For Incurable romantics only – if not, read no further please

 As an unabashed romantic, the restaurant Laperouse on the Left bank has always been a favorite of mine. Sure, maybe time has passed it by, at least by today’s so-called ‘Hot’ Restaurants standards (in my humble opinion) most serve boring cuisine – they in fact have reversed alchemy - this time taking gold and turning into lead. They presented cuisine with over 33 ingredients, they pile food on plates ever higher and higher, they embrace, chemical legerdemain with foams and such– boring, their menus read like Tolstoy’s novel of War and Piece and yet satisfy nothing – in short, if you ask me, those so called ‘new,’hot’ restaurants strike me as silly and in my opinion (and that’s what counts, don’t you know) the cuisine would not stimulate the appetite of a starving boa constrictor.

Have I lost some of you..Good!

Ah! But, since 1766 a ‘knock your socks off’ restaurant with Belle Epoch décor, a restaurant romantic beyond belief and a cuisine that harkens back to the good basics of French cooking is still alive. If you are looking for ‘in’ and ‘hot’ and ‘trendy’, this is not the place for you.

What is very special here, is the salons Prive or private rooms, found off the main dining room. These private rooms were set up for the social and political types of there day for illicit liaisons with the then famous Courtesans of the day. Here lovers ate and loved together and the ladies received their payment in the form of diamonds, who would then in turn ,scratch the mirror alongside the wall to make sure they were not fake diamonds and today...... those scratches still remain.

So, if you are inclined to be romantic, take your lover or even your wife and spend an evening in some one of the 10 romantic rooms ( Les Salons Prives) at the restaurant and don't forget..as the song goes.....'That Diamonds are a girls best friend'.