Usual dining time in Paris
 

When we were in Madrid and Rome we found that only Americans were eating dinner at 8:00 in most restaurants and that Spanish and Italian diners ate much later. Is the same true in Paris?

Yes, the locals seem to eat around 9:00. At 7:30 we were the only ones in the place twice.

Yes sort of true. But in Paris people don't eat as late as in Madrid. Although restaurants open fro lunch at noon and dinner at 6ish, the French don't start piling in til 1:00 for lunch and 8.00 for dinner. If you don't have a reservation, arrive early!

I have made most of my dinner reservations in Paris for 9:00. I'm not an early diner anyway and I learned not to dine too early in Europe when I was in Madrid.

Most restaurants in Paris won't even make reservations for before 7:00 PM. 8:30-9:00 is the normal time for dinner. But as in Spain the meal is the event and you will dine for a couple of hours generally!

We typically made reservations for 9 p.m. when we were in Paris recently. Even then, we tended to be among the first patrons -- restaurants really started filling up around 9:30.

I was just in Paris last week. We typically made reservations at 7:30 and were among the first ones there, but by 8:00 the restaurants were close to full. Many don't open before 7:30, but if you want to go on the early side, you're probably okay at 7:30 but no earlier.