Best two or three foodie neighborhoods?

[JayP]

I need to beg for a synthesis of many of the cateorgies of information available here from folks who have much of it in their heads.

I’m only going to get 40 hours in Paris as a layover and am

trying to figure out which neighborhood to stay in to make the most of my time.

I have a reservation at Drouant for one night, but just want to wander and rely on serendipity for the other dining choices. And instead of tourist sites, I’d rather immerse myself in a couple of areas that are good for simply seeing what people who are interested in food buy and how folks live.

I’m sure the information I seek is in here – I have read huge chunks of it in several days of exploring the forums, but my lack of facility with paris maps and neighborhoods makes a lot of the geography just run together for me.

I’m looking for a cheerful two days of recuperation back in society after my third tour in Iraq as a reporter. I have had to suffer greatly (yes, the unmentionable MREs, but also 40 tins of tuna and a hotel cook that I can't avoid due to security issues who has plied me with such beautiful dishes as a baked combination of sliced carrots, beets and cocktail cherries, and another of white bean, canned peas and ketchup.)

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[pierre45]

I need to beg for a synthesis of many of the cateorgies of information available here from folks who have much of it in their heads.

I’m only going to get 40 hours in Paris as a layover and am

trying to figure out which neighborhood to stay in to make the most of my time.

I have a reservation at Drouant for one night, but just want to wander and rely on serendipity for the other dining choices. And instead of tourist sites,  I’d rather immerse myself in a couple of areas that are good for simply seeing what people who are interested in food buy and how folks live.

I’m sure the information I seek is in here – I have read huge chunks of it in several days of exploring the forums, but my lack of facility with paris maps and neighborhoods makes a lot of the geography just run together for me.

I’m looking for a cheerful two days of recuperation back in society after my third tour in Iraq as a reporter. I have had to suffer greatly (yes, the unmentionable MREs, but also 40 tins of tuna and a hotel cook that I can't avoid due to security issues who has plied me with such beautiful dishes as a baked combination of sliced carrots, beets and cocktail cherries, and another of white bean, canned peas and ketchup.)

Thanks for any help you can offer.

←

It does not matter where you stay, with metro you can go anywhere.

Drouant is a good choice, but its not typical.its based on the mezza principle,i.e many small dishes.Choose a bistrot from the non touristy 17th ,11th(astier,repaire de cartouche,etc) for another meal.

Welcome to normalcy from hell

[JayP]

Good thoughts, Pierre, thank you much. I will certainly move around on the metro some, but I just enjoy walking in Paris so much and being surprised by little things that I didn't want to spend my short time swooping around to various target destinations.

So essentially I wanted a good base neighborhood and then will make a couple of "swoops."

And I suspect you are dead on about restaurant choice... that is why I made only one reservation and hope to eat more typically -- nicely, but more typically -- for the rest of my choices.

Good stuff, logical thinking, thanks again.

[Felice]

You might want to stay in a more central area and then as Pierre suggests, venture out in to some of the outer arrondissements for dinner. The 6th is a lovely place to stay, but aside from the marché biologique on Sunday I can't really say that it would suit your criteria for food as the marché on rue de Buci is nothing to write home about. The 7th might however, with the marché on rue Cler and a few very good bistros might be more what you are looking for. The 5th near rue monge might be another choice.

The following link has a list of markets in each arrondissement

http://www.v1.paris.fr/EN/Living/markets/markets.asp

[JayP]

Thanks, the list of markets will be helpful for sure. I guess what I'm looking forward to is an area to make my base that has good food shops and good bistros, and I will make forays from that.

When I settle on one, this market list inevitably will point me to a good stop for that, too.

[Pork Belly]

I need to beg for a synthesis of many of the cateorgies of information available here from folks who have much of it in their heads.

I’m only going to get 40 hours in Paris as a layover and am

trying to figure out which neighborhood to stay in to make the most of my time.

I have a reservation at Drouant for one night, but just want to wander and rely on serendipity for the other dining choices. And instead of tourist sites,  I’d rather immerse myself in a couple of areas that are good for simply seeing what people who are interested in food buy and how folks live.

I’m sure the information I seek is in here – I have read huge chunks of it in several days of exploring the forums, but my lack of facility with paris maps and neighborhoods makes a lot of the geography just run together for me.

I’m looking for a cheerful two days of recuperation back in society after my third tour in Iraq as a reporter. I have had to suffer greatly (yes, the unmentionable MREs, but also 40 tins of tuna and a hotel cook that I can't avoid due to security issues who has plied me with such beautiful dishes as a baked combination of sliced carrots, beets and cocktail cherries, and another of white bean, canned peas and ketchup.)

