Café de L'homme

Before going to Calafell, I spent some days, also with my mother in Paris, to get our anual dose of macaroons from La Durée (it's a pity it's almost run out... but Jack has chosen as his favourite the rose flavour). I have some new places to show you, such as the "Café de l'homme".

It's a fancy café (and a mediocre restaurant) placed in the Musée de l'homme, at Trocadero Square, right in front of the Tour Eiffel. The view of the tower is the best thing you'll find in the Café, so try to get a table at the terrace; there you might find some Parisian friends enjoying their chat with a club and a coffee. The inside is beautiful, although you won't find anything you couldn't find in any other restaurant or café in Paris. Waiters are not very professional, but I must admit they're all lovely.

The restaurant has a poor choice; it's rather a brasserie than a restaurant. However, the prices are over 12 €. A tiny piece of cake costs over 10 €. A coffee costs about 5 euros, more or less like the soft drink. Cocktails are on its 12 €. Not cheap, but some people think the view is worth it.

Paris III: les Cafés

One of the most typical activity people usually do one they get to Paris is going to a cafe, and if we're talking about a pavement cafe, it's just a kind of dream.
There's a wide range of choices in Lutetia, from the most français-chic, to the worst seedy place you could ever imagine, although usually tourists try to avoid these last ones (I'm afraid sometimes unsuccessfully).

Our favourite (I mean, my partner and I) is Le Fumoir, a good friend's discovery. This cafe belongs to the chic's group and, I won't lie, it's not cheap (about 4€ a soft drink). But it's such a pleasant place... and once you've paid 100€ for a tiny hotel room where you have to share the toilet and the shower room with the whole floor, don't miss the pleasure of drinking a coffee in front of the Louvre and the Sena. You'll find this cafe at 6th rue de l'Amiral Coligny, just in front of the backside of the Louvre. Jazz and electro-lounge is played and there's a small library inside, where you can relax reading an old book. There's a small terrace, with 6 or 8 little tables and electric radiators (otherwise, these tables would be used 2 months p/year).

There are also many cafes in Saint Germain with the typical

terraces, with their typical Parisian couple, looking to the street, with a kir or a coffee. The best (or the worst) thing of these cafes is that there's another couple sit 2 cm from your table. And you, or they, can listen to your conversation and know your, or their, deepest secrets.

Of course, for those who love Starbucks and can't live without that substance they sell (they say it's coffee, but I'm not sure), there's a nicer version of it. Magnus and Magna took us to a small cafe called Columbus, at the beginning or St André des Arts, very close to Saint Michel Blv. You can take away your coffee or drink it sit at a table. You'll even find something called "Mockaccino décaféiné", that I would never dare to taste, but my friend liked. I prefered the chocolate muffins and cookies. There's a wi-fi area which is free for the customers (and very used). The music is lovely and you can enjoy a weird painting exhibition.

Textil Café

There's a sort of restaurants that I have come to love specially, and these are the Museums restaurants. What's the best way to rest when you are starving after spending the whole morning wondering around a Museum? It's own café. And we must take into account the efforts of this kind of Cafes to become more personal and comfortable.

The Tèxtil Café (at the Textil Museum) is one of my favourites in Barcelona, and I always choose it when I don't know where to go eating in Barcelona. You'll find it at the Born district, an area where many galleries, restaurants and jazzy boutiques can be found. The building chosen for the Museum is the Llió Marquis Palace, from the 13th century, sharing the Montcada Street with the Picasso Museum.

The best thing of the Café is the gotic patio, where, due to Barcelona's great weather, you can have dinner in January (the closer to the gas heater, the better). At the Café you can exhibit your art work and jazz is played every spring and summer sunday.

About the food,... the menu is light and international. Nothing special but accurate. Sandwiches and salads are served with some more elaborated products. However, if I were you I would avoid the vegetable cous-cous.

El café que pone...

MUEBLES NAVARRO. This is the complete name of this Raval's located bar. A long time ago this cool bar used to be a forniture warehouse. The usually kitch style of this kind of shops becomes comfortable when you come to choose one of the big sofas and spend the whole Sunday evening with a friend. Yes, if we wanted to sit on a sofa or a big armchair, we could have met at home, but we would have missed the cake we took. And that is just the feeling they want to communicate: being like at your own home... if you your home is big enough to have cornucopias on the walls.

The place is big enough (around 300m2) to keep the smokers away from the non-smokers, and in case one of those chimneys breaks the rules, there's always a friendly waiter advising them. It's usually opened until 2 am, and during the weekend until 3. The name of the street ir Riera Alta 4. Enjoy it!

Café y Té L'illa Diagonal

AVOID THIS PLACE. I'm serious, it's dangerous for your health.
Last week I had to go to a part of Barcelona that I hardly know, because I prefer to wander the Barri Gotic, it's older, nicer and more charming. I had no time to come back home and eat something, so I decided to go shopping to L'illa, a really fashionable mall, very close to the place I had to go later.
After I while I started to feel hungry and started looking for a place where I could have a quick but nice lunch. I had been told about a place where hamburgers were good, so I looked for it, with little success, so bad the instructions to find it had been given (Mr M.D. again). Well, it was late and time to make up my mind about the choice of the restaurant.
I had noticed there was one, I still didn't know the name, where there was a long queue of men and women who looked like being working in the area, waiting for the waiter. So crowded was the place, people were waiting for having a table! Then I found a place at the bar, where people could sit and eat quickly. I had a quick look of the menu, which looked fine and affordable. What a mistake had I done!
After having waited for 10 minutes more or less, the waiter approached and asked me for my choice. "Cous-cous salad with BACON and PRAWNS (notice the plural, please), roast-beef and a coke, please". I NEEDED that coke, and that's why I was really dissapointed when I saw a tiny little bottle close to my glass. The salad was fast served (not as the canneloni the man of my left wanted; 20 minutes later he left shouting he had to go back to work, on an empty stomach). The salad was made of a cup of cous-cous (not even mint on it), just one kind of lettuce (rucula, exactly the only one Jack hates), ONE prawn and, yes, there was bacon; but every single part of the bacon I found in my salad had a piece of those bones bacon sometimes has. The roast-beef was too cooked and the sauce was really poor. I didn't want to run the risk of an exotic dessert, so I asked for a yoghurt with some sugar. The yoghurt had not been in the fridge (and it was not one of those you can leave out of it), and as I didn't want to go ten times to the toilet while I was being interviewed, I didn't eat it.
Meanwhile two more people had been shouting at the waiter and then leaving or just left.
And I paid for that lovely lunch "only" 18 euros. Burger King would have been much better choice.