For a restaurant such as Astier's, can we make reservations for lunch when we get to Paris or do we need to do it ahead of time. And if we need to make reservations for any restaurant ahead of time, how should we go about doing it?
thanks.

ttt

Assuming you are talking about "mid-range" restaurants, and not real high end ones, I find that I don't have much luck on a phone with them understanding me or me understanding them, even if I'm lucky enough to get someone who speaks English.

Are you staying in a hotel? If so, I'd ask them to do it. You can fax them a list of restaurants, dates and times you want to eat and ask them to call for you. Generally I'd do that about a week to 10 days ahead unless it is a really popular place that you know is hard to book.

While in Paris, especially now that I rent an apartment so don't have a hotel to call for me, is generally when we walk by a place that we feel we want to come back to to eat, we stop in and make reservations in person.

We did not call ahead at Astier's hoping to get in, but what we weren't prepared for was that they had closed for vacation in July -- not August, so we got there to find the door locked and a sign on it.

thanks so much for your response

Last February, we stopped into Astier on a Monday at noon to make a dinner reservation. We tried to do the same on Friday, but they were already fully booked for Friday dinner. It is my understanding that lunch is easier to reserve, so I would guess that you can wait until you arrive in Paris, especially if you will be there for a few days and can be flexible in which day you want to eat there. This February we asked that our contact for the apartment we were renting make a dinner reservation for us, and she did so. We very much enjoy Astier, and hope you do also.