I posted a review on Yelp as well.

Absolutely lovely restaurant! I'd give it 5 stars if it weren't located in the middle of nowhere (okay, the 15th).

Friendly staff greeted me for lunch, seated promptly. My friend was running very late to lunch and the host brought me a nice glass of dry white wine to sip on while I waited. They serve wine "tonnelet" here which apparently means from the cask, i.e. not-bottled. This makes for some tasty and inexpensive wine.

For the entree I had poached eggs in a lovely cream sauce covered with shaved truffles. I love poached eggs and I love truffles and this dish was perfect.

And then we moved on to the bouef blond d'Aquitaine which is served for two people. The waitress helpfully pointed out I could have my side saignant (rare) and my buddy could have his a point (medium rare). And the meat was great. And the handcut fries were great.

When I am stuck in the 15th, this is my new favorite restaurant. And in fact I'll go out of my way to get back.

God what a run we had!

We are on our way to Iceland for a short decompression before we go home. What a hell of an adventure!!! We left Seattle on October 19th 2007 a whopping 1223 days ago. We intended to spend a year or two in Zurich. Instead we spent less than a year there and now over two years in Paris. I look back on my post from our first day in Zurich and just think how amazingly hard that move was, how different landing in a strange world for us, and how well everyone adapted and even thrived. When we moved the kids were still little boys; now as we return neither boy could be called little. Susan earned her Master's Degree while in Europe. Some of us failed spectacularly in learning German or French but hey, better to leave something undone for the next time around.

We have done a lot in our time here. We have skied all over the Alps, we have vacationed in the Calanque, we have visited Italy numerous times. During our time in Zurich we hiked the hills and walked all over that lovely little city. In Paris we have feasted both on food and on the sites and the energy if this amazing, wonderful, stunning city. We have taken weekend trips to London, Dublin, Sardinia, Rome, and the French countryside.

But most of all we have met so many wonderful people. We were welcomed into the communities in which we worked, went to school, and socialized. We have friendships we'll carry with us wherever we go in this world. And we have learned so much about different cultures and the way people go about living their lives. We could never have done any of this without the friends we've made. So for everyone we have met and who helped us through this journey, thank you so much. And to all the friends and family back home who cheered us on, supported us from afar, dealt with weepy Skype calls at odd hours, we love you all and will see you soon.

Some photos here, they can never capture the entirety.

With much love,

Susan, Paul, Liam, and Kellen

I really enjoyed the food and service at Waknine. The atmosphere might normally be very congenial but today our table was impacted by two people having a very loud, almost aggressive conversation next to us. The next time people complain about loud Americans I will respond about very loud French businessmen. Wow.

But let's talk about Waknine and assume the tables aren't always like this.... we were seated on this rainy day promptly and ordered drinks. I had a glass of the red wine of the month and it was surprisingly nice. Often I think the wine of the month is what's left over from last month but at Waknine it was really perfect for lunch. I was remiss in not writing it down though.

For entrees I had the house-made rabbit rillette (more or less pate). And it was good, very good. Often rabbit terrine has an odd flavor, my wife calls it cat food. But this had a nice texture well mixed with spices and my wife liked it and thought maybe it had a hint of ginger. This plate came with a small salad of field greens.

For the main course I had lamb and my wife had the scallops. Both plates were pretty to look at, well-designed but without being too fussy. The lamb was nicely cooked rose. The lamb was served with fried carrots which I loved, a welcome change from normal potatoes.

For lunch for two it was a little spendy (92 euro for 2 entree, 2 plats, 3 glasses of wine, 2 coffees) but I would definitely go back.

I cross-posted this review to Yelp as well.

Lovely morning in Paris. We walked to school and then took the long
way home along the Seine and up Trocadero. I love these views.

As yesterday was my weekly sanctioned day to cheat on my diet we decided to have  lunch  at a local Americana-style place, Joe Allen. Living as an expat in Paris you will, sooner or later, get tired of French food. And the alternative cuisines in Paris are not for the most part appealing. Sure, you can get great food from North Africa (Tunisian, Algerian, Moroccan) and at times you can find the occasional Vietnamese place doing a nice business. Good Indian food is hard to find, good Chinese is apparently forbidden by some sort of law, and good Mexican food happens at precisely one restaurant in all of Paris.

But look, you don't visit Paris for the non-French food. So stick with that. But sooner or later, sooner or later, you will crave something from home, wherever that may be. There is a small take-out place nearby which specializes in German food; who knew anyone wanted German food? I thought they kept trying to leave Germany for precisely this reason. But I digress... American food. Paris.

American food shouldn't be hard to do. But in fact it just doesn't happen very well outside the US with a few exceptions (UK & Ireland so maybe I should call this Anglophone food except that Canadians never quite nail it either, go figure). So getting good American food in Paris is hard, you can find good burgers in many places and good fries almost always are available. But somehow the atmosphere is wrong or everyone is eating burgers with a knife and fork (UN should really do something about that, it's wrong). Joe Allen though was recommended and is a favorite on Yelp and really, it worked. The decor is correct enough, the beer is solid and thankfully not 1664 or Kronenbourg which is the normal fare and aren't bad but do get a little old. The burgers are done well (correctly, not well done, another thing the UN should address as a crime) and the hand-cut fries are good. All in all an enjoyable way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

For a tourist note: the wonderful kitchen shop Delherrin is nearby so you can stop there and marvel over the industrial-grade kitchenwares then have lunch. I bought two steel pans for 15 euros each on this trip, wonderful.

Lovely lunch today. I did a bigger review on Yelp. Pictured here is one of my all-time favorite dishes... cornichon! Seriously, in some of the more classic bistros they still set out a little stoneware pot with tiny pickles in them. Usually this has some pate with it which this did but I missed it in the photo, doh!

Anyway, great little spot at 5 rue de la Munutention. If you are touring Trocadero, the Eiffel Tower perhaps, or anywhere in the 16th this is a good little lunch spot. You can get a lot worse food around Trocadero and the ambience here was great. Other than an Italian trio next to us (did they have an etranger ghetto?) everyone else was distinctly French.