At the tail end of my April visit to Bordeaux, I had a couple of spare days to kill before returning stateside.  So I picked up on the tourist vibe in the City of Light and spent some time strolling along the flanks of Seine and taking in a few awe-inspiring exhibits at some of the museums in town.

Sunset on the Seine

I spent much of my second day at the Musee d’Orsay admiring its astonishing collection of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings, sculptures and objets d’art.  Seeing the incredible works of Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas and Rodin up close and personal was an unforgettably uplifting experience.  Even the Musee d’Orsay building is a sensory marvel unto itself with its stunning Beaux Arts architecture.

By the time evening had rolled around, I had worked up an appetite for some local oysters and a chilly glass of white wine.  Yes, I did have some incredible ones earlier in the week in Bordeaux, too.  But they were from another part of France, after all, and the great plates I enjoyed en masse in the Medoc merely were a pretext for more!

If you’re a fan of bivalves and happen to find yourself, as I did, near Paris’ Saint-Germain district, you owe it to yourself to stop at Huiterie Regis.  It’s a little gem of a restaurant, conveniently located on the Rue de Montfaucon, right across from the entrance to the Mabillon metro. 

This place is tiny (about seven tables), so you may have to wait a little bit for a seating.  In my opinion, it’s well worth it.  They specialize in oysters but also have other tasty seafood items on the menu—including local shrimp and a scallop terrine.  The bread and butter they serve are pretty good too.

Fines de Claires

I ordered a dozen exceptional Les Fines de Claires with a bottle of Muscadet Sevre et Maine. 

The oysters were exceedingly fresh, plump and utterly delicious.  Aged sur-lie, the lemony, yeasty Muscadet was a perfect foil for the salty, natural brine of the Fines de Claires.  Very few food and wine pairings on planet earth go this well together!  (A close second might be Roquefort and Sauternes).

Returning home, I recently had an urge for another glass of stony Muscadet, but this time with lemon baked chicken and goat cheese.  A great example of this often overlooked, but very food friendly Loire Valley white is Domaine de L’Auriere Muscadet Sevre et Maine, a proverbial steal at $9.99/bottle and now available at your local ABCFWS store.

Jim Greeley, Southwest FL wine supervisor. Follow me on Twitter @abcwinejimg.