The Ultimate Needle in a Haystack Hunt.

[LostInPAris]

Guys, I've just signed up in the vain hope that you can help me to find a specific restaurant in Paris. My wife and I married in 1996 and our honeymoon was a coach tour to Italy. On the way back, we had a stop-over in Paris and our tour organiser took us all to a little place in the city for a meal. We have been back to Paris since, about a decade ago and we found the place again, quite by accident. We promised ourselves that we would never forget it but, erm.... we did.
If I put everything we remember about the place here, maybe it will jog the memory of someone, or maybe someone living in Paris will recognise the description and know where we mean. Here Goes:

First the easy bit. About a decade ago, when we last visited Paris, it was called Escapade. Or L'Escapade. Even armed with the name of the place, I still cant find it!

Outside: It has a relatively small frontage, like a cafe. Imagine a cobbled street, leading slightly uphill. As you face up the hill, the footpath to the right runs lower than the road, remaining flat while the street is on an incline. It possibly has folding wood and glass doors, the doorway is quite narrow. This is where it gets a bit cryptic. It's in an area of Paris whose name has double initials, either BB, CC or MM, and its not Mon Marte but you get the idea!

Just inside the door to the right, there was a cold buffet bar. The ground floor was quite cramped, with a bar built along the rear wall. To the left of the entrance, inside there was a staircase leading down to a large cellar, where parties were catered for. The meal was essentially cheap & cheerful. A plate for the buffet starter, then a choice of main courses, followed by a a choice of two different desserts. The food would best be described as rustic. I suspect that it was my first experience of 'cheval' (or horsemeat for the uninitiated!) but I could be wrong. The main thing that we remember about the evening (and possibly the reason we can't remember where it is!) is that there was all the house wine you could drink! In fairness, it was quite atmospheric down in the softly lit cellar (the cellar, as I remember it, was a brick lined semi-circular tunnel.) although it was in the middle of August and it got a bit warm down there as the night wore on. Other stuff we remember is that there's a busstop at the bottom of the street. You can't drive up the street. There's possibly another street close by where they hold a street market and we think it's north of the Seine and not too far from the riverside.

There you go folks. We are going back to Paris for the first time in a decade, for New Years Eve. If anyone knows where our favourite restaurant is, I'd love to hear if it's still there.

Thanks in advance for any input you may have!

LostInParis

[Parigi]

How romatic. I found two L'Escapade. Check out the photos on the following webpages.
1. In the 14th. With "double name", would you mean "Mont Parnasse"? (Should be one word mais bon.) Well it is in fact very much south of the Seine.
http://maps.google.com/maps/place?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&lr=lang_zh-CN|lang_zh-TW|lang_en|lang_fr&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=l%22escapade+paris&fb=1&hq=l%22escapade&hnear=paris&cid=7451365519773686218
2. This one is on bld des Batignolles, very much north of the Seine.
http://maps.google.com/maps/place?sou... voyage.

[Dodo]

Yes, like Parigi, two restos with that name, however, the one in Montparnasse, 14th arr., is called L'Escapade Mère Grand:
http://www.lesrestos.com/fiche-restaurant-paris/L'ESCAPADE-MERE-GRAND/1581389292

The other one in the 17th arr:
http://www.lesrestos.com/fiche-restau...

Since the two are in totally diffferent neighbourghoods, you should be able to identify the one you've been to. Bonne chance!

BTW, when you want to find places in Paris (or France for that matter), use Google France rather than Google.com. ;o)

[Parigi]

Frankly neither place looks like your description.
Cobble stone? Hill? Sounds more like the Butte Montmartre, but the OP said it's not Mont Marte (meaning Montmartre, right?). Sounds very much like one of the touristy places near place du Tertre, yet the OP said it's near the river.
The only place that is cobblestoned and hilly near the river and has touristy joints that I can think of would be the Contrescarpe area. Could the double word possibly be Latin Quarter?LIP, you guys must be great romantics to want to subject yourselves to another meal like that. Quite touching.

