Felice

You are in luck. I just bought a book that lists just this sort of thing. It says that you can find agneau de pré salé at the following butchers in Paris. Boucherie Nouvelle Jean Francois Jardin 178 rue de la Convention 15th 01 45 32 71 05 They say that he specialises in lamb and has lamb from many regions in France available. Boucherie Lamartine Jean-Christophe Prosper 172 avenue de Victor Hugo 16th 01 47 27 82 29

What about La Regalade, Le Troquet or L'Ami Jean? Any of those would fit the bill I would think. For something traditional you might also want to try le Comptoir at lunch.

Vacation Rentals By Owner (VRBO.COM) seems to have the least expensive options that I've seen. I recently had a friend rent something through them and she was very happy. Here is the link to the Paris section http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/regio...de-france/paris

How disappointing. I loved it when I was there in December and found the food much better than places like Lipp and Balzar.

I would imagine if you are not used to eating out, that Paris could be a pretty intimidating place. If they normally get by on MacDo and KFC, you probably will want something that’s fairly traditional and tourist friendly. What about a brasserie like Bofinger? The food isn’t half-bad and the atmosphere is pretty stunning, especially if you haven’t been to Paris too many times. I remember someone taking me there before I moved to Paris and I was definitely impressed.

Hi Cru, I’m not so sure I would choose Astier, not that there is anything wrong with it, but if you are only here for a short time I think you could do better. I love Chez Michel, le Verre Volé and la Cremerie. Chateaubriand will be interesting since it’s about to changes hands. How about L’os à Moelle instead of Astier or even Le Troquet. Other places that come to mind are L’Ami Jean, Avant Gout, La Regalade, Thierry Burlot. Since you seem to like natural wines you might want to try Le Baratin. For something different you might try Les Magnolias, just outside Paris, which gets rave reviews and has been talked about here. Also, Chez Jean in the 9th for French cooking with a more modern touch.

I tend to agree with Pitipois, if you read the Paris weeklies you’ll be informed. And there’s normally talk on egullet about the newest places. Perhaps it’s not like NY where everyone rushes out to try the latest place as soon as it’s written up, but I prefer it that way. Here it takes a little longer for most people to hear about a place, but I think that's a good thing. I had no problem getting dinner reservations at Le Comptoir when it first opened, now you have to wait months for a reservation. Also, I would give Zurban another chance. It’s definitely one of my favourites and I read it every week without fail. I even tend to keep certain issues so I can go back and look up places later or will at least save the food reviews of places I really want to try. I almost always read the Figaroscope as well, but sometimes times forget to buy it on Wed. I also try to pick up A Nous Paris and keep my eyes open for other publications. The fooding website is another good place to look. Each paper tends to have its own audience but a place that is really great gets written up in them all at some point. I love your idea of starting a thread of most talked about new restaurants in Paris and will definitely try to add places of interest.

Thank you Lucy. I've just ordered Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking from Amazon France, so it will take about ten days to arrive. And, my to-do list already included getting a scale, so I will be sure to get one this weekend. Thank you so much for the advice, I really appreciate it and am very excited to start cooking with Madame St Ange’s book.

Just give me the date; I know where you live. ← Deal Thank you Lucy, I think you are right. I love to cook but still have a lot to learn. That's really why I bought this book, to learn as much as I can about French food. Perhaps I should buy a good American cookbook on French cooking as well, so that I can go back and forth between the two. I think I will order Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking to start. Unless you have any other suggestions. I would love to cook something with you from the French version. Let me know when you get your copy and I will start looking through mine.

Zoe, Here's one more you might want to add to your list: Kai 18, rue du Louvre. I've heard and read very good things about it--three hearts in Figaroscope--but haven't been yet.

We talked about Transversal HERE

I bought the original book in French after reading about the new English translation in the New York Times a few weeks ago. I decided that after living in France for a few years, it was probably time to try wean myself from my American cookbooks and measurements. I hope to make her Boeuf Bourguignonne soon.

The places that have had the most buzz in the last few months seem to be: Le Comptoir, for sure, Sendersens, Gaya, Benoit and Transversal. And people are starting to talk about Drouant since Antoine Westerman has taken over. I’m going to Transversal this Saturday night for dinner and will post about it shortly after.

Yeah, I just took a wine class there and really loved it.

