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The French have a reputation as frog-eaters, but admit it, Francophile friends, you’ve probably never seen a Frenchman nibble at a frog—and you may well have never tried fresh frog yourself. How about lightly fried pig’s ears? Pigeon? Snails? Well, maybe snails, but possibly fresh only from the freezer.

Le Vieux Crapaud (the old toad), near the Arc de Triomphe, is the place to catch up on such tasty, unfamiliar morsels, while also enjoying familiar bistro fare, freshly and earnestly prepared by owner-chef Thomas Boutin.

The airy dining room with well-spaced seating for 42 mostly shuns the decorative vocabulary of the traditional Paris bistro, while the hunting trophies—a pheasant, a boar (Boutin’s shot), a goose, antlers—remind diners that the cuisine of this citified restaurant has rural roots, as does its owner-chef.

Originally from the Sologne region of France in the Loire Valley, Boutin briefly attended Drexel University in Philadelphia at a time when he was aiming for a career in business. But he soon left classrooms for kitchens, where he’d felt comfortable since childhood. He returned to Paris to attend the Ferrandi Culinary School. America eventually beckoned again, so for 18 months he worked at Le Charm, a French restaurant in San Francisco—hence his SF cap in the photo. Returning to Paris, he gained further experience by working with gastronomic chefs and as a home chef for hire.

Bottin opened Le Vieux Crapaud in June 2014. Just over a year later, at the age of 38, he was named Officer of the Order of Agricultural Merit (Chevalier dans l’ordre du Mérite agricole), a national honor recognizing his role in maintaining what he calls France’s “formidable culinary tradition” and respecting “its formidable terroir.”

I initially came to Le Vieux Crapaud to enhance my frog education and have returned several times since. Boutin’s frog supplier is Patrice François, France’s only major frog breeder. The vast majority of frogs (typically legs only) served in France are imported. While inexpensive imports and regulatory requirements in France are enough dissuade most would-be domestic breeders, François, a well-establish fishmonger in the center of France, took up the challenge. In 2010 he created a frog farm just north of Provence in the Drome region. See this video from Patrice François’s farm for more on frog breeding (raniculture).

Boutin serves the whole frog at Le Vieux Crapaud, legs, body and forearms—eviscerated and with the head removed, of course. He sautés them with parsley and a bit of garlic, with some lemon in the finish. They’re typically served alone as an appetizer though the frogophile can also order them as a main course served with mashed potatoes. In the setting of this restaurant the taste is both rustic and refined, and finger lickin’ good. You’ll be given a knife and fork in case you wish to use utensils, but frogs are traditionally eaten with the hands, which makes it easier to suck the bones. (Think delicate chicken wings.)

Well on my way to appreciating frog, I next turned my attention to pig’s ears (oreilles de cochon) as a second appetizer. A pleasant surprise, Boutin’s pig ears are lighter I’d imagined. They have a slight and agreeable cartilage crunch. (Think really good, thick, homemade potato chips.) There’s some oiliness to them, which is well balanced by the accompanying lentils.

The vast majority of the products that Boutin works with come from France, as is the case in any self-respecting bistro here. The prime exception is the snails. That would appear sacrilegious in escargot country if Boutin hadn’t come up with a reasonable explanation. “True fat, wild so-called Burgundy escargot no longer come from France because of strict regulations to produce them,” he says. His meaty escargots therefore come fresh from Hungary. They’re grilled in a parsley butter, as one would expect, but without the heavy garlic and often oily aspect that one finds in restaurants less concerned about freshness and quality.

“I want to give people an experience,” he says of serving less familiar dishes to foreign clients. “I’m offering clients the chance to try things they might not otherwise try. Refuse what you want, but please don’t tell me you don’t like something before you’ve even tried it.” He isn’t opposed to having people send back dishes they don’t like, and he rarely finds that someone abuses the offer to do so.

