<p>Another great “experience” restaurant is [→</a>; RESTAURANT LE TRAIN BLEU PARIS - OFFICIAL WEB SITE - RESTAURANT GASTRONOMIQUE PARIS 12 - LE TRAIN BLEU](<a href=“⇒ Le Train Bleu | Restaurant Gastronomique Gare de Lyon | Paris 12 ”>http://www.le-train-bleu.com/) . If you have ever seen the film “La Femme Nikita” you will recognize it immediately. Pretty good food in spectacular surroundings.</p>
<p>We are leaving for Paris in a few hours with our three teenage girls! I agree splurging for lunch at a fabulous place. Our splurge will be at the one star rated Jules Verne restaurant halfway up the Eiffel Tower. 85 euro for lunch, but you save money by taking the private elevator to the restaurant :). We are also getting the museum pass for the adults, the kids under 18 are free. In a week or so I’ll try to answer any other questions you may have. By the way, Rick Steves’ restaurant recommendations may be off, but his practical information, getting around, sights, ect. can’t be beat, and I have used half a dozen guide books before, keep going back to his.</p>
<p>Another classic Art Nouveau setting at Le Pharamond. Excellent Classic French cuisine in a charming setting that hasn’t changed in a century. And look…they have a prix fixe at 28 euros! [Menu</a> de chez Pharamond](<a href=“http://www.pharamond.fr/menu.html]Menu”>http://www.pharamond.fr/menu.html)</p>
<p>(boy…you can tell where my head is at this Friday)</p>
<p>Keep the suggestions coming while I obsessively check this thread waiting for everyone to finish packing…</p>
<p>Did you need to make reservations for the place in the Eiffel Tower? Yes, I do find Rick Steves guidebooks very helpful but I think I’ve only dined at one of the restaurants he mentioned, the famous original Houfbrauhaus in Munchen. It was the original after all. THe portions were enormous but the food quality was so-so. </p>
<p>We also stay at some of the places he recommends, so we have had some of the breakfasts from those hosts as well. They were always at least OK.</p>
<p>Le Pharamond sounds charming–like a place one might stumble across. If we do, we’ll be happy to dine there. Not sure we’ll be able to FIND anything in particular, including a restaurant and have to deal with reservations.</p>
<p>You need to make reservations at Jules Verne (Eiffel Tower) months ahead of time. I’ve eaten there and the view makes up for whatever might be lacking in the food. We took D there five years ago. She didn’t order dessert, but the waiter brought her Violet Ice Cream .
Because as ,the extraordinarily handsome waiter said…“a flower, even in ice cream, needs a little sunshine.” Oh yeah…that more than made that large bill worth it.</p>
<p>You really don’t need reservations at Le Pharamond for lunch. (only dinner)</p>
<p>Lassie3…you lucky dog. :)</p>
<p>For us, it wouldnt be a trip to Paris without a visit to Brasserie Lipp. Open all day and great when your first arrive at 3: in the afternoon and
hungry!
<a href=“Welcome ila-chateau.com - BlueHost.com”>Welcome ila-chateau.com - BlueHost.com;
We love Brasserie cuisine.</p>
<p>As an alternative, we have rented apartments for a week at a time from Glenn Cooper at [RENTALS</a> IN PARIS](<a href=“Bot Verification”>http://rentals-paris.com/) for about the same price as a tourist hotel. We are very satisfied customers, always getting what we expect, and Glenn is easy to work with, honest and straightforward. Our latest stay was in [url=<a href=“http://rentals-paris.com/marsollier.shtml]Marsollier[/url”>http://rentals-paris.com/marsollier.shtml]Marsollier[/url</a>] which looks exactly like it is, except that the bathroom shot is into a mirror, making it look larger than in real life, but it is perfectly adequate. Check it out!</p>
<p>Thanks, I am still searching for the “perfect” apartment, and I am surprised that many are booked up already for October. If anyone else has a lead…please pass it on. Vossron…was the “sleeper sofa” ok?</p>
<p>musica- We had a very good experience renting from here [Paris</a> Vacation Apartments - Paris vacation apartments luxury furnished rentals](<a href=“http://parisvacationapartments.com/]Paris”>http://parisvacationapartments.com/). They were very honest and helpful in all our dealings. We rented the 2br Place des Vosges apartment and absolutely loved it and its location.</p>
<p>Sorry, we were mostly looking for hotels. We did finally contact VacationInParis.com and they sent me a list of the available apartments for our dates. I checked them out on-line but they were more than we were interested in and wanted a longer stay than we had planned. It beat trying to scroll thru all their listings to figure out what was left available during our window.</p>
<p>There are many other companies, but the folks on the Fodors.com travel Europe forum would be glad to provide you with more details (or you can search that forum as well).</p>
<p>We’ll have an apartment in the Marias, I’ll let you know how it worked out. The web site is [Welcome</a> to City Apartments](<a href=“http://www.city-apartments.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.city-apartments.org).</p>
<p>^HOLY COW…that looks gorgeous (but it’s already booked for Oct!!! :(</p>
<p>My 3 sons…that looks fabulous as well. The Place des Vosges might be within reach if I can only convince a couple of friends
to go in this with us. But trying to organize a trip with my flakey friends is like herding cats.</p>
<p>The idea of linking travel plans with those of flaky friends (or family) doesn’t appeal to me and might cause unraveling of friendships, I’d think. It might be best if you make your own arrangements and if your friends want to have their plans complement yours, great, but otherwise not have it upset your plans. Some savings are just too costly! ;)</p>
<p>There is a huge range of prices, depending on what you’re looking for, how big a space you need, your specific dates, etc. Good luck!</p>
<p>LOL, if you have posted on fodors.com about Paris lodging, I’m pretty sure I did suggest a flat to you!</p>
<p>Given the choice, in Europe I’ll choose old over new any day. We’ve stayed in some pretty interesting flats and hotels, certainly not luxurious, but interesting. We stayed in a flat in a very old building off the Campo di Fiori in Rome…not a square corner in the place, dicey electric current, but so wild to think that it was new construction when Michaelangelo was knocking around the area.</p>
<p>We stayed in the Latin Quarter in a small boutique hotel and had a great experience. It was very easy to get everywhere from our location.</p>