Margaret Pilgrim

I enjoyed the book also, hence the interest in the village and restaurant. To be honest, the food as described in the book does not sound very good (too much emphasis on non-local prioduct), but the spirit of the kitchen and dining room is endearing. In my mind, this is the book that Peter Mayle could have written but didn't. This is fine with us. In fact, it is exactly what we try to experience. I am working on summer 2006. We would be taking a sidetrip from Angouleme for a few days prior to an event near Cognac in the first week of September.

Any first hand reports of this village resto?

Follow all of the above advice, but always remember that you, yourselves, will bring to the table much of the joy of the evening. And the reverse: too much expectation may kill a lot of the spontaneous enjoyment that you are looking for. Try to choose the kind of ambiance that you most enjoy at home, and then luxuriate in experiencing it together in Paris. A few of the worst fiascos of our dining out have been when I have picked destination restaurants that provided little or none of the magical elements I had read into their reviews. So expect to bring much of the stardust with you!

Here is a pension in the 6th that my notes say charges 43 euros a night per person, including breakfast. The site is not good, but if you click on the pictures, you get an idea of the place, and there is an email link. The location is fabulous for the money.

Thanks, Mark. There are still many, many dining rooms in France that are at least as authentic as your good find, but, as you have done, one has to "get out of Dodge" to find them. We have enjoyed some wonderful evenings in little auberges where we have been told that we were the first Americans to visit them. But make no mistake, all of these places are below Michelin star recognition. So the dilemma becomes: do you want to experience what is vetted and of predictable quality or do you want to head out to areas that are not tourist destinations for a taste of authentic albeit risky fare. There is no single correct answer, and rewards can be rich in both venues, just very different from one another.

The name is Amorino. Once you find rue Buci, you can't miss it. It is not my favorite. They create cones in the currently fashionable way of layering small petals of ice cream, so you can, in theory, order numerable flavors, piled on top of each other. I find it confusing. I also find this shop expensive compared to others. My last cone was in the neighborhood of $6. for the equivalent of two scoops. But they do not lack for customers who line up well outside the door. Try them and enjoy.

I think that you have half answered your own question, i.e., simply eat like a Fench person and not like a visiter who has to experience it all in a short time. Start with their simple breakfast of coffee, bread and butter or a croissant. Nothing between meals until lunch. Perhaps a salad and a chop for lunch. No afternoon snacks. An aperitif while perusing the dinner menu, certainly wine with. Don't fall into the trap of ordering foie gras every time it is on the menu; a couple of times in your 10 days is enough to create good memories. Frequently choose restaurants where you can limit the number of courses to four. Really debate whether you want dessert at dinner, or perhaps just a liquour with your coffee. Watch bread, which is consumed mostly at breakfast by the French. Never buttered at other meals. And remember that that Frenchman you refer to is not eating 10 3-star dinners in 10 days! By simply eliminating that so-American "hand to mouth" habit while we are in France, we often come home a pound or two lighter, having enjoyed nothing but memorable meals during our stay.

L'Etrier was a favorite of ours some six or eight years ago. It was a two-man-show, with the chef cooking his heart out and his friend managing the tiny (24 seats?) front of the house with amazing grace. It was intimate, quiet, romantic; we were almost always the only diners from outside the neighborhood. Once in a while we would overhear English being spoken by some American foodie who thought himself terribly clever to have discovered the place. The plates were stylish and delicious and very inexpensive. Little touches like a wecoming aperitif and dish of almonds, offert. This place was so special that we told no one at the time. Then it seemed to stagnate. Maybe the two became exhausted, or just failed to nurture their concept. Anyway, we stopped going. I would, however, not discourage a first timer from trying it. The welcome never flagged, and the plates were never poor; it just stopped being exciting for us. Because it was such a dear address for us, I would hope that they found their second wind.

Rue Vaugirard is a difficult street to visualize because it runs through so many neighborhoods, something like the old saw about one's concept of an elephant being dependent on what part of the elephant you were feeling. That said (another feeble attempt at humor), La Grande Rue is immediately south of Boulevard Montparnasse, a portion of Vaugirard that I had never visited before.

