This trip to France is not an anniversary trip. Nevertheless, one of the things that happened while we were here is that my wife and I celebrated our nineteenth wedding anniversary.

This post will mostly be self-indulgent talk about anniversary food.

First we went for anniversary drinks, where we got a charcuterie and cheese platter. I don’t often take pictures of food, but I made an exception in this case.

Charcuterie and cheese plate

The sausages on the left were good. The prosciutto was good. The sausages on the right were excellent. The blue cheese was excellent. The barely visible hard cheese at the top was excellent. And the entire platter only cost 15 Euros.

We also had an anniversary dinner at Chez René, a traditional restaurant well reviewed in Le Figaro. Our waiter was a bit of a performer, which is unusual in France, but unlike most American servers, he could pull it off. And he recommended an excellent yet inexpensive wine. We started with a mushroom dish that Naomi really liked but I’ll admit left me a little flat. We each had beef burgundy for the main course, and it was tender and delicious. Then dessert time came, and we decided to each order different desserts and split them. Le Figaro rated Chez René’s chocolate mousse as one of the best in the city, so Naomi ordered that. And here is where my French failed me. I saw that the menu listed savarin aux rhum et fruits confits. I expected that this would be a fruited rum cake, so that’s what I ordered. When it arrived, it was indeed a fruited cake but with a little glass of rum served on the side. I didn’t necessarily need rum at this point, but I sipped it, and it was delightfully smooth. And the cake itself was also quite good.

All in all, delightful anniversary meals. We plan to bring the girls back for a full dinner at the bistro near our apartment where we had the charcuterie. They will love that platter, and we expect the cooked food will at least be decent. Chez René is about to close for August vacation. And honestly, as good as it was, I would mostly want to go back for the mousse, and they don’t accept dessert-only seatings. So I’m afraid the girls won’t get to experience that.