Le Timbre, Paris

This tiny little restaurant - named "The Stamp" due to its postage - stamp size - was a real find in the Montparnasse area. An English chef decides to open up a small restaurant cooking traditional French food in Paris! It has been getting rave reviews from NY times, Guardian etc. There are just two staff - the chef working out of his tiny open kitchen and one waitress who spoke excellent English and French. At most, the restaurant can only seat 20 and you sit side by side with other diners. Tables have to be moved in and out when you leave. Menu changes daily due to what is available. I started with escargots in a luscious tomato-based sauce and Paul went for the day's special, squid cooked with tiny cubes of pancetta which added punches of salty flavor. The squid was excellent - really fresh and cooked very well. For entree, the duck was a stand-out atop leeks (I can imagine Rachel salivating at the picture of pink duck with a good layer of fat). And the best dessert goes to the house Millefeuille - rich vanilla cold custard layered within three crunchy, flaky and sweet pastry. Very nice combination. All in all, this was our best meal in Paris. The portions were not huge but we felt comfortably full and satisfied after the 3 course prix fixe.

La Coupole, Paris

This brasserie in Montaparnasse has been going since 1927 and was frequented by Picasso, Hemingway etc. It is also famous for its interior - murals painted by artists such as Marc Chagall. We secured a good corner table at the back of the restaurant where we could watch all the hustle and bustle as the brasserie filled up. People tend to eat late - we had no problem getting a table at 7pm but would probably not have been so lucky at 8.30pm or 9pm. The food was good although not outstandingly special. Our first taste of the outstanding French butter! I'm so annoyed with tasteless American butter and so one of the objectives of the vacation was to eat as much French butter as possible. Luckily, they gave us 2 large servings so we are off to a fine start. I had a salmon dish atop mashed potatoes swimming in butter which needed a little more acid. Paul was brave and went for the steak tartare with frites and salad. The steak tartare was good - mixed with capers and onions but the portion was far too big. Dessert included a floating island - very soft meringue floating in a vanilla cream topped with almonds.

Le Petit Cler, Paris

Finally, we are in Paris! Armed with a fistful of Euros and numerous restaurant recommendations, we attempt to eat our way around Paris. On the way to Tour Eiffel, we walk down rue Dominique and find rue Cler. We are pretty famished and although there are some famous eateries in the area - were not up to finding them. We did find a fairly popular cafe that looked nice and a good number of customers enjoying some Parisian sun with a coffee and cigarettes. I'm so thankful that restaurants banned smoking but even walking along the sidewalks in Paris feels like a toxic respiratory attack. Le Petit Cler was a super little cafe with standard cafe menu. I had the croque monsieur on granary bread - the gruyere cheese was thick and luscious. Paul had the day's special, canard parmentier. We had no idea what it was except that it would have duck in it. Luckily, it turned out to be delicious, duck confit with carrot on a bed of mashed potato. Later, I find out parmentier is a French shepherd's pie - typically made with minced beef, not lamb as in the English version. I also only found out later that rue Cler has been championed by Rick Steve (an English chef/food writer) as a street with individual food stalls for everything - a cheese shop, bakery, butcher, fishmonger, greengrocer etc. etc. Now I wish I was paying more attention when I walked down the street!