Saturday 28 January 2012

Montmartre is awesome...


I've found my place in Paris. It's home to Basilique de Sacre-Coeur, Clos Montmartre, the city's only existing vineyard and winery, and Amelie. Montmartre. J'aime Montmartre.




Today we got lost in the cobblestoned, winding streets of Montmartre. Getting lost included stumbling upon an awesome patisserie and enjoying pain au chocolat, finding some cute local bars and drinking some lovely wine, and visiting Le Moulin Rouge.


Today we also visited two of Paris' most famous wine bars: Le Garde Robe and O-Chateau.


Le Garde Robe is incredible. Again, a tiny little cave in the wall. The staff work hard to serve about 40 people squeezed into less than 400 sq feet. Behind the bar they are serving drinks, slicing meat and assembling boards of charcuterie and cheese. Their little toaster oven works over time melting gorgeous hunks of chevre onto fresh pesto and thickly sliced bread, and warming baguette to serve with terrine and pate. Here we sampled porc rilletes, and glasses of Sancerre and Saint Joseph. The bartender opened a tin can of rilletes confit - preserved under a layer of fat - and tipped it out onto a plate, serving it to us with a tangle of radish and cucumber, and some crusty bread. It reminded me of Martin Picard's Au Pied du Chochon in Montreal - the duck in a can. It was quite cool.



We moved on to O-Chateau, a very up-scale wine bar, and a little rich for my blood. The wine selection is incredible, and includes 1998 Sauternes and 1979 Chateau Petrus - both by the glass! We didn't try either -  the more than 200 euro price tags were good deterrents. I did have a glass of Champagne followed by a Chardonnay flight: Vire-Classe (Clos du Chapite), Poully-Fuisse (Chateau des Rontets) and Chablis Premier Cru (Domaine Sarvin), and a glass of sweet Jurancon (Domaine de Souch) 2006 to finish.

Tomorrow is Sunday and many restaurants and bars will be closed. We are going to wander an antiques market and marche Bastille, one of Paris' biggest food markets. Only a couple days left in this city...

1 comment:

  1. Your blog is great. We totally loved Montmartre... recommend Feels Like Home in Paris for great (but small) rental apartments such as Cozy Carpeau.

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