Travel Stories - Honeymoon Part 1

Don't be fooled by the title, let's leave the sappy, romantic junk aside...I want to share some of the unforgettable highlights of our trip. 

After our wedding on October 5th, the new husband (ugh, that is still weird to say and type), Matt, and I jetted...that word makes our coach seats seem much fancier...off to Europe to spend a week in Paris and 3 nights in Amsterdam.  We aren't really sit on the beach and relax people, so we wanted to a destination that had plenty to see, do and experience, and we wanted to hit two countries, if possible.  We booked all reservations ahead of time.  One of my favorite experiences and one of the first things we did was have lunch at La Tour D'Argent.

Matt and I waiting outside for the restaurant to open

Have you seen Ratatouille?  You know, the rat chef teams up with a garbage boy at a fancy Parisian restaurant and take the culinary world by storm.  Well, the restaurant in the movie was inspired by La Tour D'Argent - from hereon in known as LTDA.  Also, LTDA was mentioned by Julia Child in her letters to friend Avis DeVoto.  I'm obsessed with Julia Child, I wish I had come up with the idea like Julie Powell, but Emily and Julia doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?  After doing some research, I made my mind up that I had to eat at this restaurant....haaaaad to. 

So,  I looked into making reservations.  I'm an Open Table expert, so really, how hard could it be?  Not hard at all until it I read the fine print that you had to put down a 200 Euro deposit...yikes...for lunch...double yikes.  But it's our honeymoon, right?  Hopefully, I'll only ever have one honeymoon, so why not go for it!  The stupid credit card company declined our reservation deposit, so we temporarily lost the reservation.  After emailing our hotel and the restaurant, I had to call and in very broken French explain what happened...long story not so short, reservation confirmed, deposit made, and we were on track for the most expensive lunch of our lives...

Time for lunch...we waited outside for a bit for them to unlock the door along with some other diners.  Each couple/reservation party was escorted one at a time to the elevator up to the dining room to our table facing the Seine and Notre Dame...be still my heart.  It seemed as though each guest - not table - had their own server.  A server to clean up your crumbs, escort you to the bathroom and deliver course after beautiful course...my new best friend for about 2 hours.  We each got a menu, mine did not have prices but Matt's did.  Really though, when they have so much of your money on hold already, what does it matter what the prices are?  We asked to see a wine list and the server brought over an epic, leather bound tome that probably weighed more than she did...ummmmmm, nevermind...glasses of the house red and white, please.  Then the courses began...

Soup course - pumpkin bisque with the thickest slice of truffle I've ever seen

My appetizer - potatoes, creme fraiche with roe and caviar.

Matt's appetizer - Pike fish dumplings in a glorious mushroom broth

Unlimited mini baguettes - super crusty and my personal server was always there to clean up my crumbs

Entree - stop, just stop...I'm tired of explaining this picture...it's duck breast!  And we each got a postcard with the serial number of the duck...these postcards are now gone, stolen from a package we shipped from Amsterdam.  Can't...talk...about...it...getting sad and choked up that some of our artwork and memories were stolen.  I guess we'll just need to go back and get another...maybe dinner next time?

Accidental cheese course...oops.

Dessert - raspberry and chocolate tart with raspberry ice cream.

So, I've got to explain the accidental cheese course...do you see it?  If you like cheese like I do, you're probably thinking, that's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.  So, our server rolls this thing over, and Matt and I are so excited because we get more food!  So we pick a couple cheeses and then start to notice that not everyone was getting cheese from the magic cheese cart.  Uh-oh...turns out the cheese was not included, and it was some of the most expensive cheese we'll ever eat.  So, I've dubbed it the accidental cheese course, and it makes for a great story of the lunch, and it was so worth it!!

So after more than two hours of glorious eating, a meal I will never, ever forget, we were escorted back to the elevator and headed out to continue exploring Paris.  Of course we stopped at LTDA's gift shop, what better way to commemorate an amazing(ly expensive) lunch than with overpriced, souvenir tea towels...but I couldn't be happier.  Until I remembered that next up on the itinerary was visiting Notre Dame and climbing the millions of steps up the tower...great idea when you're stuffed with amazing French food!!!