There are so many delicious items to eat in Paris. From pain au chocolat (chocolate croissants), tarte au framboises (raspberry tarts), magret de canard (duck breast), cabillaud (cod), caille (quail) agneau (lamb),salade de printemps (spring salad) and desserts galore, it’s difficult to choose some favorites. On this Spring trip  I returned to some favorite spots and visited some new ones. Many thanks to my wonderful husband, Dave, who researched, read and discovered many of the following restaurants.

Petit dejuener: Breakfast. Typically we rent an apartment so that I can make my coffee in the morning (coffee isn’t so great in Paris), sip it at my leisure and enjoy the delightful treats that my husband has sought out and bought at the local boulangerie. There are many ‘Paul’ boulangeries throughout Paris and I love their tarte au framboises (raspberry tarts), pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant) and this time a tarte abricot (apricot tart). So yummy. We also discovered Poilane on this trip. Poilane is a famous bakery in Paris and ships their bread to many other places in the world. This time we were a 15 minute walk from one of their boulangeries at 8, rue de Cherche- Midi. Dave picked up some delicious tarte aux pommes (apple tarts) and we breakfasted on those one morning.

Dejeuner: Lunch. If you are in the Rue Cler neighborhood then pull up a chair at Cafe du Marche – delicious duck salad and other typical french salads and plats (main course dishes). I enjoyed a delicious lunch at Il Suppli, 2 Rue de Conde (01 40 46 99 74). Fairly often you can order a Formule Midi or Formule Express (lunch special) for 12 – 15 euros at most bistros. My choice this day for 15 euros was an entree (appetizer) of gratin aubergines (eggplant) and then a plat (entree) of pates courgettes et lardons (pasta with zucchini and pancetta) and un verre de vin (glass of wine, red or white). Would so recommend stopping in here for a bite.

Lunch at Au Bon Accueil, 14 Rue de Monttessuy (01 47 05 46 11) is always a very special treat. It’s close to the Eiffel Tower and a more fancy restaurant, so you typically pay 30 – 35 euros for their fixed price meal, but you get to choose from a few selections: entree, plat and dessert. I enjoyed a tasty pork pate and then dined on swordfish which was topped with thin slivers of carrot and accompanied by their famous mashed potatoes, fennel with some other herbs in it and a balsamic vinaigrette. I loved my dessert of 3 sorbets: mangue (mango) citron vert (lime) and fraises (strawberry). If you’d like to treat yourself to a delicious lunch in a beautiful location and delightful setting then this is definitely worth it.

Glou, 101 Rue Vieille du Temple (01 42 74 44 32) in the Marais neighborhood is a fun and delicious treat. I savored a barutta avec aubergines grillee (buffalo mozzarella with grilled eggplant) entree followed by a salade de printemps (spring salad with arugula, asparagus, artichokes, sundried tomatoes and ham). Dave enjoys a good ‘steak tartare’ so lunched on that. It was a warm day in Paris so we also ordered chilled white wine and un pichet d’eau or you can ask for a carafe d’eau which is a bottle, pitcher, or carafe of tap water. We went back to the Marais neighborhood another day and lunched at Cafe des Musees, 49 Rue de Turenne (01 42 72 96 17) and enjoyed an excellent Formule Express of aubergines a l’indienne (eggplant grilled with some indian spices) and poitrine de veau a la marjorie (roasted veal shanks cooked in the style of Marjorie, one of the chefs) for 12 euros.

Paris isn’t Paris without a picnic lunch at some point. We took the metro out to Bastille and on Thursdays and Sundays there is a huge outdoor farmers market. For those of you who are Seattle residents: imagine Pike Place Market three times it’s current size. It is so fun to wander down the many aisles and walk past cheese stalls, bread, pastries, fish stalls, meat (poultry, pork, steaks, rabbit, pates, etc), wine merchants, fresh produce, and much more. We decided to pick up wine, pate, proscuitto, cheese and bread and take our picnic wares over to Places de Voges (walking distance, in the Marais neighborhood) and sit on a park bench under some lovely trees and enjoy our lunch. We asked the wine merchant to open our bottle at the market and then needed to purchase plastic cups at a local convenience store.