Cool, with sun and cloud.

We took advantage of a brief burst of sunshine for a stroll along the Champs Élysées. Then took a taxi to rue Marbeuf for lunch at:

5 rue Marbeuf, Paris 05. Métro GeorgeV.

All sinuous lines and curlicues, the dining-room decor exemplified the visual style in vogue in Europe in the year 1900. We sat at a comfortable banquette amid stained-glass and bas-relief ceramic panels, in a nook whose mottled-mirror walls and ceiling simulated spaciousness. Looking about, we observed multiply-reflected colors, brilliant in stained glass and elsewhere muted—dusty rose and dull green ceramics, Burgundy cushions, pale gold table cloths. Every appointment—the light fixtures, the outsize plates, even the menu—took up the rococo theme of the epoch.

Amuse bouche: A creamy herb sauce, or perhaps we should say dip, with toasts that looked fine but had evidently been made some time before and had become limp.

As off-putting as the consistency of the toast was our discovery that they had given us a menu in English—another sign the place catered to a clientele more likely interested in the city’s monuments than in a nice lunch. But a French-language inset piqued our interest, a promotional menu entitled "Mets & vins de 3 Grands Chefs: Michel Guérard, Marc Meneau, Jean-André Charial." We took the opportunity to sample those luminaries’ creations, albeit in assembly-line realizations.

Mosaïque de foie gras en lentilles, vinaigrette de mesclun aux arômes de truffes (Guérard): A perfectly moist and flavorful slice of a terrine of foie gras and artichoke, served with tasty lentils and a little salad of mâche with pomegranate. This was served with fresh-made toasts of sourdough bread. Perhaps Guérard went to the trouble to specify non-limp toast?

Filets de rougets à la cancalaise, brochette de pétoncles, tombée de jeunes épinards au citron confit (Meneau): Red-mullet filets and pétoncles—small scallops—presented with vegetable garnishes in a manner evidencing close attention to appearance and to flavor combinations. Three heart-shaped filets, each smartly banded with a strip of sorrel, reclined rosy skin side up on slices of potato and beet. Neatly positioned on the plate alongside the filets, three skewered scallops lay on a bed of barely-wilted young spinach under cross-crossed strips of preserved lemon rind. The appearance was splendid, and so were the flavors of the scallops and spinach. Only the red mullet, with merely a generic fresh-fish flavor, fell short of excellence.

We drank the wine recommended by Chef Meneau, Bourgogne blanc de Vézelay, and found it crisp and lemony.

Cassonade caramelisée aux poires et au vin rouge de Romarin (Charial): A pear, reddish-brown from poaching in red wine, served fanned out under a custard whose surface had been lightly browned and caramelized. The pear’s intense fruit flavor made a good match with that of the rich, frothy custard.

The total at la Fermette Marbeuf was F594.

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After lunch we continued our stroll along the Champs Elysées, enjoying the sight of Forsythia in full bloom, pansies, primroses with gold petals and orange at the center.