by this point I was way to full to really appreciate anything. Really didn't feel that good, and had to go home and crash for a bit.
8.33pm - a lemon Fanta, on the Rue St. Jacques.
10.53pm - Moules frites a l'escargot, gratinees (mussels with the garlic-butter-parsley sauce normally served with escargots, baked with cheese on top and french fries) plus a bit of a lovely Red, at Leon de Bruxelles, with Cesar and Denis. Cesar and I went to film school together here many years ago, and hadn't seen each other since before I moved to LA. So we were due for a reunion, and it was duly celebrated with two plates of mussels each! It has to be said though that once you dish out for the first, you get the second one for 1 Euro.
11.48pm - I had a bite of this Cesar's dessert but can't remember for the life of me what it was called. It involved apples at the bottom, vanilla ice cream of course, plus some Belgian crumble on top, called something like spekuloos (?), which reminded me of the German Spekulatius, which is a Christmas cookie kind of thing. Tasted like it, too...
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