Monday, November 12, 2007

Dinner the last night in Paris (Saturday): Les Editeurs

Let's see -- I'm back, I have had a good night's sleep, I was in the technology office three times in the first 18 hours I was back (including straight from the airport) because of the wiggy laptop, and I have had two meetings with teaching assistants, taught two classes, held office hours for two hours, and started to catch up on my Guilford e-mail.

What I really want to do is blog.

What I have to do is run an errand and then have dinner and spend the rest of the evening at a little meeting at which we will go through a stack of applications for the open position in our department because we have to contact people tomorrow to tell them whether we are interviewing them at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting this coming weekend in San Diego. Yes, more airplanes.

So, till I have time to write the promised foodie updates (I actually took notes for them on the plane!), here is the website of the restaurant where a couple of friends took me on Saturday night. It's a rather more trendy place than they or I tend to frequent, though not the trendiest in the neighborhood (that one was, they noted, the place across the street) but it was great fun and delicious. As you will see, it is called Les Editeurs (which means "publishers," not "editors") or rather, since they spell it in trendy lower-case, les éditeurs, and there are books around (probably good p.r. for the Parisian publishing houses, whom the menu thanks for their books) and a general literary theme. Mostly people were eating, not reading, since it was suppertime, meaning 9 p.m. Have a look, even if you don't read French you will get a feel for the place via the pictures; click your way around. There is already a cookbook by the chef. Someone is into marketing here.

That said, the food was delicious.

I am writing on a loaner laptop. Godde bless the IT office; they are taking good care of me.

7 comments:

Ken said...

You're doing that self-referential silliness thing again, Jane. Bad, bad, bad:-). Blogs are about self-referentiality (is that a word?). Why else write one?

What I want to do is smoke. Cigarettes. I am having the craving from hell right now. Every blessed day for the last two and a half years...every day there are 10 minutes when I'd sell my soul and yours for something to smoke. Insidious. Bad, bad Ken.

I think I'll put this in my own blog.

June Butler said...

Jane, in a restaurant, give me the good food over the books, though they're a nice decorating touch, and bring warmth to the place. Actually, the books made me laugh. If I'm dining alone, and I want to read, I'll carry my own reading matter. But you ate well, and that's what counts.

It's good to have you back, but you'll be off again. Sounds exhausting.

Jane R said...

Mimi, I completely agree with you. The books seem to be there for decoration, though since the place is also a cafe I assume that during cafe hours, between meals, people read and drink coffee (or wine!) -- but the restaurant part doesn't look very casual/cafe at all. So who knows, it could all be an affectation.

At any rate, it was yummy.

Ken, sorry about the ciggie cravings. Ow.

I did make a new label category called "self" after you chided me, but this seemed more on the silly side -- not the restaurant but all the list of activities. Perhaps I am too hard on myself. In Paris I became less so. I need to get there more often. There's nothing like being with one's really old and dear friends and feeling well loved -- and being in a beautiful city helps.

johnieb said...

Looks scrumptious, and for a Fisheterian: what did you have?

Affectation? Surely not, and as long as the food is good and things are well-done

Ouch, Ken; sounds like a bad attack.

June Butler said...

Jane, growing up in New Orleans was somewhat like living in a foreign country - especially in my childhood. I'm thankful for the lack of an excess of WASP influence. Sorry, I hope I don't offend any WASPS.

Prior Aelred, of St. Gregory's Abbey in Michigan, who comments here and there in these parts, described Catholicism in NOLA as the louche, Mediterranean-style Catholicism, and I believe that the description fits.

johnieb said...

This Wasp is more envious than offended, Mimi; "louche, Mediterranean-style Catholics" are among the finest kind.

Jane R said...

Mimi, honey, louche, Mediterranean-style Catholics is why after being raised a Unitarian Universalist by U.S. parents in Paris, I ended up a Roman Catholic in my early twenties. (Also why I love NOLA -- and its combo of Mediterranean and Afrodescendant Catholicism.)

Of course half a dozen years ago I migrated to the Episcopal Church, but speaking of louche... not always Mediterranean enough though ;-).