Lunch at Bagelstein Bastille

Packed and stacked with rows of different kinds of bagels and cookies, the window display of Bagelstein Café in the 11^th arrondissement certainly did its job in attracting this hungry customer. 

A quick glance at my options on the sandwich-board outside, or bagel-board in this context, and I’d found my lunch spot that Friday afternoon.

I’m always on the lookout for new lunch places to try in Paris and this newly opened café on Rue de la Roquette is one of them. It’s not a big place inside but what it lacks in space, it makes up in fun décor: the walls are plastered with framed magazine covers, newspaper front pages, signed celebrity headshots and small plaques of witty French quotes.

It smells warm and inviting inside and unlike the (albeit) tasty baguette sandwiches that crowd the display cases of nearly every boulangerie, Bagelstein’s creations, on freshly baked bagels, are made to order right in front of you.

I chose the Hypolite – roast chicken, honey mustard, cream cheese, lettuce, tomato and pickles - on a toasted Gratin (cheese) bagel. I chose my seat by a signed photo of Wonder Woman and munched on my tasty bagel lunch. I was at first unsure about the pairing of pickles and chicken (and yes, as a pregnant woman I’m aware of the irony of that!) but when mixed with the flavourful honey mustard and cream cheese, it worked for this sandwich.

The reasonably-priced menu has many options for all your bagel-cravings: smoked salmon, tuna, pastrami, vegetarian and build-your-own on your choice of bagel. There’s even a Bagel-of-the-Month meal, plus a mouth-watering selection of cookies, cheesecake, and muffins so you can eat your bagel and get your fix of French baked goods. And a big bonus - the location on Rue de la Roquette is open 7 days a week for your bagel devouring pleasure.

Paris-area sandwich lovers, on your next jaunt in the city, be check out one of the many locations of Bagelstein for a delicious, low-key lunch. Because even the most devoted baguette fan needs variety once and a while. 

For more menu info and other fun facts, check out Bagelstein's unique website:

http://www.bagelstein.com

Micky's Deli or The Best Pastrami Sandwich in Paris

You’d think that after living in France for over 7 months, I would have learned by now not to go exploring on an empty stomach.

Alas, I must be a slow learner! Poor me…#firstworldproblems

But with its countless boulangeries, crêperie-carts, and sandwich shops, it’s not hard to find something to eat while out and about in the City of Lights. Plus, being hungry can lead to discovering some pretty fun places that one wouldn’t normally find when already fed and watered.

Micky's Deli, 23 bis Rue des Rosiers, 75004 Paris

Such as Micky’s Deli, a bustling little Kosher deli-restaurant in the Jewish Quarter of Paris in Le Marais, one of my favorite areas in the city because of the amazing, medieval architecture, the windy, uneven cobblestone streets, and its fascinating history. 

It's home to the incredible Centre de Danse du Marais, the Musée Picasso, and countless boutiques, shops, cafes and restaurants, like our spontaneous find, Micky's Deli. The first time I went there, it was after exploring the nearby Musée Carnavalet, which is “dedicated to the history of Paris and its inhabitants…from the prehistoric times to the present.” It’s a fascinating place and well-worth your time to explore, especially if you’re feeling a bit ‘gallery-ed out’ by all the other amazing museums Paris has to offer. While looking for a place to eat, I was starting to get a bit impatient…okay, hangry…but I’m glad I hung in there while Mike and I wandered down Rue des Rosiers and stumbled upon this fun place to eat.

One sandwich, two plates. Perfect for sharing!

It was already packed with the late-lunch crowd when our server squeezed us in, but a busy place is often the sign of a good restaurant and we didn’t mind the tight fit one bit. The air was warm and thick with delicious smells, animated conversations and laughter in multiple languages and North American pop-music. We perused the menu and decided to split the pastrami sandwich and fries.

Good thing we agreed to split it because it’s huge!

It’s least 2.5 inches thick of warm, melt-in-your-mouth slices of pastrami, barely contained by two slices of fresh bread. The fries were great too – just the right balance of crispy and greasy – classic diner fries. I alternated plain bites with bites spread with a layer of spicy, sinus-clearing mustard (the best kind!) and enjoyed, what I believe is, the best pastrami sandwich in Paris.

But sometimes when you’re ridiculously hungry/hangry, things can taste better than they actually are. That’s when I decided I owed it to myself to go back, test it again, and make sure it really is as good as my satiated appetite decided it was. So I returned a few weeks later with a friend and promised her an excellent sandwich experience.

