John Hornick — Chef’s Apprentice
We spent one night in a Paris before starting a week in I’lle Sur-la-Sorgue, Lyon, and Dijon, then another night in Paris before flying home. So we had two lunches and two dinners. Whether you’re in transit to somewhere else in France or have only two nights in Paris, try these tastes and toasts.
Check out my other Travels, Tastes, & Toasts posts on:
Also, check out my Chef’s Apprentice YouTube channel for hundreds of recipes and cooking lessons, including my French Faves series and my French Faves Julia + series, where I make the dishes of the late, great Julia Child, with my own plus.
Getting There
We flew into Paris, spent the night, then visited Provence for a week. Then we took a train to Lyon, then Dijon.
To book your trip to Paris, or anywhere, and to get good prices, use this Expedia box:
We used United points to fly to Paris. If you have slightly fewer points than you need, you can buy enough to get you a free trip from United. If you want to stay in Marriott hotels and don’t have enough points, you can also buy more here.
We travel with only one bag and a backpack each. I have been using this Pathfinder bag for many years. It has a large compartment with top or bottom access, and a nylon panel can be unzipped to combine the soft upper compartment and the rigid lower. The whole bag is heavy duty, including the retractable handle and wheels, as proven by the fact that I have been using it for well over five years. It still looks new despite having been in many, many overhead luggage compartments, and Sarah just bought one because mine has served me so well for so long. What I like most about it is the pockets. I love pockets and it has many pockets both inside and out.
Where to Stay: Hôtel Le Grand Mazarin
This is a fine hotel in every way. Located in the 4th a short walk from the Seine, it is small but elegant. When we arrived, the City of Light was really The City of Rain. And cold. So we decided to stay in the hotel.
First relaxed in the beautifully appointed lobby while we awaited our room, enjoying the art and burlwood furniture, while Sarah sipped an espresso provided by the extremely eager and friendly staff.
A staff member soon escorted us to our small (our choice) but elegant room: tapestry half-canopied bed, built in armoire, terra-cotta-ish wall-tiled bath, glassed-in shower, marble vanity, antique furniture, and funky lamps.
After dropping our luggage, we lunched in the hotel’s first floor Mediterranean restaurant, Boubale (see below). After lunch, Sarah enjoyed the heated pool. 🏊♂️
We then enjoyed our warm and cozy room for the next few hours until leaving, reluctantly, for dinner. We only stayed one night but we made the most of it. And we plan to make this hotel our go-to in Paris.
CLICK HERE TO BOOK THE HOTEL LE GRAND MAZERIN
Boubalé
Because the City of Light was really The City of Rain, we didn’t want to leave the hotel so we decided to eat in the hotel’s restaurant (unlike in the U.S., eating in hotels in most of the rest of the world is a Thing).
Don’t get me wrong, we love French food. But it was a pleasant surprise to learn that the hotel restaurant serves Mediterranean cuisine.
It is a joyous and somewhat flamboyant place, a feast for the eyes, with colorful flower motif wallpaper, grapecluster motif painted ceiling, green and orange fabric-covered and tasseled chandeliers, parquet floors of antique character, and glass sconces emitting amber-ish light. The dining room chairs were ornate blue with orange seats, or dark wood with green cushions, the tables wood.
The sparkling open kitchen’s counter was veined marble with mosaic tile below.
Off the dining room is a 7-seat L-shaped bar and a lounge area.
An ornate private dining room with a glass roof seats 24. We could see the roof from our room.
We chose to eat at the kitchen counter, watching the busy cooks work.
We ordered a mezze lunch of three entrees. Here’s the Arayes (pita stuffed with spicy beef), Confit D’Oignons (onion confit with anchovies and black olives),
and the Thon Blanc au Sumac (thinly sliced seared tuna with pistachios, caper berries, shaved parm, and lemon).
All three dishes were delicious and exactly the taste and quantity we sought. Our accompanying wine choice was Domaine Fournier Bourgogne Côte d’Or, which complimented the food. This was a cheerful place to enjoy lunch on a wet, dreary, and cold afternoon. For similar wines at good prices, click here.
Cocotte
Only one night in Paris seems to carry with it great responsibility to choose just the right spot to dine. After cruising several restaurant streets on a mid-October night in a distinctly non-touristy area of the 14th, we chose an outdoor table at this lively corner boite.
After having a big lunch, we were not very hungry but, hey, we were in Paris and wanted some wine with a little food, in that order of priority.
I chose the duck 🦆 foie gras pate, the generous portion of which was served with an onion compote. Excellent, on both the toasty accompanying bread and the pain de maison served for the table.
