John Talbott

Well, we did. Colette went with two friends for lunch and had to send the salad back because the lettuce was so miserable. Her Baltimore born and raised friend's crab cake was "tasteless." Last night the two of us went for the lobster dinner (boiled). Hers was OK, mine had a burned taste (very strange). Pacing of dishes was slow; no picks to get small chunks out were available. Our waitress explained part of the problem perhaps; the Croatian Executive Chef who'd been there 5 years left to go home 2 weeks ago and the new American chef revised the menu and brought in new wines (a good thing; they were out of bottle after bottle I ordered last week). But Shields is doing a lot of charity work etc and we suspect is not as steady a presence as it requires - it was jam-packed on a Wednesday night.

Fetes Festivals This is one of a series of compendia that seeks to provide information available in prior threads on eGullet. Please feel free to add links to additional threads or posts or to add suggestions. Calendar Events Village fetes Riviera February

Sure, you need ratp.fr ← However, go to WH Smith and purchase the little book Paris par Arrondisement and carry it with you. It is very detailed street maps of Paris and has a metro and bus map as well as street maps for the outlying suburbs (baniliues) and other helpful items. ← I happen to be someone who finds Paris par Arrondisement hard to read and the Michelin Blue #11 Atlas much easier, esp since you can see more than a page at the time. It's slightly larger tho. On the other hand, that said, for the burbs (say to go to Les Magnolias, l'Escarbille, Pere Lapin, etc., Paris par Arrondisement is a must). Also you'll see young Parisiens reading these teeny, tiny Metro maps; do yourself a favor and pick up the #2 Grand Plan de Paris free at big Metro stations; it has buses on one side and metro/RER on the other and tucks nicely into the #11 booklet.

I'll try to answer keeping on topic by saying that at the start of the heat wave the 8 PM TV news showed nursing staff spraying elderly folk with mist and encouraging inhabitants to drink water, authorities encouraged the elderly to go to the airconditioned supermarkets and (most on topic) every apartment building got encouragement from M. Delanoye et al to have a "block party" in the courtyard and bring wine, food and a chair so you could meet the neighbors and presumably recognize elderly folk who might be in need, if and when the canicule reappeared. My sense is that this summer's response and death rate are drastically different from those in 2003.

Wine tours This is one of a series of compendia that seeks to provide information available in prior threads on eGullet. Please feel free to add links to additional threads or posts or to add suggestions. Languedoc Roussillon Provence Avignon Nimes Food & Wine Tour Wine tasting where? Bordeaux

There is an essay that almost answers your query, that was published a week ago in Bonjour Paris (Premium Subscription required but available from me to any member by asking nicely in a PM) called "Q. Airconditioning? A. Sort of" (although the title was edited and resides on the cutting room floor).

I'm sure and Fai is right, it's deadsville until the rentree.

I'm pretty sure that they don't take reservations at L'Atelier, only walk-ins. ← Never one to disagree with Felice I do recall making a reservation for an early seating and the Times article says they do for 11:30 and 6:30; I'd telephone to double-check whenever you plan to go; maybe their policy has changed since I've been last.

Yes for both, recall too that at l'Atelier, the door has no handles and swings out so even tho it looks like it's closed, it's not.

Rhone Valley This is one of a series of compendia that seeks to provide information available in prior threads on eGullet. Please feel free to add links to additional threads or posts or to add suggestions. Festival Chateauneuf Provence 2006 Chateauneuf Wine stores Gard Uzes Chateauneuf Avignon Uzes Roaming Rhone Valley South of Lyon Avignon Northern Provence Lyon Rhone Provence Avignon

Burgundy This is one of a series of compendia that seeks to provide information available in prior threads on eGullet. Please feel free to add links to additional threads or posts or to add suggestions. Restaurant Simon, Beaune Self-catering Beaune Burgundy food history Burgundy Rhone Chablis Best of Burgundy Food & Wine Dijon Burgundy, Beaune, Chagny, Prenois Burgundy vs Reims Beaune-Paris Burgundy Beaune Paris & Beaune Burgundy Beaune markets Bernard Loiseau Chablis Beaune Avallon Michel Vignaud Chablis Beaune Paris Burgundy Loire New Place in Beaune: Bistrot de l'Hotel de Beaune

I hope I'm not being gratuitous, but as a first-time visitor you may want to look at our Pinned thread above on Eating, Shopping and Staying in France. It has categories that may be helpful to you and while it looks like it hasn't been added to since February it is constantly being updated as new threads come on line.