Salmon Bagel and Fries

Micky’s did not disappoint either of us. She ordered the salmon bagel, which even when cut in half was as big as my head, and I got the pastrami sandwich all to myself.

Yup – still huge, still melt-in-your-mouth, bulgingly-thick and super filling. But I should have been hungrier, since then I probably could have finished the whole thing by myself.

Alas, I’m a slow learner when it comes to the correct empty-stomach/fed-and-watered balance. I just have to keep trying to get it right!

#firstworldsandwichproblems 

The Best Pastrami Sandwich in Paris

For more about pastrami sandwiches, check out one of my earliest posts, The Mighty Pastrami.

Bridges, Poulet Crudités and Being in the Moment

One day during my ESL Teacher training course in January, I bought a baguette sandwich from the bakery two doors down on Rue Dauphine (right in the heart of the Latin Quarter, such a cool area!) and walked a few blocks north to Pont Neuf and ate my lunch right there on the bridge, overlooking the Seine.

Lunch on Pont Neuf: Poulet Crudité, jus de pomme et pain au chocolat.

Pont Neuf, contrary to its name, is not a ‘new bridge’. It was actually built in 1578 and it has two parts that span the right and left banks of Ile-de-la-Cite. It’s a beautiful place and I was needing a few minutes of calm during a very busy and intensive course. I remember planting myself firmly in the moment, taking a deep, yogic breath, and deliberately acknowledging: “This is my lunch break. I’m eating on Pont Neuf. In Paris. Wow!”

Because life gets busy sometimes. And we often forget to just take a moment and acknowledge where we are and what we’re doing. Sometimes, the scenery of everyday, anywhere, can start to blend together and we can lose track of calm, lovely moments that make life interesting.

So I chose to make that moment count and to enjoy every single bite of my delicious sandwich, there on one of the oldest bridges in Paris.

The sandwich I bought from that bakery was a Poulet Crudité, a chicken sandwich with vegetables and a salad dressing sauce on a crusty baguette. It was tasty and filling and kept me going through the busy afternoons of teaching, observing and planning during my course. Recently, I had some lovely leftover roast chicken and I was inspired to gather the ingredients and make my own version of the Poulet Crudité, right at home. And now, you can too!

Cheese and eggs

You will need:

-one baguette

-Mayo or salad dressing sauce, like ranch

-roast chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces or thin slices

-some cheese of your choice; we used some nice Bleu des Neiges, a combination brie/blue type cheese

-hard boiled eggs, sliced (1 egg per sandwich)

-tomato slices

-lettuce/salad greens

Chicken and Tomatoes

Prep:

1-Slice the baguette in half, lengthwise.

2-Drizzle the mayo/salad dressing on each half of the bread loaf.

3-Boil the eggs, using the method from the Colourful Egg Salad post.

4-Layer the bottom half of the bread with cheese, chicken, egg slices, tomato and lettuce.

5-Assemble the top half of the baguette, slice and serve. Makes two big, dinner-sized sandwiches!

Poulet Crudité: Pret a Manger!

This particular sandwich was eaten for dinner in the comfort of my own home, with the company of my husband. It may not be as exciting as a bridge in Paris, but it’s home and I enjoyed every bite of this sandwich just as much as I enjoyed the other one.

I want to mention that the first time I ate lunch on Pont Neuf, it was Friday, January 9 2015, the day there was a hostage situation underway in Porte de Vincennes. I didn’t know it was happening at the time and where I was in Paris, it was business as usual. The Paris attacks shocked me and my husband, as it shocked the rest of the world and we were quick to reassure our friends and family that we were safe.

Shocked though we were, we still went to the ballet at Palais Garnier that weekend, because life must continue. And the following week, I made a point to buy my lunch again (a different kind of  sandwich from the same bakery) and eat it on Pont Neuf. Because I refuse to live in fear and I want to keep looking for the good in my life, in the people around me, and in my surroundings.

And I’m happy to report that the view was just as picturesque and my sandwich was just as tasty as it was before! Paris is a beautiful and a tough city, having withstood a lot in her history, and I will continue to look for the good in it and take the time to deliberately acknowledge that I’m lucky and happy to be here.

One of my favorite lunch spots in a beautiful and tough city.

I hope you find the time to be in the moment and appreciate where you are, what you're doing and to find the good in it.

Thanks for your support and Happy Sandwich Making!

Paris Picnics

Paris: the City of Lights and of Beautiful Picnic Places.

