August is a particularly dull month for a foodie to be in Paris because nearly all of the good restaurants are closed. Why the French take the entire month of August off is beyond me - it seems that millions of tourists flocking to France would give them some kind of impetus to keep things up and running, even if that meant opening with limited hours as businesses juggle vacations amongst staff ... but the French tend to do things, well, the way the French do things. And that means that most things frequented primarily by locals are shuttered, including the ice cream shop next door to me, which would normally be a huge bummer here in August if it weren't for the unusually cool and wet weather we've been having.
And with all this in mind, it was particularly wonderful to discover an Italian restaurant called Le Fellini last night for dinner with Matthew and his parents. They had been there several times before, but had never mentioned it before, perhaps because it's a jaunt from their place. Lucky for us, it's located just behind the Louvre - about a fifteen minute walk. The interior is cozy and casual enough that I felt instantly welcome, almost as if I was at someone's house for dinner ... and that's exactly what a family style Italian restaurant should feel like. There were generous chunks of fresh parmesan piled on a small plate at our table when we sat down, which we munched on while perusing a menu that was chock-full of traditional Italian fare.
I ordered fairly straightforward things: tuna carpaccio, lasagna & panna cotta with fresh berries. Everything was solid and the service was swift, friendly and efficient. My tuna was fresh, flavorful and sliced impossibly thin; It practically dissolved in my mouth. The lasagna, composed of the usual bolognese and soft ricotta layers, was delicious, although not nearly as good as Matthew's (I'll post that recipe one day soon!). Dessert was creamy and softly sweet, and while Matthew promised to share mine with me, I ended up eating most of it and felt entirely stuffed by the last bite. While it wasn't needed following a large meal, the plate of thin dark chocolates was appreciated nonetheless!
Fellini gets an A- for serving ample portions of hearty, soul-warming Italian standards and an A+ for staying open in August.
LE FELLINI
47, rue de l'Arbre-Sec
Paris 75001
France
Phone: 01-42-60-90-66
Hours: Everyday; Lunch: Noon - 2:30PM; Dinner: 7PM - 11PM
On the way home we stopped at the ferris wheel near the Louvre, something we climb on every now and then. A particularly still and clear evening convinced us that it was time to ride again. It's kind of a creaky old contraption. Actually, all of the rides along the entire stretch of the Tuileries Gardens running beside Rue de Rivoli are in need of better upkeep. There are the usual assortment of creepy, criminal-historied carnies that shuffle the kiddies on and off of the rides and add further worry to the safety of the whole thing. We were once stuck on a ferris wheel in Avignon during a windstorm as the entire thing swayed back and forth and the employees down below proceeded to shut down the ride, presumably forgetting about us as we screamed for our lives, "We're still here, assholes!!!" I kept staring nervously at the rusty bolts as we were stopped at the very top, expecting them to snap at any moment, for what seemed like hours until the ride finally started back up and they let us off. And that's pretty much what I did the entire ride last night as well, particularly when Matthew continued to spin our seat by grabbing the metal bar in the center. He thought it would add excitement, when really I kept hollering profanities at him to stop and sit perfectly still and that he was only flirting with disaster by pushing the envelope on an already dilapidated old ride. I was envisioning our seat suddenly breaking loose at the very top of the wheel, sending us plummeting to certain death as we bounced like Plinko chips off of dozens of metal bars before splatting on the ground.
