My last trip to Paris was memorable mostly for the recommendations of my concierge whom, when I said I was looking for good vegetarian meals, made me reservations at some ‘70s throwbacks where I dined on soy and wheat gluten. Tempeh in Paris. Ugh. I’d read that Paris’ top chefs were now offering vegetarian menus so I was eager to return, but this time I would do my homework and arrive armed with restaurant reservations. I turned to the experts for advice - I got Charlie Trotter’s opinion and read Gourmet but mostly relied on my most trusted advisors - the denizens of FlyerTalk. I left for Paris with reservations at Pierre Gagnaire, Spoon, L’Angle du Faubourg and Maceo.

From home, it was a quick mid-day trip into the city and down 101. We stopped first at a deli for some sandwiches before heading to the ParkSFO garage. The sandwiches have become insurance policies for Rod and me - if we come with food, UA offers a vegetarian entrée on the menu. If we don’t have the sandwiches, it’s a salad, roll and hot fudge sundae or cheesecake for us. (I don’t order veg meals because I’ve never been served a good one in any class of service.) There was no line at UA 1K check-in and Rod and I received our boarding passes and headed off to security. I pretty much try and strip at security to avoid the wand, but I forgot about my bracelet and it set off the machine.

The RCC was pretty empty. I sipped a lemon drop and Rod had a beer while we made a few phone calls and waited for our flight to be called.

We boarded the plane and just as Rod was stashing our luggage I realized I left the sandwiches in the gate area when I set them down to get out my passport. I had to get those sandwiches - not only did our meals depend on them, but they were now in, gasp, an unattended bag. If I didn’t get it quick no doubt they’d be evacuating the airport and calling in the bomb squad to blow up our veggies on sourdough. I hurried out and told the agent I’d left a bag behind, forgetting that it had now been out of my control. She quizzed me about where it was and I kept saying it’s right there, six feet away. She let me retrieve the sandwiches and save who knows how many people from being stuck at SFO due to a suspicious deli bag.

The sandwich insurance worked and we had some nice pastas in-flight. The sandwiches hit the trash. I can’t remember much of the flight. Despite years of stubbornly resisting certain pharmaceuticals, I decided to take the better-living-through-science approach. I took a mild sedative and slept soundly.

CDG’s immigration area looks like a zoo – there are about two agents working – but it moves quickly as they simply collect landing cards.

We took the airport bus to the train and the train to Versailles (about $10 each). The Westin Trianon Palace was about five minutes by cab from the station ($8). This hotel had so many favorable reviews on FT that we booked two nights there before moving to Paris.

The hotel is on property adjacent to the palace. It’s set back out of town a bit, but is easy walking distance from most everything. The lobby is small - nonexistent really - but there’s a nice indoor pool and spa. We booked our room using a 50-percent-off coupon and paid $269 a night – rack was $540 and the cheapest I found it for without a coupon was $350ish. The room was small, but nice and overlooked the park. We received a box of caramels as a thank you.

I suspect most visitors to Versailles never step foot beyond the palace, which is too bad because it’s very charming.

Next: Visiting Versailles



[This message has been edited by letiole (edited 11-24-2002).]

Is UA's ice-cream veggie? I would be surprised, since very little ice-cream is...

christep: Good question and something I hadn't thought about before. I just looked at a Dreyer's label and noticed they use no animal fats, but I don't know what brand of ice cream UA uses. I know I can't avoid all animals - they're in everything from cosmetics to alcohol - but I avoid the obvious. No doubt some of the cheeses, desserts and chocolates I had in France - or regularly at home, for that matter - contained rennet, gelatin and myristic acid. It ain't easy bein' green.

Versailles is filled with wonderful little streets that lead to courtyards filled mostly with antique and antique reproduction shops. You’re also never far from a boutique filled with beautiful clothes for les enfants. Only restaurants must out number children’s shops in France. One friend just had a baby and another has one on the way, giving me great excuses to have fun buying miniature clothing. I also found a jewelry store where I picked out several fun pieces and was able to hold a fairly long conversation in French with the owner. I took French in college and brushed up a little with some Pimsleur tapes before this trip, but I’m far – make that very far - from fluent (and as you might have guessed by my FT name I wasn't exactly an étudiant d'étoile). Lucky for me our conversation mirrored some of the text book dialogues. Rod was most impressed. I didn’t tell him I used most every French word I know and just might have thrown in an Italian one or two when I got stuck. In Versailles, we ate simply – crepes one night; calzone and pasta the next.

