As for the title, I was just having fun with the title of the 1981 American movie, My Dinner with André, starring Wallace Shawn, if anyone remembers it.

So I arrived at the Café des Abattoirs in Paris’s first arrondissement, promptly at 7:30 p.m., and ordered my favorite apéritif, a Martini Bianco with lemon. Much deserved after a hard day at the office.

And then Andreas arrived. After greetings and chit-chat, we got down to business and studied the menu. Andreas and I met in 2003 (he’s Swedish). At the time, we were both working in a boutique law firm near the Place de la Concorde, me as a bilingual legal secretary, he as a billing supervisor. The law firm still exists, but we’ve moved on, me to the legal department of a small investment bank, and he as a CPA senior management consultant. Update: he’s now CFO of a prestigious American property development company.

Getting back to the menu … “You take charge,” I said, draining my apéritif glass, “I’m tired of making decisions.”

And so he ordered a delicious red wine from the Languedoc region of France, a Pic Saint-Loup. Excellent choice! Rich, dry and full-bodied on the palate. A Valley girl myself, that’s the Loire Valley, I’ll pick up a bottle of Pic the next time I’m near a wine store (probably tomorrow.) 

Pic Saint-Loup is evocatively and accurately named, with steep limestone escarpments stark in the Mediterranean sunshine of the hilly uplands to the north of Montpellier. It produces some of the finest wines in the Languedoc. To qualify as a Pic Saint-Loup, a wine must contain 90 percent Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre. A good companion for grilled meats and cheeses.

The meat we shared was Black Angus Picanha, Brazilian for grilled and sliced rump steak. It was tender, juicy and very tasty, as if cooked on an outdoor barbecue. I rarely eat beef at home, so I do enjoy it when in a restaurant.

Leaving the restaurant just after 10 p.m., we headed towards the Tuileries Gardens at the end of the street to walk off our dinner. The last streaks of daylight colored the sky.

An amusement park with rides and attractions had been set up in the gardens.

And so we talked and walked through the Tuileries Gardens before parting at Louvre metro station, Andreas to head eastbound and me westbound. However, it was such a beautiful night I didn’t take the metro straight away. I decided to walk along the rue de Rivoli and grab the metro at Concorde. I took some rather gorgeous night photos that I’ll put up in my next blog post. Night photography is always a surprise, you never know what you’ll get.

Here they are. I posted them just before leaving for Holland on vacation –

https://julietinparis.net/2017/08/11/off-to-the-netherlands-plus-a-few-night-photos/