Menu à 12€

On our first night here, we were hungry and tired, and staggered into a brasserie near to the bastille and ordered a two-course meal à la carte, which was great. However, the bill was about 45€ each, which we were happy to pay in the circumstances, but it a bit out of range for everyday dining. So, on Saturday, in BHV, we bought a book by Guy Le Vavasseur called Le Guide des Restaurants à Moins de 12 Euros de Paris. This contains details of 365 restaurants
in Paris where you can get entrée, plat and dessert for 12€ or less - sometimes with a 25cl of wine thrown in. That's my kind of dining. Unsurprisingly, they're a bit thin on the ground in the fashionable Marais - there's one directly opposite our front door which is currently closed - Piccolo Teatro, and another, Les Vapeurs du Marais, changed hands in May and is now a fairly average Italian called Fuxia. However, there are three in a small cluster on the Isle St Louis, which is a 5 minute walk away, so we tried one of them, Au Lys d'Argent, for lunch today. It's a tiny place with (according to the book) room for 30 diners - so small, that all the clientele wish the entire restaurant bonjour and au revoir on entering and leaving. There is a full menu at 10€50. Sam and I both had soupe de légumes, quiche lorraine, and gâteau au chocolat noir. It was all great. Add a half-bottle of côtes du Rhône, mineral water and coffee and the bill was 35€ for the two of us. I could get used to this..

We'll try the other two on the isle and see how they compare. Most of the cheap places are in the latin quarter, or down around butte aux cailles. If we try hard, maybe we can visit all 365 before my contract ends..