On Thursday our team met with members of Emmanuel International Church to have lunch at a traditional French restaurant, Bouillon Chartier. The restaurant is over 100 years old and someone in our group compared it to a Parisian City Cafe, crowded and popular, filled with regulars on their lunch break as well as tourists.
Tucked away at the end of an alley, it's not a place you would find on accident.
It's definitely more upscale than City Cafe, but I did say it was a Parisian version, so more upscale is implied.
Ordering off of French menus always reminded KJ and I of Barney Fife. Not wanting to appear like he couldn't read French he would just point and say, "I'll have that." Thankfully we had several translators to help us.
I ordered the Choucroute Alsacienne, which Google just translated to me as Alsatian Sauerkraut. It reminded me of how we eat Corn Beef and Cabbage.
The waiter jotted down our orders on the paper tablecloth. I don't know why I ordered sparkling water when I knew the only sparkling water I really enjoy is flavored. Maybe I thought it would be different in Paris?
Does it look like I have enough meat? KJ ordered the duck, I think, served with potatoes.
I think we were all taking pictures of our food at this point. We were Americans in Paris after all. We all really enjoyed getting to spend this time with the Paulhiac family and other teenagers in Parker's youth group.
I think there was a musical exchange going on here. Yann showed us what a real Frenchman eats as an appetizer.
KJ tried them, but I just couldn't. I'm not sure I could handle the texture, though I believed him when he said the flavor was really good. We had to rush off from lunch to meet a few people we met at the Polyglot on Tuesday night. They were accompanying us to Versailles that day. I really think the connections we made were fruitful.
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