Any money saving that I had done before was pretty much thrown out the window when I got to Paris. We met up with our two other friends who had already been in the city for a few days now. We listened to them describe all their incredible meals over our own incredible meal at the Creperie Framboise. After having the lunch special of savoury and sweet crepes, I knew that the next two days would be expensive ones.
When we arrived, Anthony's aunt and uncle greeted us with a Chinese dinner. Duck, bak choy, tofu, shrimp and rice. I had five bowls of rice. Even after consuming an entire bag of rice, we were still craving Asian cuisine. This was the first city that we dared tried anything other than the local food. Sushi in Istanbul just didn't sound right. Paris is known to have a pretty good Vietnamese community, so we heard that Pho is safe choice. We had the most expensive Pho we will ever have. Two large bowls of Pho, one order of spring rolls, one order of shrimp salad rolls and two beers: 44 euros (before tip). It tasted fine, but their 10 euro Pho did not come close to our Vancouver $8 Pho that is twice the size.
On our last day, we met with Anthony's cousins at Baroche, a brasserie that his cousins frequent and are familiar with the staff. Here we had the French meal experience. That meant, a three hour meal. There was no rush to take or orders, or for us to have our order taken. This is the perfect setting for catching up and meeting new people, but not if you need to be anywhere. Along with visiting the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and the Musee d'Orsay, having a long (regular French) meal was part of the Paris To Do's, so I wasn't worried about the time at all. Anthony's cousins ordered the appetizers for us: homemade duck and foie gras pie with figs and red onion marmelade, and a plate of different types of sausages (morcilla, chorizo, paleta bellota). Their menu had many choices for plats, but Anthony and I went with the special which was a slow cooked beef brisket with tagliatelle. Each having our own of course.
And to round off our final hours in Paris, we went to Montmartre and picked a random brasserie on a corner. It had a busy patio, red moody lighting and we were tired of walking. Because I had a last minute switch from duck to the beef brisket at lunch, I decided to make up for that void by getting the confit canard. It was a bit dry. I added two mojitos to my order and for once on this trip, I did not feel bloated after a drink. Or two.
