Fall In Paris. Fall In San Francisco.

I have an article about Paris on  cntraveller.com and seeing the photos reminded me of my favorite season in Paris---Autumn.   I used to think it was Spring, but no, fall is fabulous in the city of light, with hues of gold and crimson flickering around the river and parks.  

Now that I am in San Francisco,  a city bursting with Frenchness, I find myself on a quest for tastes and sounds of Paris. It's also 85 degrees of late, an Indian Summer.  Not quite the same as Fall in Paris but if any city can rival the French capital on a stunning sunny day, it's San Francisco.

Perhaps sensing my nostalgia, a friend recommended we meet at an old-fashioned bistrot in South Park called The Butler And The Chef.   The chairs were quintessentially Parisien sidewalk and there was even a dog at his owner's feet, lapping up water given graciously by the French chef and owner. I presumed he was the chef and not the butler. Butlers are usually better dressed.  To coin a phrase from my youth...This place is awesome!!  The menu reads like it should, with specialties to entice any Francophile or Francophone homesick for a croque monsieurs bubbling with gruyere , served with cornichons and a pot of mustard.  Baguette sandwiches are de rigueur  as is homemade soup and quiche  (goat cheese and brocolli on this day). Cafe au lait is served in big bowls and I loved the chalked menu board that ended with "champagne, as always." This is definitely my kind of place. If I can't go to Paris this fall, as I have for the last six years, then at least I found a small taste of it tucked away in the South Park neighborhood of San Francisco.

     

A private garden in the Marais

Riverside color

A quaint corner in South Park

The menu at The Butler and The Chef