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Anti-valentine in Paris


cfm

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We are travelling to Paris over the Valentines weekend for a separate purpose - Scotland play France at rugby in the Six Nations Championship on the fourteenth. This isn't a laddish sort of trip - we will be two thirty-something couples. But it isn't a double date! I was quite surprised at the extreme Valentines-purposed menu offered by our hotel on the Saturday night, so have decided to eat there on the Friday and have a more casual meal on the 14th - what style of place could be relied on for a business-as-usual atmosphere? Is a large brasserie a good bet?

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Why wouldn't you want to give your wife a nice Valentine's Day dinner? :sad: You're in Paris, with friends, on a pleasure trip. It's not like you're going to get downgraded for eating a romantic-ish meal, even with friends.

Edited by pax (log)
“Don't kid yourself, Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care about!”
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Sorry, I have forgotten to sign my post. I am the wife, trying to plan a fun night out with friends. To my taste, business-as-usual will be funnest. Will most places have a mixed sort of crowd despite the date?

Catherine

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We are travelling to Paris over the Valentines weekend for a separate purpose - Scotland play France at rugby in the Six Nations Championship on the fourteenth.  This isn't a laddish sort of trip - we will be two thirty-something couples. But it isn't a double date! I was quite surprised at the extreme Valentines-purposed menu offered by our hotel on the Saturday night, so have decided to eat there on the Friday and have a more casual meal on the 14th - what style of place could be relied on for a business-as-usual atmosphere? Is a large brasserie a good bet?

I guess my strategy would be to decide on a couple of places you'd like to go to, then check if they have (inflated) special menus. It's hard to generalize but both big and little places can have either special or regular menus. Brasseries probably wouldn't but nice small places may not either.

John Talbott

blog John Talbott's Paris

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I'd like to apologize. I didn't respond to the post, I responded to the fact my husband is an unromantic goober, which is my problem, not yours.

I'm sorry for my rudeness.

“Don't kid yourself, Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care about!”
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I'd like to apologize. I didn't respond to the post, I responded to the fact my husband is an unromantic goober, which is my problem, not yours.

I'm sorry for my rudeness.

No problem, it didn't come across as too rude, just as if it might direct the enquiry in the wrong direction if I failed to disclose my secret identity...

Catherine

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Sorry, I have forgotten to sign my post.  I am the wife, trying to plan a fun night out with friends. To my taste, business-as-usual will be funnest. Will most places have a mixed sort of crowd despite the date?

Catherine

Catherine ,you're on the right track.Prices are inflated on valentine day and in previous years quite crowded.

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How unromantic...

Anti-alcoholics are unfortunates in the grip of water, that terrible poison, so corrosive that out of all substances it has been chosen for washing and scouring, and a drop of water added to a clear liquid like Absinthe, muddles it." ALFRED JARRY

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I think you're in trouble. I can't think of a single restaurant who won't have some sort of Valentine special. It's a cursed day. For once I'd agree with François Simon and recommend room service. Even McDonalds will be full of valentinistas. Or maybe you could come home? I guarantee there will be nothing heart shaped, there will be excessive food and no romance. Maybe some DVDs of Boston Legal or something.

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You know what, I am in the same dilemna. I will be in Paris for Valentine but I do not want an inflated menu. I think it would be foolish to inflate it too much with the economy the way it is!

I will try a few bistros, make a reservation and then advise you where I called. :raz:

Paris is a mood...a longing you didn't know you had, until it was answered.

-An American in Paris

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To All:

Please let us know where you settled.

In looking through the archives, I found out that my true love of 48 years and I have never once been in Paris for Valentine's Day.

So where would I go (were I not leaving Rome that day): Ze, Clocher or the Bistro du Dome - they cannot possibly be putting gold leaf on pigeon feathers.

John Talbott

blog John Talbott's Paris

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To All:

Please let us know where you settled.

In looking through the archives, I found out that my true love of 48 years and I have never once been in Paris for Valentine's Day.

So where would I go (were I not leaving Rome that day): Ze, Clocher or the Bistro du Dome - they cannot possibly be putting gold leaf on pigeon feathers.

John, do you mean Le Clocher Pereire or Au Clocher Montmartre? I imagine Ze is Kitchen Galerie....

Paris is a mood...a longing you didn't know you had, until it was answered.

-An American in Paris

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Decidedly, I have gone un petite peu romantique, (je pense?), I will be at Chez Lena et Mimile. A certain moderator on this board raved about it earlier in the year....and he has not let me down yet. I do not know if they have a special menu that night or not...I can certainly ask the question and be understood, but then the person thinks I comprehend as well and it is all down hill from there! If anyone knows...please pass on the information to me...

Paris is a mood...a longing you didn't know you had, until it was answered.

-An American in Paris

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Decidedly, I have gone un petite peu romantique, (je pense?), I will be at Chez Lena et Mimile. A certain moderator on this board raved about it earlier in the year....and he has not let me down yet. I do not know if they have a special menu that night or not...I can certainly ask the question and be understood, but then the person thinks I comprehend as well and it is all down hill from there! If anyone knows...please pass on the information to me...

Yikes, Raisa, I'm the guilty party. I did think it was one of my best meals of 2008 and to stick to my ratings, continued to list it as such. But I went back 3 months later and my canary-in-the-mine wife and best downstairs friends hated it. I didn't think my meal deserved a star but I wasn't as furious as they were. "Wasted calories" I believe one said. So there you have it - my glorious Herve This 1st one, my less-successful 2nd, and their boos. Please do tell us how it works out.

John Talbott

blog John Talbott's Paris

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just to report back - we had a successful night out at Le Vaudeville. Although they were promoting flambeeing for February they had in a very mixed crowd of couples, larger parties and even two small children! Couldn't have been buzzier. Getting a taxi, now that was a different matter "All the world's in Paris for St Valentine" said the driver. (He was happy to hear that France won the rugby).

Catherine

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