On our recent venture to Paris, we made sure to document some of the fine places we ate. Although each place could get its own post written about them, we’ll just list a few that got us excited for the day to come in the City of Lights. Since we had an early morning arrival, there was nothing else to do but walk the city after ditching our luggage at Gare du Nord. Our first stop was The Louvre which had just opened for the day but the restaurants weren’t ready to serve yet.

Goguette

Once we waited it out, one of the places that satisfied our hungry stomachs was Goguette. It was so early, most of the staff from other restaurants were eating in the corner enjoying conversation and food. Drea and I went in line where we were able to grab pre-priced foods from a refrigerated shelf. We both had a salad – (me, the Salad de boulgour, carotte, vinaigrette agrumes, pamplemousse, grenade, gingembre et coriandre). The price of 6 euros caught our attention as it was pretty inexpensive. In addition, we ordered the Goguette Burger for 16 euros. A drink rounded off the meal and we were set! Delicious start to the day!

Brasserie Le Lyautey​

We had traveled to Versailles to check out the Chateau. After walking through that castle and the grounds, one gets hungry. We headed the long way to walk toward the train station and decided on this little cafe called Brasserie Le Lyautey. There, we decided to try a first: escargot. As an appetizer, we felt we could get past the cultural “weirdness” for something more familiar afterwards. After all, it’s not in either of our cultures to eat snails but when in “Rome”… The waiter was extremely friendly and comforting in explaining how the escargot were delicious. Sure enough, he came out with 6 shells filled with garlic and pesto sauce. He gave us tools to dig the snails out and go to town.

Drea and I touched snails after figuring out the tools and went in for the first bite. Delicious!! They tasted like mushrooms but a little chewy. We destroyed the snails and left very little behind. Great start! Drea ordered the roast duck and potatoes and I had the braised steak with salad and fries. Everything was very good and the waiter checked on us often to make sure we were ok and asked where we were from engaging in a short discussion. It was a great day in Versailles!

La Marmite​

We realized we hadn’t visited my favorite place in Paris, the Sacre Coeur Basilica! So, we left our little hotel after resting to head up and enjoy the view from the top. Our stomachs didn’t let us off the hook and we headed down after shooting some photos and walking around. We wound up at La Marmite and sat outside to view the scene. Note: it was about 12:30AM at this point and the streets were buzzing with life and people outside just enjoying the cold weather. We sat down and had the most interesting and dynamic waitresses! She was also a Black woman, funny, and with an access reminiscent of an African nation – I’m not sure which. She was direct and it made me feel like I was back home in NJ or NYC.