Mary

Can anyone provide me information on the best dinner cruise in terms of food, sights and overall ambiance? We will be going in January so obviously we would need to be indoors. Thanks!

Randall Smith

Bon Soir,

Have a very good friend who works for Bateaux Parisien, If you want I can give you her email address of their website. She is German and actually is the companies rep for relationships with large German Tour Groups.

Let me know if you would like more info.

Sincerely,

Randall Smith

Patrick

I understand the idea of a cruise on the Seine, but a dinner cruise? I have never heard anything good about the food on one other than, "the food was OK." With all the wonderful places to eat in Paris, I personally would prefer to go to a nice dinner anywhere in Paris then do the boat ride later, or vice versa. Besides, if you are busy eating, how much can you enjoy the sites you are passing?? But we all have different opinions, so . . .whatever rocks your boat.

David

Mary

In November 1999, I took my wife to Paris and we celebrated her Birthday with a dinner cruise using Bateaux Parisien. The Ambience was great, the service was excellent, the wine was better and the food was better again.

I too had heard adverse comments about the standard of food on dinner cruises, but after quite some research, I settled on Bateaux Parisien due to their professional responses and reports from former users of their cruises. As to whether you see the sights during the cruise. Yes you do and it adds to the enjoyment of the evening.

Go to:

http://www.bateaux-parisiens.com/english/index.html

for their Web-site.

If you go for the cruise, enjoy it as we are going to repeat the cruise on our next visit to Paris.

David

Cindy

Mary, I did a Seine river dinner cruise last month. It was only OK, and I would not repeat the experience. The boat just went up the river and down the river, turning about every 30 minutes, so the scenery was repetitive. The food was, well . . . Let's put it this way. Had I received this meal on the airplane, I would have eaten it with only minimal complaining. How's that? Oh, and there were these giant black spiders on the outside glass of the boat above the tables that made me a little queasy.

I don't recall the name of the cruise operator, but generally speaking, I would have shortened up the cruise and lingered in a good restaurant if I had to do it over again.

GiveMeABreak

Cindy: what did you expect the boat to do? going up and down the river is what they do.

David

Mary

I forgot to add that the cruise lasted for about 3.5 hours and cruised from the Quay in front of the Eiffel Tower downstream for about 20 minutes then back past the Tower and up river to the Statue of Liberty and back again. Slowing for the major sites.

David

elaine

I'm glad David enjoyed his dinner cruise so much
this is another company Yachts de Paris
that have been said by others on this forum to have good food on their cruises--
www.lepaquebot.com/GB/bateau/

Cindy

Well, I suppose I thought the loops would be longer so that we wouldn't see the same scenery again and again and again and again. Doing doughnuts in the Siene just wasn't what I had in mind. No need to give me a hard time.

lisa

I think the boat cruises on the Seine are a great way to see the sights and definitely recommend them -- but not the dinner cruises. I have never talked to anyone on one of the dinner ones who enjoyed the food very much, and in a city with as much good food as Paris, to pay good money for mediocre food is a travesty. By all means take a boat ride -- but eat elsewhere.

Ed

Cruising on the Seine on the Bateaux Mouches is close to a must for a visit to Paris.

The city appears quite different at night, and is well-lighted. If you were really into cruising the river you should do both day and evening trips.
But there are evening trips without dinner.

Dinner is overpriced. Fairly decent high-level banquet food ... but still mass-feeding. More related to 'just out of the steam table' than 'hot off the grill'. Romantic to a degree ... at least if you can forget you're sharing an 'intimate' dining room with a few hundred other folks.

It's been a few years since we were in Paris, but I'd guess you can take both day and night cruises and enjoy a fine meal in brasserie for less than the price of a dinner cruise.

Ed

Al

For business reasons I've tried quite a few of the dinner cruises while living in France for a few years and even after. Without question, the average river food isn't up to the average shore food and there's not much to be done about that, but the experience has often been enjoyable.
Clearly, though, if I wanted to cruise the river I'd use Bateaux Mouches for their daylight cruise which runs down and around Ile de la Cite then back to their quay which is someplace between the Tour Eiffel and Pont Alexandre III.

BT

We took the dinner cruise. $500us for four. Once is enough, just like in Venecia's godola's.

Melissa

Mary, you also need to check to see if any school kids' tours are booked on the cruise. My mom went a couple of years ago and was surprised with such a crowd. The kids were noisy, she couldn't hear the tour, the tour co. was not good about giving a refund. I know the river looks so romantic at night, but I really found it much more interesting during the day.

Christina

I've never taken one of these as the idea of eating dinner on a boat on the Seine is something that does not appeal to me for any reason, even if the food were good; I just don't think of dining while on a riverboat. I would have recommended the Bateaux Mouches (departs near Pont de l'Alma), however, as they have the largest boats, and I thought they give you more for your money for the dinner and are lower priced a bit, in general. I've heard some of their dinner cruises have boats with a hydraulic lift of the floor for a more panoramic view (3 of their boats do, I think, you'd have to ask--probably that may not be available in the winter). Also, they do not allow children under the age of 12 on the dinner cruises (I didn't think any of them did) so that shouldn't be a problem. However, since someone specifically recommended Bateaux Parisiens, maybe you should give them a try, maybe their food is better. Someone else said that the Bateaux Mouches co's tour only goes from the Pont de l'Alma down to the Isle de la Cite and back, but I have been on that line in the daytime and that wasn't our route--it definitely went down near the Eiffel Tower and that little Statue of Liberty, also, so I don't understand that; I thought they all had pretty much the same route during the daytime. Personally, I'm not crazy about combining food and boats in general, especially at night, and think the view from these boats down on the Seine is not that good in any case (day or night) as the concrete banks of the river are pretty high. I would rather have a night view while dining from say, a restaurant in the Eiffel Tower or up near Montmartre--there is a well-known hotel up there that has a great city view, the Terrass Hotel, but I think that is not open in the winter (their terrace view restaurant). La Tour d'Argent has a wonderful view of Notre Dame, although I've heard the food is better at Taillevent--I suspect their dinners might be slightly more than these Seine cruises, but probably not a lot. I think you can dine at many of the best restaurants for 700-800F a person which is close to the price of those Seine dinner cruises. I don't understand why people pay so much for that as the regular Seine cruise without a meal, even at night, is only about 50F. Some good restaurants with nice decor and/or views (in addition to Jules Verne, La Tour and Taillevent) are Le Grand Vefour, and Lasserre--I think I heard Lasserre has a a skylight roof so you can see the stars or something--not sure, maybe I'm thinking of someplace else. Those are only the very top restaurants, there are plenty of others with nice ambience, such as in old mansions or townhouses, that are even less.

Thyra

Mary, we took the Bateaux cruise without dinner during the month of March and had the boat nearly to ourselves. It was a welcome and relaxing break to the frantic day of sightseeing. I guess it's all in what you expect.