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Wednesday, Oct 8, 2008
David Downie gives insider's advice on the hottest places to eat, stay and play in Paris.
Aug 5, 1998 | The crisis is dead! Long live the crisis!
France's long-running recession appears to be ending, with higher-than-expected growth and employment rates recently announced by the Socialist prime minister, Lionel Jospin. No one is more surprised than the Parisians themselves.
The national mood has begun to swing from existentialist bleak to uncharacteristic bright, helped along by France's (mostly) stunning performance in the World Cup held in the country this summer. Waiters and cab drivers are smiling again, the dollar is up to about six francs (the exchange rate used in this article) and the strident tone of French-bashing American and British newspaper editorialists has softened.
The City of Light may be glowing more radiantly than it has since the end of the Gulf War -- the start of "la crise." But the flip side of these glad tidings is an increase in prices, visitors, traffic and headaches in general as the Paris tourism-and-convention machinery roars into high gear. Long live the new crisis!
Anyone arriving by airplane quickly learns that taking a Paris taxi into town can cost almost as much as a plane ticket: 250-400 francs (about $40-$66, without tip). Traffic is the culprit. The only way to avoid the problem is to take the express subway to center-city stations (the Gare du Nord and Chatelet) from Charles de Gaulle (48F one-way) or Orly (57F). Don't even attempt to rent a car and drive around town. Parking is nightmarish at best. And air pollution has never been worse.
The biggest challenge to most visitors these days, though, is finding affordable hotels and restaurants in what is possibly the world's most popular destination city.
This problem is compounded when you stay or eat in the central 1st, 2nd, 7th, 8th, 16th and 17th arrondissements. Reputedly, the "right addresses" are found here, near shopping streets like the Faubourg Saint Honori and monuments such as the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, Trocadiro, Place Vendome and La Madeleine.
But generally speaking, "right address" can also mean "most expensive, most crowded, most international and least authentically Parisian."
Not everyone needs or wants to be near the Champs-Elysies, for example. The famous avenue linking Place de la Concorde and the Arc de Triomphe has been skillfully restyled, but it remains a busy traffic artery where suburban youths hang out at fast food restaurants and overpriced cafes cater to an almost uniformly foreign clientele.
Of course, if your budget and worldview allow it, Paris' top-end hostelries in these sought-after arrondissements remain among the world's best. For many people, luxury is what Paris is all about. The trick is to reserve ahead, preferably through an agency, to avoid standard hotel rates and the standard "we're all booked up" from gourmet hot spots. Get out your calculator and use six francs to the dollar (restaurant prices are per person, without wine). It's helpful if you're good at addition ("l'addition, s'ils vous plait" -- "the bill, please" -- can also sometimes be translated as "please call me an ambulance").
Here is a best-of-the-best short list. A double room at the 18th century palace hotel Le Crillon (10 place de la Concorde, 44-71-15-00) will set you back a mere 3,000F-4,000F a night. Eat at the hotel's two-star Les Ambassadeurs (44-71-16-16) and expect to spend 500F-800F for lunch or dinner. Or indulge yourself at the English-country-mansion-style Parc (55 avenue Poincari, 44-05-66-66; 600F), near Trocadiro, and pray for a table at megastar Alain Ducasse in the townhouse next door (47-27-12-27; 200F). Sleep at classy Balzac just off the Champs-Elysies (6 rue Balzac, 44-35-18-00; 2,000F) and eat at 3-star Pierre Gagnaire downstairs (44-35-18-25, 500F-1,000F). And there's always the Ritz (15 place Vendome, 43-16-30-30; 3,300F and up, up, up) and its stellar eatery, L'Espadon (43-16-30-80; 500F-900F).
Sometimes feeding on gold plates is a sound investment: A recent French government survey shows that the natives still spend about an hour and a half at table on average. Doing business in Korea or Japan means playing golf; in Paris it means eating toward "yes." Hence the huge number of "serious" top-end restaurants such as these, with well-spaced tables and private rooms.
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