Aard

One thing I have learned in European big cities is that liquor at a restaurant costs an arm and a leg and that it is much cheaper to drink before dinner at local pub, etc and then just have a single glass of wine, etc with dinner. London is the classic example. Drinking in pub is actually cheap, even hard liquor and even by North American Standards while I ended up paying $25 for a drink in a good restaurant

Is this likely to be true in Paris

elberko

I don't think drinking hard liquor is commom at meals in France, so it might BE expensive. Hard liquor tends to dull taste buds, eating in France is about enjoying food and the wine the goes with it. Don't believe wine was ever outragous...

~Liz

Christina

I guess it depends what your goal is -- it sounds like your goal is just to drink. For others, drinking wine is part of the meal and goes with the food. I don't consider these substitutes at all (drinking beforehand instead of with the meal). Also, wine can actually help digest some food, I believe, the purpose isn't just to get some alcohol in you sometime during the day (I think it especially helps with beef, but I'm not an expert on that).

I often don't have more than a single glass of wine with a meal, anyway, it sounds like you drink a lot more than I do, but I still don't have a quota of the number of drinks I want to consume in an evening under all settings, in order to get a certain amt of alcohol in me, as it sound like you do.

It probably varies, but where I eat and drink, it isn't any cheaper in a cafe (I don't go to pubs in France) than in a restaurant with the meal.

kerouac

I would say that at least half of the cafés and bars in Paris have adopted the "happy hour" concept. You will see the signs everywhere with varying hours. In some cases, "happy hour" continues up until 22:00. ???

alihutch

My Mum used to be offered whisky as an aperitif when she was staying with friends in France...
I find in London, that drinking wine by the glass, in a pub, is very expensive....

avalon

You can always start your dinner at a restaurant with an aperitif, usually champagne, kir, pastis whatever. Never hard liquor. No need to find a "pub" in France. Pub ands France just do not go together. We always have wine with dinner , even at home. The cost of 2 glasses is often more than a bottle

Travelnut

Some fun reads about aperitifs...

http://www.eurocheapo.com/blog/paris...atch-them.html

http://www.parisvoice.com/index.php?...=151&Itemid=30

StCirq

I THINK your question is: Will it be more expensive to have an apéro at a restaurant before you order dinner (and wine) than it will to go to a café and have an apéro and THEN go to a restaurant. If that's the question, I do think it would typically be less expensive at a café or bar or bistro (Paris isn't about "pubs"). IME, mixed drinks and hard liquor are quite expensive everywhere, but probably more at a restaurant.

kerouac

I would count about 4€ for an "ordinary" apéritif in most establishments.

Langcraft

I'd limit myself to an aperitif i.e a Kir Royale, a glass of Lillet, or a Pineau de Charente before having a meal.. In France, wine accompanies a meal, so don't dull your taste buds by drinking something too disparate from wine before a meal.

Echnaton

Go to a grocery store, buy a bottle of your choice and have your apéritif on the hotel room before you go.

BTW, the most common liquor in France is single malt whisky and the French drink it as an apéritif as well as a digéstif. Comme vous voulez.

Cowboy1968

If money is the issue, skip the aperitif and have a decent (which does not necessarily translate to expensive) bottle of wine at the restaurant (assuming that you will be 2 people).
One glass of wine for a whole meal? No way.

cigalechanta

Scotch for instance is very expensive there , so that was what I usually brought as a gift knowing the husband preferred scotch. I love to try all the local apertifs when in France. In Paris I prefer Suze (if you like Campari, you'd like this)
In summer my apero is a pastis, PASTIS 51, which is not available here.

nytraveler

Yes.

Europeans typicaly do not drink hard liquor before meals. They either have an aperatif - or just wait and have wine with the meal. (Many feel that hard liquor is not appropo to enjoying the meal, too much alcohol, tastes not compatible with food - and simply a different color.)

Hard liquor is so expensive because each country wants to promote it's local products (usually wine or beer) so there are huge taxes on hard liquor.

JayMazz

I had no issues getting a vodka martini in the lower arronds before a meal. Good luck getting the same thing in an outter arrond. A "martini" in the outter arronds - you will get some odd drink from Italy (?) in red or white... tastes like cough syrup.

If you tell them what you want before your meal, they WILL give it to you based on my experiences in the past few years... the staff knows what it is and how to make it. That is part of the tourist trade i guess. I have no idea why they understand "martini" in the lower arrond and don't understand the same request in the outter arronds - I guess it is all about the afore mentioned tourist trade.

~Jay

kerouac

It has to do with tourist density. Martini is of course a brand of vermouth and is a common apéritif. The vast majority of the French do not even know that there is a cocktail that uses the name 'martini' but which only contains a very small amount of vermouth.

hanl

I have lots of French friends plus various in-laws, and certainly it's not unheard of to drink strong alcoholic drinks before dinner.

As has been mentioned, whisky is a popular apéritif, and with an alcohol content of 40% pastis is hardly a soft drink either... Cocktails before dinner are quite popular too, at least with my Parisian friends.

Cost-wise, drinks (except wine) tend to be more expensive in Parisian bars than in British pubs, unless you find a place doing a happy hour deal (not too hard to find, as Kerouac says).

Anyway, if you really fancy something strong it's probably best to head for a bar before dinner for the simple reason that (perhaps for licensing reasons?) many restaurants don't offer a wide selection of aperitifs.

sheila

why would anyone drink in their room. This is about the experience, isn't it? If it's about getting pissed you can do that at home

Echnaton

>>>why would anyone drink in their room.<<<

It depends, of course, on the quality of the hotel room. If you stay in a beautiful hotel, it is a most enjoyable experience to relax in a comfy chair and sip a drink while your wife is dressing up.

Variant: You sip your drink while soaking in the bathtub.

Other variants: not suitable for a family-friendly forum

Cholmondley_Warner

Don't run away with the idea that booze is cheap in a "pub" in paris. It ain't.

A local bar will charge about E5 for a pint, although plonk is a lot cheaper (but comes in thimbles).

Don't even think abut spirits unless you are Abramovich.