When I want a good meal in Paris, I often turn to Alex Lobrano’s book Hungry for Paris: a Guide to the City’s 102 Best Restaurants. I wasn’t disappointed with his recommendation for Le Buisson Ardent, a gastronomic bistro in the 5th, where I recently had dinner with a Donna.

Le Buisson Ardent

The restaurant is surprisingly small, with tables crowded together around the rim of a square room in the front; there’s an even smaller room in the back. Two tables over, the owner was having dinner with friends, so we were able to see what they chose from the menu.

The ambiance is warm, with red banquettes and green walls and frosted glass chandeliers. Murals of country scenes, dating from 1925, line the walls. The service too was warm – never intrusive, but certainly helpful. You can see the inspiration for the name in the pediment above the restaurant door – it translates to the Burning Bush, which in the Bible spoke to Moses. This building was once the site of the Abbey Saint-Victoire, destroyed during the French Revolution.

The price for dinner was right too — €30 for the optional fixed price menu. This past July, the French government lowered the VAT tax on restaurant meals from 19.6% to 5.5%. Restaurants weren’t obligated to pass on the savings to customers, but they have done so at Le Buisson d’Ardent. The fixed price formule was marked down from €32.

Every course looked as though it had been designed on the plate, with particular attention to shapes and colors. But the food we ate wasn’t in the least pretentious; it was just delicious. My pork mignon came with a sweet turnip purée with hazelnut oil; I’ve never been a turnip fan, but I’d go back for that dish.

Le Buisson Ardent
25, rue de Jussieu, 75005 Paris; Metro Jussieu
Open Monday – Friday for lunch and dinner, Saturday dinner only. Closed Sunday.

Spent the evening at the Agriculture Show (it officially closes today) for the “party night”.  It stays open until 11 pm and the food hall where all the wine and rum is flowing got kind of nuts!  I communed with the animals a while and then joined my friends for dinner in the Carribean section.  And then rum with the crazies…..

This guy had had enough....

It’s actually a very political affair for the French.  Former President, Jacques Chirac, will attend on Friday.  He has attended every salon since 1972 and has always been a great admirer and is known for eating and drinking his way through the halls. 






















Some of the highlights from Monday when I attended with my friend Sheila Campbell.  She’ll be posting more about the show on her blog True Compass.

So my latest find is this charming little restaurant called La Fourchette du Printemps (the forks of springtime) located at 30 rue du Printemps in the 17th.  A short Velib ride from my place.

I ordered the “pintade” which is this beautiful bird:

The meat is very tender and cooked just done.  It was served on a bed of brussel sprouts ( I think they had been braised) and chestnuts with a brown sauce.

THEN, I got to have dessert!  YUM!!!! A “Paris Brest”.  One of my very favorite pastries.  It’s made of choux pastry and a praline cream in the middle.  Kind of like a donut with filling only about a million times better.  The pastry was created in 1891 to commemorate a bicycle race (1200km or 745 miles!) between Paris and Brest (Brittany coast) which is why it’s shaped like a bicycle wheel.

There has been a movement recently around wines known as “Natural” or “Nature” in French. Contrary to organic wines, wines known as “Nature” are made from organically grown grapes and in the most natural way possible – they are generally unfiltered or have no added sulfites.

“There is no such thing as Vin Nature” says sommelier Laurent Marre, who invited me, Donna and a few other friends to a private tasting at F&B Restaurant in the 3rd arrondissement to prove his point and educate us that there are indeed wines labeled “nature” worthy of drinking.  As we learned, the term “Nature” is merely a marketing tool.

This discussion all started at another dinner at Bodeguita du XVIIeme. A wine shop/restaurant that mostly promotes “vins nature”.  The dinner featured some of the wines of Pithon-Paillé from the Loire Valley.  Pithon wines are made using “organic practices”.

What I discovered at Laurent’s tasting were some excellent wines labeled “nature” and “organic” or not at all.  As it turns out, it’s all about the producer and winemaker!  And Joseph aka “Jo” Pithon, was on hand for the tasting and what a treat!

He cuts an impressive figure.  He is as big as his wines (which are primarily Anjou, Bourgeuil and Chinon).  Beautiful fruit, full bodied and well balanced.  Jo is well known in wine circles in France because of the quality of wines he makes in a region not known for top-notch wines.  He is also quite down-to-earth as evidenced when he told me that it took him about 20 years of making bad wines in order to know how to make a really good ones.

Anybody up for a trip to the Loire Valley???

