La Rotonde, Paris 14e.

La Rotonde is how most people imagine restaurants in Paris – a Belle Epoque interior, little red lamps,  waiters in full black gear with long white aprons and lots of elegant Parisians. Plus, for me,  memories of my time in Paris in the 60s when all good restaurants offered starched white tablecloths, olives, and rolls and butter as a matter of course.   And on top of all that the food is first class – with a wide range of menus, the first one starting at Euros 19 for a main course, dessert, glass of wine and a coffee.  But you need to get there fairly early as sometimes they have run out of the two main courses on offer and then you will have to revert to the a la carte menu, which is typically French Brasserie and full of lots of excellent traditional dishes.   In the spring and summer the big terrace is always very busy and a really cosmopolitan meeting place. Opposite is the famous La Coupole restaurant – the hang-out over the years of many famous intellectuals and artists and in the same sort of style as La Rotonde,  but for my taste too noisy.  Just a little way down the road are the tempting shops on the rue de Sevres and a 10 minute walk away is the wonderful Le Bon Marche department store, with every imaginable latest high-class fashion item, plus an Aladdin’s Cave foodstore full of foreign and French delicacies – but at fairly stiff prices. But if there’s some English product you just can’t live without, you’ll find it there. To sum up, La Rotonde is the quintessence of Paris restaurants.