Oh, the people you meet and the food that you eat

One of the reasons travelling is fun - the people you meet. 2 fun conversations over a cafe breakfast yesterday. Firstly with 2 Canadian women researching chocolate, secondly with a madly eccentric German woman from Mexico with a very posh private school accent. She was wearing an oversized floppy straw hat and enormous ring. Bumped into her again in the Musee D'Orsay. The day before we chatted with 2 American women travelling to eat, sounds familiar. They caught cabs everywhere, no sore feet for them then.

Musee D'Orsay was great, got caught in a huge down pour after lunch whilst shopping (!) in the posh area - took shelter under the verandah of Chanel. Glad of the respite in the Musee Arts Decoratif, a wing in the Louvre with a fantastic display of furnishing from the mediaeval times to now. Afterwards enjoyed a slow sunny walk towards the hotel via a very large dept store - much more upmarket than any in Australia - lovely things - just looking.

 Out to dinner with Mark in another very nice restaurant - could have been in Sydney. Hobbled back to the hotel in lingering twilight at 10pm. People out on the streets everywhere, in cafes, just walking. Such a lovely atmosphere. Poor feet.

And then a couple of days later thinking about our wonderful meal I wrote to a friend with whom I have shared many a gorgeous restaurant meal in the past........... I want to tell you what we had for dinner two nights ago - you would have just loved it. It was 5 courses chosen by the chef - everyone in the restaurant had the same. We began with a trio of inidvidually plated spring veg - artichoke, asparagus and broad beans to dip in a little sauce flavoured with anchovies. Next was 2 perfectly cooked, room temp chunks, small, of turbot topped with spanner crab and then either jamon or a crisp biscuit of buckwheat bread and accompanied by a delicate jelly of cucumber. The level of quality and flavour continued to rise with the next course of 2 delicate ravioli filled with pigeon and foie gras over which was poured a pigeon broth. A very tasty side dish was given consisting of chopped cherries, apricots and chanterelles. it complemented the ravioli and broth so well. Main course - veal. A small veal steak/chunk cooked sous vide (?) and wrapped in chard and a pan fried veal sweetbread with a beautiful sauce. The flavours were rich, but delicate, the textures so soft, but supple. Moist too. Dessert was 4 little dishes - very delicate and light honey flavoured icecream topped with pitachios, a tiny lemon curd filled cream puff and a little bowl of perfect macerated strawbs. There was another dessert but my mind has blanked as we have had 3 meals of perfect desserts. Tina, this meal was so perfect. It had perfect presentation, perfection in cooking style and so seasonal. It was just lovely and we commented we thought you would love it too, but all I can share of it is with words.

http://www.springparis.fr/p/reservations_09.html