Dinner's on Me

One of the biggest advantages when traveling for work and maybe the only one is the fact that your meals and lodging are paid for. Such was the case when my colleague and a few other folks went out for dinner.

Let me backtrack a bit. When I was last here as a solo independent traveler, I lived on bread and cheese, while still delicious, which I still regularly eat, I never had the money to foray into the more exotic tastes. Ok, so enter my visit so far. My colleague had picked out a restaurant in the 1st Arrondisement called Les Fines Gueules and the plan was to meet up soon after we finished work. When I reached home, I decided to stretch my legs a bit and walked to Soecur Coeur to get some exercise and shake off the work weariness. I had just reached the top of the church when I received a call from my work friend asking me to come by the restaurant. The place where we were dining was on Deux Rue De Petite Champs near the Opera Palace and I was at the opposite end.

I love walking, especially when I get a chance to practice my little used French and ask for directions. So took a path back but must have taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up further down. Luckily, I had my map but it was getting dark, so with the help of a few kind locals, got going in the right direction. I arrived about an hour later, saw that my colleagues had already eaten their way through a plate of cheese and bread and the Couterrie was also disappearing fast. I was starving from the walking, so while others sipped wine, I ordered bread and a plate of delicious Veal Carpaccio. I devoured the meal in about 10 mins, just in time for my client to join us for the dinner.

The vibe in Europe and pretty much in lot of countries is they enjoy life. Here for example, it was coming on close to 10 PM on a weeknight and the restaurant had just started filling up with diners. I ordered a Ratatouille with fish, another delightful meal that was done right.  By the way, I haven’t eaten a bad meal yet.

We closed the evening surrounded by convivial diners and good conversations.