Thanks for any help you can offer.

←

It does not matter where you stay, with metro you can go anywhere.

Drouant is a good choice, but its not typical.its based on the mezza principle,i.e many small dishes.Choose a bistrot from the non touristy 17th ,11th(astier,repaire de cartouche,etc) for another meal.

Welcome to normalcy from hell

←

[Pork Belly]

I need to beg for a synthesis of many of the cateorgies of information available here from folks who have much of it in their heads.

I’m only going to get 40 hours in Paris as a layover and am

trying to figure out which neighborhood to stay in to make the most of my time.

I have a reservation at Drouant for one night, but just want to wander and rely on serendipity for the other dining choices. And instead of tourist sites,  I’d rather immerse myself in a couple of areas that are good for simply seeing what people who are interested in food buy and how folks live.

I’m sure the information I seek is in here – I have read huge chunks of it in several days of exploring the forums, but my lack of facility with paris maps and neighborhoods makes a lot of the geography just run together for me.

I’m looking for a cheerful two days of recuperation back in society after my third tour in Iraq as a reporter. I have had to suffer greatly (yes, the unmentionable MREs, but also 40 tins of tuna and a hotel cook that I can't avoid due to security issues who has plied me with such beautiful dishes as a baked combination of sliced carrots, beets and cocktail cherries, and another of white bean, canned peas and ketchup.)

Thanks for any help you can offer.

←

I would pick the Marais. That area is very centrally located and you'll be close to other areas that has markets, food shops, bistros and kitchen equipments...the Richard Lenoir open market is between the Marais and the Bastille; north of the Marais is the r. Rambuteau and Bretagne which is a nice commercial area; the great kitchen equipment shops are in Les Halles, just east of the Marais. If you decide on this area, there are many recommendations on this forum regarding to restaurants, etc.

[John Talbott]

I need to beg for a synthesis of many of the cateorgies of information available here from folks who have much of it in their heads.

I’m only going to get 40 hours in Paris as a layover and am

trying to figure out which neighborhood to stay in to make the most of my time.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

←

Incredible question from a courageous guy.

Recall, as Pierre says, you can be anywhere in Paris is a few minutes by Metro. That said, I'd recommend the 11th, Marche St Honore and Marche St Germain areas as places where you can view a lot of restaurants. As for markets, Felice and our market compendium answered that.

In truth, if it's great weather, darn near anywhere.

Have fun and good luck on R&R.

[JayP]

All great suggestions guys, I'm sure, I will def. take many of them.

Not courageous, John, I'm sure there are other words that fit better, some of them partly jocular ("stupid" ), some not so jocular and perhaps not particularly admirable. "Bored", for example, since once you have done it, it's never quite the same covering things back home. And it is deeply interesting. For others, not me, it's ambition. But yeah, courage for many of them (google Dexter Filkins' stuff on the 2nd battle of Fallujah) and there are a dozen others out there with icewater instead of blood, though now even Filkins says it's impossible to report here for westerners.

One word that does fit, though, is hungry. Your reviews of bistros that I've been soaking up here will certainly double my pleasure on my scant days in Paris, they're done in quite a nice style, the bits of humor modulated just right, and humane even where there is bad news to break. Clearly you recognize that even a restaurant that is an utter failure still requires terrible amounts of work.

Indeed, I was happy to find this web site, it seems so sane and dignified compared to much of the free-for-all stuff on the web.

Sorry to hijack my own topic, Now, back to our sponsor...

thanks much.

[kiliki]

The 7th might however, with the marché on rue Cler and a few very good bistros might be more what you are looking for.

I don't consider myself a Paris expert-I've spent only two week long vacations there-but both times I've stayed in the 7th near Rue Cler and I was in heaven with the choices for dining out (my favorites are the 3 Christian Constant places within a block of each other on Rue St. Dominique), take out/charcuterie (La Maison du Jambon esp.), chocolate shops (Michel Chaudun and Gregory Renaud, who makes very good macarons as well), patisseries (Jean Miller esp.), specialty shops (Lenotre)... I also like the fact that Rue Cler is a pedestrian only street-it's great fun just to sit at a cafe and people watch there.

Edited October 14, 2006 by kiliki (log)

[Culinista]

If I hear you correctly, you want a place with more Parisians than tourists. In that case, I'd choose the 17th near Ternes. (I used to live on rue Theodule Ribot off Wagram.) The Parc Monceau is very nice, and you have the Poncelet and rue de Levi markets. The Etoile and Champs-Elysees is a short walk away, but the place is full of small good-quality bistros as well as bigger places.