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Great food aplenty on open air markets, in boulangeries and supermarkets
The Latin Quarter and Rue de La Huchette have loads of crêperies.
We like our fine wines with food!
Les Halles boast some of the most expensive cafés in Paris.
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France is ze place where you can get good food for good value, providing you be careful and avoid tourist traps. Here's a couple of tips for you. If you cannot find a decent restaurant, just head for the closest boulangerie, or bakery. It will have plenty of tasty sandwiches, take away dishes and cakes to eat. Alternatively look for grocery stores since they are bound to be loaded with delicious foods as well, and they usually have a deli section. You can easily survive in Paris on croissants, chocolate éclairs, wine and cheese alone. You will quickly notice that it is substantially more expensive to eat out in Paris than to get food to go. The Quartier Latin offers plenty of deals since impoverished students inhabit the area. The Champs Elysées is a tourist trap and usually avoided by Parisians when it comes to eating out.
We have put up a list of French culinary specialties that you ought to taste. We have omitted horse meat and frog legs since despite the stereotypes you have heard, they are not exactly daily staple for us.
Hors d'oeuvre Escargots de Bourgogne - Burgundy snails Huitres -raw oysters Foie gras - Goose liver pate Soupe à l'onion - French onion soup Quiche lorraine - Quiche from Lorraine Soupe de poisson avec la rouille - Fish soup with rust sauce Terrine de saumon - Salmon terrine Moules marinières - Steamed mussels in white wine sauce
Main course Boudin - Black or white blood sausage Carré de porc - Roast pork loin Cassoulet - Beans and sausage stew Daube de boeuf - Beef and wine stew Escalope de veau - Veal escalope Gigot d'agneau - Roast leg of lamb Langue de boeuf aux cornichons - Beef tongue with gherkins
Dessert Crème brulée - Caramelized custard Charlotte - Sponge cake Profiterolles
au chocolat - Mini served with hot melted chocolate and ice-cream
Expect to pay the following per person per meal. As a rule of thumb, a euro is more or less equal to a US dollar.
Above 20 euros: Expensive 10 to 20 euros: Average Below 10 euros: Cheap
La Crêperie des Cannettes The Pancake House of the Female Ducklings 101 Rue des Cannettes 01 45 34 23 65
Paris Area: Quartier Latin Métro: St Germain
Price: Cheap to average Style: Laid back, no nonsense. Crowd: Friends and family; and possibly your date.
This is a friendly, busy place run by some Bretons (Frenchmen from Brittany who don't think they're quite French). You get apple cider from Normandy in bowls, either Cidre Brut or Cidre Doux. Brut is stronger and drier. Both are lightly alcoholic. Order some crêpes, get what you want: jambon (ham), épinard (spinach), chocolat, banane etc... A menu will give you two crêpes, one crêpe for the main dish and one for dessert. Try the kid beloved Nutella crêpe, a pancake made with the famous Italian chocolate paste. Finally, at the end of the meal, ask the waiter to take a picture of your party. He's a nice oddball and will gladly do it. This is a place where I bring my foreign friends for a true taste of France. I've wasted a few meals on some English girls here, but I still think it's a possible place to take out a date. There are many pancake houses and restaurants on the Rue des Cannettes, the streets of the female ducklings. Alternatively, you may check out le Clown on the same street.
La Maison du Giros The House of the Giros Rue Mouffetard
City Area: Quartier Latin Métro: St Michel
Price: Cheap Style: Fusion take away Crowd: Friends, family, tourists
In the heart of the Quartier Latin abound Greek restaurants and take away stalls. Prices are severely regulated by the almighty Guild of Giros, la Guilde du Giros. This is fusion food at its best: the finest Greek roast lamb in a French baguette, with sauce blanche (mild) or sauce rouge (hot). Served with frites, French fries, either on a separate plate on in the baguette itself. For a quick yummy eat, you can't beat 4 euros. Don't waste your time comparing prices, the Guild makes sure everybody sticks to its policy.