Told ya!

Call me a romantic, but regardless of the venue, I look for joy! I want the front of house manager and service people to act as if they really enjoyed their jobs. I want my waitperson to be excited with my choices and pleased with the empty plates I leave. I would like the perfectly prepared food to reflect the place and the chef. In the best of all worlds, I wouldn't be able to understand the conversation at the next table. I would like the room to exude a sense of enjoyment and pleasure. I would like to leave content and happy. It would be nice if the meal were not too expensive, but I am willing to pay for the kind of experience I have described.

Im interested in the fact that not a single review of Maze, Gordon Ramsey's latest , has mentioned the oppressive pop music sound levels--except my own.. ← I was refering to the noise level where you are not even aware that there is music being played!

Since my husband and I have been married for some 700 years, one might think that it would be a blessing to go to a restaurant where conversation was not necessary. But just the opposite is true. We do find that restaurants in France are almost universally much quieter than the same genre in the United States. My husband often muses about this, wondering what in our national phsyche demands noise levels to be so high in many facets of our society: movies, personal as well as public sound systems, restaurants. So after food and service, a civilized ambiance is what will draw us back time and again. That said, impossible noise will keep from returning even when food and service have been superlative. (A little jazz or classical in the background is a nice touch. )

Indeed. Not a few of those listed on the Jeune Cuisins Francaise thread have qualified for this designation. How long did it used to take to get into La Regalade?

A thread on its own?

A current thread caused me to think about destination restaurants. Do you prefer to or usually patronize destination restaurants? Why? When? Do you encounter large percentages of locals and regulars or more first timers and once in a lifetimers? What is the biggest draw: the food, luxe surround/service, finding out what the buzz is about or the general expectation of quality? Do you support the destination restaurants in your city? When and how often? Do you find the number of tourists in destination restaurants a negative factor? Do you find the number of Americans in destination restaurants abroad a negative factor? Thoughts?

Do you suppose you would have dined better had you had more choices? Or is is just as well that you had less array and a more controllable quality? Or to phrase it differently, were your expectations thwarted by the short menu?

Okay, come up! The closest ethnic truck to the Phyly airport? (United has stopped food service on cross country flights, and I refuse to buy the catered boxes!)

Wow! Many thanks for this address. We'll give it a try very soon.

If he has reopened from August vacation... He has been closed mid to late August.

I would guess that this kind of beverage might have its place. My husband and I frequently seek out simple artisanal raisin petillantes in the summer. These hover around or under 9%, although I think I remember finding one that was in the 6% range. These are mildly sweet, sparkling and quite refreshing in the afternoon, a far cry from the god-awful American alcohol-free 'wines'. I wonder why it is necessary to chemically compound these beverages when winemakers have been producing that genre for years. Cheaper? Volume?

I can only reply to my 'hood. On our walks, I noticed that Laduree (Bonaparte) was open, but their small chocolate storefront next door was closed for vacation. Dalloyou on Vaugirard, across from Luxembourg Gardens, appeared to be open. Pierre Herme was closed at all times of day and on all days we passed. Small help. Perhaps others can add so as to complete your list.

Getting one's way in this kind of situation, i.e., a salad as a meal when the establishment has an albeit illegal policy against it, begs the question, "Do I really want to eat the salad should they finally allow me to order it?

It's my sense that L'Occitane came within the last several years. Be that as it may, some good news for you may be that Hédiard has closed that location. From all appearances, it does not look like a normal summer closure. As I remember, it was emply when we were there in the spring. We can always hope.

I believe that I have already spoken from this soapbox, but I do want to warn again that from visit to visit we notice Yuppification of this once unspoiled market street. Near the bottom, L'Occitane and O&Co have replaced two of the original shops, Androuet has joined the old-time cheese shops and this trip I noticed that a decent chocolate shop is now a Marianaud scent store. If you want to walk a village street in Paris, do Muffetard before it is too late. I remember when this happened to the remaining Les Halles shops on Montorgueil. "My" little hole-in-the-wall that sold tarbais beans out of burlap sacks at the lowest price in Paris is now a fashion boutique.