Dejeuner a l'Alsace Cafe, Champs Elysees, Paris

Dinner! We were so starved after spending the entire day at the Musee de Louvre in Paris that, as we crept back up the Champs Elysees, a particular cafe, l'Alsace--named after the Alsace Lorraine region where France, Switzerland, and Germany meet--just called out our names!

Perhaps it was the lovely red canvas canopy overhead with the gold fringe and lights, along with the busy chatter and smells wafting about le Champes Elysees that caught our senses!
Or, was it the color combinations of the glasses with the red Alsace wine that catches our love of complementation?

Cheers! (Mark seems to match the color combinations, of course.

We choose to share a couple of items from the menu, as otherwise we end up with too much food. One wants to have just enough, but not too much when walking along the Champs Elysees!
One can expect Alsace onions, wines, vegetables and meats from this spectacular region being served here.
Mark chooses une tart de l'oignon for the shared appetizer: a small quiche on a paper thin and flaky pastry topped with caramelized onions and a small side Ceasar salad du jour. Get your fork and dig in!

He then is served small lamp chops, carefully grilled and spiced with rosemary, olive oil, garlic and peppered with a fresh side of petit pois (small peas) and les haricots verts (green beans):

While Neil chooses the thinly grilled rib eye steak, pomme de terre, and...

fresh-made Bernaise sauce, resplendent with tarragon, saffron, blended in with a home-made mayonnaise (how French)!

Do stop by and see what other delights might befriend your palette! It is great fun watching the people parading by on the Champe Elysees, as well as the waiters and waitresses, all decked out in black and whites. The precision with which they operated was amazing, but rather humorous as the pecking order with the assemblage was very obvious....it was like a small, well-organized division of Napoleon's army!

L'Alsace Cafe is located at 39, avenue des Champes-Elysees, 75008 Paris.
www.restaurantalsace.com

Disclaimer: This blog is not an official University of Minnesota or Fulbright Program blog. The views expressed are my own and not those of the Fulbright Program, the U.S. Department of State or any of its partner organizations, or the University of Minnesota.

le Tour d'Eiffel, Paris

It was a hot day in Paris, this day before Easter 2011, so why arrive at the Eiffel Tower in a pink limousine?! It keeps the dust off your feet....

We've been to the tower before, just never had the luxury of enough time to wait in line to go up to the second floor lookout and catch the glimpses of the city. So, today, after our lunch here in the park (previous posting), we move towards the tower where these trimmed sycamore trees seems to be swallowed up into the mouth of the tower!

 Well, a refresher seemed in order, since the lines are VERY LONG to get into either the North, South or East leg of the tower.

 We opt for the shortest line which snakes back and forth and proceeds along very slowly! This gives on time to look up into the tower

 or catch framed glimpses of the city across the Senn.

 We're getting close now....excitement building!  Then, as we get near to the front of the line, a security officer sees us and whisks us away to a special entrance for handicapped people (if only we'd known about this sooner, we wouldn't have spent one hour in the line!).  Mark waits at the gate while the officer takes one person from each party (waiting in this line) to the back side of the ticket counter to purchase our tickets (discounted to 8 Euros total for both of us--a deal!).

 Then we slide into the line, through security and into the funiculaire (don't you just love that word?!) that goes up this leg of the tower at a 45 degree angle!

Here's the view as we ascend...

 Once we up to the second floor platform (a two-deck affair), we can see the city. Here's l'Eglise Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart church) sitting pearly white on the north hill.

 Clouds come and go (it rains later) making a wonderful panel of colors that drift back and forth across the skyline.

 Here's a stitched photograph (3 photos) looking along the Senn towards the Grand Palace, with the huge glass conservatory built for the 1900 Paris World Exhibition.

 From this high up, the tower has such delightful architectural features!

 Below us, the Carousel plays it merry music...a twirl of delight!

 Back across the Senn towards one of the museums; the l'Arc de Triumphe is towards the upper right-hand corner of this picture.

 A stitched landscape of this same view:

 More pics in other directions around the tower:

 Mark is in awe. We ate our picnic repas earlier down below in the shady part of this grand garden (to the left)!

 We spend a couple of hours up here, enjoying the view, sipping de l'eau et vin (water and wine), to build up the courage to take the slide (no, just kidding, it was an elevator!) down to the base:

 Wheeee.....

As we leave, the storm clouds darken and we have a brief rain shower while crossing the river. It soon lets up and we ascend up the long hill to l'Arc de Triumphe for dinner in a cafe somewhere....

Disclaimer: This blog is not an official University of Minnesota or Fulbright Program blog. The views expressed are my own and not those of the Fulbright Program, the U.S. Department of State or any of its partner organizations, or the University of Minnesota.

Lunch, le Petit Dejeuner, by the Eiffel Tower, day before Easter, Paris

We spent the day around the Eiffel Tower, le Tour d'Eiffel, soaking up the sights, basking in the sun, cooling in the shade, and eventually going up into the tower (later posting).

Around 1400 hours, we started to get hungry....our breakfast of coffee and croissants had long since dissipated!

Mark stops to wash his hands and cool off a bit at this handy faucet before we go to a cool spot in the shade underneath the Eiffel Tower.

 Well, we start digging into the many wonderful treats we bought at the Farmer's Market this morning at la Rue Poncelet (previous posting)!
Using Neil's Czech knife, we slice off some fresh goat cheese with a bit of fine ash. This is slathered onto the Baguette:

Mark seems to think this is quite le Piece de Resistance!

 Those delectable cherry tomatoes spill out of our bags and explode in our mouths! Exquisite delights.

 And why not combine the cherries with the cheese and French bread? Pourqoi non?

 Then!  There are the cold beets cooked in their skins that we bought this morning. It's such a fantastic idea to sell pre-cooked fresh beets in their skins for easy eating.  Look at this!

Well, let's see.....after eating a few bites we think about pairing this with the cheese...on some bread! Fantastique!

 Everyone in the Eiffel Tower seems to be looking down on us and drooling!

 Then, out comes the Comice pear...isn't this just gorgeous?

 Mark adds that it is tres bien and oh, so good!

 Then we pear it with the cheese and cooked beets...an unbelievable combination!

These berries cleanse the palette....

 And now for dessert....we ran across a bakery (chez Paul) that was selling delectable fruit French macaroons at the Farmer's Market this morning! We had to buy a large fresh raspberry macaroon...

 Can you believe it?

 Here's to Paris et le Tour d'Eiffel!

  Who says you can't have a delectable gourmet meal without cooking a thing?

Now it's time to sit back in the shade and watch all of the other people delighting in this beautiful day and enjoying their picnics...

A father photographs his daughters holding their hands on top of the Eiffel Tower!

It is a French Impressionist day...with all of the sun umbrellas in gorgeous colors and contrasts...

We're wishing you the absolutely best weekend, from here in Paris!

Disclaimer: This blog is not an official University of Minnesota or Fulbright Program blog. The views expressed are my own and not those of the Fulbright Program, the U.S. Department of State or any of its partner organizations, or the University of Minnesota.