Leaving Ô Chateau's wine tasting we were more than ready for dinner. Coming up from the wine cave, the light seemed a little bright even in the gloaming of the evening. Hopping on the metro at the Louvre-Rivoli stop, it was a quick, but busy ride to the Marais on this Friday evening in Paris. We arrived just as some of our friends were walking up and others were seated for our 8pm reservation. I have been coming to L'Epouvantail for years and watched the transition from owner to owner. Along with the updated traditional menu there is a young, fresh and engaging vibe here now. At each table a chair with green chipped paint sits beside the updated, sleek wooden chairs as a tribute to the previous decor. I like that...a reverence to the past. We ordered wine...(Yikes!)..since our other friends were ready for their first glass. While catching up on each others day's activities, we ordered our food. With each passing course, from the amuse-bouche, crisped asparagus with proscuitto and shaved Parmesan to the duck with Dauphinois potatoes, we all laughed and talked. Would you like dessert? But, of course!! And like the foreshadowing in a good mystery book, I ordered the Molten Lava Cake. A spoon dipped into the warm cake allowed the chocolate lava to ooze onto the plate meeting the vanilla crème anglaise. There were no dark volcanic plumes here, just puffs of delight. Other desserts came and went. We paid our bill and headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep before our flight home the next day. While we slept lava flowed, the volcanic ash cloud built and shifted all along the coast of France. We caught wind of the precarious situation as our luggage was loaded for our ride to the airport the next morning. Just before arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport, our driver got a call to turn around and go back! Some of us smiled, some stiffened knowing it could be a long delay before returning to loved ones, and others thought of their Mother's Day plans the next day and awaiting children. But there was no choice. We had to make the best of it and hey, we were in Paris :-)
To be continued.....
L'Epouvantail
6, rue Jarente, Marais
01 40 29 03 03
metro: St. Paul
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