[souphie]

Actually, my first thought was Maubert Mutualité and the Montagne Saint Genevière -- I can't think of a place by contrescarpe where the "footpath runs lower than the road"

[mangeur]

Hmmm... L'Escarmouche at 40, rue Montagne Saint Genevieve?

http://www.toptable.com/en-gb/venue/?...

It has the cobbles, the bus stop, the street market, the double Ms and several reviews remark about "as much wine or beer as you want".

[Parigi]

Soup, Mangeur:
You are true hounds, chow or no chow.

[mangeur]

Soup's the hound. I'm just a plodder.

[kfoster21]

On a (somewhat) related note, does anyone have experience with using TopTable to book meals?

[waldrons]

I've used it in Rome quite successfully. I'm not sure we received the comp appetizers promised (didn't really care), but the restaurant had my booking! (Although I did call to confirm, just in case....)

Susan

[PhilD]

Soup, I think you are right. I remember parking my car in one of the streets just off Bld St Germain when we looked at an apartment near there, it was slightly hilly, the footpaths were at different levels to the road, and there are still a few streets with cobblestones IIRC.

[John Talbott]

Soup: that sounds right for the description (up/down, hill, etc) but the name clang that came to me was l'Estrapade in the 5th - http://johntalbottsparis.typepad.com/...

[Parigi]

Hmm, back to Contrescarpe.
If the OP spells "Mont Marte", then it can be L'Estrapade or L'Escarmouche, or something else. Shall we have a bet going? I bet L'Escarmouche.

[mangeur]

I remember dinner at L'Estrapade and it fits few of the interior design elements the OP describes. Very small, one room dining area. It is on or close to a corner on a flat street, no elevated or sunken sidewalks. Also, I remember the host's being somewhat parsimonious, i.e., can't imagine his providing endless wine.

[John Talbott]

Well the interior fits the description but the street is operative, albeit as OP says it has a "relatively small frontage," and there's no sidewalk/mount differential, it's far from the river and of course only in dreams does the patron keep pouring wine.

[Parigi]

The OP also says it is north of the river and not far from it. So - in conclusion - who knows. But me thinks the OP's inner map got turned around because there are no hillycobblestoned streets north of - and near - the river. Not the Seine, not Paris. -- Maybe the OP means Rome?

[mangeur]

At L'Escarmouche, dreams apparently do come true. From reviews on the site that I posted above:
"There is also unlimited wine and beer."
"The waitress supplied us with as much bread and free top ups of the cheese platter along with as much booze as we could drink."

Re the interior, the OP writes "the cellar, as I remember it, was a brick lined semi-circular tunnel". If you look at the picture shown on the site above you will find a vaulted room with stone walls. Perhaps the bricks have been removed, as is so often done now, or perhaps there really was that much wine and the walls were stone and not brick.

[curnom]

I can't help you on specifics, but the fact that the restaurant was open in the middle of August should narrow it down a lot...most restaurants are closed in August, right?

[Theresa]

As so many people have researched this for you, it would be really good to know if they have managed to locate the right restaurant?

[John Talbott]

Yup, we're all eager to hear.

[LostInPAris]

Hi all,
First of all, a BIG thanks to everyone who has taken the time to look into this for us. We were going to leave it until we returned to report back but as so many of you have put time and effort into seeking the place out, we thought it best we said 'Thanks' before we set off.

We have narrowed it down to two places. Souphie was right on the money when she said Maubert Mutualite and Mont St Genevieve. Having taken a wander around the area via Google Streetview, we have found a place with the same name and ticking most of the boxes! It's at 10 Rue de la Montaine Saint-Genevieve.

How accurate was my description? Well... it has been a decade! You can actually drive up the road, it was just too narrow to get the coach up there the first time we went, so I was sort of right! The pathway is cobbled, although the actual road isn't, so close again. I remember people struggling to walk on them (especially AFTER the wine!) so it should have occurred that it might be the footpath! The narrow folding wood and glass doors were spot on. The bus stop at the bottom of the street, back on Boulevard Saint-Germaine and the market stalls are just around the corner. The only 'minor' detail that I was wrong on was that it wasn't north of the Seine. Sorry to those I had scouring the wrong part of the city! But it was very definately Paris, Parigi. I wasnt THAT drunk!

