Food for Food's Sake: Smileyfood in Paris!

I am just back from four days in Paris with my mother and sister. I have found all the cliches about French food to be true: Ubiquitious crepes, croissants, and baguesttes; red wine at every meal, a preponderance of nutella, affected waiters. But especially true is this: Eating is something that is done with purpose in Paris. There is no food-as-fuel multitasking nonsense- I didn't see one to-go container or a styrofoam coffee cup. I call this Food for Food's Sake.


Here's my mom and I enjoying a Kir Royale on the Champs d'Elysses. It's champagne with cassis, a currant liquer. Drinking mid-day was somewhat new to me but I managed to adjust.

This was my dessert at the Louvre cafe: currant sorbet with berries and whipped cream. I'm finding that I am not a fan of rich desserts, and this was a perfect hot-day sweet. My family and I had all run out of steam and just couldn't deal with the lines and seat-searching at the cafeteria. It turned out to be a lovely meal. Below is the chocolate pyramid that my sister ordered. It was light and chocolatey and not at all cloying or over-rich.
What in the world is that fruit on top? We couldn't figure it out.
My mother ordered a rhubarb tart that had a surprisingly strong mojito ice. It was almost too beautiful to eat. Almost.
My sister, ever the carnivore, ordered steak, which came covered in butter. No complaints were heard. Actually, she said very little until her plate was empty.

At the Champs d'Elysses we had a lovely salad that was described on the menu as "Small assortment of vegetables." It was actually a large pile of delicious hearts of palm, carrots, corn, olives, green beans, peppers, corn, and lentils. It was fantastic on the hot, humid day!
There were very few candy bars or packages of candy. Bakeries like this, however, were pretty ubiquitous. The pastries were like little pieces of architecture.

This omelette had the most lovely texture: crunchy, chewy, gooey.
At the same meal, my sister ordered a salad with baked goat cheese. It tasted as good as it looks.

One of the more exciting discoveries was a restaurant called La Table d'Erica. I had read about it in my guidebook and was so sad to find that it was closed. But it did allow for some great photo ops. Here's a close-up: