French dramatist and screenwriter Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) said: “Everything ends this way in France – everything. Weddings, Christenings, duels, burials, swindlings, diplomatic affairs – everything is a pretext for a good dinner.”
Having lived in Paris for decades, I believe Anouilh had it down. Here, it’s always about your next meal, which can be an excellent experience for me - but only if I go out!
I remember being warned in the late 1980s about the outlandish prices of restaurants in Paris. Then, in the mid-1990s, the Celtic Tiger’s claws grabbed and tugged the prices of Irish restaurants upwards, and despite the 2008 economic crisis and other ups and downs, Dublin restaurant prices remain more expensive than Paris. Here, you can generally have a good meal without breaking the bank, but there are also restaurants in the City of Light for which you’d gladly break it.
I like to be well seated in a restaurant – no overpriced, Bohemian bourgeois, upturned wine crates for this posterior. A sumptuous, historic, authentic Parisian interior is as important to me as the meal. And my husband, who bases his judgements on “what’s on the plate”, has also given his thumbs up for these addresses.
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I have my favourite table in Café Blanche. Christian Norou, the dapper owner and manager, makes his guests feel like VIPs. Cocooned in a Belle Époque decor, the food won’t disappoint. The French onion soup is a must-have. Live music at weekends, and just two doors down from where the Gestapo arrested feisty Irish woman Margaret Kelly, dancer and founder of the Blue Bell Girls dancing troupe. Today, tuxedoed maître d’s from the nearby Moulin Rouge dine in Café Blanche between the cabarets’ two nightly shows. (Dinner with drinks is about €35 per person).
I’m keen on Bouillon restaurants, which offer hearty retro classics at surprisingly reasonable prices, often in old fabulous interiors. Chartier, Grands Boulevards in the ninth district, opened its doors in 1896 and is the original of the three Chartiers in Paris (no reservations, go early to avoid queuing). It has high ceilings, brass hat racks, dark wooden panelling inlaid with mirrors, and small-numbered drawers where regulars of yore used to bring and leave their own personal serviettes (about €20 per person).
I adore Le Polidor, rue Monsieur-le-Prince, in the sixth district. It opened as a cheese shop in 1845 and became a restaurant in 1890. It has welcomed many famous artists, including Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Jean Jaurès, James Joyce, André Gide, and Ernest Hemingway. In Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, Scott Fitzgerald introduced Gil Pender, the Hollywood screenwriter protagonist, to Hemingway in this legendary spot. (€25 for entrée, main meal and dessert).
The iconic La Coupole art-deco brasserie dates from the Roaring Twenties Montparnasse. Its menu is varied in price, and I often tuck into their €22.50 fish and chips. Twenty-seven artists, including Marc Chagall and Louis Latapie, painted La Coupole’s pillars and murals. The police had to be called on its inaugural 1927 evening as the Parisian artistic avant-garde invitees partied so rowdily. Today, the Bâronne de Paname hosts retro-current thematic monthly balls in its legendary downstairs ballroom. Her festive followers, called “Coupoliens”, start their scintillating, dressed-up evenings from 10pm (sometimes after tucking into platters of fresh shellfish upstairs) and dance till dawn. Admission to the balls costs €26, but is free if you dine at La Coupole. The theme for the November 9th ball was “Hollywood, Splendour and Decadence”.
For a restaurant that is literally a part of a majestic Parisian monument, I would recommend Café Marly, nestled in the heart of the Tuileries gardens beneath the arches of the Louvre. Opened in 1994, almost a century after my other recommendations, it’s a chic Parisian brasserie with a literary cafe vibe. From the terrace you can enjoy the spectacular glass and metal Louvre Pyramid, one of François Mitterrand’s Grand Projects. The interior is romantic – remember to reserve in one of the two “Petit Marly salons” from where you can gaze into the Louvre’s Cour Marly through a glass wall and see the rearing Marly Horse sculpture. Approximately €80 per person to dine a la carte – or you can have a snack. I often go just for a drink, to enjoy the view, to people-watch and soak in the luxury of the place.
For my last recommendation, I’m tempting you barely outside the Parisian pale to Le Sébillon (metro: Porte Maillot), which opened its Belle Époque doors in 1914. Accompanied by their signature white beans, the roast leg of lamb, carved on a trolley right in front of you, will melt in your mouth. There are also fish dishes and seafood platters for the less carnivore. (about €60 pp)
Bon appétit!
- Patricia Killeen is from Phibsborough in Dublin. She left Ireland in 1992 to travel the world. She now lives in Saint Ouen, on the outskirts of Paris. She hosts Turning Points for World Radio Paris
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