Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Excellent. What did you have? Food porn (even if just literary) please!

As for the route, good tip. It's also a very nice walk down the canal from the Bastille métro/bus, which is more centrally accessible. Or you can get pains au chocolat to go and go eat them in the Jardin des Plantes (just across the bridge).

Did you get up to Un Monde Vegan?

I went once to Le Potager du Marais and my salade auvergnate was generously vegustoed too. (It's certainly a place I'd recommend - cool and central area- even though somewhat pricey)

I have to say that I love Vegusto. The herb kind is my favourite. These restaurants can Vegusto me as much as they like.

I'm glad you had a good experience at Le Potager du Marais. I haven't liked it--I've found it way way too expensive for mediocre food, and the desserts are awful. I've found this true over the years, but maybe they've improved? If I'm in that area I'd rather pay 7 euros for crazy good falafel.

Maybe: As I understood they had recently changed their Carte (now beeing 100% vegan); this said, I can't compare nor with their former menu, nor with other vegan french cuisine places in Paris... nor with the famous falafels in the Marais :|

Anyway: Vegusto is definitely a Divine Gift. (WALNUT beeing my favourite!!!)

Ooh walnut. I haven't tried that one. Is that the one that has the chunks in it? Must try!

I am glad to hear Potager is now 100% vegan--that's exciting news. (And you should definitely compare it, and everything, with that falafel. Oh, that falafel!)

At GG, I had faux-gras crepes and Bry had Honfleur salad (with deep fried battered cheese balls - oh my!) and we both had the smoked tofu burger for main.

We went to l'As de Fallafel yesterday, and even at three in the afternoon we has to queue down the street - but, my goodness, it was worth it! We didn't get to Un Monde this time, as it was just a flying visit, but we're definitely planning on doing a trip there soon.

Is there a list somewhere of the vegan-friendly restaurants in each neighborhood in Paris, or near popular spots, or something? I'm going to be in Paris for about a week in June, and I've been looking through Happy Cow and the listings on this thread, but it's a pain to have to keep clicking on the maps and looking up where things are.

I don't know of any by arrondissement list, but if you are looking for restaurants in particular areas, I can try to help.

Gentle Gourmet is hiring cooks and waitstaff!

Run away to Paris to make and serve vegan chocolate croissants!

Thanks. I haven't totally figured out my schedule yet, and I'm not going to totally have a plan, but I'd like to at least have a list of stuff that's near the major tourist places -- Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame, and so on. This will be my first time in Paris, and I've got about five days, so I'm probably going to be going to most of the "If you go to Paris, you must see this" sort of things. (Though I'm thinking I might skip the Mona Lisa. Everyone that I know who's gone to see it has said that there's such a huge crowd around it that you can barely see anything, so I'm not sure that it's worth it.)

Unfortunately most of the vegan restaurants in Paris aren't near the major monuments. Gentle Gourmet is on the east side of town, near the Bastille. Nothing is near the Eiffel Tower. The Indian neighbourhood with the dosa shops is about a 20 min. walk from Montmartre. Notre Dame is most central, and near Le Grenier de Notre Dame, l'As du Falafel, and Saveurs Veget'Halles. Restaurant Ethiopia is near Pere Lachaise. The Canal St. Martin is near Tien Hiang's new location. Au Monde Vegan is near Strasbourg St. Denis, not really a tourist location, but somewhat central.

Really, though, Paris is small and very walkable. You're never really more than 45 minutes away (by foot) or 20/30 (by metro) from anything in the centre.

Skip the Mona Lisa. And, perhaps this is heresy, but I'd skip the Louvre in general or else go and stick with one wing. The smaller museums--Rodin, Picasso, Courbet, Nissam de Camondo, etc... are way better as experiences. The Orsay is much more manageable, but go early since it gets mobbed.

Thanks! I really don't like crowds, and I grew up right outside NYC and visit my parents there all the time, so it's not like this is my only chance to see great artwork.

Any suggestions for plays or shows or anything to see? I can understand French passably well (I took seven years of French in school, but that was ten years ago; I'm currently reading a French translation of the first Harry Potter book with very little difficulty, but I gave up on Les Miserables in frustration after a couple chapters, and I've been watching some French movies without the subtitles), and I love theatre, so is there anything in particular I should look into?

