Paris Eating – The Last Supper

It was our last night in Paris, we’d stayed out til 4AM and were trying to catch a taxi to the nearest McDonalds before it closed. For whatever reason, instead of taking the fare, the taxi driver told us to go a bistro down the road. When we got there, we thought we’d perhaps stumbled upon some kind of mafia restaurant disagreement, the men inside having what looked to be a very stern but animated discussion. Kat went in anyway, and though they were closing up she talked away and charmed them into feeding our large group, telling us to get inside and be quick with our orders, as they had a few dinners left over. They locked up the doors, and as they did Dave’s manager, Callum, only half-jokingly remarked that perhaps this would be our last supper. The man behind the bar chatted away with Kat and Jason, and would pretend to be angry with us, raising his voice followed by sudden bursts of manic laughter. While he laid out bread and took wine orders, the smokers enjoyed the luxury of being able to light up inside – and we all snuck glances at the owner, who barely spoke but had a cigarette permanently hanging from her mouth. From what we could gather, she was a bit of a local legend, and they showed us an old clipping of her in the newspaper.

Kat was told that they only cook with fresh local ingredients, and their emphasis is on simple, classic and tasty French meals with French produce. The presentation might not be the best, he told Kat, but the taste is great. Everything was more than great. It was the best meal we had in Paris, the meat so tender it melted in your mouth, the vegetables so full of flavour – we all dug in not believing our luck at stumbling across such a gem of a place, and feeling so privileged to have such an experience. Of course there’s no way we could have had that without Kat and Jason, and it’s more than them just being locals who can speak the language, not everyone has the charisma to persuade a bunch of mafia looking peeps to feed a bunch of strangers at 4 in the morning! Even the owner couldn’t resist breaking out into a smile in their presence. So thanks guys, that was the perfect way to end a brilliant 10 days in Paris.