Daddy-A

J & I visit markets wherever we travel, and were extremely excited to be visiting Sarlat le Canéda at the end of the walking tour. In fact, we had scheduled the tour so we would arrive in Sarlat on a Friday, just in time for the market in Saturday. We were awoken on Saturday morning by the sounds of vendors setting up their wares on the street below our hotel room. It was 7am. I sat for about an hour watching the women load her table with carrots, leeks, artichokes and other produce. In between visits to her truck she would stop, have a drag on her cigarette and a drink of what I assume was wine. We left the hotel just after 8 and walked towards the city square. Vendors, having finished their displays were now drinking red wine and catching up with each others. The locals were starting to filter into the city, each carrying some variation of the same wicker shopping basket. The air was a mix of smells; freshly baked bread, cut flowers, prunes, sauccison and many other items. OLIVES!!! I lost count how many varieties ... something like 20 J tells me Olive-Guy is cute This was the most amazing thing for me. These were much like tent trailers when they arrived, and unfolded into the most amazing shops-on-wheels. Cheese-dude is slicing off part of what turned into a 50 Euro cheese order. Definitely more cheese than we needed , but it was so good. We gave a lot of it away. The left pan has a tartilette of cheese, potato and sausage, the left, paella. Sauccison ... 5 different varieties at 4 for 10 Euro. There was duck, porc, bleu d'auvergne, boar, & mushroom (cepes). There were many other such suppliers at the market, each with his/her own favorites. Of course you need bread to go with all that cheese and sausage ... ... and beer! 3 flavours: truffle, nut (walnut) & chestnut. I tried the walnut (for breakfast at the market) ... and went looking for the red wine One of the many foie producers at the market. Jean Jardel is his name, and he's really proud of his product, and a pretty good salesman to boot. I spent the rest of the trip with 3 cans of foie in my pack! In addition to foie gras and noix, Perigord is also known for prunes. They bake with them, make liqueur from it (very much like an eau-de-vie) and even stuff them like chocolates (those will make an appearance later on). So that was market day in Sarlat. An amazing collection of local product mixed in with a little of the touristy aspects of the area. Definitely worth scheduling around. More on Sarlat later ...

Week 2 Our second week in France was something both J & I had wanted to do for a long time. France is terrific place to walk. The entire country is criss-crossed with walking trails known as the Grand Randonnée(GR), extremely well marked and well thought out trails that allow one to experience the French countryside on a much more personal level than more automated modes of travel. Many companies will organize tours utilizing the GR system. For our trip we chose Sentiers de France. They booked all our hotels and arranged transport for our luggage during our 8 day trek through the Dordogne. We visited countless pre-historic sites (the cave paintings at Lascaux, Roche St. Christophe, etc.) and medieval castles (Beynac, Castelnaud, etc.) and finished with one of the best markets I have ever seen, in Sarlat le Canéda. If you enjoy walking (we averaged 18 km per day) and want to see France at a very leisurely pace, I highly recommend Sentiers de France. One of the side benefits to a walking tour is that it affords one the opportunity to eat more. For us, this was a good thing considering the Dordogne is one of the countries leading producers of walnuts, truffles, and … Foie rules the table in these parts. There are producers in every village, corn in every field and foie appears prominently on every menu. For our tour, we ate foie in various forms at all but two dinners. I never thought I would say this, but I’ve had enough foie for a while. Breakfasts and dinners were arranged at each hotel. Breakfast was the espresso-croissant-confiture variety; dinners were of the prix-fix menu variety. Out of 6 dinners, there was only one we would have classified as sub-standard, and one produced the best meal of the entire trip. These are the hotels we stayed at: Hotel Le Lascaux (Montignac) – Thierry & Agnes Pralong run this hotel and dining room. On our first night, Thierry cooked me the best piece of beef I have ever eaten. The hotel is nice and clean, and the dining room is solid. Hotel Le Moulin de la Beaune (Les Eyzies de Tayac) – Quiet hotel beside its own little creek. The dining room here is fantastic! Easily the best meal of the trip, and perhaps our best restaurant experience ever. The requisite foie, duck confit, trout, black truffle risotto ... all excellent, although for the life of me I can't figure out the love for Rocomadour Chevre! Every restaurant we visited on the tour served this as their cheese course. I know there are many other cheeses in the region, why not feature them?. Service was intuituve, and my french was indulged and politely corrected throughout the evening. Thanks to the sommelier, we also had one of the best bottles of wine we’ve ever enjoyed, a 2003 Château Des Eyssards L' Adagio from Bergerac. We tried a lot of wines from Bergerac on the walking tour and thoroughly enjoyed them all. Hotel Du Chateaux (Beynac) – The only thing this hotel did wrong was come after the hotel in Les Eyzies. The dining room was quite busy the night we ate there since all the other dining rooms in town decided to close. They were a little short-staffed but handles the crowds really well. Hotel Plaisance (Vitrac) – Not much in this little town, but the hotel had the only pool we saw the entire trip. Apparently though, not many folks swim during the last week of September in France. We hardy Canadians were given a few odd looks, but it was warm outside and we’d been walking all day. The dining room was serviceable, but clearly geared towards the seniors’ bus-tour circuit. Having said that, they served me a lovely walnut stuffed trout. Hotel La Couleuvrine (Sarlat) – The hotel sits right on the edge of the town square, so if you’re there on market days (Wed. & Sat.) be prepared to be woken up by vendors setting up for the day. The dining room here was highly touted in many of the guides we read, but our experience was not that great. In fact, I would classify many of the dishes as poor. I’ll be fair … we were given the least expensive of the 3 set menus. But at 30 Euro it was already more expensive than the excellent meal we had at Les Eyzies. Outside of the hotel meals, we were on our own. That meant a quick shopping trip in the evening before we hit the trail! This is what lunch looked like pretty much every day: cheese, charcuterie, fruit, chocolate & wine while seated on our Gortex looking at stunning scenery. The scenery was spectacular, especially as we came into the Dordogne valley. The picture above shows Beynac Castle in the distance. Castles were a pretty common site, and eventually became referred to as AFC’s. Shop owners everywhere, but especially in the smaller towns, were more than happy to let you know about local specialties. In the Dordogne, this was foie virtually every time, but the freshly baked breads (usually with walnuts) made regular appearances in our back pack. I show this because after 3 weeks of purchasing cheeses, we found this to be the SMELLIEST cheese in France. You have been warned.

