Lynn has written this month's edition of Lunch with Lynn
Guess who was in town last week? Sam Gross, the New Yorker cartoonist, creator of my all time favorite cartoon the giant cat pulling a tiny mouse in a toy car. A mouse friend is watching and pleads: “For God’s sake, think! Why is he being so nice to you?”
Isabelle, his charming wife was with him and, I swear, these two Francophiles know Paris better than I do. They were introduced to us by their daughter Michelle, a mutual friend who lives here. Isabelle is especially drawn to French cooking and has eaten in restaurants all around the city, low and high brow. She’s the one who tipped us off to the brasserie Le Volcan where we all had Lunch with Lynn.
Trust New Yorkers to find the real deals in Paris.
She and Sam were staying on rue Laromiguiere, near Place Contrescarpe (see the opening of Hemingway’s Moveable Feast) at the top of rue Mouffetard. I’ve recently moved to the 5th, rue Lacepede which leads to Contrescarpe. I know the area well, although good Contrescarpe restaurants have evaded me for various reasons. But Isabelle and Sam had eaten at Le Volcan before and loved it. And it’s loveable.
Le Volcan has a three course prix fixe menu, lunch and dinner, at 12 euros. Or another at 17. Or a la carte specialty plats such as the roast pig with thyme, pork ribs with herbes de Provence, or scallops, Saints-Jacques poêlees.
Michelle loves their snails.
Richard and I couldn’t resist the starter salad with fried bacon warm and dripping on top. Excellent. Then I had breaded cod in a white sauce. Excellent. Isabelle went for her much beloved warm goat cheese salad with three of the largest rounds of goat cheese you will ever find in Paris. Excellent. Richard had his adored beef bourguignon which wasn’t quite up to others he’s had but he could not stop raving about the warm apple tart with a dab of whipped cream which he chose for dessert.
Sam was in the mood for thick French potage. He was happy. His Bronx accent is so strong, when he was talking about an episode from “Fawlty Towers” I thought he meant a John Cleese movie called “Forty Towels.”
For dessert, I had a White Lady (that old lascivious Dame Blanche), vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. It was only one scoop, unlike the mountain of sin you get at the Trouville casino, for instance, but who can complain. I have never before found Dame Blanche on a prix fixe menu anywhere in this city.
With its stone walls, cozy chimney and open beams, Le Volcan reminds me of the Hostellerie des Vieux Plats in Normandy, near Etretat, a great favorite with Guy de Maupassant (but that’s another restaurant for another time). Just to say, Le Volcan is warm, welcoming and traditional. Most certainly, Hemingway ate there with great pleasure once he got past the hungry years.
Restaurant Le Volcan
10, rue Thouin, 75005
Tél. : 01 46 33 38 33
Metro: Monge
Lynn Jeffress is a writer, teacher and translator; she has a Ph.D. in French Language and Literature and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Oregon where she helped write Caverns the group novel led by Ken Kesey and published in 1990 by Viking/Penguin Press. She writes short stories (her latest The Dali Code & Other Paris Stories) and poetry, the newest collection Announcements to be published later this year as an audio book. She conducts creative writing seminars in Oregon and in Paris.
Isabelle
In addition to my Eye Prefer Paris Tours, we now offer Eye Prefer New York Tours, 3-hour walking tours of New York's best neighborhoods including Soho, Meatpacking/West Village & Tribeca. Tours cost $195 for up to 3 people and $65 for each additional person.Come take a bit of the Big Apple on an Eye Prefer New York Tour!
Come experience my blog ìliveî with my Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I lead. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.Tours cost 195 euros for up to 3 people, and 65 euros for each additional person. I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris. www.eyepreferparistours.com
New! Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes
I am happy to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes. Come take an ethnic culinary journey with me and chef and caterer Charlotte Puckette, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (with Olivia Kiang-Snaije). First we will shop at a Paris green-market for the freshest ingredients and then return to Charlotteís professional kitchen near the Eiffel Tower to cook a three-course lunch. After, we will indulge in the delicious feast we prepared along with hand-selected wines.
Cost: 185 euros per person (about $240)
Time: 9:30AM- 2PM (approximately 4 1/2 hours)
Location: We will meet by a metro station close to the market
Class days: Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
Minimum of 2 students, maximum 6 students.
Click here to sign up for the next class or for more info.
Hi Richard
I'm back in France and am welcomed back to your blog by this really tempting lunch offer.... Aaaah, all the good things to be had!
Nice article and I'm still smiling at the Faulty Towers gag... Just go and watch it; it's full of the stuff like your 40 towels... great, great fun and so very English! I too lived for over 8 years in Torquay, Devon where the film sequences were produced and looked up to the former film hotel! Memories, memories
Posted by: Kiki | October 26, 2011 at 12:54 PM
This is exactly the kind of restaurant that I search for when planning our trip to Paris--THANK YOU!!
Posted by: Arlene | October 27, 2011 at 08:21 PM