Les Fines Gueules- Paris, France

I spent the past 10 days vacationing in France. We spent the majority of our time in the South of France, in the Cabrières-d’Avignon area, and we also had a couple of days in Paris. As you can imagine, we did a lot of eating and drinking. I’m going to do several posts to recap some of my favorite parts of our trip…and oddly enough I am going to start with our last night in Paris.

But before I tell you about our last night in Paris, I wanted to make sure you read Christina’s post on the Apple Cinnamon Crumb Muffins that she made this weekend. They are delicious and I think I’m going to have to make a Blueberry Crumb Muffin with all of the delicious Jersey Blueberries around…perhaps later this week or next! Okay, now onto my last night in Paris…

We traveled back to Paris from Avignon (after spending 6 days in Avignon) on Saturday afternoon and arrived just in time for a quick walk around the city and dinner. On our quick walk, we had a hot crepe with miel (honey) from Breizh Cafe. I really wanted to try a crepe with nutella and banana; however, there were only select flavors available since we were not sitting down in the the cafe. Either way, it was so delicious and I wish I could make crepes part of my everyday life. It was probably a better thing that I didn’t get the nutella crepe considering we only had an hour until dinner.

For dinner, we decided on Les Fines Gueules, which I learned about from David Lebovitz’s review.

Les Fines Gueules
43 Rue Croix des Petits Champs, 75001
Tel: 01 42 61 35 41

The restaurant is situated on a corner in a really awesome building. They have seating both downstairs and upstairs in small, rustic rooms. We were sat upstairs. Les Fines Gueules focuses on using fresh, simple ingredients so their menu changes frequently. They do not use a typical menu; rather, they write their menu on a blackboard that they carry around to each table.

One of the highlights of my meal was my first course. I ordered the Mozzarella di Buffalo & Burrata plate topped with San Daniele Prosciutto, which was lightly sprinkled with toasted almonds and drizzled with olive oil. I am a huge fan of fresh mozzarella cheese…especially Burrata. I really enjoyed the flavor combination of the cheeses with the almonds and prosciutto. This plate was so simple and perfect.

Todd & his Mom both started with the Tomato plate which was topped with olive oil, salt, pepper & sliced parmesan cheese. Yet again, they are using very simple and quality ingredients to create a flavorful and delicious dish.

Evan started his meal with the board of Charcuterie.

For our main dishes, Evan and I both ordered the Sea Bass which was served with carrots, turnips, snow peas, and French string beans.

Todd ordered the Lamb with Mushrooms.

For dessert, I had the Chocolate Cake with a molten center. This was my third Chocolate Cake with a molten center of our trip and I loved it. I am a huge fan of gooey, warm chocolate.

Todd, his Mom and his Dad each ordered the Chocolate Hazelnut pastry. When it came to the table, I was a little relieved that I didn’t order it because I didn’t think that I would like it. However, when I tasted it, it was simply amazing and hard to stop eating. I must have eaten all of my dessert plus half of Todd’s. This was unreal and recommended to us by our waitress.

The final dessert was the Le Cafe Gourmand which was a small pot of thick ganache, a madeline, creme brulee, and a cafe. The waitress joked that this was the dessert that people typically order when they don’t want it to look like they are ordering a dessert even though it is a dessert.

I was so glad to have ended a wonderful trip with such a fresh, simple, and delicious French dinner. I am going to miss the great bread, cheese, chocolate, pastries, vegetables, fruits, and wines of France.