Damned eGullet people! Thanks for that ... I didn't write the name down, so I used "bordeaux" for poetic reasons. A.

Were you trying to imitate bleudauvergne's picture-taking? It looks so beautiful and ... so French ... That's high praise indeed! Thank you so much ... and yes, Lucy's photo's have always been an inspiration. Nope, not this trip. We were moving around quite a bit and in reality meeting up would have been tough. Besides, we wanted this to be "our" trip. Next time. A.

Totally agree. Don't leave me in suspense, though...how were the pastries? (The white truffle macaroon from PH sounds intriguing...was it tasty? And what was the filling?) Sort of answering Ling's query via kiliki ... We didn't really go seeking out any of the "name" patisseries. We saw a few, but as has been noted, there's only so much pastry eating one can do ... unless of course it's Ling we're talking about. We paid a visit to a number of chocolatiers, not just in France, but in Sarlat and Beaune as well, but that's yet to come. I had to laugh at the remark about throwing out things at the end of the week. As you'll read when I talk about the market at Sarlat (in the Dordogne) we had the same problem with cheese! A.

40 Euros?!??!!? Was that just for eating over there, or was some of it for bringing back to Canada? Just for lunches and snacks in France. Well, it lasted through Disney and into the Dordogne for a couple days anyway . And if you think 40 Euros was a lot, wait until you see the cheese we bought in Sarlat! A.

Here are a few names of places we ate or shopped at that I wanted to give some recognition: La Rose de Paris 24 rue Dauphine Paris 75001 This was the café in the building we stayed at in Paris. Thomas and his partner had just taken ownership of it 3 weeks before arrived. Good basic fare. Le Bar du Cave rue Dauphine Paris 75001 Wine bar attached to the larger Le Cave restaurant. Never made it to the restaurant, the food at the bar was too good. La Café du Marché 38 rue Cler Paris 75007 Our favourite “un-researched” find in Paris. The Salade Gourmande with duck confit & smoked magret was amazing! Charles Traiteur 10 rue Dauphine Paris 75006 Best baudin blanc. Ever. Cacao et Chocolat 63 rue Saint-Louis-en-Isle Paris 75004 Focussing mostly on South American chocolate. The service was unpretentious and the chocolates were really high quality. Amorino 4 rue de Buci – 75006 Paris Chain of ice cream parlours (about 12 I think) throughout Paris. The location noted is the one we visited 3 times (!) in St. Germain. Ask them for 2 flavours in one cone and it comes out looking like a flower!

