Le 7ème Vin

"Is there any other food but French food? Isn't all other food just something we live on because we are not French?" - Alton Brown, celebrity chef. 

Although I do not agree with Mr. Brown, I think I have to agree that French food is truly amazing. I thought this quote would go along with my next finding in Paris: Le 7ème Vin. 

Mom and I were walking from Les Invalides, towards the Tour Eiffel and looking for a place to eat that looked nice and wasn't ridiculously expensive - quite hard in that area, let me tell you. Since it was close to midday, lots of restaurants offered the "formules", which is essentially a deal of a choice of determined plates for a set price. I love formules - obviously - but they always make me eat more than I was planning to. 

Le 7ème Vin

So, strolling down and doing our research (isn't the part of looking for a restaurant almost as exciting as actually choosing one?), we ran into this cute little red bistro. Looking at their chalkboard, we found out the "formule" of an appetizer and a entrée cost only 13.50€! And they seemed to serve very typical French cuisine. On we went, and we were not disappointed. 

The inside was almost as cute as the outside, decorated with red and white checkerboard towels over the tables and wines on the walls. Even though the space was really small inside, I never felt like it was tight, but rather cozy. 

By the time we sat down at our table, my mom and I already had in mind that we wanted to make that experience as French as possible - we wanted beef bourguignon (yes, I had to google that)

Yuum

As a starter (in French, entrée), I ordered a roquefort salad. What I got was melted roquefort on top of a toasted french bread, and in the middle some lettuce with a weak vinaigrette. 

I am not complaining though. I love blue cheese - when my brother and I were little our favorite dish was pasta with a Gorgonzola sauce that mom makes. So, the roquefort was creamy and delicious, all melted on top of that crunchy toast... yuuum. First dish: approved.

The main dish was the beef bourguignon we were dying for. And this was worth it. The meat was falling apart with the touch of the fork, just a little bit of pink on the inside so the it was cooked to perfection and the sauce tasted amazing. It was served with tagliatelle, which didn't have any particular taste and fitted in perfectly with the richness of the meat. We paired the whole meal with red house wine, and its flavor went perfectly with both our dishes. 

YES! 

 The entire meal - two formules and the wine, which was around three glasses each of us - cost 40€. I thought it was a great deal, given the ambiance of the restaurant and the food. Plus, we got kind of tipsy which was really fun afterwards (never thought the Eiffel Tower would be so amusing to look at)

City: Paris, France
Restaurant: Le 7ème Vin
Food: Great
Service: Good
Price: €

La Dulce Terrasse

Last weekend, mom and I decided to visit the Val de Loire and its châteaux. The region has more than 100 castles, but we only had a day and a half, so we could only visit four of them. We got a train to Tours, a cute little town by the river and then headed off in a excursion the next day. 

While visiting the Châteaux Villandry and its breathtaking gardens, we stopped at this restaurant right outside of the properties' walls. I was skeptical about eating at a restaurant so close to a tourist attraction because, let's face it, they usually are overpriced and serve bad food. This one, though... big surprise.

For starters, the place is adorable. It was actually a terrace, although there was a wooden covered deck on the right side. The weather was nice, so we decided to stay in the open part.

The cocktails and the eggplant chips

Our first choice from the menu was one of their non-alcoholic cocktails made from fresh fruit and vegetables. I chose a mixture of grapefruit, orange and lime juices with mint, and my mom chose a carrot and apple mixture. Both were delicious - and I was really surprised, since they had no alcohol on them... the cocktails came with some eggplant chips (!) that tasted way better than regular chips. Seriously, I wanted to buy a big bag of them, they were so good. 

Amazingness

The main courses we chose were the meat of the day for me and fish of the day for my mom. It was the first restaurant in France I've been in that served a vegetarian option, which was quinoa-stuffed zucchini. 

My plate was this amazing filet-mignon of pork, with a honey and lime sauce and baked vegetables. Hum, I can still taste it... from the presentation of the plate, you can infer how amazing it was. My mom's plate was salmon with quinoa and vegetables and she loved it as well. 

More amazingness

Then, we went to the fun part of the meal - the crème brulée! I have to start by saying that this is one of my favorite desserts in the whole wide world, specially when done perfectly. And this one, was pretty close. The cream was cold (as it should be), and the sugar was crunchy... although they left one side of it undone. It had a hint of lavender, from the garden of the château... delicious!

The price was not that bad either - the cocktails were 3.50€ each, the plates 14€ each - mine cost 17€ because I had dessert with it (so worth more than three euros). I would say it was good value for money. 

And here are some pictures of two the seven beautiful gardens we visited and of the château:

The Vegetable Garden

The Ornamental Garden

Château Villandry viewed from the garden

City: Villandry, France

Restaurant: La Doulce Terrasse

Food: Excellent

Service: Great

Price: €

Le Relais de l'Entrecôte

Last Saturday I went to Paris to meet my mom who flew from Houston to spend a couple of weeks with me (yay!) After strolling around Montparnasse,  the Luxembourg Gardens and Notre-Dame, we were starved.

We had this amazing list of restaurants to choose from (courtesy from a friend of mom's), and we decided to go to Le Relais de l'Entrecôte for dinner. The place was packed, and waitresses dressed as maids ran all over. We sat down and all the waitress gave us was a quick "bonsoir" (good evening) and a tiny, tiny menu, which contained only desserts and beverages. It turns out they only serve one thing: entrecôte, or rib steak, and fries, for a set price per person: 24.50€

Another tip to eat in France: if you like your meat medium-rare, rare, ask for it medium. From what I have heard, it's rare that French restaurants will cook meat well done - an exchange student from my school tried to order duck well-done at a restaurant once and the waiter refused to take her order, which was pretty funny - so if you ask for it well done it's very likely you get it close to medium. 

But let me cut to the chase: the meat comes cut in stripes and with an amazing sauce on top of it. The fries are delicious and taste fresh. I was missing red meat so much, since I had not had any ever since I arrived (3 weeks!!), so this rib steak was like heaven in my mouth.

Definitely recommend it, especially if you are not in the mood for looking over a menu and having to choose whatever you are going to eat - price is not so bad, compared to everywhere else in Paris.

The plate

Notre-Dame

City: Paris, France

Restaurant: Le Relais de l'Entrecôte

Food: Good

Service: Ok

Price: €€

Le Roy d'Ys

For my birthday, my friends and I decided to try a creperie close to my place called Le Roy d'Ys. First thing one must understand when walking into a creperie in France (at least from my experience so far) is that a savory crepe is not actually called a crepe, but a "galette"and it's made of a thin dark dough. Crepes are sweet and usually smaller than galettes.

The place was really cozy, probably because of the somewhat rustic decoration on the inside. Since we were eight, we were directed to the mezzanine, where we had the room for ourselves. While reading the menu to order, a friend pointed out a special offer: if you are at a table of four people (or more), and it is your birthday, you get the dinner - a galette and a dessert - for free! And you can choose ANY of their options on the menu! 

The savory crepes (galettes) are not very expensive, mostly around 10€. The desserts run around 6€. Overall, a nice not-so-expensive meal.

I chose a st-jacques, chestnut and mushroom with a cream of herbs galette and a banana crepe with strawberry sorbet and vanilla ice cream. The sizes of the plates were very much to my liking (big) and so was the taste.

Galette

Banana crepe

I would definitely recommend this place, the service was great and so was the food! They also have homemade cider, for those who enjoy it (I certainly do). 

It was a nice way to celebrate my 22nd birthday :)

City: Poitiers, France

Restaurant: Le Roy d'Ys

Food: Good

Service: Good

Price: €€