We visited the palace on Saturday. We planned to visit Sunday as it would likely be one of the only places open that day, but the conceirge said that all the tour groups from Paris would have the same thought and the palace would be jammed. The Palace at Versailles was a getaway for the king, but he shared it with 10,000 members of his staff. Though the place looks immense, when you consider that many people had been living there it doesn’t seem quite so spacious. To escape the large numbers of people in the main palace, he also had a smaller getaway on the same grounds.

On Saturday, it was pretty empty and we took one of the self-guided tours that included the hall of mirrors (how is it that security is so lax in a palace that people have time to scrawl and etch graffiti in the glass?) and the king’s bedroom. The bedroom had several benches at the foot of the bed. We read that the hottest ticket in town way back when was a seat to watch the king go to sleep and wake up. Whatever.

We also walked around the grounds and had hot chocolates and panini at one of the snack bars in the park. Drottningholm Palace in Stockholm is considered a miniature Versailles and we certainly saw why – looking up from the gardens they look almost identical. Because it was fairly cold the statues in the gardens were all bundled up, but I’m sure it’s quite impressive in spring.

Back in the hotel they offered a one-hour Internet access card for $12. We had sent some emails home to check on 13-year-old Zach/Twiz and my mother who was kind enough to come down and shuttle him to his various classes and activities. We had left Zach a few hundred dollars in cash for food and his Amex card.

On Saturday we received the following email:

Guess what? I got a great deal on a refurbished laptop. It was supposed to be $350, but we got him down to $300 and it comes with the case and modem and a 60-day guarantee. I used $100 of my money, but you can pay me back when you get home.

Message to Zach:

Having a nice time. Versailles is a nice town and, while it threatens to rain, it hasn’t so far. BTW, we did some shopping too. We bought a Boxster. I hope you weren’t too set on MIT. I’m sure you’ll find a UC school you like.

Message from Zach:

You guys are mean. But if you spent my college money on the Boxster, do I get to take it to college?

Message to Zach:

Fat chance. Take the laptop.

We checked out about 4 p.m. on Sunday. The only outrageous thing on the bill were $3 charges for each toll-free call. Local calls, including those to Paris, were free. We had the concierge call a cab to take us back to the train station. Oddly enough I didn’t see a single cab in Versailles with a taxi sign on top. I don’t have a clue how you would spot a cab from the street. The hotel called a car and we were off for Paris.

Next: Eating our way through Paris


[This message has been edited by letiole (edited 11-24-2002).]

So far, so good.

Then again, that's what the guy said at the 5th floor after falling out a window on the 10th.

Will prepare for the main courses by reading a few bits from A J Leibling's Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris.

I'm afraid you'll be disappointed if you prepare for my accounts by reading Leibling. While I borrowed from his title, I wish I had both his appetite and his writing style ... the former would have served me well when faced with some 15 plates of food at Gagnaire.

Make sure to check out Fauchon in Paris: it is one of the finest gourmet food shops in Paris. Also try the Rue de Rossier in the Marais, as it has some excellent fallafel and great food.

Eagerly awaiting the next installment

Departing myself for Paris tomorrow and will be taking my best friend - who just so happens to be a pastry chef with a top SF French bakery - with me to assist with my culinary choices Pretty good deal for me, I'd say. The owner of the bakery (and several French restaurants in SF) has drawn up a list of must see "sights" aka patisseries that we must visit. I'll report back upon my return

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

Letiole,

Glad to see that you found the Bistro du Olivier also. I found this bistro wandering around Paris one evening, and I think it has very excellent French food at affordable prices. You should try lunch or dinner at either the Hotel Ritz or Hotel Bristol, as they are world renowned for some of the best cuisine in the world.

Can't wait for the next installment

I'm back from my quick trip and dined very well. We tried:

Chez Denise (La Tour de Montlhery)
5 rue Prouvaires
01.42.36.21.82
Couldn't get in here until 10:30p (due to the large size of our group). Had a wonderful very authentic meal, heavy on the meat though. My sis is a vegitarian though, and thoroughly enjoyed herself (and had plenty of yummy food to eat). FTers Techgirl and CapnBob joined my best friend and me, as well as two Parisian friends of my friend.