A word of advice if you're thinking about visitng Euro-Disney, or Disneyland Park Paris, or whatever it's called today ... DON'T J & I are Disney fans and wanted to check another park off the list. Nobody told us that once the holiday season is over that 75% of the food services close down and rides that work are only optional. Needless to say we were kinda hungry when we went back to the hotel, so we decided to pick up a pizza along the way. WARNING! World's Saddest Pizza to follow Actually it tasted pretty good. Especially since it was washed down with a bottle of this: I could easily become an alchoholic in France. I'd heard the rumours about good, inexpensive wine in France. I'm happy to report those rumours are true! The above bottle set me back a whopping 4 Euros and was better than many $20 bottles I've had at home. *sigh* So after a week of Paris, it was time to head south to the Dordogne for a week long walking tour. We'd return to Paris for the end of the trip, but leaving the apartment on rue Dauphine was really tough. If you're considering a trip to Paris, or France in general, i encourage you to consider the apartment route. I'll try to post Week 2 within the next few days ... A.

Just a few pictures and observations from our time in Paris: Marie-Anne Cantin on rue Claire. OMG! I thought I had died and gone to cheese heaven. We have a couple excellent cheese shops in Vancouver, but nothing compares to those in France, Cantin in particular. Now I’m not naive enough to miss the fact that Cantin is operating a lot on reputation. I’m certain there are less expensive shops, and perhaps even shops with better selection. We didn’t find them, but I’ll accept from what I’ve read here on eG that they exist. What made Cantin, and in fact many of the shops in Paris, so head-and-shoulders above what we have at home was not the product. There were only a few cheeses we found in France that we have never seen at home. In fact, we have many excellent cheeses that the French didn’t have. The difference was the culture of food in France. I seriously so many bakers, butchers, charcuteries and cheese shops could co-exist where food was not deeply entrenched in the culture. My shopping experience at Cantin was wonderful. The fellow helping me was clearly thrilled that someone from Canada was showing so much interest in their products. It helped that I knew a bit about cheese already, but the smile on his face when he introduced me to a 3 year-old Compté (love the little crystals of salt!) was worth the 40 Euros I spent on cheese that day. Negroni (called Americanos(???) in Paris) at Les Deux Magots This was my check-list experience for the trip (Hemingway fan), and totally worth it when this walked by: Check out the HAT!! People watching in Paris was a hoot! The only other eating “must-do” we had was L’As de Falafel. Falafel and a Lamb Shwarma The verdict? Good. Really good. But not OMG good. And that whole district around rue des Rossiers is really a gong show after dark. I guess the lacklustre feeling I got after L’As de Falafel probably had something to do with the fact that in Vancouver we’re exposed to so much excellent, inexpensive ethnic food. Sushi for example was almost double the price I would pay in Vancouver. Chinese and Indian were similarly priced. I doubt they were twice as good. Besides, I was in France for French food, something I don’t see a lot in Vancouver. A little pistachio escargot we picked up at a pattiserie on Rue St. Martin, near the Pompidou Centre. I show this as an example of the sort of thing I was seeking in France. I’m sure I could pick these up at home, but in Paris, this sort of thing was everywhere! And each shopkeeper would tell you his/hers were the best, and truly believe it. I wanted to eat them all! One of my favourite aspects about dining in Paris is the ability to simply sit your buts down at a free table, grab “un express” or “un pression”, and then continue along your merry way. It took J a while to realize that we did not, in fact, have to be seated like we do at home. It was much less formal and is probably the thing I miss most about Paris right now.