Sarah chose the Caesar Salad with crispy chicken, which was also excellent and well-garnished with shaved Parmesan. I loved the super crispy chicken, which had been pounded, fried, and sliced. It reminded me of Tori Kara-age (see the lessons in my Japanese Faves series).
These dishes were perfect partners for 50cl of the house Bordeaux, which was the real reason we were looking for a spot like this in the first place.
Le Train Bleu
Originally opened in 1901 as the Buffet de Gare in the Gare de Lyon train station, this stunning Beaux Arts-ish restaurant was designed to complement the Paris Universal Exposition. Everything you might imagine Turn of the Century (19th to 20th) Paris to be like is encapsulated in this opulent dining salon.
The only thing missing is accordion music, but there’s something better (read on). Grand ornate archways soar to higher, wider archways, which lead the eye to the ceiling’s multiple gold cartouche.
The lower arches frame hallways linking one dining room to the next.
The wider archways and cartouche frame 41 murals depicting life in the Belle Epoque.
The huge multi-globe chandeliers illuminate the rooms with hundreds of points of light, which were impressive during our lunchtime visit and are surely even more so at night. Our large-enough-for-four white tableclothed table had a leather banquette for Sarah on one side and a chair for me on the other.
Most cool were the brass coat and hat racks above the banquettes and the brass luggage racks, which reminded me of similar racks above the seats on vintage railroads we have ridden.
Excellent and expert service was provided by an army of tuxedoed waiters during an extremely busy lunch service. We ordered the beef tartare, which was prepared tableside for our pleasure. Excellent and generous.
I ordered the Skate Wing Grenobloise (Aile de Raie), which was prepared as a pave, which I found disappointing for two reasons: 1. the menu didn’t warn that it was not the classic preparation and 2. the classic preparation would have been better (see my YouTube lesson on making this classic dish).
I suggest either preparing it classically and maybe even tableside, or changing the menu to specify the pave preparation. Despite my disappointment, I give the food five stars because all of the food on the nearby tables looked great, including the roast leg of lamb (Gigot d’Agneau), which was carved at the next table from a trolley.
We didn’t order dessert but I recommend the tableside Crepe Suzette or the incredible cheese selection, which we enjoyed vicariously as they were prepared and served very nearby.
We ordered an excellent Chinon (Cab Franc) by the glass and we were happy to see a sufficient number of economically priced bottles (we don’t like to spend much money on restaurant wine). And wine of any price tastes great in Paris.
By the way, if you bring kids, don’t expect a typical U.S. kids menu. French kids or French-kid Wannabes can choose between skate wing, seared scallops, or beef tartare, in child-sized portions of course. I love it.
Everything about this experience was exceptional but one highlight stood out: shortly after our wine was delivered a tall tuxedoed server walked into the center of the dining room, rang a little bell, welcomed everyone, then belted out a beautiful a capella rendition of La Vie en Rose in a booming voice. Some people sang along. Everyone applauded. We’ll be back.
Le Bon Georges
If you have notions from movies, books, or prior experience about what a traditional French bistro should look like, feel like, be like, this is it, except for one thing: the wine list. For anyone old enough to remember the size of telephone books, this is an apt description of the wine list. It’s about 6” thick. The only one I have seen that rivals it is at Berns Steakhouse in Tampa, Fl.
The bistro’s wine collection is a Wine Spectator awardee. Even with our wine experience, picking a bottle was daunting. With the help of our excellent French server, who spoke American the way we speak it, we chose a Beaujolais around 50 Euros, our sweet spot for restaurant wines. Click here for similar wines at good prices.
The best thing about the bistro was the hustle and bustle. Hollywood could not have choreographed it any better. Servers with trays and bottles constantly danced, dodged, and weaved around each other, making the atmosphere wonderfully chaotic and fun.
For dinner we chose the excellent tortellini with cepes (porcini mushrooms) and the steak frites with housemade real mayonnaise.
Both dishes showcased how cream (in the sauces) elevates any dish. The beef was beautifully grilled, crusty on the outside and medium rare on the inside.
We most loved the frites, which had plenty of crusty bits, my favorite part.
For dessert we shared the rice pudding. It’s not like any rice pudding you have ever had: huge, creamy, and topped with caramelized nuts. Incredible.
We had a wonderful time, enjoying the food, wine, ambience, delightful chaos, and eavesdropping on the nearby conversations.
Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you buy from a link on this site, I may earn a small commission from the vendor without any additional cost to you. No company pays me to say anything in particular, or to say nice things. I only stand behind products I believe in.