Promenades Gourmandes
Paule Caillat’s classes are hands-on, where you first shop in a local market, then prepare a typically French meal with a comprehensive cheese tasting  and plenty of wine. The classes are held in her architecturally-designed kitchen centered on the Lacanche range.  And that’s just the half-day class. Full-day classes also include a walking tour of several food specialty stores. The classes are small, often just for your own group if there are several of you, so they feel very personal. Prices range from €260 per person, less for parties of two or more.

Eye Prefer Paris
Paris has a rich diversity of ethnic cultures, and Eye Prefer Paris cooking classes give you an introduction to the cooking influenced by countries like Morocco, Algeria, Vietnam and Laos. Classes are taught by Richard Nahem, formerly a catering chef in New York, and Charlotte Puckette, author of The Ethnic Paris Cookbook. Classes begin with a market visit and are conducted in Charlotte’s professional kitchen in the 7th Arrondissement, near the Eiffel Tower. Maximum class size is six people. Price is €185 per person for a half-day class.

Parigourmand
Myriam-Claire Escario teaches from her professional home kitchen.  Myriam’s apartment is in an old courtyard building in the 9th district and she has a charming inner-courtyard terrace where you have your meals afterwards.  She teaches traditional French cooking and pastry classes.  The class also begins with a market tour. This site is in French but the classes are MOSTLY taught in English.  Prices start at  € 75 per person.

Cook’n with Class
Cook’n with Class offers Pastry, Baking, Macaron and traditional French cooking classes. The morning class begins with a trip to the market and evening classes include a cheese tasting. Owner and Chef instructor, Eric Fraudeau, who trained in the kitchens of Joel Robuchon and Alain Ducasse and his team of international Chefs, Pino Ficara and Bernadette Laserna, will delight you with their passion for cooking. Prices: € 160 per person for morning or evening classes; €100 per person for pastry, baking or macaron classes.

Le Cordon Bleu
Actually, you can take classes at Le Cordon Bleu. The list of classes is a bit hard to find on their website; start by selecting the Paris campus and look for “Short Courses.” The €45 euro cost to see the kitchens (in the 15th Arrondissement, near Montparnasse) and taste the food is well worth the effort.

École de Cuisine Alain Ducasse
Alain Ducasse, famous chef of such Paris high-end restaurants as Jules Verne in the Eiffel Tower, now offers half-day and full-day classes at his École de Cuisine in the 16th Arrondissement. If your French is really good, there’s a wide variety of classes – but don’t expect Ducasse to be your instructor. Classes are taught by Ducasse-trained chefs. Prices: €165 for a half-day morning or evening class, or €280 for a full day.

L’atelier des Chefs
Classes are hands-on and held in French. It’s actually quite easy to follow along and many of the Chefs speak some English. Some classes are even offered during the lunch hour – making this a quick, inexpensive and easy way to learn a little French cooking. As little at €17 per 1/2 hour class.

Les Puce de Paris Saint-Ouen

Marché aux Puce de la Porte de Vanves

Marché d’Aligre – there’s a also a fun wine bar around the corner

Paris Vintage

Ever thought about a cruise in the middle of Paris that’s NOT on the Seine?

My friends Bill and Nancy invited me over to their peniche (houseboat)/home the other night for drinks and appetizers before taking the Canauxrama cruise up to La Villette (the link is to the site in French – but there is also an English version).

We had so much fun!  The boat follows the waterway which is actually UNDER the street “Richard Lenoir”.  My friend Barney – the BB&T building engineer in Asheville, had told me about this cruise before I left to come here in 2006 so I was familiar with it but had never taken a night cruise.

They show a movie on the wall of the canal – it was kind of like being at a drive-in movie.  We were talking too much to actually hear the comments but I did note it was in both English and French.

After going through a number of locks (much like the ones in Washington DC in Georgetown), you arrive at La Villette – an up and coming neighborhood in Paris’s 19th Arrondissement.

Nancy, Charlette and me.  Charlette (the redhead) is 78, also lives on a peniche across the water from Bill and Nancy and drives a corvette.  She’s promised to take me on a Friday night spin down the Champs Elysee…..

We tasted sparkling wines from the Loire, Gaillac and Jura with Jérôme

Rully (chardonnay) from Burgundy, Sauvignon from Coteaux de Giennois and Vouvray from the Loire with Edouard

And finally, some fantastic red burgundies with Olivier

I’m not a huge fan of the Champs-Elysées but I had to pop into Ladurée to buy some raspberry macarons for my wine bar tour tomorrow and decided to stay for lunch.  They have THE BEST club sandwiches maybe in the world.  And the french fries are big and fat (you get 4 on your plate but it’s more than enough).  It’s not cheap – 17 Euros – but it’s truly a quintessential Parisian restaurant – and the interior is beautiful.   I think I still prefer macarons by Pierre Hermé but he doesn’t make raspberry flavor…