FAQ: Where do I eat near my hotel in the ?th arrondissement?
Now, a lot of Americans, especially those coming from the West Coast, ask bloggers and food website habitues where to eat near where they’re staying or working or viewing and that makes sense when you don’t want to incur big taxi bills or walk enormous distances in hilly places.
But Paris is not La Jolla. It has one of the most efficient and comprehensive public transportation systems in the world. Maybe not the newest, but it’s being constantly renovated, expanded and improved. And, it has far more escalators than places like New York.
The combination of city and suburban buses, subways, trams and suburban rapid-trains (RER) enables you to go from the far reaches of the 18th say, where I live, to the far reaches of the 13th, 14th and 15th, where I frequently dine, in 30-50 minutes. And even through, even seasoned visitors balk at going outside the peripherique, Paris’s city limits, to places like Levellois-Perret or Le Perreux Sur Marne or Meudon, those too are where good eats can be found.
Plus - one weekly pass (the Navigo) that you just swipe or plotz is not only good on everything, it covers the whole Ile de France on weekends, if Versailles or Disneyworld tempt you.
So while I suspect my loyal readers know all this, if someone Googling my site for the first time wants to know where to eat in the ?th arrondissement, the answer is “Go West, young man,” or East, or North, or South.