Oh yes! I'm a theatre historian and my specialty is French theatre!

My favourite places to see theatre in Paris are:
1. the Théâtre de la Ville. this is a presenting theatre, not a home company. They bring in the best European imports in theatre and dance, and it's a chance to see work that never comes to North America. I saw Pina Bausch's company there last year, and the Berliner Ensemble earlier this year, and both were jaw-dropping. They also have two spaces (the main one at Chatelet, the other in Montmartre with smaller shows).
2. the Cartoucherie. this is a complex on the eastern outskirts of Paris that houses several companies on the grounds of an old ink cartridge factory. It's like a dreamy utopian theatre commune. the Théâtre du Soleil's home is there. They aren't playing their own new work this spring/summer, but they host really cool international artists who stage shows. It's well worth the trip out (it's not that far), and you can go earlier in the day and picnic in the Bois de Vincennes.
3. the Odéon. it's gorgeous and decadent as a space, and has the big name directors of the day and often well-known performers like Isabelle Hupert, Emanuelle Seigneur, and Louis Garrel.
4. the Comédie Française for the classics and select new works. They have three sites, and I like the main one (Richelieu) and the Vieux Colombier, which is smaller, best. If you can see any of the French classics: Molière, Racine, Corneille, do it. Even if you can't understand every word, the chance to hear the lilting melody of the alexandrins is amazing.

There are a ton more great places to go/see theatre. You can pick up a Pariscope or Officiel de Spectacles at one of the news kiosques for under 50 centimes, and it will have a list of all the theatre performances, movies, museum expositions, etc.... New editions come out on each Wednesday with all listings for the week.

For cinema, you can also go see new French films. My favourite place to go is the Pagoda. It's in the 7th and is a movie theatre in an old Japanese pagoda. It's super cool. There's a cluster of cinemas at the Odéon metro stop too. And dozens of little left bank places with obscure old films.

Thank you! I see a few plays that look interesting that will be showing while I'm there, and the tickets are way cheaper than I'd expected. (I guess I'm used to NY theatre prices.)

Any suggestions for what to do in Paris on a Monday? It seems like most things are closed.

Also, if any Paris PPKers would want to meet up for dinner or brunch or something sometime, I'd love to. I'll be there from June 7 through June 12.

Go eat falafel and wander around the Marais. Go to the left bank art cinemas. Head to the Grands Magasins and go window shopping. Go walk from park (Luxembourg) to park (Tuileries).

Get out of town and go to the Chateau in Chatilly, or another day trip site (Reims for Champagne!, Fontainebleau for the forest, Chartres for the cathedral, etc...)

Many museums are open: the Gustave Moreau (totally decadent in his old house), the Louvre, the Jacquemart André.

Thanks. I think my plan for that Monday is to go to the Musee de Moyen Age and wander around the Latin Quarter. I'll probably add on some more places to wander around, based on stuff I see during the previous days. I'm planning on wandering the Marais on Sunday, but I suspect that I'll want to go back there on Monday and see more stuff.

Also, I decided to go see l'Ecole des Femmes at the Comedie-Francaise one night while I'm there.

There's one day of my trip when I'm planning to go the the Musee Carnavalet and wander the Marais a bit in the afternoon, then I'm going to L'Ecole des Femmes at the Comedie-Francaise at 8:30. Any suggestions for where I should go for dinner? I figure I should plan on getting dinner around six, to leave enough time to eat and get to the theatre and pick up my tickets and find my seat and everything.

And, a few more questions:

I'm planning on one meal each at Le Grenier de Notre Dame, Le Potager du Marais, and Gentle Gourmet. Is there anything in particular that I should order at each of those, or things I should avoid?

Also, for a bunch of my meals (especially once I leave Paris), I'm probably going to have a bunch of meals where I stop at the local market and get some bread and fruit, and I want to have a couple of things that I can carry around in my bag (cheese, paté, whatever) that I can put on the bread to make it more of a meal. Any suggestions for stuff that I could buy (either at a regular supermarket, or at Canal-Bio, which is right by my hostel in Paris) that would be OK for a few days not refrigerated?