Le Paradis du Fruit The Paradise of the Fruit 15 Quai Voyenne 01 45 34 24 56
City Area: Quartier Latin Métro: St Michel
Style: Laid back to mildly hip or branché Crowd: Friends, date, rich kids Price: Average to Expensive
If you like fresh fruits and vegetables, this a good place. It used to be Ze veggie place when it first opened in the 1980s. They've kinda killed it by opening a few other spots around Paris. Still this restaurant, located in the Quartier Latin is a pretty good choice. Huge salads with exotic cocktails will fill you up and clean your system. The menu features a wide selection of shakes and juices. It gets busy and cramped on week-ends. Avoid Fridays and Saturdays if you're on a date, and if you don't like waiting in lines. Great view on the River Seine and the small bookstalls of the Rive Gauche. Take a few snapshots of French branchés (hip) students, in their carefully studied casuals: leather shoes, blue jeans, and sweaters.
Dame Tartine Dame Toast 2 rue Brisemiche 01 42 77 32 22
City Area: Le Marais Métro: Marais, Beaubourg, Les Halles
Style: Laid back and bohemian Crowd: Friends, date, impoverished intellectuals Price: Cheap to Average
This unassuming restaurant is a fixture of the Beaubourg area, located right next to the Museum of Modern Art. It is quite popular with the local crowd of students, academics, and impoverished artists. The best tables are outside and give you a view on the water sculptures of Joan Miro. A tartine is basically a French toast. The tartines are usually quite filling, especially if you top them up with a salad. Try the jambon et rocquefort (ham and stinky blue cheese), but be sure to wash your mouth right after your meal.
Jamin 32 rue de Longchamp 01 45 53 00 07
City Area: Trocadero Métro: Trocadéro
Style: Corporate Crowd: Global businessmen on corporate expenses, people who like good food Price: Super expensive but great value for money
French cuisine at its best. Not as incredible as it used to be, but still hard to beat this famous food altar for the connoisseurs. Last time we went, we splurge an obscene amount of money on the seafood sampler menu (menu dégustation fruits de mer), something like ten courses of heavenly cuisine. Luckily, I didn't have to pay for the "hurtful one", la douloureuse, as we call the bill in Paris.
In most cafés, you will be able to get coffee, wine, beer, and decent food twenty-four hours a day. Prices may increase at night, usually after ten for late service. The most popular cafés are of course located in the Quartier Latin. By the way, we don't really go to cafés to drink or eat...
Le Marais
Café Beaubourg 43 rue St-Merri If you believe that appearances matter more than essence, this is the place for you. Be prepared to pay 4 euros for a cup of coffee. However, the crowd here is always interesting, a lot of hip people, or people who think themselves as hip. We love the toilets.
Petit Fer à Cheval 30 rue Vieille-du-Temple Little Horseshoe Good food, le plat du jour or dish of the day, is served here at moderate prices. It's a local café that readily admits outsiders. Smoky, noisy, down to earth and traditional.
Quartier Latin
Café de Flore 172 boulevard St-Germain Flore's Café Les Deux Magots 170 boulevard St-Germain The Two Hoards Which is which? Try either place on a week-end as to maximize your gawking experience of local people. These cafés proudly beat with the heart of the Parisian bourgeoisie, but are also popular with the Gauche Caviar, or leftist caviar crowd. Do not forget your blazer and Burberry outfit if you want to remain unnoticed.
Café de la Mairie 8 place St-Sulpice City Hall Café This establishment is archetypical of the Rive Gauche intelligentsia. Would-be writers, students, almost famous, and people who have nothing better to do than write their garbled thoughts in personal diaries like to stop by for coffee. You too should take some time here to ponder about the state of the World, mankind, and where you are going to eat next.
Montparnasse
Café du Dome 108 boulevard Montparnasse Dome Café La Coupole 102 boulevard du Montparnasse The Cupola La Rotonde 105 boulevard Montparnasse The Rotund Big under Victor Hugo and Emile Zola, these institutions are part of the Parisian heritage. They like to serve seafood, raw oysters and such, but it's really the art-deco surroundings that are worth this historical trip.
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Too broke to eat out? Load up on cheese and wine from any grocery store to pig out in your hotel room. Make sure, however that you marry the right cheese to the right wine. With more than 500 varieties of cheese, France is deservedly the largest producer in the world. As for wines, a rule of thumb for dummies, is to go for a cru classé (check the label, it means that it is by Law a classified bottle), anything with the term grand clu classé is even better. You traveled all this way, so don't bother with the cheap plunk we export and that you can get abroad. Now is the time to switch coke for champagne at each meal.
Cheese - Wine Brie - Beaujolais, Loire, Médoc Camembert - Bourgogne, Pommerol Rocquefort - Châteauneuf du Pape
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