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-   -   FYI - New Editions of Paris TimeOut Guides (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/fyi-new-editions-of-paris-timeout-guides-655999/)

Nina66 Oct 30th, 2006 08:14 AM

FYI - New Editions of Paris TimeOut Guides
 
We will be in Paris over the Holidays and so I emailed TimeOut in England asking when their new editions will be released.

They emailed back that the new Paris Eating and Drinking guide is 'due in the shops in January' and the Paris Guide in February. She said that they return to every restaurant to assure that the food is still of the same quality.

Years ago in Carcassone, a pub type restaurant had a blown up page from Let's Go France, prominently displayed outside. This page, several years old, raved about their cassolet (bad spelling). The latest edition that I had in my hand at the time, said that it was canned and that the writer had gotten food poisoning at that restaurant.

Not that food guides are the end all be all, but it is nice to know if a place has gone downhill or perhaps changed owners and is not the same. Bottom line - your own taste buds.

Nina

Nina66 Oct 30th, 2006 08:24 AM

By the way, this is not plug for TimeOut ... do I feel defensive today or not :-)) I hate it when I buy the latest edition of a guide and a new one comes out before my trip.

fall06 Oct 30th, 2006 10:03 AM

I really hated using the 2007 TimeOut "Shortlist" guide to Paris when I was there a few weeks ago. Since I've visited Paris many times, I just wanted something with a few restaurant recommendations per arrondisement and opening times for museums, etc.

The restaurant recommendations were heavy on "hipness" and "atmosphere" (read: tourist's fantasy idea of Paris) and short on value or taste. The opening times for museums and attractions were abbreviated in ways that caused me TWICE to go someplace only to find it closed.

(By the way, a ZOOM map I was carrying for Paris indicated the tourist office was on Champs-Elysees, but it's been closed for two years).

I almost didn't bother to pack the TimeOut Shortlist guide when I left my hotel room, then I thought somebody else would find it an use it!

I really like Time Out for London, and I also have done with TimeOut recommendations for Rome and Milan. Wish I could say the same about TimeOut Paris.

Nikki Oct 30th, 2006 10:27 AM

I don't know about the Shortlist guide from Time Out, but I have used the Time Out Paris Eating and Drinking Guide with very good results. This is a very large, comprehensive listing of restaurants with up-to-date reviews. I believe these are two different types of publications.

Nina66 Oct 30th, 2006 01:00 PM

Yes Nikki, you're right, they are two separate guides. The Paris Guide and the Shortlist Paris are separate guides also. I had never heard of the Shortlist until I saw it on Amazon.

Fall'06 thanks for the info on the Shortlist. It's great to get first hand reviews on books, especially from someone who has been to Paris many times. IF I was looking for another Paris guide book, I MAY HAVE considered Shortlist for probably the same reasons that you did.

A few months ago I bought the 2005-06 Eating and Drinking guide. I was hoping that a new one would be released before my trip, as review-wise it would be about two years old, having been researched in 2004.


I like Rosa Jackson the editor of that edition, and I enjoy her monthly column in Paris Notes.

One of the first things I do when I look at a restaurant guide book for a city that I have spent time in, and I'm sure most of you do the same thing, is to check restaurants that I have already eaten at to see if their take is the same. If not, then I know that is not a good book for me.

I wish that Patricia Wells would update her Food Lover's Guides to Paris and to France . Those books were like bibles to me - shops of all kinds, bakeries, restaurants, but it looks as if that series is done with.

Nina

Dave_in_Paris Oct 30th, 2006 11:09 PM

Interesting experience with the "Shortlist." My experience with the "Paris Eating & Drinking" guide is overall highly positive. Far from raving over "happening" restaurants, it sometimes takes them apart. But of course, relying on any single guide is likely to raise the disappointment level - cross-checking three or four guides can be quite helpful - and good restaurants can have bad days and nights.

Nina66 Oct 31st, 2006 12:27 AM

So true Dave about the good nights and bad nights, and both good and bad reviews in Paris Eating and Drinking Guide. I haven't found any other guide where that is done, with the exception of Zagat. Sometimes the comments on a single restaurant in Zagat, are so varied that it is hard to make a decision based on that review. Zagat is good for cross checking other restaurant guides, mainly because of the large number of restaurants reviewed.

There are several very very popular Paris restaurants that come to mind, that get rave reviews in the guides and from posters here, that we have eaten at. Neither one had any major faults, but 'something' was missing. I have never read anything negative about either one, so maybe we were there on 'off' nights.



fall06 Oct 31st, 2006 03:49 AM

My problem with the Shortlist Guide when it came to restaurants was that I could see exactly why they had recommended the restaurant, and it was really about having a Parisian experience, whereas I simply wanted a great meal at a good price.


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