Autumn has arrived in Paris. After working at the computers, while the sun shone in the late afternoon, we went for a walk. I thought we’d go to the Allée des Cygnes because rush hour was just starting, and that’s a nice place to go to escape the automobile traffic.
But as we approached the Seine on the rue Linois, the wind
picked up. That wind was chilly, and Tom
did not have a jacket. He shivered. I suggested we enter the Beaugrenelle mall
and do the rest of our walking there. So
we walked through the entire thing, on every level, and then walked through the
second floor wing that lead back toward the Place Charles Michels.
The walk back to the apartment along the leafy avenue Emile
Zola was pleasant enough, and Tom stopped in the bakery on the rue du Theatre
to buy a baguette.
In the evening, we had another walk, down to the rue de la
Convention – which is looking good these days -- and over to the rue Saint Charles,
then a block south to the rue Sebastien Mercier, home of L’Ardoise du XV.
This was the second time we’d dined at L’Ardoise, although
it has been in business since 2012. The
proprietors are Chef Maxime Vilatte and his wife Marie. Chef Maxime had worked with Philippe Legendre
at the Four Seasons – George V hotel, and will David Alves at La Table de Joel
Robuchon. With that solid background, he
was ready for his own place.
Chef Maxime and Marie have qualified for the Maitre Restaurateur designation, and
that was one of the characteristics that attracted me to the place last month.
Now I’m attracted by the inventiveness of the cuisine. The food isn’t the same-old same-old; when
you’ve been in Paris for months and think you might be tired of French food,
you go to a place like L’Ardoise du XV and you change your mind.
I ordered the calamari starter and was pleasantly surprised
by its spiciness. The sauce, which was
supposed to be Mediterranean, was actually a piquant curry, and the calamari
was not overcooked. The dish woke up my
senses.
Calamari in curry sauce at L'Ardoise |
Next came our
main courses: a volaille fermière rotie aux girolles for Tom, and a ventrèche de porc caramelisée, pommes
écrassées a l’échalote et ciboulette for me.
Roasted chicken, salad, and purée of potatoes |
Tom’s chicken was a tender, juicy pressée of roasted chicken – both white and dark meat – and it came
with a velvety potato purée as well as the girolle mushrooms.
My pork belly was perfectly sautéed, and the potatoes were
not écrassée (smashed), they were
really a fine purée with tiny bits of green onions and chives throughout. At first I thought the meat looked like
mostly fat, but that was not the case; it was a tender, juicy cut of pork.
Pork belly with purée of potatoes with green onions and chives. |
Tom had the homemade millefeuille
au chocolat for dessert; it was delicious.
The server was Marie, I think, and she was doing a fine job
of keeping order in the dining room. The
place is neat as a pin, and perfectly organized.
In the evening, I resumed reading. One of the tomes I’m reading now is Emile
Zola’s The Ladies’ Paradise (Au Bonheur
des Dames), a novel that is roughly based on the rise of the Bon Marché
department store in Paris.
I'm photographing the menu posted in the window of L'Ardoise as Tom watches. |
Each time I’ve read a Zola book, I have complained to Tom
about what I don’t like about Zola’s writing.
Zola’s style is overly flowery, and sexist. (Last summer, I read Le Ventre de Paris (The Belly of Paris), a novel that takes
place in the old market of Paris, Les Halles.)
Tom says I haven’t read Zola’s best works yet: Germinal,
and L’Assommoir. Now I’ve downloaded an edition of the
complete works of Zola on my Kindle Fire, so I’ll read those next.
I’m reading these in English, not French. I’d read them in French, but I know that with
Zola’s overly flowery prose, it would not be easy.
I agree with Elmore Leonard, who said: “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite
it.”
Leonard also wrote a handy list of ten “commandments,” that
is, things to avoid when writing. Zola
violates the last two of those “rules”:
9. Don’t go into great
detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the
part that readers tend to skip.
On that note, I think I’ll stop writing for today. (Click here for previous day's journal entry.)
2 comments:
Love your new format! Don't stop now!
P.S. Also love the writing advice, which I've taken to heart. #10 reminds me of Yogi Berra's, "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded."
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