Anyone read the article in yesterday's ( 9-15) LA Times Food section about the incredibly high price of dining in France?
The author writes he had only four high-end dinners in 17 days and still the average cost of a meal was more than $600. NOw, he is dining at 2 and 3 star places, but still.

I find it hard to believe.

Title: He'll always have PAris
Author: David Shaw
LA TIMES, 9-15, Food

geez. We had some great meals in Paris and never spent more than $65 USD.

I could spent $600 on a meal here in Chicago, but I certainly don't have to!

I gotta go find that...that HAS NOT BEEN MY EXPERIENCE

It's an interesting article -- but I think that the $600 covers him, his wife and their 14-year old son:

http://www.latimes.com/features/food...headlines-food

In any case I've read that Spain is supposedly rapidly supplanting France as the next culinary hot spot.

I also think that $600 was for all three of them. I don't dine in 3* restaurants, so really wouldn't know, but suspect US$200 may not be that unusual. Some of the stuff he describes (in Provence) sound execrable, I'll admit, but I don't know why he ordered such things, that's what I wonder. He also doesn't account (very well) for the fact that the USD vs. euro has dropped about 20 pct in the last 3 yrs (9/01 to 9/04) and so then he complains that meals were about 35 pct higher than 3 years ago. Well, that's only about a 5 pct per year inflation rate in those high priced restaurant's prices, which isn't that incredible.

I don't know the guy, but don't think much of his writing-- hard to relate to someone who spends that kind of money routinely on meals. I also suspect it was a business expense.

Well, if you believe what he wrote in his article, he claims that he rarely expenses his meals and pays for them out of his own pocket.

But $600 for 3 isn't so unreasonable for a 2* or a 3* restaurant in France.

Anyway, somehow I find that all my big-expense meals have been a bit of a disappointment. He mentioned Daniel in NYC, which a lot of people praise, but I didn't find that my meal was worth the $150 I paid for. Lunch at Le Cinq was decent -- but again, worth 150 Euros? I'm not sure. And in both cases, I could easily have spent more -- granted, at Daniel, we ordered two bottles of wine among the five of us. But still....

I suppose all of this wouldn't prevent me from splurging again. After all, it's an experience -- but obviously I'm not wealthy enough to do this on a regular basis.