Beyond the less familiar appetizers, there’s something to please everyone on Boutin’s changing menu that may also include pheasant pot au feu, pumpkin soup, calf sweetbreads, a mature entrecôte, a hearty côte de bœuf to share, along with chicken, pork and fish dishes, consistently direct and flavorsome, I’ve found over several meals.

Those seeking in-depth wine discussion may be disappointed to find a lack of vino-conversation with Boutin and the staff. Boutin acknowledges that he is not a wine connoisseur, and there’s no sommelier among his small staff (which may include his wife Tatiana at lunchtime). “I know what I like,” he says. “We manage to express that to clients who have questions, but please don’t talk to us about varietals. If you don’t like what you’re served I’ll take it back.”

Le Vieux Crapaud largely draws a local business and non-business crowd at lunchtime. In the evening tourists and business travelers enter the mix, many of them staying in the Champs-Elysées area and some perhaps at nearby luxury hotels such as the Raphael (worth considering for a well-heeled aperitif, especially in summer when its rooftop bar is open) and the Peninsula.

Moderately priced for the area (a 3-course dinner runs 35-55€ without wine), there is a genteel bon-vivantness to Le Vieux Crapaux. That comes not only from the food but from Boutin himself. In designing a restaurant with a window between the kitchen and the dining room, Boutin’s intention was not, as in restaurants with a similar configuration, so that clients could admire the chef at work as an actor on a stage. Instead, the kitchen window is a perch from which Boutin can keep an eye on the dining room. From there he can judge where diners are in the progress of a given course, and he’ll occasionally step out to give a helping hand in the dining room and to speak with clients, whether regulars or strangers.

Boutin is an affable fellow who clearly enjoys the give and take with diners, whether in French or in English. His menu is in French only because, he says, he prefers to explain ingredients and preparations to clients who may not be able to decipher a French menu.

Boutin’s good-natured approach to his preparations and to his clients would be a nice addition in many neighborhoods in Paris but they are especially welcome in the Arc de Triomphe area, where pretension, hefty prices, tourist fare and/or international branding otherwise dominate the restaurant scene.

Le Vieux Crapaud
16 rue Lauriston, 16th arrondissement. Metro Kléber or Charles de Gaulle-Etoile. Tel. 01 73 75 70 10.
Open Mon.-Fri. for lunch (12:00-2:30) and dinner (7:45-10:30). Available for private events and cooking classes on Sat. and Sun.

© 2016, Gary Lee Kraut

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(Updated April 2016)

1. Hotel Saint-James

Two metro stops west of Etoile, the site of the glamorous 4-star Saint James was once far enough away from the central Paris to serve as a launch pad for hot air balloons. While tall buildings have sprouted in the area, the lush private garden of this luxuriant refuge, accented with fanciful balloon canopies (photo above), remains intact and serves as an open-air bar during the fine-weather months. Like its classy library bar and Michelin-starred restaurant, the open-air bar is reserved for hotel guests and club members during the day, but all of them are accessible to visitors after 7pm.

Hotel Saint James, 43 avenue Bugeaud. 16th arr. Tel: 01 44 05 81 81. Metro: Porte Dauphine.

2. Regent’s Garden Hotel

Napoleon III liked his private physician so much that he built him a delightful townhouse with an enclosed garden on the western edge of Paris just beyond the Arc de Triomphe. This year the 4-star hotel has made its private garden an even greater draw with an outdoor exhibition of bronze and ceramic sculptures by Mickie Doussy on view through September 30. Beyond breakfast, when open only to guests, the garden bar/tea salon is open to visitors on reservation.

Regent’s Garden Hotel, 6 rue Pierre Demours. 17th arr. Tel: 01 45 74 07 30. Metro: Ternes.