The reason I split the name Montmartre down to Mont Mart(r)e was to avoid anyone immediately thinking 'touristy area with MM' and coming up with Montmartre. I knew it definately wasnt in that area. Mind you, I did say that it was north of the Seine. Hey, I did say it was a needle in a haystack. No-one said it would be easy (unless you're Souphie or Mangeur!)

Mangeur, thanks for finding l'Escarmouche. It's in the same area and, to be honest, could also have been the restaurant we are looking for. The cellar dining area looks a lot like I remember, although I'm sure that many of the buildings in the area will have the same feature. It also has a similar menu to the one described. The only way to tell for sure is when we get there!

Thanks again for all of your help in finding 'our' restaurant. For those who have said we must be mad to go back to such a place, I guess we might be. We're certainly not 'foodies' and, yes, it's all about the romance, otherwise we would book somewhere a little closer to home. Sometimes it's not about the food, it's about memories from a time when we were young, full of hope and energy. This time it's about reminding ourselves about those aspirations. Even if the food is lousy, we'll be back at the place where we looked forward to our life together thirteen years ago. Hope you all have the New Years Eve that you would wish for yourselves, whether it's a peaceful celebration with your closest family or friends, or a mad night of partying; whether it's a burger or a bourguignon. Thanks again for all your help and, if we remember amidst all of the wine, we'll post a photo of us outside the place when we get back!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

No longer LostInParis.

[mangeur]

Eureka! Or rather, you found it! Enjoy l'Escapade. Your memory is better than my googling. :)

[John Talbott]

Bravo and I'm sure re: "Souphie was right on the money when she" he'll rush right out for a sex change to celebrate his victory.

To all: let's have another one of these.

[LostInPAris]

Ooops! Sorry Souphie, I made the grave (gravy?! lol) mistake of assuming your name was a marriage of the name 'Sophie' and the word 'Soup'!

Also, another big thanks to mangeur for introducing me to toptable. As I used to work in the casino industry, toptable, to me, was a casino equipment supplier - roulette wheels and the like! We have used the site today to ensure that we dont go hungry while we are in Paris! (We will try to dine at l'Escapade but they're impossible to book online and they dont have a phone number on display even outside the restaurant on Streetview! Maybe it will be lunch at l'Escapade for old times' sake.)

John Talbott has a point. Why not play 'restau-hunt' on a regular basis!?

Finally, if any of you are ever in the culinary wilderness that is the North East of England and want to try something truly unique, look me up and I'll take you for a Parmo!! (google it!!) Just leave your sophisticated palates in Paris!

Thanks again!

John 'LostInParis' King

[Parigi]

Just got off the plane from Barcelona, just in time to ring in the new year, …
and see this great reply.
Paris will always welcome lovers or what.
(And I too for a long time associated Souphie with Sophie... Maybe he had subliminally meant to be Sophie!)
I wish every one a happy new year staying ever in love.

[LostInPAris]

Well, here we go, as promised, the final conclusion to our pilgrimage.
We arrived in central Paris at 11am on New Years Eve, dropped off at Avenue Foch and jumped straight on the Metro and made our way to Maubert-Mutualite. As we reached the corner of Rue de la Montaigne St Genevieve, the street market was in full flow. The shops, familiar sights from Google Streetview all open, the Quatre Saisons grocery store with its display of fresh fruit and veg. We made our way up the bank, my wife recognising the pharmacies and bars on the incline. We made our way down onto the recessed, cobbled pathway and there it was, the place where we had our first Parisian evening. And look what they have done to it. This must be a recent development as on Streetview, it's still in its old livery. Maybe this would explain the absence of any form of contact for the old restaurant. So we got back onto the metro and went over to Montmartre for coffee and crepes instead. We still had our meal on the evening so it wasnt a complete disaster. We decided not to go back for tapas!