solo travel/ wine ordering
 

Am planning 10 day trip to Paris for solo female traveller starting October 24th. I am comfortable dining solo but could use some advice regarding ordering wine in the solo setting in Paris. Is a carafe too much? Can wine be ordered by the glass? Should I visit a wine bar pre dinner hours?... Would appreciate any recommendations/fedback from other travellers..

When I am in Paris alone, which is once or twice a year, I order a half-carafe or half-bottle of wine - it depends on the place. That amounts to two glasses of wine. You can also order a 1/4 of a litre - essentially, one glass.

I guess it depends how much your normal intake is? I usually ordered by the glass when I was alone in Paris. The other advantage to ordering by the glass was, if the food serving happened to be larger than expected, I would get full on that and not worry about being stuck with a bunch of wine to either finish or waste.

Hi.<BR><BR>I would also suggest that you simply order the house wine (e.g. "vin rouge du maison"). It will be cheaper, easier to select and probably excellent. This gives you the opportunity to sample a nice variety of wines that may not show up on any list. Restaurants have a vested interest in selling a house wine that is of high quality.<BR><BR>You're welcome.

I've been living in Paris for many years. Firstly (and I don't mean to be critical of the person who posted earlier in the thread): it's "vin rouge de la maison" not "du maison." Secondly, you could order wine by the glass: opt for a Cotes-du-Rhone or Bordeaux which goes with everything. Or you can order "un pichet de vin rouge" (a pichet is a small clay pitcher) -- most restaurants have decent wine for the pichet so you really won't go wrong there either. Une carafe might be too much for one person so you might want to get "Une demie carafe" instead. For rounding out the meal, try Sancerre, a lovely wine usually drunk at the end of the meal or with dessert: white, fruity, very smooth (from the Touraine region in Central France). All in all, if you order wine by the glass, the waiter will ask which kind (Bordeaux or Cotes du Rhone or a Burgundy or whatever). Beaujolais nouveau is only for November/December and not always good (depending on the harvest). You can't go wrong with such wines as Bourgueil / St-Emilion / Cotes du Rhone etc. Have some with a magret de canard (duck back) -- very tasty. Have a great trip!

I've been living in Paris for many years. Firstly (and I don't mean to be critical of the person who posted earlier in the thread): it's "vin rouge de la maison" not "du maison." Secondly, you could order wine by the glass: opt for a Cotes-du-Rhone or Bordeaux which goes with everything. Or you can order "un pichet de vin rouge" (a pichet is a small clay pitcher) -- most restaurants have decent wine for the pichet so you really won't go wrong there either. Une carafe might be too much for one person so you might want to get "Une demie carafe" instead. For rounding out the meal, try Sancerre, a lovely wine usually drunk at the end of the meal or with dessert: white, fruity, very smooth (from the Touraine region in Central France). All in all, if you order wine by the glass, the waiter will ask which kind (Bordeaux or Cotes du Rhone or a Burgundy or whatever). Beaujolais nouveau is only for November/December and not always good (depending on the harvest). You can't go wrong with such wines as Bourgueil / St-Emilion / Cotes du Rhone etc. Have some with a magret de canard (duck back) -- very tasty. Have a great trip!

Being a single female traveler, speaking almost no French, but loving my white wine... well I had no problem. I somehow ordered either by the single glass of house white, the little clay pitcher a poster above mentioned, or a glass demi-carafe. I'm not sure just how I did this, but it wasn't hard ;-)

I agree with Tom's advice -- I often order a Cotes du Rhone if in doubt (and I don't have a particular preference) as it goes well with many things and is usually pretty good -- at least for French restaurants. I have not had good house wine in some other type restaurants (notably Italian) in Paris.<BR><BR>It isn't really a problem trying to figure out what to order that much as the menu will list what kinds of wine they have: prices, and whether you can order a 1/2 carafe, size of pitcher or carafes or by the glass. You can look at this where it is posted before deciding to dine in a place, if you wish (I do because I want wine but not a full bottle). Most places will have something other than full-size bottles, but not always, and occasionally the offerings may be sparse or just not what you want by the glass. This isn't common, but it can occur.