Best Meal

Tuesday, May 12.  We have a lunch reservation at L'Ami Jean so we planned our touring in that area and started with the Invalides which holds the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte.  Beautiful golden dome can be seen from many spots.  We then walked down rue Cler, a pedestrian shopping street. Along the way, we discovered the church of Saint Pierre du Gros Caillou, half of it was very old and the other half modern. Then we headed to the restaurant, which is very cute and small- only about 30 seats.  We had the tasting menu which consisted of six courses.  Started with a kir, of course.  First was a bouillon with crab, peas, scallions and tiny croutons that managed to stay crunchy.  Next was a seven hour beef with carrots and a cold sauce - it puts pot roast to shame with it's flavor and tenderness. Then veal with radish, mushroom and scallions and a broth that was onion soupish. The fifth course was mackerel with leeks that tha chef torched just before serving. The main course was duck breast with peas and scallions and the best whipped potatoes I've ever tasted.  They were so smooth and buttery it's hard to describe but I could eat them every day and be very, very happy.  Dessert was rice pudding and, again, it's almost indescribable because it was like no rice pudding I've ever had.  It was somewhat smooth without lots of grains of rice and was serves with salted caramel and a nougat that you could add yourself.  We also had a small creme caramel with passion fruit and chocolate, but the rice pudding was the star.  Coffee was served with chocolate coated almonds.  A heavenly lunch and definitely was of the best meals I've ever had in Paris, or any where else.  After lunch, we headed for the Rodin Museum, one of my favorites because it's mainly outdoors and has beautiful gardens. We next went to Bon Marche food store, which Leas described as a gourmet food store on steroids.  It's huge and has almost anything you could want.  Next door to Bon Marche is the Church of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal - it's small in relation to other churches but has a beautiful altar.  The church was full of people praying which was amazing because this was the biggest crowd we've seen anywhere so far.  We walked home and stopped on the way for bread and lemon tarts at Eric Kayser and caramels at Jacque Genin.  After our huge lunch, we decided to skip dinner and just have a lemon tart.