The end is near

Three more days and I'm out of here. Quel dommage! I still haven't eaten at all the places I want to eat in. Also, I would not mind staying and studying French until I nailed it, which at this rate, would probably happen at the beginning of the next century.
At the onset of the trip we thought we might want to leave the city on the weekends, but we never did. It was nice to stick around and explore when we were not studying. I'm not yet done with Paris and I'm happy that there are still many places that we missed, so we can come back.
I have to say that one thing that has disturbed me is the menu thing. You do get these seemingly great deals at lunch and dinner in which you pay for 2 or 3 courses what you would pay for only one. But I have the gnawing feeling that it's not the deal it used to be. The quality of the formule is not always the same as the rest of the dishes and you really have to find good places to eat well. I'm talking only about affordable places, which tend to run about 15 to 20 euros for lunch. The other problem is that in the French places the menus are identical everywhere. It gets tiresome. I'm sure you can have much more splendid French food than tough but tasty meat and so-so onion soup, but then you have to pay.
I found that there are a lot of decent ethnic restaurants, for when you develop a mania or a rash from bavette and/or confit de canard. But still, I can't say that we had a fantabulous French meal, except for one shining exception at Le Chateaubriand. And that was in the vicinity of 50 euros per person. Worth every single one of them.
On the other hand, excepting the worst sandwich we have ever eaten, bar none, (at the Parc de la Villette), which seemed to have been made with owl meat, the food is generally tasty everywhere. And the wine works. The wine is so good and cheap I want to go to the SevenEleven around the corner (which here is called Huit to Huit; they are not crazy workaholics like us) and get as many bottles of a perfectly decent Cahors for 4 euros as I possibly can. That bottle in NY would probably cost $15 bucks if not more.