Baguette Heaven and the Most Inventive Macaroni

I’ve been reading the tidbit packed, history oriented, student budget friendly, “Let’s Go Paris.” A few things I like about the book so far is that they have an amazing list of restaurants by type of food, 50 plus pages dedicated to the rich history of Paris, and the most humorous and informative side comments.

Categories in the “Food By Type” section include late night food, trendy/intelligentsia, historic, vegetarian and vegan/detox. After breaking their top restaurants into this easy to read list, they go on to describe each restaurant, organized this time by arrondissement, and give insight into each place’s unique and notable qualities. As I know I’m going to be seeing a lot of the Pompidou museum, I read up on the restaurant it houses, Georges

. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had given it a thumbs up and had praised not only its architecture but also its food. I’m definitely going to have to try Georges’ plat, or lobster macaroni.

I’ve never really been a history buff but architecture and landscape design do interest me and so I’ve definitely taken note of the “Sun King,” Louis XIV. It was nice to read up more on the guy in the history section of “Let’s Go Paris.” Not only was the history brief but the timelines provided and bolded names really helped me dig into the back of my brain for my AP European History knowledge and grasp the facts once again. More than anything, I found the “Paris Today” section especially helpful. Where else can you take a crash course on the politics of Paris today? Although I was shocked and disappointed by the fact that anti-Semitism is on a rise in Paris, I was impressed by the fact that GLBT rights are more recognized than in the US. I also finally learned who Serge Gainsbourg is! I’ve always wondered why the French are so obsessed with Charlotte Gainsbourg—she was on the cover of French Vogue once and the WHOLE issue was dedicated to her.

Scattered throughout the book are great little tidbits about France, places to go, and Parisian culture. One of my favorite and most funnily written tidbits was the one on Parisian’s obsession with bread. A whole paragraph of it is dedicated to describing how a baguette should look, feel, taste, and even measure! In case you were wondering, it should be 70cm by 6cm long—I’m not joking, this is official.