Congratulations to the Winner of the Copy Contest!
The Owl
Vol. 2, Issue 6
February 7,
2008
Baltimore, Maryland
Dear Inquiring Traveler,
This week, the usual contributors to The Owl give way to the winning entry of our contest. We loved the text sent in by Alain Côté of Toronto, and think you will, too. He shares his personal experience of a rare dream come true in an exclusive Parisian venue, livened with a healthy dose of humor.
Congratulations—and many thanks—to Alain Côté for sending us his story. Alain will receive a year-long subscription to International Living magazine plus a copy of The Essential Classics, a collection of the founding texts of classical literature gathered in one beautiful volume.
Editor, The Owl
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----- All you have to do in exchange is take good notes about what you did and where you went and then recommend -- or discourage -- others from following in your footsteps. What's more, you'll earn a few hundred... maybe even a few thousand... dollars for your trouble. |
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Dinner at La Tour d'Argent
by Alain Côté
Imagine this. You are celebrating your 30th wedding anniversary at La Tour d’Argent, in Paris. You have longed to eat there again since your previous visit, 28 years before.
You arrive at the restaurant. You are immediately brought to a quaint salon. It looks like a museum. No wonder. There has been a restaurant on this site since 1582. The waiter serves you champagne and some scrumptious hors-d’oeuvres.
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Later, another person takes you to the elevator. On the top floor, the host sits you at what appears to be the best table, near the huge window, right in the middle. The view is breathtaking.
The maître d’ soon hands you the menu. He explains that their specialty is caneton (duckling). Those who order it also get a numbered certificate. They have been counting those ducklings since 1890. You order the Caneton Tour d’Argent (no. 1,060,409).
The sommelier arrives with the wine list. It looks more like the Unabridged Oxford Dictionary. It’s not surprising: the restaurant’s cellar contains some 500,000 bottles. So, instead of taking the voluminous tome, you ask the sommelier’s help to choose a wine.
At this precise moment, you make your first mistake of the evening. You ask the sommelier which wine he personally recommends with duckling. Without hesitation, he says Meursault.
You then proceed to make your second mistake. Half-jokingly (you thought), you ask him if he has a Meursault 1975 (the year of your marriage – how romantic). He does. You mentally convert the euros into Canadian dollars (270).
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But you are a proud person. It’s too late to back off now. Beside, the opening, the tasting and the serving of the wine are quite a ritual here. And the Meursault 75, made of Chardonnay grapes, is indeed an unctuous wine with a lovely bouquet and aromas of almond, apple and nut.
The whole evening, you marvel at everything: the well-dressed patrons; the elegant waiters; the lit Notre-Dame Cathedral in front of you; the sleek bateaux-mouches gliding past on the Seine river; the majestic Eiffel tower in the distance. And the food is not bad either.
During dessert, the owner of the restaurant, the 87-year-old Claude Terrail, shows up at your table. He says, “I am told you are celebrating an anniversary. This deserves a book.” Later, the maître d’ brings you an autographed copy of Terrail’s beautiful album “Le Roman de la Tour d’Argent”, an illustrated history of the restaurant. You are so excited that you immediately order your favorite brandy, an armagnac, to finish off your meal.
You are fully contented with your four-hour culinary experience; you are almost ecstatic. But you also have to face reality. The waiter brings the bill. He says, “Please, do not wait another 28 years!” You probably will. The damage amounts to $820. But a friend tells you that considering you’ve waited 28 years for that meal, it comes to only $30 a year.
You feel better already.
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