Le Gaigne has become a favorite of ours and on this, our umpteenth visit, we were surprised by the number of English speakers, who Madame says now, since Mark Bittman gave away the secret in the NYT, far outnumber locals. OK, so we were speaking English as well.
My lady and I entered and sat and awaited our Paris-based friend who got held up by lines in Monoprix and confusing directions (by Parisians, not us), whiling away the time with a wonderfully intense Bordeaux (which our friend, on arriving, declared quite the best she'd had this......)
I scoped the menu, Colette spying a 5-course menu degustation, said "no way!" But hark, it was 39 E, while the usual 3 courses a la carte were 51 E. So that was my lodestar.
I thus started with a verrine of coquillage in jelly and celery, while the Gagnaire-trained chef kindly provided the ladies with some lox and cream cheese; so far so good.
Then I got a timbale of endives (toasty-tasting) with ham of Paris and leaves of endives and other leafy things aside; OK.
All of us then proceeded to the main dishes: Madame our friend had the lotte with veggies, I had the colineau with salsifis and Colette the rable of rabbit stuffed with figs with 3 squashes which I later got a 1/2 portion of as my next course (thanks gods) and all were very happy.
Desserts were a rice pudding with raisins, a chocolate and banana moelleux and a fig special; all terrific.
Our bill with two bottles of wine, three coffees and no bottled water was 135 E. You can do the math per couple.