I resisted seeing Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache’s new feel-good film, Intouchables, for some time on the principle that any film that popular couldn’t be very good, but when its ticket sales just kept climbing and started to break records … Read More
For many years, the Place Sainte Marthe, one of Paris’s little treasures, has been frequented by an uneasy mix of bohemians (not quite bobos, or bourgeois bohemians) and drug dealers. There have always been a few trendy, inexpensive cafés and … Read More
It’s a phenomenon: Paris’s first gourmet food truck, if you can call a hamburger gourmet food (for the purposes of this article, let’s agree to do so). The other night, we braved the cold to line up for an hour … Read More
Le Havre is a hybrid film in more ways than one. Made by a Finnish director in French and set in France, it is an old-fashioned fairytale about a very timely issue, illegal immigration. Director Aki Kaurismäki, known for his … Read More
If any street in Paris is pas sage (not well behaved), it is the Rue Saint Denis, famous for its sex shops and ladies of the night lurking in doorways. The sex shops and ladies are still there, but perhaps … Read More
Having never before tried one of those dinner boats plying the Seine, I recently tested the new menu created by chef Martial Enguehard (Meilleur Ouvrier de France, formerly of Lucas Carton and the Crillon) for the Capitaine Fracasse. The food … Read More
All the talk in Paris the last couple of weeks has been of the new movie L’Exercice de l’État, which dissects French political life and gives an unflinching insight into the corridors of power. Most of the major newspapers and … Read More
The concept craze has hit Paris, and it’s not at all a bad thing. The Hôtel Renaissance Paris Le Parc Trocadéro (55-57 Avenue Raymond Poincare, 75116 Paris) has redone its bar in green and white to go with the garden … Read More
Pros: charming interior, high-level cuisine, judicious mix of genres, fine selection of sake and wine, highly attentive service Cons: no natural wines, rather expensive, unremarkable dessert It seems like everyone in Paris has been talking about Kunitoraya II, piquing … Read More
Pros: hearty, unpretentious food; great, crusty bread; big wine list; warm ambiance Cons: cooking times need attention After a stroll through Paris’s Parc des Buttes Chaumont on a recent Indian summer evening, a friend and I were wondering where we … Read More
