Planning for Paris: $600 food?

Since the fried zucchini flower experiment, my kitchen has been unadventurous although you cannot beat sliced tomato, fresh mozzarella and bit of pesto for dinner!

Each evening for the past week, I've been busy planning for an upcoming trip to Paris. It's been 5 years since I was there and 15 years since I lived in France. I am looking forward to speaking French, drinking GREAT coffee, eating GREAT food, and buying an Hermes scarf.

I'm meeting my parents in Chicago and we're flying over specifically for the Paris Airshow. Frankly I don't care if I see another airplane after a 9 hr flight in COACH from O'Hare, BUT my dad is on an expense account so Mom and I thought we would tag a long and pay for ourselves to have a good time while my dad is working. Or perhaps I should say "working". My dad is the kind of person who thinks standing around near airplanes and talking to people is fun. Probably more fun, in fact, than La Musee D'Orsay!

The top Paris restaurants for food, according to Zagat's, are Taillevent (also #1 most popular), Pierre Gagnaire, Alain Ducasse, Cinq, and Guy Savoy. These are the kinds of places were you could easily spent $600 on dinner for two. I cannot think of anywhere quite like that in the US except maybe Per Se in NYC. Anyway, neither the expense account nor my parents are too keen on those kinds of prices. What cost that expensive anyway? Edible gold-leaf foil encrusted lobsters stuffed with truffles and beluga caviar?

The only way to hit these restaurants is to go at lunch when they have fixed price menus for around $150. That's still a pretty penny, n'est-ce pas?

I have already booked tables at two wonderful places: L'Angle du Faubourg (sister restaurant to Taillevent minus the stratospheric prices) and Antoine Westermann's Drouant (one Michelin star).

I am also determined to eat at a cheese shop/restaurant called Androuet sur le Puce, to have some escargots, and to eat pastries every day.

I'll be rolling back to Raleigh. Remember what I said about dieting?