Entertainment Tonight! - Saturday, 1 October

It’s Nuit Blanche, the yearly (this is the 20th annual) all-night festival of music, arts, performance, etc.  Really - all night - 7pm to 5am.  It’s a balmy dry evening, and the crowds are out in force!  Apparently there’s an event close to me - perhaps at Hotel de Ville - and the lines snake around the block.  I did not join those lines.  https://www.sortiraparis.com/actualites/nuit-blanche/guides/151604-nuit-blanche-paris-2022-le-programme-par-arrondissement-photos-et-video

Instead, I strolled down towards the Seine to find somewhere for a late supper and ended up at Le Louis Philippe.

Can you smell the sweet earthy vegetal aromas of the soupe à l’oignon maison?  And hear the crunch of the crusty bread crusts?  No?  Well, you’ll just have to come here yourself.  I think they used just a bit of beef or veal stock in the soup, mostly the slowly-caramelized onion juices.  Pieces of at least two styles of bread (a rye and a sourdough - interesting!) were floating in the soup as well.  Sure, you have to deal with all that stringy melted Gruyère on top, but it’s really what you came for, right?

An individual Tarte Tatin maison with tart apples, smooth sweet caramel sauce and cool foamy whipped cream was delicious.  Nice presentation.  The crust was just slightly soggy, but it had probably been made in the morning.

Love this late supper thing, and the fact that I can see L'île Saint-Louis and L'île de la Cite and the towers of Notre Dame and the Pont Louis Philippe from my table is just a bonus. Plus the cars, emergency vehicles, scooters, bicycles, motorcycles, buses, pedestrians, and one Pomeranian on Quai de Hôtel de Ville.

My waitress Sabrina was very lively and entertaining, with funny one-liners and quick retorts and friendly banter with the guests, spreading cheer among the neighboring tables.  At least one person at each table spoke English.  Sabrina said she was practicing her English.  “I’ll be famous someday,” she said.  I don’t doubt it!