A Saturday Stroll through Saint Sulpice

Sitting in the shadows of the popular Latin Quarter, Saint Sulpice is the like the little brother of Saint Germain. Saint Sulpice boasts plenty of small cafes, chic restaurants and trendy bars, just as St Germain does. It's the perfect area for a Saturday stroll to experience Paris at it's finest.

We started the day at a small cafe opposite L'Eglise St Germain which my wife Monika stumbled across a few weeks ago. It's a typical little brasserie which you see all over Paris, which is an ideal alternative to the pricey and overcrowded brunch spots when you just want a coffee and something small to eat. The trick here is to prop up at the bar instead of taking a table as it's half the price: a coffee is 1.20 compared to 2.60 at a table. Equally a 25cl pression is 2.40 compared to 4.50 at a table. I must look into whether this is a standard thing but certainly it's the cheapest place we've found in the area.

The thing I love here, and I've not seen this anywhere else, is the way you can help yourself to a hard boiled egg at the counter for 85c. There's something very basic and unpretentious about it which is like a breathe of fresh air in this most trendy of Parisian arrondisements.

Opposite Eglise St Sulpice, there's a little coffee shop which sells whole and ground beans from all over the world, as well as a wide range of Indian, Chinese, Japanese and Korean teas. There's probably not too much there you won't find in other places but what attracted us most was the delightful scent of beans being roasted in the store itself. There's little better in the world than waking up to the smell of coffee beans being roasted, so I envy the people living above that store - certainly makes a difference to living opposite Starbucks!

 
On the way home from the Jardin De Luxembourg, we stopped off at Polaine on Rue Du Cherche-Midi. It's been there since 1932 and they still use the same wood-burning oven, as well as other techniques such as sea salt from Guerande and the sourdough: a piece of dough from the previous batch of bread is used as a starter for the next batch. Unfortunately they wouldn't let me take a picture of the wood over but I did get a snap of the exterior and the giant loaves.

We also stopped off at Lili's Brownies, a small cafe on Rue Du Dragon which does take out coffee, smoothies and home made baked goods such as cookies, brownies and cake loafs. Again they wouldn't let me take pictures (what is it with these people - don't they want a bit of free advertising or what??) But I'll let them off as the Green Tea & Raspberry slice, and the Pineapple and Coconut Flake Slice were both exceptionally good. I counted a dozen or so cakes on display.

We stopped off at the market on Rue De Seine to pick up some fresh fruit and veg, as well was some wine and sliced meat.

What better way to end the afternoon than with a selection of what we'd bought, some olives, foie gras, cornichons and a nice glass of Bourgogne. Everytime Monika comes back from Poland she also brings back some delicious handmake pate from Dziadek (Grandfather) which we added to the mix.

An idea we got from Oliviers: fresh bread drizzled in a sea salt and herb mix for fish, oive oil with lemon juice, and tomato powder. Fantastic!

Featured in this blog entry:
Cafe Quebec, 42 Rue Bonaparte, 75006
Estrella, 34 Rue Saint Sulpice, 75006
Polaine, 8 Rue Du Cherche-Midi, 75006 http://www.poilane.fr/
Lili's Brownies, 35 Rue Du Dragon, 75006.
Marche Rue Du Seine, 75006