Kelly and I visited Auberge Bressane on a lively Saturday night. The place was completely full and very raucous. There were lots of large groups of people and families all celebrating different occasions. There were even dogs. Since there was a wait, we sat at the bar and had wine. The waiters were all very young and flirtatious, so we got very good service there before we were squished into a very tight banquette. If you want privacy, this might not be a good idea, but we wanted to immerse ourselves in French culture, so we were excited.

I started my meal with a unique salad of haricot verts, mushrooms, and herbs. It was so good that I figured out how to recreate it at home so I could have it over and over. Kelly had frog legs, which she tried to eat with a knife and fork before our sympathetic waitress showed her how to do it. Kelly loved her frog legs, but I decided not to try them. I turn suddenly kosher in the face of weird food.

I had a roasted chicken in a morel cream sauce. Yum, morels! It came with pommes frites, but it was so rich that I took some of Kelly's mashed potatoes instead. For dessert, we shared a plate of profiteroles with a very dark, lush chocolate sauce.

Beware that there is no prix-fixe menu here. It is all á la carte, so it can end up a little more expensive than other restaurants in Paris if you get all the courses. Portions here were large enough for us to feel quite full, though.

At the end of dinner, the wait staff brought us free shots of some sort of clear apple liqueur with ice in it for being the best Americans to visit their very French restaurant. They even complimented our French. We had a wonderful time here, and it ended up being our whole evening out. We were so satisfied that we didn’t need to go anywhere else.

Auberge Bressane is a well-hidden treasure in the area of l'Ecole Militaire. It is a bit farther away from the main tourist-type bistros and restaurants, and it opens only after 8 p.m. So it took us some effort to finally get a meal there. But the effort was definitely not wasted.

The exterior of the restaurant looks rustic and rather humble in style. But as soon as you walk into the restaurant, you are greeted warmly by a head waiter named Paul. Don't be intimated if he acts a bit theatrical. After a while you will discover his great charm and humor. He recommended chicken dishes to us, since the restaurant's specialities are chicken. In fact, the name "Bressane" comes from the region Bres in France, where the chicken are famous. So my husband ordered "poulet à la crème et aux morilles" (chicken with cream sauce) and I ordered "bouché à la Reine" (chicken trite with a pastry bun and cream).

To my surprise, the chicken trite, including crown and kidneys, tasted so tender and nice, that my initial hesitation for this dish disappeared quickly. The creamy chicken my husband ordered was also very delicious. There is also a traditional coq au vin available, which is a whole chicken marinated in red wine for 48 hours before cooking. But this will have to wait for the next time we visit Paris.

For dessert, we ordered crêpes suzettes. The waiter Paul made a most wonderful performance of frying the crêpes with Grand Marnier on our table. And the result: crêpes that melted our hearts.