Paris

I don't know if I'd compare today's Paris girls to duck l'orange. Duck is easier to find than a decent French lady nowadays. My last trip through, I saw many ladies around Bois de Vincennes and St. Denis. From what I saw, one may make the food comparisons as Pho Bang, Cous cous, baba ghanough, shawarma, and whatever gypsies eat.

Kind of like foi gras is now described as greasy duck liver.

Today's Paris duck l'orange, that is funny. Have you ever walked around St. Denis? It's more like stale duck l'orange leftovers. Amsterdam is like fine red Australian Shiraz and Argentinian Steak with Pan Fried Potatoes and Fresh rolls and creamy Dutch butter, what I had for dinner in Amsterdam a few weeks ago, I just made myself very hungry!! The Steak Frites I a sample a few days before on near the Arc De Triomphe tasted like an old shoe.

Gentlemen, gentlemen.... as a resident of Paris I must protest.

It's not as simple as you try to make it out - or perhaps rather, it is pretty much as SeniorCitizen said: Paris is a great place to eat, if you don't care a s**t about the bill. Some of the best restaurants, some of the best chefs, in the world are in this city, which can give you great oral (!) pleasure, but one ironclad rule applies: if you care the least bit about the price, forget about it, this restaurant is not for you.

Then, if you're cost conscious, and into some of the specialities from the former French colonies, you can still find something fit to eat for a reasonable price. Vietnamese nems which are only slightly overdone, Moroccan cous-cous slighly too greasy but still tasty... Paris's got it all. But...

If you're into the medium price/quality range, you're bound to be disappointed. Mais oui! Middle class France feast on a diet of grilled meat, overcooked vegetables and heavily madeup desserts - that they are too lazy to cook at home and therefore buy in restaurants that are 30 years past their prime and full of snooty waiters.

Guys, seriously, go for the takeaways or pay your way through the three-star restaurants. There's no point in eating in a restaurant that lives on the memories of past glory. (So to speak.... ;-))

I love eating out in Paris when ever I visit this beautiful romantic city. One has to go to the right restaurants, can be expensive, be a regular to enjoy the delicious creamy french pastry!.

It is an expensive city but then its 'Pari' city of designers!.

Cheers

Funny you guys are talking about food. Someone asked me on another board I go to about where I went to eat. I'm cutting and pasting my response to him. I found the food in Paris amazingly great! However, it IS expensive. The good thing is there are tons of restaurants in every price range. I ate typical French food but I'll list some of the other spots I hit with more exotic food.
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I agree with you about the French being nice. I didn't come across ANY rude French people the 4 or 5 days that I was there. As I pointed out in my report, if you are polite and try to learn some French you will have no problems. I think the rude French thing is overblown and kind of a misconception.

Paris is probably my favorite city so far in the world out of all the cities I've gone to.

The food is GREAT there. There are tiny cafes all over the city that aren't too expensive and there are also many great restaurants. The ones that I went to were:

Goumard which had really GREAT seafood. It's in the 1st Arrondissment. The hotel recommended it when I asked them for a good seafood restaurant. The address was 9 rue Duphot. Make reservations as it was very very crowded. I had to wait a little bit. I can't remember exactly how much I spent but I think it was like $80 just for me. Something like that. I think the normal set menu was something like $75.

I also went to a semi-hip spot called Buddha Bar. They really had a decent blend of music playing. It was near Champs-Elysees in the 8th Arrondissement. It had a mix of food with some Asian and French combined. Many hotties were there just drinking upstairs in the bar. I had some spring rolls, chicken skewers with orange sauce and some other appetizers. All the food was excellent. It wasn't super expensive but not cheap. I think I paid around 30 Euros for the main dish and about 13 Euros for the appetizers.
8 rue Boissy d' Anglas. The only complaint is the staff wasn't that great which was sad. I did think it was a semi-romantic spot with dim lighting and candles around.

I had lunch one day at a place called Kambodia I think it was called. That's the great thing about Paris. They have great food from everywhere. There were a ton of Asian restaurants. It's a good romantic spot also close to the Champs-Elysees. I had lunch here with my girl. I had the chicken roasted with lemon and honey. It was devine! 15 rue de Bassano. Wasn't too expensive. I think like $27 per dish. The food was very fresh and the service was excellent.

I was in the mood for Lebanese food one day and found Al Dar. It's in the 5th Arrondissement on the left bank. This also was pretty inexpensive for Paris standards. Main dishes were about 15 euros I believe. They had good hummus and tabbouleh. Address is 8 rue Frederic Sauton.

There were a lot other places I went to but I didn't write them down in my diary or have their business card. I didn't have a bad meal in Paris and I ate out 2-3 times every day.

I liked the area around Bastille quite a bit. There are tons of neighborhood type restaurants that aren't too expensive. I enjoyed walking around that area with my girl at night. The only downside was there were no available taxis on the weekends. They were all full.

Good luck.