Restaurant Thoumieux
79 rue St. Dominique
01.47.05.49.75
Upon Techgirl's recommendation, we dined here our second night. Food was very good but the room was steamy hot that night and very crowded. It was a huge event to get those seated on the banquette out to use the facilities, leave, etc. But the fois gras was very yummy indeed. I had the Cassoulet and it was fantastic. CapnBob's Andouillette left a bit to be desired.

Bofinger
7 rue de la Bastille
01.42.72.87.82
Third night was again a late one, with a 10:30p reservation. Lovely ambiance, we were seated under the stained glass dome. Surrounded by Americans, as we would expect given our preference for the non fumeurs section. But they weren't too ugly The restaurant is known for its seafood and choucroute (strange combo, but it worked). We really enjoyed our fois gras and a lovely avocado and shrimp mille feuille with tomatoes. My entree, grilled salmon, was average. Stef's choucroute with seafood was interesting. Not knock your socks off, but glad we ordered it.

I need to get a full and complete list of the patisseries we visited. Everything we sampled was excellent.

chitownflyer: Yes, Bistro d'Oliver must be one of the best bargains in Paris, especially considering the location it's in. Thanks for the other recommendations. I'll write them down for next time.

Sounds like you had a wonderful time Bingo SF. Thanks for the rundown.

The next installment from someone who's being very slow about this:

We spent the evening after our lunch indulgence walking around the lively, restaurant-filled Latin Quarter. We saw the veggie restaurant where we had our tempeh meal last time we were in Paris. I didn't realize it at the time, but ironically enough it's on Rue de Boucherie. Neither of us were hungry for dinner, but agreed we’d get some hot chocolates when we returned to the hotel.

In the hotel bar we ordered two hot chocolates each with a shot of Grand Mariner. The bartender looked at us a little strangely, but did as we asked. Later on we realized why he perhaps thought our order a little odd – the hot chocolates were $7.50 each and the Grand Mariner was $16 each, making each cup of chocolate $23.50. Rod decided he was hungry and I figured he couldn’t eat alone so we also had cheese and tomato sandwiches at $15 each – for a grand total of $77. So that was our second over-priced meal in France.

I check email before going to bed.
Zach wrote:
I found the most fantastic deal on an incubator. It’s a $10,000 incubator and I’m getting it for $100. I used your PayPal account.

I wrote:
A laptop and an incubator? Well, we bought lunch and hot chocolates today. Maybe you should start looking at community colleges in California. I hear they are really very good.

Zach replied:
You’re not serious are you? You guys are really, really mean.

The following day we spent walking from the Sacre Couer to the Pompideu Center and the Stravinsky fountain. I was tempted to shop for fabrics and trims in the fabric market area but decided that would best be saved for a trip without Rod. I found lots of wonderful little artisan shops where I bought several pieces of jewelry and also a handmade beaded and feathered hanging lamp for our guest bath. The lightbulbs are different in France so when the bulb burns out I'll have to make another trip to Paris for replacements. I think that’s going to be our new nightlight that has to burn all the time.

Dinner was at Maceo, a recommendation from blairvanhorn. We had a little trouble finding it only because we didn’t realize the street numbers go up one side of the street and then down the other, so the restaurant wasn’t where we expected it to be. We were seated in a large dining room upstairs. The menu featured a vegetarian fixed-price option with a few selections to chose from within that. I had tempura eggplant with gnocchi preceded by an artichoke dish and followed by a dense chocolate torte. The three-coure fixed-price meal was $35 per person. We let the sommelier select wine pairing for us and each glass was wonderful and a bargain at only about $4-5 each.

Next: Exploring the islands and dinner at L'Angle.

An article that may be of interest to some:
----------------------------------------------
Let them eat cake

Chic hotels, atmosphere, romance - what more could you wish for in Paris? Being able to find half-decent food for vegetarians would help, Gwyn Topham discovers

http://travel.guardian.co.uk/countri...852882,00.html

As usual, letiole, you have posted a well-written and enticing trip report. I can't wait for the next installment. The Gagnaire meal sounded heavenly.

letiole, dear...I know you've been busy travelling, but if you still remember tell us about
[This message has been edited by Nanook (edited 01-15-2003).]