The wine bar La Cave du Paul Bert is so new that the sign painter was still tracing out letters on the front windows when we arrived last week. Judging by the meal we had, however, you would never have known that this was a new restaurant, so assured was the preparation of each creative dish we tasted.
It is strangely quiet now in the newly renovated Rodin Museum, located in the 18th-century Hôtel Biron. The handsome Versailles parquet, now shored up to support the weight of the master’s heavy statues, makes nary a squeak (it used to … Read More
Once upon a time, Thoumieux was a much-loved brasserie with a wonderful, rather rundown old-fashioned decor and mediocre food. Whenever I found myself in the seventh arrondissement with a group of friends, it was the fallback restaurant; they all wanted to go there.
A friend with a sharp eye spotted Botanique even before it opened, when its pretty little two-story yellow-brick building with a long row of windows was being renovated. A couple of months after the opening, she invited me to dinner upstairs in the “gastronomic” dining room, where a tasting menu is served in the evening.
Until I ordered a steak that turned out to be the size of a 33-rpm record at the bistro Savy a few years ago, I never felt the need to ask for a doggy bag in a French restaurant. Servings … Read More
It’s difficult to believe that the Marais, today a bastion of elegance – as it was when its graceful hôtels particuliers were built in the 17th century – was for much of the 20th century a grimy, dilapidated, poverty-stricken quartier … Read More
“God, what a bore it is to have to dress up and go out when one would ever so much rather stay at home,” the Duchess de Guermantes says ingenuously in Marcel Proust’s novel A la Recherche du Temps Perdu … Read More
I really didn’t know what to expect from Café Pelican, a new restaurant in the 10th arrondissement, mainly because I knew nothing about it. It had been chosen by my food-blogger friend John Talbott, and I always trust his choices.
Émilie Brisavoine’s documentary Pauline s’Arrache (Oh La La Pauline!) initially reminded me of the kind of clip that might attract 30 views on YouTube, with the 15-year-old Pauline talking to the camera about the minutiae of a life that would … Read More
Wealth combined with good taste and an eye for the new often leads to the creation of a great art collection. That was the case with the Swiss couple Hedy Bühler and Arthur Hahnloser, who in the early 20th century … Read More