In the first month of living here, the weather’s been lovely (sorry, Alberta!), the grass and the trees are still green, and I’ve been exploring as much as possible. It’s a rookie move to explore on an empty stomach and it’s so easy to just grab a baguette or a croissant on the way to the metro station and eat on route to the next museum or monument. Why not? Like I said in my previous post, carrying around French bread is a true stereotype here!

But another stereotype with some truth to it is how the Parisians don’t like to rush their meals, even during the work week. This explains their long lunch-hours and how the cafés are always packed in the middle of the day. While the city is bustling, the people like to take their time. That’s something I’m trying to remind myself – I don’t need to rush to places that have been there for hundreds of years! I can relax and enjoy the journey. And thankfully, there’s no shortage of amazing places to visit in this grand city, and lots of delicious food to keep me going.

So picnics are the way to go! They’re the perfect blend of the Parisian way of taking one’s time to enjoy the food and to take in the moment, which is what I did on three separate occasions at the Eiffel Tower, the Luxembourg Gardens and the Tuileries.

Eiffel Tower Picnic:

One of my husband’s coworkers and his fiancée chose their temporary apartment to be less than 500 meters from the Eiffel Tower. So naturally, that’s where we went for our first Paris Picnic!

Their apartment is also above a bakery. I know – it’s a hard-knock life! – but it made getting picnic provisions very simple. For this kind of picnic, (which anyone who doesn’t live less than 500 meters from the Eiffel Tower could pull off) we gathered the following:

Simple, eat-with-your-hands picnic food.

-a demi-baguette and a few pains aux chocolat from the bakery

-some cheese (Laughing Cow or La Vache qui Rit worked well since we didn’t have any utensils; Baby Bel or some pre-sliced cheese works too.)

-some fruit, specifically grapes and strawberries

This food is simple and ready to eat with one’s hands. Just rip off a piece of baguette, ‘sandwich’ a piece of cheese inside and voila! A perfect picnic snack and the view is unbelievable -the Eiffel Tower is truly amazing!

The amazing Eiffel Tower! 

When Mike and I visited Paris two years ago, he told me I wouldn’t fully appreciate how huge it is until I was there and he was right. It’s enormous! I also have a hard time believing it only took a little over two years to be built (it was finished in 1889 to mark the 100 anniversary of the French Revolution) and it was supposed to be a temporary structure for the World’s Fair. Thankfully, it stayed. Can anyone imagine Paris without it?

While I love going to the Eiffel Tower, a dark side to its appeal is how it’s hot-spot for pickpockets and scam artists. We didn’t let that stop us from enjoying ourselves though; we just kept our bags close and were watchful of the crowd.

It was a bit overcast and we felt a few raindrops but otherwise, sitting on the grass, at the base of one of the world’s most iconic structures and eating our delicious lunch was a great first Paris Picnic!

I had to practically lay down to get this shot!

Luxembourg Gardens:

I joined another Canadian friend and her two little ones on a beautiful sunny day at the Luxembourg Gardens. This place is one of my favorite green spaces in Paris. Green grass, immaculate flower beds and trees, ornate sculptures, gorgeous fountains – it’s a lovely sanctuary in the middle of a crazy metropolis.

Beautiful Luxembourg Gardens

Some interesting history to note is Luxembourg Palace was the residence of Marie de’Medici, the widow of King Henry IV. The gardens were designed to resemble parts of her native Florence, Italy. Today, the French Senate meets in the Palace and the gardens are full each day of people relaxing on the grass, strolling through the grounds, exercising and generally just enjoying its beautiful sights and scents. 

For this picnic, we bought our food on route on Rue Daguerre, a really fun market street. Since it’s a bit of a walk to the Gardens, I suggest checking out somewhere on your way to get what you need. Our picnic consisted of:

Baguette, salami and pickles: all this delicious sandwich needs

-baguette sandwiches (jambon et fromage, salami)

-croissants and pains aux chocolat (fresh and still warm from the bakery! I just love their buttery, flakey, melt-in-your-mouth texture!) 

My sandwich was salami and pickles, which surprised but delighted me. So simple, so good! That day was also a historic moment for my friend as she had never had a pain au chocolat before – a rectangular croissant with thin strips of chocolate baked inside. Needless to say, she loved it! Picnic-ing at Luxembourg Gardens is great for families because kids can run and play on the grass and enjoy the ducks and fish in the fountains. It doesn’t feel as commercial/touristy as the Eiffel Tower; it’s just beautiful there.

Tuileries: What's that sticking up in the left over there?

Tuileries: 

This was another day spent strolling around a huge garden in the middle of the city. The Tuileries is a huge expense of land that runs from the Arc de Triomphe to the Louvre and through the Place de la Concorde. 