For picnic stuff you will not be that far from Sevres-Babylone and Bon Marche's Grande Epicerie which while not cheap is certainly comprehensive. I'd reverse your strategy: eat lunch at a resto (where it can be up to 1/2 the cost of dinner) and supper at home. That way you can "walk off" your calories. In addition to Dix Vins, you're not far from Le Troquet, quite reasonable and Thierry Burlot, less reasonable but terrific.Le Troquet 21 Rue Francois Bonvin, 15th (Metro: Volontaires) T; 01.45.66.89.00 Closed Sunday and Monday Menus: 23 € lunch, 30 € dinner, 37 €. A la carte 45-55 €. Thierry Burlot 8 Rue Nicolas Charlet, 15th (Metro: Pasteur) T: 01.42.19.08.59 Closed Saturday lunch and Sunday. Formula 26 €, menu-carte 32 €, degustation menu 52 €.

Four vignettes: (1) Back good old days, as defined as when airplanes were empty and someone paid for me to fly first-class, the cabin staff and I repeated what had been reported in one of the national dailies, that once the liquid is chilled and blinded (so you couldn't see the color) the taster cannot tell the difference between a cola, diet cola, uncola, etc - it was true. (2) During this canicule 2006, my next door neighbor put a room A/C outside his door, I assumed because he was repainting, but I later inquired and said I was curious how well it worked, I was on my way to buy one myself - he said take it, it takes up too much space, is ugly and makes it too cold. (3) An American friend married to a French woman, when encountering cheap, barely drinkable red wine, quickly asks for ice and fills it to the top, insisting that that's how she taught him to deal with such plonk. (4) My French "father," (a wine entrepot owner and wine buyer/advisor for restos,) when I was on the Experiment, insisted that water was "English poison," and that I learn to drink undiluted, uniced gin before, wine during and fine digestifs after dinner. I now prefer water that's not over-chilled and ask for it without ice; note, bottled water is rarely over-chilled, carafes, ordered by the like of us, usually are. Vive la difference!

Absolutely - it's just slightly smaller and thinner than a Zagat: 7 1/2 x 3 5/8 x 1/4 inches.

I have not seen anything in writing (except here) about the move and/or when and where. But if it's to happen this fall, I'm sure F Simon et al will be reporting on it the first week in Sept in his/their annual rentree events piece or it'll be up on lesrestos site soon.

John, How comprehensive is this ? I've been looking for a dictionary that really covers as many food items as possible, the names of as many techniques as possible as well as the restaurant terms. Hopefully this may be the answer. ← Pretty. 141 pages with about 20 definitions per page. Often words not in Robert & Collins will be in it. Techniques I can't swear to, because I don't use it for that. Next time you're in Paris take a look at it in Brentano's, presuming that they still carry it; or give me 3 words now and I'll see if they're there.

I think this is still on topic. A few years ago, NPR had a piece where someone took a simple sentence in one language and BabelFished it to another, going back and forth just a few times. Very quickly it became unintelligible. Another reason to buy the "A-Z of French Food," Scribo Editions, 95 FF when I bought it, if Brentano's still has it. If not order from Aimer Books, Riverside CN.

I really should print a caution on all my posts saying that 99% of the time I eat out at lunchtime so when I was talking about walking I was meaning in daylight. I tend to take the RER out too but walk back or most of the way back.For completeness's sake let me say that one reason to walk - in the daytime mind you - is that you can go past the repository of some of the metal structures saved from the original Les Halles in the 1970's. The address escapes me but it's up the hill from Nogent. Felice was being diplomatic about eating alone at l'Atelier de; it's wonderful food but if you're over 2 persons forget conversation. In any case Raisa, report back.

