Ullysses

The hot summer in Paris should lead you away from the traditional French cuisine with its cream and butter. At least that is what it does to me. So I ended up with a friend in a Greek restaurant. 'Odyssée'    is located 54 rue Daguerre in the 14th. You know Daguerre, he is one of the inventors of photography along with Niepce also in France and in the UK, Talbot.

The ambiance for a mid-week day was quite nice. The maitre d' very nonplussed but diligent brought excellent dishes. Fried cod with fried zucchini in garlic sauce for me, a mix of cold starters for my friend. The house red was round, tasty and powerful. Halva for dessert and - of course - Greek coffee.

All in all a very good experience which I can only recommend.

 

La Bruyle

Let me introduce you to 'La Bruyle'.

It is a charming guest house located at Colonjac, close to Saint Michel de Bannières, in northern Lot. 

In 2013, I was there twice to produce photographs which would be used on the future web site.

Now after quite some text and photograph editing the web site is on line. http://www.labruyle.com/

Let me tell you that I am rather proud about how the photographs came out.

I was not there as a paying guest but the way I was treated and my needs were met lead me to believe that a stay at 'La Bruyle' can only be a treat.

 

 

Oldtimer

Had you been this morning on Place de la Concorde in Paris around 10:00 you would have come across quite a few oldtimers. I mean cars from the days when driving was a pleasure.

Twice a year these wonderful machines gather in Vincennes (east of Paris) then drive through the capital stopping to be admired at a few locations before heading back to their quarters.

To-day I arrived on time to see most of them and also to take a couple of shots. The main difficulty I found was the crowds surrounding the cars on display. Some people use telephoto lenses. They try to avoid the onlookers.

I took another route. My camera was hooked to my Distagon T 1.4/35mm lens from Carl Zeiss. Its minimum focus distance is of 0.30 m so I could get very close. I could also get a global view of the scene. I do not have a 50mm lens in my Canon EF kit but I find that a 35mm is quite versatile. This specific one is a manual focus only lens. But after a few weeks of usage I got the hang of it. My first SLR's did not have autofocus anyway. And I found it was more in the spirit of the cars I was snap-shooting.

 

Forgotten vegetable

I recently had the pleasure to be introduced to a new (for me) place. This smallish restaurant offers only two main courses every day. So no lengthy menu filled with deep frozen prefab dishes here.

And they favour forgotten or out of fashion vegetables which I find a very good idea.

I had a kind of sausage which happened to be very tasty with turnips and green peppers. The combination was just perfect. The picture above does not convey the tastes but just looking at it makes me hungry.

The red wine on offer (Savoie) was very drinkable. And the dessert simple and in line with the rest.

Service was friendly but had no time for a chat.

That was provided by the two very pleasant people I had lunch with...

I hear that in the evening 'Aux deux amis' turns into a tapas bar. That would be worth a try I am sure.

Belgian ?

If you happen to stroll through the 12th arrondissement of Paris, east of Gare de Lyon the train station from which you can reach southern France and Italy, if you happen to follow this rather long street called Rue de Charenton you will come across this bar called 'Le Mastroquet'.

If you like Belgian beers, I can only recommend you to make a short stop at this place. I write short but I think it could last a little more. 

Why should that be ? Well, because first the atmosphere is pleasant. Second because while you sit you can enjoy looking at the 'quartier' life flowing by. Third because once you have tried maybe the beer of the month, you will feel like tasting another one.

At lunch time they also have a small offer of dishes of the day which are good value for money.