In search of the perfect cafe gourmand: Part II, première mise en ligne par johntynan.

Again, in search of the perfect cafe gourmande, I took the 123 bus to the Michel Ange Auteuil metro stop and ambled from cafe to cafe scaning the posted menus and guaging the tables outdoors for their proximity to the wind.

It was such a thoroughly gray day, I had the feeling I was walking inside an old-time, hand-tinted daguerrotype.

I sat down at one promising cafe, but it just didn’t have the charm I was looking for. So I meandered a bit, eyeing the Foie Gras shop and remembering how Rene and I had been walking here about this time last year when the first snow flakes of the season started to fall.

I descended into the metro at Eglise d’Auteuil‎ and popped up again at Jean Jaurès and walked towards Route de la Reine. On the way, one cafe which, in the past, I had seen seating crowds of people had erected a plastic tent around their street-side tables; perhaps on a blistering cold day that would be fine, but today I wanted to feel the wind on my face and listen to the traffic like it was the sounds of the rainforest.

Nothing. I hopped on the 72 bus and got off just before the round pointe. I sat down at Le Boulonaise cafe where I had seen so many dyed-in-the-wool locals and thought I could see myself relaxing there; but the noise from the construction site next to the Monoprix sent me packing. I checked out the menu at the Beaux-Artes cafe and decided that the Brasserie Jean Baptise was still the best cafe in the neighborhood (although there was the quaint cafe with the sunlight-yellow fascade that I still want to check out with Rene…) but for now, after empirical testing, it really was the best.

I went in, talked with the waiters in my apologetic English and was served a complete cafe gourmand as expected. Instead of espresso, I had asked for a cafe viennois which arrived with a comical cone of whipped cream dusted with powdered chocolate. I should have taken a picture, but suffice to say that the adventure was getting to this point.

I was so tickled to use my mobile phone as a wi-fi hotspot and to be taking a whole hour to relax and read, write at the computer and patiently shave away at the edges of my deserts while I watched people walking through the daguerrotype of the day.