I was in the wine bar Fish, La Boissonerie last week for lunch and noticed a sign saying they were now 100% non-smoking. It was the very first day, so I'm not sure how it was going, but will definitely ask the next time I am there.

I've added some more information about the Salon in the "What's Happening/Paris event section HERE

Wine Bars I like or want to try: Le Café du Passage 12 rue du Charonne 11th Sancerre, 22 Ave. Rapp, 7th Bar du Caveau, 17 place Dauphine, 1st Taverne Henri IV, 3 Place du Pont-Neuf, 1st Fish, la Boissonnerie, 69 rue de Seine, 6th Les Pipos 2, Rue de l'Ecole Polytechnique, 5th Les Enfants Rouges 90 rue des Archives (or 9, rue de Beauce), 3rd Le Verre Volé 67 rue de Lancy, 10th Clown Bar 42, rue Leon-Frot, 11th Jacques Melac 114, rue Amelot, 11th ← There are a few threads already with wine bar suggestions including this one on Natural Wine Bars and this one on Paris Wine Bars I also like: Willi's Wine Bar Juveniles Legrand Filles et Fils in the Galerie Vivienne

I like Food 58 rue Charlot, 3rd Librairie Gourmand 4 rue Dante, 5th

Best in Paris (but nobody ever believes me): the Special Sip Chocolat Chaud, with hazelnut paste, at the Sip brasserie, Sèvres-Babylone. They're often out of it. Or at La Maison du Chocolat, Delicabar (Le Bon Marché), or Les Deux Magots. Le Flore's chocolate is not bad either. [ ← I sought out the Brasserie Sip the other day and had the Special Sip Chocolat Chaud at Pitipois' suggestion and wasn't disapointed. It was rich, creamy and delicious with a hint of hazlenut. And it wasn't too rich. I recently had hot chocolate at Laduree which I didn't like at all. It was like drinking a chocolat fondant--way too thick. Merci for the address Pitipois. I often go to the cafe Danton at Odeon for hot chocolate before a movie. It's definitely not as good as the Sip's but it is made with real chocolate and they pour the milk into the melted chocolate right in front of you. There's nothing worse than ordering a hot chocolate at a cafe and drinking something that tastes like a powdered mix with water.

I had a similar experience recently. I wanted a wine to go with a Vacherin and the wine shop suggested an Arbois and said it might be an interesting combination. They let me know up front that this would be an unusual wine. I never had it with the Vacherin and it was still in my refridgerator last week when I was having friends over. So, when the first person arrived I opened the bottle and it smelled really strange, a bit like whisky and not at all like any wine I had ever smelled. We then tasted it, both made a face and decided this was not what we wanted for an aperatif. To me it tasted just terrible but not corked. Since I knew this was supposed to be a very different style, I wasn't sure that it was bad. Luckily another friend was familar with the style, tasted it, and proclaimed it was perfect and proceeded to pour herself a glass. I really think that when ordering such a wine, the waiter or someone should warn the guest and let them know this was not going to be your average white. My wine shop did, so I knew to expect something different and wasn't upset when I didn't enjoy it. They also should have sent someone who was more knowledgeable to explain why that this was the style. It could have been handled better. But, perhaps it was a language problem. It's one thing to take someone's order in English, it's another to explain the qualities of a wine, especially during a busy service.

I walked by tonight and there is a sign saying they are closed for renovations until th end of the month.

I love the Pré Verre too. I read that Le Temps au Temps serves vins nature as well. Another place not mentioned here is Autour d'un verre, a little hole in the wall type place in the 9th, known for having a great natural wine list. One owner is from California the other from Sweden, I think. They serve very simple and inexpensive food. I had a very nice pan-seared cod served over a bed of spinach and a salad of "ancient" tomatoes, and both came to about 15 €. Cru, I bet you would love Chapeau Melon, which Le Zouave mentioned above and Le Baratin if you haven't been already.

Are you sure you were in the right place? I'm in that area fairly often and am pretty sure I've walked by in the last two weeks and didn't notice anything. It would seem strange for them to renovate so soon, seeing that they haven't been open all that long.

Here are some other restaurants you might like. They are all are reasonably priced, have great food and interesting wines. Les Papilles Bistrot Paul Bert Avant Gout Le Comptoir du Relais Le Baratin

You know, Aux Lyonnais is actually not as expensive as you would think. When I went last they had a 28€ menu which was quite good. And it doesn't have a feeling of being corporate at all, unlike the Flo brasseries.