Paris - making reservations?
 

With trememdous help from this forum I am ready to make dinner reservations. I speak no French. Would it be better for me to ask the hotel to make our reservations or phone the restaurant myself? What time do Parisians eat lunch and dinner? Thank you

Hi Jan,

Not only will your hotel be able to communicate better than you can, they probably have a relationship with the restaurant that will be more likely to get you your reservations.

The Parisians have dinner somewhere between 8:30 and 10:00, except for those who eat earlier and those who eat later.

Lunch is noonish + or - 1 hr.

We normally ask our hotel to make reservations but on our last trip to Paris in May, I made a couple of dinner reservations by e-mail and it worked well. I'm not sure there is a specific time Parisians eat meals but many restaurants do not even open for dinner until 7:30 so dinner is after that. I prefer 8:30 which give us time to have a full day of enjoying Paris and time to regroup for dinner.

We have asked our hotel to make some reservations. Also for some restaurants that are in the neighborhood of our hotel we just stop in during the day as we are walking around. If you are planning on a very fine place you may want to try calling--take into account the time of day. They will probably have someone who speaks English to speak with you.

Some restaurants require reservations well in advance, and others--such as L'Astrance the last time I checked--require that you reserve exactly one month in advance: no more, no less. Going through your hotel is probably the best method, as the concierge will know the requirements.

I believe that 12:20 - 1 is the usual time for lunch reservations in these restaurants. Unlike cafes or brasseries, I've never seen anybody in one before noon.