Birthday boy dines well

Passing by palm trees on our way home last night.

Tom's belated birthday dinner was at Le Poulpry last night.  This elegant restaurant is situated in a 300-year-old former stately home that is now the headquarters of the Ecole Polytechnique (Polytechnic school), and is only a block and a half south of the Musee D'Orsay -- a special place for a special occasion.  I found the establishment on Lafourchette.com in a special promotion of elegant restaurants.

The courtyard at 12 rue de Poitiers, home of Le Poulpry and the Ecole Polytechnique,
also called La Maison des Polytechniciens.

The place is perfect.  The tables were arranged with plenty of space in between -- rare for a Paris restaurant.  The decor was elegant yet simple and honest, not fussy.  The service was professional and engaging, yet not intrusive.  The food was divine.

To enter the restaurant, you climb these stairs.

Our reservation time, at the restaurant's opening hour of 7:30PM, was early by Paris standards.  That allowed me to photograph the dining room before it filled with people.

We'd walked only a few blocks in the summer heat and then taken a taxi the rest of the way.  All taxis in Paris seem to be air conditioned now.  That certainly was not true 21 years ago, when we started summering in this city.  Yes, this is our 22nd summer in Paris.  Time flies.

Customized Limoges plates feature images of the Polytechnique's original uniforms.

Our server spoke French and English equally well.  He correctly assumed that we were American; usually, folks here think we are German or English or Canadian people who speak French  -- unless they know English so well that they can discern the various accents. I answered, "Floride."  Later, I asked him what part of France he was from, and he answered, "Paris," but said he'd spent a long time in Hong Kong.  That's where he learned his British English.  He'd also spent time in Cambodia.

We shared a starter course of foie gras and peach chutney.  Then we each had fish main courses -- John Dory for Tom, and drum fish for me.  Mine came with flavorful chanterelle mushrooms in a rich, creamy sauce.  Tom's fish came with a light beurre blanc sauce and unusual vegetables, including miniature eggplants.  Tom ordered a cafe gourmand for dessert.  Everything was delicious and beautiful.

The foie gras with peach chutney.

The John Dory, or St. Peter's fish.

The maigre, or drum fish, with a rich mushroom sauce and risotto.

The repast took a full two hours, so the air had cooled just slightly when we left the restaurant.  We walked home slowly, through the 7th along its charming "spine," the rue St. Dominique, and then across the Champ de Mars, through the Village Suisse antique zone, and down our lovely rue du Commerce, home again in the 15th.

Tom explores the courtyard a little more before we leave.

It took a while for us to cool down in the apartment.  Today, tomorrow, and Friday will be even hotter, so we will probably forgo restaurants until Saturday.  To me, it is torture to sit in a hot restaurant for a period of time, feeling trapped.

Instead, we will have picnic-like suppers, with all kinds of interesting little things to eat.  This, the apero dinatoire, is the way to go during a heat wave.

The apartment is not air conditioned.  So, one of us gets up at about 4AM, when the city air has finally cooled to about 70 degrees F, to open the windows.   We go back to sleep.  I get up and close the apartment up at 7AM, when the risen sun begins to cook the city.  Awnings down, sheer drapes drawn, and fans running, we work at the computers.  At 3PM, we'd normally quit working and start walking, but not during the heat wave.  3PM is going to be siesta time for the next four days.

So I did my walking early yesterday and today.  Yesterday, I walked to the rue St. Charles, and continued up and down the full length of its open-air food market (Tuesdays and Fridays).  Today, I did the same at the market on Boulevard de Grenelle (Wednesdays and Sundays).  I walked some other shopping streets as well.  But shopping?   No.  It was too early in the day for that.