L'Arc de Triomphe du Carrosel, the gateway from the Tuileries
to the Louvre

From my chair in the shade of some nearby trees, I could see the impressive Arc de Triomphe du Carrosel, in front of the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower was poking up behind the hedges.

My friend and I met there at the Tuileries metro station on line 1 and went looking for a quiet place to eat and catch up with each other. It was really sunny that day and I think that was the day after the snow hit back home. It was hard to imagine that while wearing shorts. Again, sorry Alberta!

The picnic was small and simple, yet still so tasty and filling. I brought with me to share:

-a simple sandwich of baguette, butter and gruyere cheese

-strawberries from the fruit stand near our apartment (so sweet and ripe!)

-pains aux chocolat (there goes our pact to only eat them on the weekends!)

Another simple picnic lunch, this time at the Tuileries

-Cherry Coke (which you can’t find in North America anymore, unless it’s at Dadeo’s in Edmonton) 

While we ate, we caught up each other on our respective housing situations (we’re both waiting for paperwork to go through on our permanent places) and shared our plans for other places to explore. We checked out the many statues around the grounds and we also cooled off by the Fountain of River Commerce and Navigation at La Place de la Concorde.

I'm looking forward to this view in the fall!

I’m still getting used to the history attached to these statues and places. It’s amazing to be able to stand, here in 2014, in these places that have existed for hundreds of years and that hold so much history. Back home, an old building is 50 years old – here, that’s practically brand new!

I’m learning more about my new city every day and I’m thankful for the time I get to explore and the people I explore it with. It’s easy to get swept up in the flurry of activity that surrounds these popular places but I’m learning to pace myself.

How will the City of Lights and Picnic Places look in fall colours? I’m excited to find out.

La Baguette de Notre Dame

Bonjour!

I moved to Paris, France two weeks ago and the first bite I took of that crusty, crunchy yet soft, so-fresh-it’s-still-warm baguette, I exclaimed:

“Yes, I think I can live here.”

I don’t even think I’d swallowed that first bite yet when I said that. I was jet-legged and fighting a cold I’d had since mid-July, but hell if I was going to let that hold me back from appreciating the wonder that is the French Baguette.

In Paris, you are rarely ever more than a block away from a boulangerie and the one French stereotype that actually has some truth to it is the French carry their baguettes everywhere. Seriously - by hand, poking out of the shopping bag or purse, stuffed into a bicycle basket – baguettes are everywhere! They are made so fresh and taste so good that they don’t last longer than a day, which is why the French carry them everywhere because they buy one every day.

Then, there are the French sandwiches! 

Beautiful French sandwiches at Sur le Pouce.

The most common sandwiches are a demi-baguette (half the length of a regular baguette) stuffed with the simplest of ingredients: some meat, some cheese, one or two vegetables and some butter. That’s it. I was surprised at the lack of condiments from the place that invented Dijon mustard but with such fresh bread as the heart of the sandwich, you really don’t need much else – just a place to relax and eat your sandwich.

Somewhere like the great Cathédrale de Notre Dame.

La Cathédrale de Notre Dame.

Following my exploration of Papier+, a pristine stationary shop on rue de Pont de Louis Philippe in Le Marais, I was getting hungry. I remembered a small snack/sandwich café near Notre Dame from another day of exploring and I realized I knew how to retrace my steps back to that place, so off I went! I hopped back on the metro at Saint-Paul, got off one stop later at L’Hotel de Ville and crossed the Pont d’Arcole towards Notre Dame. I found Sur le Pouce, the restaurant I noticed from the other day and admired the beautiful sandwiches at the street-side counter and I chose Jambon et Fromage. Then, with my sandwich tucked under my arm, I set off to find a place to sit near the cathedral.

Across the main square, I found my spot and perched myself on a cement corner near some bushes and munched away. Surrounded by tourists taking photos of themselves and the one of the most famous churches in the world, I was nearly flat on my stomach, trying to get the perfect shot of my sandwich nestled on the bushes with Notre Dame in the background.  I had to laugh out loud but I got some good photos for my efforts.

Money shot!

 Notre Dame is impressive from any angle but I love to admire it from the front. It’s so grand and majestic, it makes the swarms of people around it look small. My sandwich done, I headed back to the metro station but not before I bought some lemon sorbet from Sur le Pouce and ate it in front of L’Hotel de Ville. Yum!

Not a bad view of L'Hotel de Ville. 

Turns out eating lunch and desert in front of some amazing historic buildings makes for a pretty great day. 

Soon to be repeated, no doubt!