one of the oldest of the grand restaurants in Paris

Le Grand Véfour:

Napolean and Josephine ate there, Sartre too, it opened in 1784 as the “Café de Chartres” and reached it’s zenith during the Restoration with the arrival of Jean Véfour. Decorated in the rich golds and crystals of 19th century France, we were treated to a 12 course lunch, which included 7 desserts – they just kept coming. Four waiters unobtrusively anticipated our every need. OMG my napkin dropped, it was on the floor for a millisecond, then it must have levitated to my lap, unnoticed by me.  It was a 6 minute walk from the Louvre through the formal tree lined Passage du Perron past the Palais-Royal, the political hot bed that led to the French Revolution to Le Grand Véfour.  We arrived, me in my silk jacket and D in his Scottish vest, and felt the elegance of times past and ghosts of Victor Hugo and Simone de Beauvoir.

My menu had no prices, it must have been obvious that Donald had all the euros. The cheese cart alone had 20 cheeses to pick from and you could have as many as you wanted. We stuck to 4 ’cause there were 11 more courses coming. Le Grand Véfour presently has 3 Michelin stars and when it lost one a few years ago, the news made front page.

The present chef, Guy Martin, took the restaurant over from Raymond Oliver who ran it for 36 years.

17, Rue de Beaujolais, F-75001 Paris      Tel: (33) (0)1 42 96 56 27

Jean Cocteau designed the menu    the dessert: indescribable