Plus we've got a compendium on markets.

Sorry you'll be off the Paris route.Your question is so complex, or its answer is. My number one pleasure day in and day out currently is Ze; in fact I wrote a rhapsody about it on Bonjour Paris. I also think that for haute cuisine at not haute cuisine prices Dominique Bouchet delivers the very best ratio of product and quality to price. For a down and dirty evening with lots of wine and fun - Les Papilles. Ah, what else? - how about your old favorite - Villaret? - my eating chum ate there a few weeks ago for the umpteenth time and said it's as good as ever. And we loved Thierry Burlot again (time #6 or so) in July. Oh, oh, oh, and maybe the best meal of the summer, however, was one at Les Magnolias; while it's 1 mile from the Chateau de Vincennes Metro stop and outside the peripherique, it's easy enough to walk or take either the bus or RER to. Have fun and report back on your "last supper."

You know, I was just talking (read emailing) about that with Felice; I watched (read lurked) and read and waited for months on eGullet, before I put my toe in the water. Who were these people who knew everything about Paris, had eaten everywhere and could cook anything? But guess what? We're all human (well, almost human, we're so food-obsessed, we probably would be classified as outside the solar system, like poor Pluto almost was, or as rapacious animals). As for the tour of Rungis. That might make a nice new thread/question. Me, I like watching the food guy (David Martin) on FR 2 in the AM on Telematin (it's available on their site), he goes to Rungis every other month or so and satisfies my need to see acre upon acre of peaches. I would guess one could do it for less than a tour company might charge and indeed put the money toward food itself (by the way truffles on anything in Paris doubles the price - Dominique Bouchet himself stands at the border between the kitchen and salle and shaves off the product, that's how precious it is.) However, in the spirit of history and celebration of the advantages of aging, there will never be (again) the glory of Les Halles, from the noise to the onion soup to the rats. But back to the topic - truffles in October - what think others?

Welcome to both of you; the picture on your site alone convinces me you'll have fun here. Ah, Paris vs Alba in October. Nope, no comparison, at least truffle/festival wise. In Alba one has that spendid truffle market that sort of engulfs the entire town that week in October and I can still smell them from where I parked near the bridge. Here, I'm sure the big guys get them, but unless you want to schlep south and buy 'em off the back of a truck, there's no such event that I know of. However, our intrepid Events/What's Happening Specialist Felice will be posting the October French happenings in September so there may be hope. There is (besides the Maison de la Truffe,) a place in Paris called Un Jour a Peyrassol that I wrote up a while back that calls itself a bar of truffles; it's worth a visit. But believe me, all starred restos use truffles as well. At the risk of provoking some Franco-Italian brouhaha, I would posit that French chefs consider French truffles superior but I recall best an all truffle lunch 50m from the Po as it rose after flooding that was a not bad meal at all. At the risk of getting too off topic, I will say, however, that almost anywhere in Europe is best in October, France at the top. Have fun. PS I would suspect that one could also have very fine Italian white truffles at Mori, a place I also loved. Edited by John Talbott to add the PS

I assume you were asking about the DC RW, but this was also the year Baltimore began RW. Our experience at Abacrombie was very good, but it was clear they were just adapting to the new idea. However unlike most New York places during RW that have two starters, two mains, etc, (as does Cafe Bouloud) the places we called had almost a regular menu (as does 11 Madison for instance) and sometimes a reduction in wine prices. Like NY too, some places have extended their reduced prices thru August.

Well, this probably deserves a new thread on "Where can you call and reserve tonight and get in, even in August?" but as you know from prior discussions of Le Comptoir getting in is not so easy. Certainly you may get in as a walk-up, others have, but I'd have a back up resto or two in case. Good luck!