So jealous Bingo SF. I'll be eager to hear about your trip.

A problem with starting trip reports is finding the time to finish them ... coupled with the fact that I'm having a tough time remembering all the details of some of these terrific meals.

Off to the Sheraton Prince de Galles ...

We got off the metro at the George V station and walked about two blocks to the Sheraton Prince de Galles. This hotel has a great location – being so close to the yellow 1 metro line I most often use and being within a 10-minute walk of every restaurant I had reservations at except for Maceo. After reading lots of negative comments about this hotel on FT, I didn’t have very high expectations. I was pleasantly surprised. The staff was delightful and at check-in we were upgraded to a very large room, with two large cedar-lined closets, king-sized bed and ample seating area. It also had a scale in the bathroom. This always baffles me. Why do hotels put scales in their rooms? The last thing I want to do when I’m away from home indulging myself is step on a scale. A scale in the gym – fine – but in my room – no way! Shortly after check-in room service arrived with a gift bottle of Piper-Heidsick champagne and a box of chocolates. Champagne and chocolates and a scale. Lovely.

The concierge reconfirmed all of our meal reservations and suggested a restaurant around the corner for us for that evening – Bistro d’Oliver. He called ahead to make reservations and to make sure the chef could offer us some vegetarian items. I’m always a little skeptical of concierge recommendations, but the food and service were both very good. We started with a complimentary bowl of vegetable soup followed by a goat cheese terrine with a ribbon of carrots running through it and topped with diced tomato. It was excellent. Dinner was a plate of various winter vegetables – an uninspired dish but all of the vegetables were nicely cooked. We followed it up with one shared slice of chocolate cake for dessert. Dinner with wine came to just $66 – at home pizza and beer for the three of us usually runs almost that much.

We spent the rest of the evening bundled up, walking along the Seine.

The following day we traipsed through Les Halles, visiting some of the gourmet food shops and also the professional chefs stores (thank you Willie__Wonka). I picked up some chef’s clogs for Zach. They are Swedish-made, but at $30 a pair far cheaper than I could get them for in Sweden or in the states where they’re two to three times the price. I also bought him a mandolin for $60, less than half of what it sells for in the U.S. We picked up panini and chocolate eclairs for lunch and then ventured into a lot of the artist shops in the area.

Dinner that night was at Alain Ducasse’s Spoon. This restaurant is billed as having a novel approach to food. The menu has several columns where for salads, for instance, you select your greens, then move to the second column to select your dressing then to the third column for any toppings. Frankly, none of the selections were very unique or interesting and the restaurant itself was largely style over substance. It’s definitely a place to see and be seen. When we arrived the maitre’d made no attempt to hide that he was checking out the labels in our coats as he took them and also our watches. While we looked at the menu, the server brought us a seafood salad topped with avocado sauce in tall, narrow liqueur glasses. We ate the avocado and left the seafood.

Looking across the salad list I ordered endive with blue cheese sauce and croutons. This was a rather boring salad but served in what looked to be a narrow, round vase. It was an attractive presentation, but definitely difficult to eat.

In the pasta column, they had just one pasta shape to select and a choice of just a couple of sauces – pesto and tomato. In the third column, you could select from a topping of gruyere, julienned baked ham or parmesan. I had the tomato sauce and the parmesan, which was mediocre and Rod had the pesto, which wasn’t bad, but was as good as one could find it anywhere.

With a shared chocolate dessert and a couple of glasses of wine the bill came to $134, probably our one overpriced meal in France.

Lunch at Pierre Gagnaire

We were only in France a week and on short trips to large cities we’ve found it easier to avoid trying to adjust to the time difference. Instead we sleep in as late as we want and then stay out until early morning. We had lunch reservations at Pierre Gagnaire for 12:30 p.m. and were out of the hotel just in time for the 10-minute walk to the restaurant.

The restaurant is very contemporary and somewhat small, seating somewhere around 50 people, I’d guess. We were among the first guests to arrive for lunch and were seated in an elevated area with a good view of the relatively small wine cellar and the rest of the tables.

We glanced at the lunch menu and let the maitre’d know we would like the vegetarian tasting menu, which is not on the carte. What followed was a feast to die for – or at least worth robbing a bank for, which at $550 for two with wine is about what it required. I can’t begin to remember all the courses, but we started with a some chips served up in a mixture of spices like so many sand dollars standing in a bed of sand. There was then a green tomato soup that was wonderful and an artichoke heart salad. It was really one amazing course after the other. There was risotto with pumpkin and a leek dish with the leek leaves all woven together. We asked the sommelier to chose the wines and started with a couple of glasses of champagne followed by a bottle of 1996 Macon Les Cras, Merlin. Being from California it was a bit of a surprise to see how inexpensive quality wines were in Paris. We’ve certainly read how inflated Napa wine prices have become but it didn’t really sink in until we saw the wine list at Gagnaire. The markup on French wines was also much less than the markup we’re used to at home.

Service was really spectacular. At one point in the meal I turned to look behind me for the bottle to refill my water glass and three servers literally ran to beat me to it. And early on in the meal Pierre came by each table and said hello.

We must have had eight courses before dessert, which involved another six plates. There were two chocolate concoctions, one dish of ice cream with edible pansies, some miniature strawberries inside a little crispy cone and a couple of others I can’t recall.

While all our plates arrived on stark white dishes, a nearby table had a few of their plates served on more interesting dishes. Their champagne was served in stems that fit into what appeared to be copper spirals with a giant ball base that remained on the table. I’m guessing it was caviar that arrived in tiny silver boxes and their espressos came in small white cups that when sitting on the table appeared to be tilted. I love fun dishes.

Lunch at Pierre Gagnaire lasted 4.5 hours and was probably the best meal I’ve had though Rod felt Tru edged out Gagnaire. Completely stuffed, we somehow made our way back to the hotel and took a brief nap before venturing out for the evening.

Next: More food, a $25 hot chocolate and some fun shopping finds