Canard and Construction Temptations - Failed! - Tuesday, 4 April

I had been planning to eat a light lunch today in anticipation of my fanciest meal of the trip at “Accents” (hooo boy! … all about that in my next post), but as I was heading down towards Les Halles on a few errands, I saw that a relatively new, well-regarded spot, Les Artizans, had confit de canard on their ardoise (sidewalk chalkboard menu). If you know me at all, you know that I can’t resist a good confit de canard, so I succumbed.  (Read about my current favorite here: http://mariellen-musing.blogspot.com/2016/05/doing-few-things-brilliantly-canard.html )

This one was quite decent, not the best I’ve had, but hey it was only a couple blocks from “home” and the accompanying salad and potatoes roasted with duck fat, herbs & a little garlic were fabulous.

With your coffee they usually serve a little piece of chocolate or a small cookie. Here, they served a small financier - a type of cake made with ground almonds, a little flour, egg whites and butter, and baked or cut to resemble a gold coin or ingot (hence the name financier!) - yummy!

Here’s a view from my table. A guy with a bucket and ladder was making the rounds of all of the establishments on the street – he must have a regular gig washing all of the windows and glass doors. His multi-step process made them sparkle indeed – I need someone like him at my house!

Then it was on to my must-do-every-trip pilgrimage for a drink at the little bar/café on rue Saint-Honoré where a waiter called me “mademoiselle” on my 40th birthday, my visit with my favorite salesman anywhere, Franck at E.Dehillerin (where I also lightened my pocketbook considerably…read all about the place here: http://mariellen-musing.blogspot.com/2009/06/chefs-shangri-la-e-dehillerin-saturday.html ), and a few other errands – enough tromping around to digest my biggish lunch and wear off at least some of those calories!

the latest story, with yours truly reflected in it!

how it will look "eventually"

Of course, I just had to take some photos of the never-ending Les Halles reconstruction project. I could swear that when it started the signs said it would be completed in 2012! Now they say 2018. I sure hope it's worth all of the work and wait!

looking east toward la Canopée

looking west toward the former Bourse

When a facade is being renovated, they
put up a scrim containing an image of
what's behind it. This is the first time I've
seen advertising on it as well!
This is Saint-Eustache,
on the north side of Les Halles

that was some wet cement or one heavy pigeon!