- France
- (1977)
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For a truly romantic dinner try Restaurant Lapérouse overlooking the Seine - you will not find a place like it anywhere in Paris.
It is unique in that it still has private dining rooms in the rear of the building for clandestine dinner parties.
However, the best place to eat is in the main room for the view of the river. After a superb traditional French meal, I proposed to my fiancée on New Year’s Eve just as the fireworks were starting to explode all over the city – we are to be married next year!
There is an excellent garden walkway above the Viaduc des Arts on the Avenue Daumesnil by the Opera Bastille.
There's a restaurant called Marc Mitonne in the 1st arrondissement near the Louvre-Rivoli tube station.
If you go there on a Friday (which we did), the dessert you choose can be served to you as many times as you want! We had tarte tatin and home-made sorbets twice.
If you're going to Paris head straight from the Gare du Nord to the wonderful 'Rose Bakery' on the Rue Des Martyns. It's the best cafe with the best cakes in the city!
If you are out for the whole season or even for more than one weeks, these guys seem to know what is happenning and where. They are also getting a 'discount card' sorted for those who are out for long enough wanting one.
Oldest seafood cafe in Nice. Eat moules, oyster, lobster and shellfish platters. Wash them down with delicious white wine/whisky.
Plaza Garibaldi
Don't miss the Prix De L'Arc de Triomphe horse race at the beginning of October.
It's Ascot, French style. You can buy tickets on the gate, giving you access to most areas (cheaply). The organisation is slick, with buses from local metro stations (such as Porte Malliot) whisking punters to the Longchamps course, which is in the heart of Paris.
Visit "Le Zimmer" (a stone's throw from Notre Dame) and you'll see why this restaurant inspired the idea for "Le Tour".
If you've ever experienced more sumptuous carpets and curtains you clearly are or are related to Linda Barker!
La Rotisserie d'En Face, 2 rue Christine 75006 Paris is a magnificent restaurant.
You have never tasted spit roasted free range organic chicken like it and the mashed potato is possibly the best in the world.
I impressed them when I had the Hereford irish prime rib with bearnaise sauce by having another jug of bearnaise.
Do I need to mention the creme brulee?
Treat your taste buds and try the ice cream at Berthillon (29-31 rue Saint Louis en l'Ile). You will find it by taking a footbridge behind Notre-Dame leading to the beautiful Ile St- Louis.
If your on a budget in Paris stay at the Hotel Innova, 5mins walk from the Effiel Tower and only £27 a night.
Louvre blues? The antidote is Musee Jacquemart-Andre (B Haussmann, west of Gare St Lazare).
Climb the lightest of monumental staircases to a wonderful private art collection in a sumptuous Second Empire mansion. Splendid audioguide.
And when exhilarated rather than exhausted make for the tearoom, or walk back along Boulevard Haussmann for celebratory lunch at Brasserie Mollard.
Being a vegetarian in France is always a challenge - but at Le Grenier de Notre Dame, within a lentil's spitting distance from the Left Bank (18 Rue de la Bucherie, ironically enough), veggies will find on the menu not just edible, but interesting.
I enjoyed an Algerian dish - and the point is that you still get the experience and joy of a good French restaurant, without the endless array of meat. Yum!
Stay at the Hotel Mayet, a design hotel that is reasonably priced. The rooms are small but beautifully designed and romantic. There are large graffiti murals in the lobby, very fun.
Take a trip to the 'Jardin Tropicale' in the Bois de Vincennes. Unknown to Parisians the garden was opened in 1899 to research the viability of farming tropical crops in temperate Europe.
Bought in 2003 by the town its abanoned colonial pavilions and the floral ancestors of the long forgotton project make for a tranquil and exotic afternoon from busteling central Paris.
Admission to national museums in Paris is free on the first Sunday of each month. Please also note museums in Paris are shut on Monday.
For some of the best views in Paris skip the eiffel Tower and it's queues and climb either the Arc De Triomphe (only 284 steps) with some fab views of the city including the Eiffel Tower & Champs Elysees or Notre Dame Cathedral (only 387 steps) for a different perspective of the city.
Or if you are feeling really energetic do both and compare and contrast the views. Paris at its best!
The best and most fun way to see the sights of Paris is to take a personal tour in an original 40-year-old Citroen 2CV complete with a bereted driver.
Besides soaking up the atmosphere you feel like a minor celebrity as tourists jostle to get a snap of this motoring curiosity. The engine stalling, dodgy gear changes and the driver's curses directed at other motorists who have cut him up along the Champs D'Elysee, all add to the Gallic charm and fun.
Local markets in the Paris suburbs offer really good value for money along with local produce not always seen in central Paris.
Take a small kettle or heater and teabags as the French cannot make a decent cuppa or always have drink facilities in hotel rooms.
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