Monday, January 08, 2007

Where to Have Lunch Near The Musée d'Orsay


The lovely wife loves the Musée d'Orsay. And what’s not to like? Great impressionist art in an imposing 19th century train station make this museum a pleasure to be in and look at. Since it takes sustenance to climb the stairs and avoid the escalators its important to eat lunch before you go in the afternoon or have a ready place to go after spending the morning there. If you take two children this moves from being important to actually being a mission. This became apparent when the eatery suggested by our "Paris with Kids" guidebook turned out to be a fancy, poofy place not . So we walked around, hungry children threatening us at every turn. And fortunately we found Au Corrier de Lyon (17, Rue du Bac, Paris 75007: tel 01 42 61 12 98), located less than two blocks from the museum. The place is as French as you can get; the hostess seated us in the “no smoking section” of two tables with ashtrays at arms length away in case you change your mind. The menu is printed in English as well French, but we were the only non-Francophones in the place. And the food, in traditional café style was served quick and was great. I had the sautéed chicken with fries, the kids the faux-fillet with the same fries and the lovely wife a salad nicoise. All were excellent, and the service was great. I would come back, with or without children.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

what is a faux-fillet? please enlighten. merci.

Ira.B said...

Faux fillet is from the bottom of the sirloin in an area called the triangle. It is a small piece of meat, and so not great for making huge, Luger-like steaks, but is great tasting and is commonly the 10 ounce steak you see in "steak-frites" even here in Etats Unis.

MM

cindyh said...

We ate there last Thursday, towards the end of our week in Paris. It was such a "you" place that we almost burst out laughing when we walked in. Apart from the smoke, we loved it. Every table was filled and turned, we were the only Americans there, and we ate and drank happily. After a morning at Musee d'Orsay and before an afternoon of lazy strolling in the 6th, what could be better?

Ira.B said...

I'm glad you liked the recommendation! What did you eat?

MM

cindyh said...

The girls had steak frites, of course. I had the salade Parisienne. Matt had some melted cheese and ham and butter sandwich concoction. Wine. Tarte tatin. Coffee. The girls ate moelleux au chocolat (molten chocolate cake) at every restaurant that offered it, but I can't remember whether they had it there. Did you know that Chez Denise was written up in the Times?

Ira.B said...

Thanks. I actually didn't, and will check it out.

MM