Paris France Guide: Paris Hotels, Food, Wine and Discounts

A pleasant and thorough introduction to the wines of the Rhone Valley, both North and South, was recently held at the French Embassy in Washington. The tasting featured fine wines, well displayed by their knowledgeable distributors. The able wine missionary work of the French Wine Society, which helped organize the event and publicize it, deserves particular note. It was suggested that these wines are now being “rediscovered”: hence the title for the tasting. Whether that is entirely the case or not, it is certainly true that with a few well-known exceptions, such as Châteauneuf  du Pape (CDP), these wines deserve to be better known.

There’s something absurd in Paris and it doesn’t quite fit.  Parisians are not absurd, not by nature and not, I’ve always thought, by artful choice.  The theatre of the absurd flourished here and might even claim Paris as its capital. But not so with the new absurdistes I’ve been seeing this spring in Paris.  They are riding scooters.  Not motor scooters, but the Razor, an American child’s toy that also caught on with some adults in the States, but mostly they were high school and college students.  There, the Razor is passé.  It seems to have caught on in Paris this year, and those who scoot are mostly young children.  But there have been too many adult men (I haven’t seen a single woman scooting), and they bother me. 

The adage that you can’t get a bad meal is Paris is ever so wrong. And during this time when the dollar buys relatively nothing compared to the euro, Alexander Lobrano’s book is especially welcome. It’s also a breath of fresh air for passionate eaters, whether they are gourmets, gourmands or people who simply care about what they put in their stomachs.

It's Spring and thoughts go to getting out of town. How about a visit to Monet's House? New York born Aileen Bordman, passionate about Normandy, is intent on bringing Claude Monet, Father of Impressionism, to your attention, if you're in the USA, France or Europe.  

London is such an energetic, dynamic city, now is definitely the right time to open a restaurant here. Mayfair and The Dorchester provide the perfect address, right in the heart of this vibrant city”, says Alain Ducasse. And, after several really average meals in Paris lately, it was a pleasure to take Eurostar (2hrs 20mins) and head off to Park Lane.