paris: city of crêpes

Have you heard of crêpe street in Paris? Rue du Montparnasse and the next street over, rue d'Odesssa, are packed with upwards of twenty crêpe shops. Stephen discovered this area when visiting Paris with friends last year, and brought me back for what we dubbed Crêpe Weekend: two days and three evenings of eating all the crêpes (sweet) and galettes (savory) we could pack in. We managed to visit five different crêperies over the course of the weekend, listed in the order in which we visited them.

1. Crêperie Plougastel, rue du Montparnasse, Friday night dinner:
We ate a cheese and mushroom galette, a cheese/mushroom/spinach galette, and a caramel crêpe. The galettes were both delicious, the crêpe was a little too simple (perhaps because the caramel was a bit thin). We sat outdoors and drank white wine, which was excellent at the time and a little less excellent the next morning.

2. Crêperie du Quiberon, rue du Montparnasse, Saturday late breakfast:
It seems like a lot of the crêperies don't open until eleven a.m., which worked out fine for us since we were a little slow-moving on Saturday. Dominic, who served us, was stoked about us being "American citizens", and served us caramel beurre salé to taste in little shot glasses -- seems like he does this for everyone, but that didn't make it any less excellent. We ate a four-cheese galette, a tomato/onion/mushroom/cheese galette, and a crêpe with almond/vanilla ice cream/caramel beurre salé. Amazing. Overall our favorite crêperie of the trip.

3. Crêperie du Josselin, rue du Montparnasse, Saturday evening:
There was a line out the door for this place, which we figured could only be a good sign, but it might also have to do with the fact that it seems to be very well loved on Yelp. The restaurant interior was quite cool: nautical Breton theme, very atmospheric. The service was just okay, since the place was terribly busy (might also have to do with the fact that it was a Saturday night). We got a walnuts and Roquefort galette, a spinach/Emmentaler/cream galette, and a crêpe "Chaud-Froid": flambé with orange liqueur and vanilla ice cream. I'm always a sucker for excellent food presentation, and flaming food certainly fits the bill.

4. Crêperie du Manoir Breton, rue de l'Odessa, Sunday morning:
We sat outside and peered into the interior (also Breton-seafarer style). We got a three cheese galette (goat cheese, Roquefort, unidentified yellow cheese), a Roquefort/potatoes/cream/walnuts galette, and a chocolate and coconut crêpe. Not bad, but not our favorite.

5. Crêperie de Pont Aven, rue de l'Odessa, Sunday afternoon:
We got a little cocky in terms of our French food words knowledge, so what we thought was going to be a galette with cream, mushrooms, and walnuts turned out to be cream and scallops. Since Stephen's a vegetarian, I took one for the team and ate the scallops galette, though it wasn't particularly excellent -- too much cream. Our other galette, with Emmentaler, mushrooms, spinach, and cream, was very tasty, and our Nutella crêpe was right about what a Nutella crêpe should be. Service was quick, but Stephen thought the galette and crêpe batter were both a little more pancake-like than he preferred, and the scallops were certainly a surprise.

In summary: crêpe street! Go there!