Paris part 2....FOOD...Food glorious food!

This first night was rather a disaster. By the time we reached our hotel it was almost 11pm. I was so hell bent on at least seeing the Eiffel Tower that night but in the end the tiredness consumed me. We had our first meal in the hotel room; tapau'ed from one of the local bakeries. Cheap and cheerful meal AJ would put it, though we struggled with ordering. We lived in arrondisment 20, quite far away from the touristy spots so language was a problem. Nothing that a little sign language couldn't solve although we had no idea what we bought till we had a bite on them! Food was surprisingly good..even at 11pm from a bakery. The bread was fresh, everything freshly made. What a contrast from where we live...hmm...

Breakfast the next day was a street fare near Notre Dame - ham and cheese crepes. It's really good, but a bit steep for a fiver. We were quite sure we could get at least 2 quid cheap outside the tourist spots.

We went to a even posher 'crepeteria' and had a shock of our lives when we saw the menu! OJ for 4 euros!! This is how AJ looked when he realised how much he was supposed to pay after nonchalantly ordered 'deux jus d'orange'. An expensive lesson to swallow - quite literally. From then onwards we just ordered tap water for the rest of the trip! The crepes were great though, for some reason food is cheaper than drinks (alcohol on the other hand was not too bad).

We had yummylicious cake and ice cream near the Eiffel.

We had dinner at a restaurant near Eiffel Tower; fortunately waiters there speak English. So ordering wasn't as painful. We had foi gras and escargots for starters and the famous boeuf bourguignon for mains.

One of the evenings we ventured out to Le Marais and stumbled upon a small quaint all French bistro. We braved ourselves inside and amazingly ordered a table for two, ordered entree's and mains all in French!!! We had to pause and flick our phrase book of course..but still..not a word of English! AJ had a perfectly (absolutely perfect; we can longer find such perfect cooked steak) cooked steak in rare and I had duck d'orange. Didn't take any pictures though as our stupid camera then decided to run out of juice..sighhhhhhh. This was the best meal we've had in Paris. Good for value and all authentic. Needless to say we were the only non-French, non-angmoh in the whole place.

On our last day after our Louvre chapter, we stumbled upon another bistro owned by FBC (French born chinese). Having struggled for 3 days; we almost lost our will to get any more food in French! Ironically the waitress said "Ni men yau chi se meh?" with some indiscernible French. We were awestrucked and started to order in Mandarin. Oh God so loved us and wouldn't want us to starve in a foreign land. We had a fish starter and pork leg with saeurkraut. Another value for money meal....

We enjoyed the food in Paris. AJ vowed to learn French and come back again one day to satisfy our palates. Having said that; our best meal would have to be our dinner at Mayflower when we touched down in Bristol. Never thought I'd say this in my life but boy we were glad we reached English soil at last. Knowing exactly what we want, knowing exactly what the menu says, being able to order in the language that we know.....what a relief! And what can beat kangkung belacan, fried sotong and steam fish with rice...HEAVEN AT LAST.