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This was the third of the Home and Away Dining Society’s away fixtures. Clare M had recommended one of her longstanding Parisian favourites, Au Vieux Paris, which is 200m north of Notre Dame.

The restaurant is in a building that dates from 1512. The restaurateurs, Georges and Odette, have furnished it with a selection of antiques collected over the years. On entering the restaurant, one is welcomed by Georges, Odette (if she can tear herself away from the kitchen), Fred (the multilingual maître d’), and a delightful 19th century statue of the Curé d’Ars, the patron saint of parish priests. The kitchen is straight ahead, the door to the wine cellar (visitors welcome) is to the left, and the main restaurant is on the ground and first floors.

Au Vieux Paris does not aspire to Michelin stars. It offers very good regional cuisine, with the emphasis on the produce and cuisine of the Aveyron (south of the Massif Central and east of the Dordogne). Food is sourced weekly from the Aveyron, and Georges has the speeding tickets to prove it. Odette is a gentler character than might be inferred from the name of her short-lived blog – “wild woman wild food”!

Our group of 14 was in the adjacent private dining room. Privacy has its advantages (particularly as the half bottle of wine per head turned, at no extra charge, into vin à volonté by the end of the evening); however, one of the joys of dining out is savouring the atmosphere of a restaurant, looking at what others have ordered, and admiring their taste (or congratulating oneself on having better taste than the other diners). If we were doing it over again, we would seek to dine in the main restaurant.

We parked under the parvis in front of Notre Dame, and somehow managed to arrive at Au Vieux Paris at roughly the same time. We kicked off with a kir pétillant and “farcous” (bite-sized garlic and parsley crepes). Then on to a terrine of foie gras or - for those who did not wish to stick with the Aveyron theme - scallops. If any readers choose to visit Au Vieux Paris, we would strongly recommend Odette’s copious salad. We then moved onto duck with an orange sauce, steak with a mushroom sauce, or fish “en papillote”. The duck and steak were well up to Odette’s usual high standards. Those that hoped that, in this 1512 building, papillote would have retained its 16th century meaning (threads of gold or silver) were disappointed; however, the fish was nicely steamed in its foil envelope.

Throughout all of this the wine was flowing freely, particularly M. Roudier’s Faugères, a meaty red from the Languedoc. “Finestwine.com” tells one nothing about the wine other than its price , but “we use New Generation Polyvalent System triple thickness cartons with polyurethane inside”.

We finished with a choice of chocolate fondant or Odette’s home-made apple tart.

The service was excellent – thank you, Fred; and the all-inclusive bill was € 50 per head.

Ratings for the evening : Food 9/10; Ambience and Service 9/10; Overall quality of the evening 9/10.

Title: Au Vieux Paris d’Arcole
Category: Distant Restaurants
Sub-Category: French Restaurants
Author: webmaster
Related Link: Au Vieux Paris d’Arcole
Added: May 16, 2009
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