Paris Day 5 - Dinner at Quai 21

On Sunday October 16 we spent the day strolling through the non-touristy 19th Arrondissement residential area of Paris.  We had a nice picnic lunch on this sunny, warm mid-October day, in the Butte Chaumont Park (a lovely man-made park in Paris).  The park is very popular with Parisians who want to jog, stroll and picnic - it's also a great spot for tourists like us!

Sunday and Monday are the days when many Paris restaurants and shops are closed.  Our first 2 restaurant choices on the left bank of the Seine were closed. It was getting late and we were hungry after our light lunch and long walk around Butte Chaumont that afternoon. We were getting antsy to find a place to eat and decided to have dinner at the next funky restaurant we saw in the next block (thanks for the advice Trish). We spotted this restaurant that immediately reminded us of Bin 941 in Vancouver, BC (http://www.bin941.com/) , although much quieter! Quai 21 (21 Quai des Grands Augustins, 75006 Paris, 33 1 43 26 08 57) specializes in Tartines and Au Gratin Potatoes (scalloped potatoes).

Our server was amazing and could have been the twin sister of my friend Carmen Paulke from BC Transmission. She got us settled at our table with three fingers each of pastis to calm our nerves and quell our appetities (excellent value for 3.50E each). To start I ordered warm goat cheese salad and Jeff ordered the marinated salmon salad; the latter came as huge thin slices of gravlax covering a plate of dressed salad greens. For our mains Jeff enjoyed duck breast while I sampled 3 styles of tartines. Tartines are toasted slices of baguette topped with greens, melted cheese and charcutterie, again simple country style food from France. We enjoyed a 2007 Bordeaux with dinner and the total came to 60E, another outstanding value and fun location.  Quai 21 is the only restaurant in Paris that earned the honour of two meals during our 9 days in Paris!  You know it has to be both good and fun!