Saint,

I'm glad you like French cuisine, but most of our food references were heavily allegoric allusions to... well, you don't think I'm really interested in greasy Maroccan couscous?Sans blague?

Let me use the opportunity to update on the streetwalker scene around the Metro station Strasbourg-St.Denis and on the streets Boulevard de Strasbourg and Boulevard Saint-Martin. We should all be grateful to France's ambitious Minister of the Interior Nicholas Sarkozy for his efforts to "clean the streets", because it has had two principal effects: (1) the Romany girls have all but vanished; and (2) their disappearance has created room for a boost in the Chinese supply. (I count this as success because the Romanies, while younger, were less cleanly and... well, less than reliable.)

Therefore, you may discard my earlier comments about Bd. Strasbourg belonging to the Romanies, it is now full of Chinese streetwalkers plus a few Arab women. The only problem is, the reason the Chinese women cannot be purged by the police is that they're legally in France -- with a work permit and all, not just with a valid passport -- and so have a nine-to-six job to attend to. On a working day, the bulk of the action therefore starts only after 6 p.m. During the weekends (esp. Sundays -- I suspect some of the women work on Saturday as well) you can find a reasonably good selection from mid-afternoon.

One word of advice, though: the hotels in the vincinity of Bd. Strasbourg do not have the capacity to deal with the large number of freelancers. (And many of them, being under Arab ownership, are biased: if you come with an Algerian SW there's always a room) There's therefore an almost 50% chance that you'll end up with a humiliating search for a room, during which your prospective bedfellow drags you from one hotel to the next on pure chance while assuring you that "she knows just where to go" and "it's only 100 meters" -- both of which soothing lies.

My hottest tip is this: Go to the far end of Bd. Saint-Martin, where it runs into Place de la Republique, just after 6 p.m. The main pick-up area is between the two entrances to the Republique Metro station (one is on Bd. St.-Martin, the other where rue du Temple runs into the Place de la Republique), on the northernmost 100 meters of rue du Temple and on the adjecent rue du Beranger. The Chinese pros (as I have written earlier) walk around either alone or in couples. Just look at them and if they return your gaze, stay put and keep looking. They will approach and speak to you.

In this part of the scene there is no problem with hotels, because the ladies have arranged themselves with the hotelliers in a larger area. The price you have to pay for this is, more often than not they drag you into the metro and take you to a hotel 1-5 stops away. Don't be afraid, they're not into the mugging business. Only most of them are not into the beauty business either, so if you want 'em young and pretty, this is not the place for you.

Saint,
As I said earlier, you have good taste and you almost deserve to be French.
Denis

What's up with all these posts about fricken FOOD ??

The only Culinary Subject matter that belongs here is DATY ,
nome sane ??

The food might be great in Paris but as far as getting laid the city is horrible and its even worse if you can't speak the language. Personally my own hometown of Sydney Australia is a far better city for meeting beautiful women.

Denis,

Thanks! I'll take that as a compliment. I still maintain that most of the Americans that complain about the French know zilch, 0, nadda about the country, culture or the people there. Everyone needs to hit Paris at least one time in their life.

PsberZombie,

I strongly disagree with you. Yes, this board is mainly about sex but many guys use it to plan for their trips. Of course they are looking for sex but they are also looking for other advice to help them have a fun, safe and enjoyable trip. Just look at the Buenos Aires, Argentina section. Look at how many topics Jackson has made there. He also lives there part of the year. That should be a good example that this board isn't just about sex. If you don't want to read something just skip it.

CBGBConnisur,

You're 100% correct. Paris IS horrible for getting laid in the P2P scene. I think Paris is one of those great cities that you go to for business, vacation, etc. but if you happen to be in the mood there is nothing like making love to a hottie with the Eiffel Tower in the distance.

Au revoir!

CBGBConnisur, PsyberZombie,

I can only repeat what I said to Saint already: the food talks further down on this thread are heavily allegoric references to sex. Read them again and you'll understand.

Saint wrote =

[quote] PsberZombie,

I strongly disagree with you. Yes, this board is mainly about sex but many guys use it to plan for their trips. Of course they are looking for sex but they are also looking for other advice to help them have a fun, safe and enjoyable trip. Just look at the Buenos Aires, Argentina section. Look at how many topics Jackson has made there. He also lives there part of the year. That should be a good example that this board isn't just about sex. If you don't want to read something just skip it.
[/quote]

Talk about Restaurants and Such , I don't Object to

But When the Discussion swerves off into multiple RECIPES ,
and Talk about Ground Goose Liver =

YIKES !!

Why don't all those guys move to =

http://www.moxie.nu/moveabletype/archives/000835.php

Á Bientôt , M. Saint

Zat es greasy duck livaire, Monsieur, But of course, ze eating of ze Francoise poosee es a lot lot like ze tasty salty escargot, non?

Manger á la Pourquoi ??

[quote] Manger á la Pourquoi ?? [/quote]

That means =

" DATY ?? "