Paris: Procuring Picnic Parts on Sunday
 

Next week we'll be taking an overnight train from Paris to Berlin, leaving Sunday evening. Obviously we want to bring great food and wine for dinner, but all the food emporia are closed on Sunday. Any suggestions for procuring a feast? (And how do we chill champagne since we'll have to check out of our hotel on Sunday?)

Hi marija,

If there are no grocers or charcuteries in your neighborhood, perhaps one of the local restaurants can prepare a pique nique for you.

Go to the Sunday market on Blvd. Richard Lenoir, starting at the Bastille. Place d'Aligre might also be available.

no, they aren't all closed. Flo Prestige deli/boulangerie/takeout food stores are open everyday and they are very good. There is one just west of place de la Bastille, but others around the city. I think they have a web site.

Don't know about champagne, don't like it myself. I prefer red wine that wouldn't need refrigerating.

Go to any local grocery store, normally Tunisian or Moroccan owned, there are plenty of them open on Sundays, you'll find the "great food and wine" you are talking about. Unless you want something fancier... for a snack on a train? Most Monoprix are open on Sunday mornings, until 13h00 / 13h30. FYI, I hope you are the only ones in the compartment, since it is considered very bad manners (IMHO rightly so) to eat in a train compartment in Europe.

>it is considered very bad manners (IMHO rightly so) to eat in a train compartment in Europe.

Really??? Who said that? I live in Europe but it's a news to me.

>...it is considered very bad manners ...to eat in a train compartment in Europe.<

Is this a new rule?

Vincent, does this "consideration" apply to trains without a dining car?

We have a private sleeper compartment, so I'm not at all concerned about sharing or offending anyone. Christina, we'll have a bottle of red as well. Thanks for the info on Flo Prestige.

Flo Prestige is a great idea for all kinds of wonderful things but I think Fauchon bought them out. Be sure to look for Fauchon shops in lots of areas (don't know where your hotel is). Have a wonderful meal on the train!

Peg

so you plan to drink a bottle of champage and a bottle of wine? you will be drunk.

well there is nothing else to do on night trains... I'm just kidding but it's true I don't like champagne.

I was surprised to find out Flo Prestige (which is known for where people get Sunday picnic fixings in Paris because they are one of the few good places open Sunday) was bought by Fauchon and they steer you to Fauchon's web site which doesn't say anything about them. I can't imagine they shut them down, they were very well known. To be specific, the one I used was on rue de la Bastille, I think.

Actually, it is true a lot of food shops are open in the rue des Rosiers section of the Marais on Sunday, and you could get lots of stuff there with no problem. I know there are several bakeries, and certainly some other type of prepared foods--I think you'd want to buy this just before going on the train as you will be checked out. Just go to rue des Rosiers at the east end and walk west and you'll find plenty. Those shops are open until about 8 pm or so, as I recall.

Voila, I found it, here are the FLo Prestige shops, they are open 8-11 pm every day:
http://www.floprestige.fr/html/prest.../bastille.html

Marija,

The Lenôtre stores are also open on Sundays and have great prepared foods, pastries and wine. Here's the info:

http://www.lenotre.fr/en/Boutiques/b...s_accueil.html

Bon voyage!
Andre

P.S. Vincent, I have yet to come across a Monoprix that was open on Sunday mornings...

I've seen locals in train compartments throughout France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland pull out sandwiches and other foods they bought at the train station food stalls and consume them as the scenery whizzes by. Thats where I got the idea to do the same.
I remember once sitting next to a very well-dressed middle-aged German woman in a first class compartment who pulled out a small bag of fruit. The entire train car smelled like a fruit stand by the time she polished off the last orange.
Guten appetit!

Well, my Monoprix on avenue Gambetta is open, and when I used to live on rue de Lévis too.
As for "bad manners" vs "it's done", you are right : opening a sandwich or an omelette and making the 20 square metres around smell like saucisson or bad ham is done on a regular basis, but my mum taught me it amounted to infringe on other people's privacy, and I think she was right.

The info Fauchon-Flo Prestige interested me since I take TGV from Gare de Lyon Paris occasionally so I called the shop in Bastille-rue Saint Antoine. A lady answered "Fauchon Bastille, Bonjour." . I said to her, according to a web site it is Flo Prestige. She said "I did not know."

Anyway I'm glad to know there is this option even on Sunday, especially for the picnic on my next trip this weekend.

Vincent,

Out of curiosity, I checked the monoprix.fr website and both locations you mentioned are listed as being open from Monday to Saturday only... anyway, Fauchon or Lenôtre have much better selections of prepared foods.

Andre

Many supermarkets are open until 2PM also. And the wonderful Pl. Monge market is on Sunday mornings. Get some foie gras from the guy there--it is so good.

I never noticed the latest sign on that shop on rue St Antoine which I probably went by a month ago -- however that woman must be a new employee because it always was Flo Prestige (for years, I think) and that was the name on it. Maybe they are just calling themselves Fauchon now, but I wonder if they are selling the same type of stuff. I hope so. I like Hediard shops, but I don't think they are open on Sundays.

I'll admit I never saw any MOnoprix open on Sundays, either, so that surprised me, but my experience is limited to only a couple and they might have changed.

> that woman must be a new employee because it always was Flo Prestige ..

Christina, I meant to say she did not know that on the web site it was still listed as Flo Prestige. Anyway, thank you for this info. I'm almost sure I will stop by there this Sunday evening for my picnic before taking my TGV. Only I will try to buy foods which won't smell too strong(I don't eat cheese much nor saucisson anyway), just no smelly food + a 1/4 bottle of champagne, Vincent ;-).

The Fauchon take over of Flo Prestige occured last fall and the FP website is obsolete. The Fauchon site shows all of the locations, including Bastille, and it is the best place for "gourmet" take out.

oh, this is a technical problem I think with the web site. The homepage of floprestige directs you to the Fauchon web site and I couldn't find any info on it as to these gourmet takeout spots.

However, there are internal subpages of the floprestige web site which still exist, as I found one. I found that page by googling directly for flo prestige plus bastille, and thus bypassed their homepage.

Well, I guess they are still in business and I hope still as good as when under FLo Prestige as I think they'll have everything you could want (except maybe wine).

Christina,
They are all still in business with all of the wonderful food...just go to the Fauchon website, click on La Maison Fauchon, click on Paris and see all of the locations on the map. Exact same shops, just a different name.