Louis Philippe –
Parisian style scrambled eggs and self indulgence on the Seine.
The
Sunday lunch is the highlight of the Paris weekend. Parisians seem to
do all they can to avoid Sunday blues, so if you walk around, you'll
find that all restaurants and bars are open and packed with people.
You can even spend the afternoon dancing and getting trashed on beers
at Rosa Bonheur in the 20th if you really are not ready to
face the fact that the weekend is over.
If
you look for a restaurant for your Sunday lunch and need a bit of
disconnection from realtity, you should go to Louis Philippe, near
Hôtel de Ville. Unlike most of Paris restaurants, they separate
their outside tables from the street lining up some vases with green
around them, so you have this cosy little green space to have lunch
in the sun. I always feel in a protected world, and somehow allowed
to indulge myself, which is exactly what I need on a Sunday morning.
They
have a regular bistro menu, with a few interesting détours,
which include a gorgeous Parisian version of scrambled eggs, made
with the addition of milk cream and mushrooms, and other amenities
like tomatoes with goatcheese stuffing or marinated sardines with
basil. The rest of the starters is rather standardised, so you won't
miss your salade niçoise or an assiette de charcuteries,
or some less common endives with blue cheese and chestnuts.
Of
course you will find all the three typical French main dishes:
salmon, duck and entrecôte, but with a wider-than-usual range of
possible preparations, and with a special attention to the quality of
the ingredients. The beef, always properly cooked, is tender and
juicy, and can come with the typical green pepper or bernaise sauce,
but also with a more elaborated and tasty mushroom cream. You can
also combine the duck with each of the sauces, whereas the salmon
comes in a light version, with baked vegetables aside, and no sauce.
I tend to opt for the latter on Sunday, as it is the lightest and
healthiest option.
Louis
Philippe is the ultimate Paris experience: you have the river and the
Ile de la Cité nextdoor, and, in the inside, the old fashioned
aesthetics of the traditional bistrots, this may be the reason why
the place has been the location of a few movie sets. When you walk
through the main door, remember to bend a bit to pass underneath the
spiral staircase that swirls to the upper floor.
Louis
Philippe
66
Quai de l'Hôtel de Ville, Paris
Phone:
+33 (0) 1 42 72 29 42
