Visit the Rue Mouffetard for great traditional French food either in pretty French bistros or sitting in the street cafes.
A culinary gem serving ONLY a simple salad start with two rounds of stesk and chips to follow but with oodles of Parisian style. Right in the heart of St Germain, a great place to begin an evening.
20 bis rue St. Benoit, nearest metro St. Germain des Pres
For the most exquisite patisserie, go to Laduree on Le Champs Elysees. Amazing macaroons, and one of the oldest, most beautiful tea rooms for resting your weary feet after all that walking.
Hacienda Los Gorriones are two 'cortijos' (typical Andalusian cottages) tucked away in olive-dotted mountains in the Sierra Norte (about 1.5 hours north from either Sevilla or Cordoba).
The cottages are located in an area of dramatic landscapes, and within an area renowned throughout Spain for its Iberian cured and fresh meats. The owners of the cottages also run a ham drying facility, and for a very reasonable price you can enjoy excellent Iberian fare in the barbecue.
The cottages make an excellent detour for people visiting Sevilla and Cordoba, and are ideal for people wanting to go walking in the hills. There are very few tourists, but the cottages are often booked by locals for the weekend.
They are both family and pet friendly.
Tiny but delightful bistro, with superb menu, including wonderful desserts.
3 rue des Grands-Degres, 5eme
If you are looking for afternoon tea then you must visit Ladurée on the Champs-Élysées.
There may be long queues but it's worth the wait. Amazing tea and amazing macaron or try the rose scented St. Honoré. It's all quite camp but done very well. An ideal place to take your mother!
On our first trip to Paris, we went to a restaurant in Les Invalides called L'Esplanade. We had left finding a good restaurant until very late, and all the options that we had been given were booked solid. The only one we could get into was L'Esplanade, for a 10:30pm booking.
A little aprehensive, as we expected a near empty restaurant, we turned up, only to find we were among a number of groups waiting for tables to clear! The restaurant was still accepting new diners as late as 2am, and we finally left at 3am, drunk, happy and well fed.
The food, not typical Parisian food, was delicious. Some reviews have called it fusion, however, being from Sydney the styles presented were just good combinations of tastes and textures.
The standout was the potato mash (of all things). I have heard of Joel Robuchon's mash made of 50% butter, I tasted something similar here, and it was magical!
I have had friends make their way to this restaurant only to sample this starter! The staff were very efficient and friendly, particularly as we were liable to murder their native language whenever we opened our mouths. The clientele were also quite entertaining, with a good spread of celebrity/wannabes and crusty old French diners, you would look to the door to see who was next.
Café de l'Esplanade 52, Rue Fabert, 75007 Paris Fax : +(33) 1 47 05 23 75 - Reservations : +(33) 1 47 05 38 80
Paris is not renowned for good vegetarian food. However, if you've had enough of cheese sandwhices, you could try a visit to Le Potager Du Marais.
Situated in Rue Rambuteau, this vegetarian restaurant serves delicious and imaginative dishes and offers a good value three-course 20 euro set menu. It's also only a five-minute walk from the Pompidou Centre. Just remember to book in advance at weekends because it fills up quickly.
Rue Vieille du Temple - a classic Marais stomping ground. Kick off with a flinty sancerre in the bar/bookshop/coffeshop La Belle Hortense, before perusing both kitsch and cutting-edge in the boutique shops dotted about.
Congratulate your good fortune with a coupe of Veuve Clicquot from Les Etages, a scruffy, scarlet salon for the tragically hip, before lining the stomach with some classic bistro dishes in Les Philosophes. Take your coffee on a terrasse seat and watch the people parade, parade, parade, all night long.
Then, how about a midnight embrace in nearby Place des Vosges? Pourquoi pas.
Forget forking out over hundreds of euros at the Eiffel Tower's pricey restaurants, pop around the corner (southwards) to a fantastic little authentic French bistro called Chez Ribe.
Great food, nice wine, great atmosphere, frequented by locals and all at a reasonable price. Great place for an evening meal in a great location.
For a glimpse of the Paris of Toulouse Lautrec visit Chartier, a restaurant which looks as if it hasn't changed in a hundred years. It's cheap, cheerful and full of Parisians. Find it in the Rue du Faubourg de Montmartre
Le Marais is a well-known and much visited part of Paris. If you are there, find the less-famous Place du Marche St Catherine which is a great place to eat, alfresco or not, cheap or not.
Catering on a budget in Paris – then head for Chartier, Opera Quarter, an old 19th Century soup kitchen with listed décor, which offers a bustling atmosphere and inexpensive basic French food.
This cavernous restaurant caters today, as it always has, to people on a budget. Be prepared to share one of the long trestle tables with other diners but that adds to the fun of the Chartier experience. You never know who you’ll be sitting next to in Paris!
There is a beautiful little Polish/Jewish delicatessen just off the rue des Rosier. It's called Chez Marianne and is amazing. Amazing smells and food...lovely!
This restaurant is linked with Green Gulch Farm, a Zen centre and farm which provides organic produce. The restaurant serves outstanding vegetarian haute cuisine. The cookbooks by two of its cooks, Deborah Madison (Greens, Vegetarian Cooking for everyone) and Annie Somerville (Fields of Greens) have been my best friends in the kitchen for many years.
On the waterfront in San Francisco
Whatever your arrival time is at Gare du Nord, go to the Pied de Cochon, an open brasserie on a picturesque pedestrian walkway open day and night, 24 hours a day and all the year long! In a few minutes' time with the Metro line 4, you get some amazing fresh seafood or meat, foie gras pied de cochon etc.
My suggestion: the Menu Rouge and the Alsace Riesling Wine. The service is fantastic, the experience unforgettable.
From Gare du Nord, Line 4 direction, Porte d'Orlean stop at Chatelet les Halles. Located opposite the St Eustache church.
A restaurant called 'Le Chiberta' which is just off the Champs Elysees. It was the most amazing meal I've EVER had and even a year later, I still drool about it. It wasn't that expensive either. It was about 125 euros for two of us, but that included my husband ordering the most expensive glass of wine in the history of wine drinking! My mouth is watering now!
Come now, rent a car, get on the pike and head west. The trees are just changing colours, the apples are ready to pick, not to mention the pumpkins, and if you're in luck you might find an apple cider donut... home made almost. Don't forget to try a corn (maize) maze.
Great restaurant for Egyptian food: trendy, beautiful setting and tasty food. Also ideal for after-dinner relaxing, drinking & smoking shisha.
On 26th of July av., Zamalek quarter.
D'Oliva is a restaurant just outside Oporto in the seaside suburb of Matosinhos. It serves some excellent pastas (the menu is mostly Italian and Mediterranean), and the overall ambiance is sophisticated yet relaxed.
You can take the metro to Matosinhos from the center of Oporto, or take a taxi which should cost less than 10 euros.
Rua Brito e Cunha, 354, Matosinhos, see www.gooporto.com for more information.