An American friend told he’d had a great lunch at La Halle aux Grains, Michel and Sébastien Bras’s new restaurant at la Bourse du Commerce. I had heard it took months to get a table, but I tried anyway, one morning last week, and got a reservation for 12.15 pm. A good surprise. When you enter the third floor of … Read More
At Château de Chantilly and at Abbaye de Chaalis, Primatice reigns
It has become a huge effort to visit Château de Chantilly and its wonderful collections. This Saturday, the electric gates to enter the parking lot were not working properly and everyone was enraged. I could not find anyone to help my friend Garance, who walks poorly, and reaching the drawing galleries through the main court is an ordeal. The usual … Read More
Ile de Ré is in top cultural form
The magical Ile de Ré acquired a bridge in 1988 and since then, it is easily linked to La Rochelle and even more popular than before. There is great social rivalry between Les Portes, at the extreme end of the island, and Ars five miles away, a bit like East Hampton and Southampton in the summer. But in the end, lunch … Read More
How charming can a bed and breakfast get near Dijon?
I rarely stay in beds and breakfast because I always try to invade my friends’ houses… but last time I was in Burgundy for a theater festival I found the most delightful hostess in a dream garden full of roses, with good beds and excellent linen, ten miles from Dijon. So if you need to stay anywhere in the area, … Read More
Lunch is the new dinner and take out is around the corner
Since curfew at 6 pm has been installed in the whole of France, panic strikes everyone at 5.30 pm. How can we be back by 6 pm when we have so many things to do, buy dinner, pick up the children from school, go swimming, etc… Well everyone seems to react accordingly and lunch is the new dinner and usually … Read More
In Veules-les-Roses, a wedding, a banquet of oysters, and the smallest fleuve in France.
One of the last weddings before they were all cancelled, took place in a charming lost hamlet of Normandy, in the middle of blue linen fields and it gave me the opportunity to spend some time in Veules-les-Roses, a sea side village with the shortest fleuve in France. A fleuve is a river which ends in the sea. This particular … Read More
Lunch outside at Golf Paris Longchamp
I already told you last May about Nathalie Jeanson, the great French Pro, who took over the management of Golf Paris Longchamp, the golf practice in the Bois de Boulogne. Well, I went recently to check out the changes and had lunch at Le Restaurant du Golf, which opens all day and serves lunch but no dinner. My first surprise … Read More
Caillebotte, not the painter, the restaurant
I love the 9 th arrondissement, which used to be called La Nouvelle Athènes in the 19 th century, because of all the artists who had their studio there. And Gustave Caillebotte was one of them who worked from place Clichy and painted the area of Gare Saint Lazare extensively. So it was a great relief to have dinner at … Read More