A perfect night at 5e Cru

Sep 28

Sep 28 A perfect night at 5e Cru

Upon return from Pierrefonds, we collected our belongings from the People Paris Belleville hostel and checked out, took an Uber to Hotel Des Arenes.

So happy in our new room with the tiniest of beds and the even smaller shower and sink but no mosquitos and functioning AC woooo!

We weren’t very hungry so we looked up a couple of nearby wine bars and found two, one on the way to another. I am so glad we changed hotels just so we were close enough to stop at 5e cru. We had the most wonderful last night in France experience.

We grabbed a little wooden table in the wine shop/bar and there was only one other couple and the owner, Bruno. We asked Bruno for a menu and he said “I am the menu! Tell me what you like to drink.” So we described our favorite wine qualities and he brought us 4 options to taste.

It was super fun to be able to taste and discuss the options and we ended up going with the lighter two wines. One was a Grenache and the other was a Merlot blend. We were both really into the Grenache but didn’t want to get the same glass. Even though we weren’t hungry, Bruno said we had to order a small bit of food with the wine because he is technically a wine shop. We didn’t inquire into the reason but agreed to get a little charcuterie and cheese board.

He asked us about our cheese preferences and I asked for nothing that smells like a barnyard to which he replied “you don’t like French cheese!” And I said…I know.

Then he made us a beautiful board with some amazing baguette and we ate so much of it despite not being hungry because it is just so fun to try all of the different items. I love mixing and matching the combinations of this cheese with that meat and a sip of wine and tasting how the elements change when you mix them differently.

Not to end the night with anything but perfection, we inquired into his dessert and dessert wine selections. Bruno brought us a taste of a wine that we cannot remember but was something neither of us have heard of and it was absolutely perfect. Much lighter than Sauternes but had the same honey sweetness to it. We paired that with what he described as “French toast” but it was so much lighter and fluffier and less sweet than our French toast. We even got a whole history lesson on how French toast was invented as something poor families made with stale bread!