You can not get a bad meal in France - Part 1

I came to this conclusion when we visited France in 1970. Wherever we went, even little holes in the wall that were not mentioned in any guide book, we had a great meal. It is probably possible to find a bad meal now (maybe at McDonalds?), but we have not found one yet. Notes from our most recent trip follow:

In the United States a rule of thumb is that you will not ever have a great meal in a hotel restaurant. It is hard to keep remembering that the opposite is true in France where some of the greatest restaurants are in hotels.

When we arrived in Paris we stayed in L'Hotel on the left bank. For simplicity, the first night we ate in that hotel's restaurant. The food was refined and exciting. (I had never had a cherry before in which the pit had been replaced by foie gras. I recommend it highly.) I could not help but notice that most of the diners were French and obviously not the guests of the hotel who were almost all Americans. The food was close to rating one star.

On our anniversary, we ate at Hotel Ritz in their most upscale restaurant, L'Espadon. The room was a high ceilinged Louis XIV masterpiece. The wait staff was enormous and attentive. We had the 7 course tasting menu. While each dish was very creative and cutting edge, often with foams and emulsions, at the end we had to admit that the meal lacked sparkle. I would venture that the Ritz is holding on to its one star Michelin rating by its fingernails.

When we returned to Paris we stayed at Sofitel Le Parc in the 16th arrondissement. Soffitel is a chain, similar to the Marriott chain. Surprise number one: When I told the concierge that we intended to eat in the hotel restaurant, I learned that the restaurant was fully booked for the evening. Eventually there was a cancellation and we ate at the hotel. That lead to surprise umber two: the restaurant clientele was Parisian. All the American and Asian hotel guests had gone elsewhere. That lead to surprise number 3: Our meal was better than the elegant meals we had been eating for the last week on the barge.

(I can think of three exceptions to the guideline that hotel restaurants should be avoided in the United States. In the 1960s and before, the restaurant of the Chamberlain Hotel at Old Point Comfort in Virginia was a bastion of Southern cooking. In the 1970s, after the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles was restored, its restaurant was one of the best in the city. The restaurant at the Campton Place Hotel in San Francisco is outstanding.)

More to come...