Breakfast at rue Dauphine Did I miss the memo that said the French idea of breakfast out is a shot of espresso or a Kir or a glass of rouge and a smoke? I saw breakfast cereals and yoghurts and such in the super-marché, so I’m certain French families have lovely breakfasts at home. That’s what we did anyway. The only time we had breakfast out was when I wanted a Kir … Before we left for Paris I did extensive research on eGullet and other internet sources to compile a list of dining experiences that would fit our expectations and budget. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the France forum over the last 4 or 5 years. It was all extremely helpful. 3-star establishments were off the list. Neither J nor I have enough dining experience in France for those places to have meaning for us. We also weren’t interested in spending 2 or 3 hours for a meal. This was J’s first trip to Paris, and there was too much else to see and do! Aux Lyonnais was the only “higher end” dining we did (sorry, no pics), and it did not disappoint. Service was attentive and professional, but not so stiff that we were uncomfortable. In fact our server (Fabrice) made me feel quite at ease, especially when he indulged my French throughout the evening, only subtly correcting me on 2 or 3 occasions. We started with a Paté de Foie Gras for me, and a Charcuterie plate for J. The funniest point of the evening came when J’s entrée arrived. Upon seeing it I uttered a low “MMMMMM” to which J replied “Mine!” It was all poor Fabrice could do to stop himself from doubling over in laughter. Much like a suppressed sneeze, the laugh almost did him in. Mains were Foie de Veau for me and Magret de Canard for J. Served extremely hot, the liver was oddly delicious. I say oddly because for a brief moment (i.e. when I ordered it) I forgot that “foie” was liver, and I’m not a big fan. Ah well, chalk it up to one of many such confusions I would have during this trip. I am woefully ignorant on the subject of French wine, so put my trust in the extremely knowledgeable sommelier. The trust was paid back 1000 fold. Easily the most beautiful wine I had enjoyed to that point in my life (notice the foreshadowing? Velvety smooth with notes of berry and spice … and not available outside of France I was told. Thus I never wrote down the name. I must admit that my Aux Lyonnais experience was initially quite intimidating. After all, Paris is the Mecca of dining out. Now that I’m back home and have a bit more experience in French dining, I’d like to go back and try it (and others I missed) again. The intimidation factor is gone, and I think I would be a better diner.

We arrived in Paris via CDG at 1 in the afternoon. Our apartment was a cute little 1-bedroom on Place Dauphine, a triangular-shaped park on the western tip of Isle de la Cite. Pont Neuf was on our front door step and Notre Dame Cathedral was 5 minutes walk away. The plan was to eat breakfast and dinner at the apartment and have restaurant lunches. Severely jet lagged after a 10 hour flight (from Vancouver via Calgary!) we started with a general walk-about our new neighbourhood. Stop number 1 was a streetside crêperie. Crepe with Egg, Ham & Gruyere Cheese Nothing new here, except something I was to experience many times in Paris. I am not bilingual, but can survive just fine with my seldom-used university French. Crêpe-guy insisted on speaking English to me even though I insisted on speaking French. I understand the frustration many Parisians must feel during the tourist season with millions of folks speaking poor French (if any at all). If they can speak English to an Anglophone it has to be easier for them. But dammit, I was there for the total Francophone experience. “Bonne journee monsieur!” Lunch/dinner (remember, we were still jet-lagged) was at a sidewalk bistro. Cliché? Perhaps, but we were in no condition to pull out the eGullet guide. We were just hungry. Grilled Andouillette w/ Frites Beef Carpaccio When I ordered the carpaccio, the waiter asked “Does monsieur realize the beef is rare?” I assured him I did without giving off too much “duh!” vibe. When he returned I was served two plates of carpaccio. “Monsieur looked hungry” he said. Turns out it was the end of their lunch rush and I was the lucky benefactor. The rest of the day was a quick your around Isle de la Cité. We returned to our apartment to pick up dinner and go take in this: Another in a series of Paris clichés, but in our defense there were many other Parisans doing the same thing at the same end of the island. That night was also the 1 year anniversary of my mother’s death. We dined on saucisson seche and brie, and toasted her life with a nice Bordeaux.

I was in France 18 years ago as a backpacker … Paris and Cannes in particular. Aside from a couple of cheesy shots in front of the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral, I couldn’t tell you much else about the place. I was probably drunk most of the trip. 18 years later, with a travel-loving wife and a new appreciation for food and wine, I returned to France for a 3 week vacation: Week 1: Rent an apartment in Paris for the first week and attempt in some small way to live like Parisians. Week 2: A walking tour in the Dordogne. Week 3: A visit to Burgundy … Beaune in particular. This is not going to be a “checklist” blog. There was no agenda that ensured a visit to La Tour d’Argent or L’Atelier de Joel Robochon. Yes, we had a list, but if we never made it to a Michelin-starred establishment, that was fine. If we ate saucisson sec in the Burgundian countryside, that was fine too. This blog is about our attempt to experience food and French culture as accurately as we could as tourists on a 3 week trip.

Yeah ... I noticed that too. Tsk tsk. Then again, industry folk just HATE food porn. So much so they gave Ling her own column on Urban Diner. Keeps her busy yah know. A.

This just in ... The Winter Farmers' Market!! The first Saturday of the month from November to April you can now get your fresh veggies! Well ... it's a start! A.

I'm unlikely to say anything about poor food or service, unless I have some sort of connection with a restaurant (e.g. a friend owns it or I like the place), or the food is completely inedible. It' not MY obligation as the customer to fix every restaurants' problems. If they can't figure out that something's wrong on their own, then they probably should go out of business. On a similar vein ... my wife & I just returned from 3 weeks in France. Not once in that time were we ever asked if the food "met our expectations" or "tasted as it should." The wine was always checked (after it was opened) but never the food. I never felt we were being slighted, but rather that the kitchen & FOH was serving everything as they wanted it to be served. Was it always good? No, but I doubt if I said anything there would be cries of "Zut alors! Monsieur thought his steak was a little tough! We must fire the butcher!" A.

Having just returned from 3 weeks away, and all our families having abandoned us (don't feel bad, we were in France so we probably deserved being abandoned) J & I were left to our own devices for Thanksgiving dinner. We ended up at Stella's ... a couple Chimay Rouges, some squid, frites & chicken wings. A nice change from all that foie gras, confit & Burgundy! A.

It's not bad at all on ribs. I'm more of a honey glaze person and tend to do a half-n-half mix with whatever sauce I've made and honey. A couple bastes during the last 2 hours is all it needs. A.

Amazing house! Are the countertops concrete? A.

I dunno ... I'd take a French Booby over pretty much anything! A.

I work in that area, so these rec's are tried and tried and tried ... Shiro - really really good sushi (Cambie b/w 14th & 15th - East Side of Cambie) Tropika - Indonesian/Malaysian. I prefer their laksa to Banana Leaf's (Cambie @ 14th - North-West corner) The new Capers is at 16th & Cambie ... worth a visit. Not "cheap" but pretty good. There are a TONNE of places along Broadway on either side of Cambie (mostly West) that serve cheap lunch. Quality varies, but the best I found was the Fallafel place (forgotten the name) that has Toonie Tuesdays ... 2 Falafel Pitas for $2!! Good and garlic-y! Coffee? I always stop at JJ Bean at 14th & Main. Not in the area, but it's on my way in. If you're driving in along Grandview (12th), it's not far off your path. Let us know if you find anything closer to 10th & Cambie. Good eating! A.

You can Abra ... you just have to make room for your Canuck Kitchen Designer! Just to add to this thread, I'd suggest a visit to the NKBA website (National Kitchen & Bath Association) for some good background information. Certified Kitchen Designer's (CKD's) like myself aren't for everyone, but they are another resource to consider. A.

This brings back memories of a trip I took to SLC in the late 90's. There were indeed memberships, but you could get a local "member" to sponsor you (i.e. you got in free) if you bought him/her a beer. Great way to meet the locals. I also remember buying a round for our table, and wondering why it was taking so long to show up. The waitress told me it was because I hadn't finished my beer, and until the entire table had finished, she couldn't serve the next round. Odd. Still, a beautiful state. thanks for sharing with us this week Bill! A.

i wouldn't classify this as legit cuban food on any level. Just curious ... when was the last time you were in Cuba? Don't get me wrong ... I have friends that visit Cuba every year, and who'd back up your assertion. I'm just curious how you're able to determine what qualifies as "legit" Cuban. A.

I'm pretty sure that Havana (the restaurant) has an art gallery attached to it. Either that or here was a lot of art on the wall on the way to the bathroom. Naw ... pretty sure it's a gallery. A.

Just picked up the latest issue of Eat! (@ Barbara Jo's on GI) A couple nice articles from Andrew Morrison on the service side of things ... a little ironic now that he's moved on from serving. Well written just the same. I surprisingly like the article on dining in Toronto. Surprised because a) I've had bad luck dining in TO, and b) I've come to expect EAT to have more of a West Coast focus i.e. Portland, OR and the Napa Valley are fine, but looking east of the Rockie's seems outside the magazine's mandate. Still, I enjoyed the read and will keep the rec's for my next visit. Shelora's contributions include this bit of wisdom: Oh, beeeeehave! A.