3. Villa du Square

Tucked between Le Corbusier townhouses in the residential 16th, the Villa du Square (open since September 2015) is a B&B offering five luxurious bedrooms in a 1920s mansion lovingly decorated by art collector hosts Marie-Victoire and François-Christophe Gicqueau. The garden—200 square meters of urban Eden shaded by centenary pines—has enough secluded ‘corners’ that guests won’t trip over each other while they smell the roses.

Villa du Square, 26 rue Raffet, 16th arr. Tel: 01 71 72 91 33 Metro: Jasmin. The garden is only open to overnight guests.

4. Hotel des Marronniers

The secluded garden behind this 3-star Left Bank hotel is open to the public from 2pm until 11pm for tea or drinks.

Hotel des Marronniers, 21 rue Jacob. 6th arr. Tel: 01 43 25 30 60. Metro: Mabillon.

5. Villa Montabord

The Cité des Fleurs, a one-block pedestrian street in the Epinettes district on the northwest edge of the capital, is one of Paris’s original gated communities. The guidelines laid down by the developers in 1847 mandating at least three flowering and/or fruit trees for every garden are still observed. Thus, the four-room bed-and-breakfast that Isabelle and Jérôme Sciard opened in their 19th-century home has a pocket-sized private garden within a garden community. Expect fluent English (Jérôme is a former submarine commander who was stationed in Newport, RI for a year) plus large, luxurious bathrooms, WiFi and television.

Villa Montabord, 3 Cité des Fleurs, 17th arr. Tel: 06 14 88 74 06. Metro: Brochant. The garden is only open to overnight guests.

6. Hotel Eldorado

This hipster enclave in rapidly gentrifying Batignolles is one of the last places in Paris where budget-minded visitors can get a double-digit priced room with facilities “down the hall,” in a decor that mixes fake leopard skin throws and real cat-hair from resident felines. The hotel may have two stars but its popular Bistrot des Dames restaurant/wine bar, nestled in a pleasant but not-overly-groomed garden, goes by its own standards and is open to the public.

Hotel Eldorado, 18 rue des Dames, 17th arr. Tel: 01 45 22 35 21. Metro: Place de Clichy.

7. Novotel Paris Les Halles

With a giant, custard-colored canopy hovering over the Châtelet shopping center, catching ”a patch of blue” in Les Halles is as rare as it was for Oscar Wilde at Redding Gaol. Given the forbidding façade  of the Novotel Les Halles, it’s a triple-fine surprise to find a delightful, tree-shaded garden terrace-bar nestled within its walls. An oasis of calm in a chaotic neighborhood.

Novotel Paris Les Halles, 8 Place Marguérite de Navarre, 1st arr. Tel: 01 42 21 31 31 Metro: Châtelet.

© 2015-2016, Corinne LaBalme

Updated April 2016

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La Toilette: The Invention of Privacy, in which la toilette refers to acts of washing and grooming, opens with an early Renaissance tapestry from the Cluny Museum—The Bath—depicting a blonde noblewoman clad in her headdress and jewels (but nothing else) enjoying a refreshing summer-time dip in the garden, accompanied by servants, musicians and attendants of both sexes.

The tapestry is nine-tenths fantasy since bathtubs had been taboo for the general population since the late Middle Ages, when contemporary physicians stigmatized immersion in water, deemed to be an unhealthy substance laden with mysterious “venom.” Dry cleaning was the norm for centuries, with perfume and ointments applied with bits of cloth.

Most significantly, personal grooming—no matter how intimate—was truly a public affair until the dawn of the eighteenth century when it (gradually) became less acceptable to entertain guests while seated on a bidet. Pictures of semi-clothed ladies at their toilette and make-up tables (significantly, the show includes no pictures of men powdering their wigs) went underground, like some of the bawdy François Bouchers from the 1740s that the museum displays.

Beginning with delicate images (Dürer, Primatice, the School of Fontainebleau) and barreling towards Georges de La Tour’s remarkable Woman Catching a Flea, the show segues into portraits of better-known bathing beauties like Pierre Bonnard’s Marthe (painted in an era when dedicated bathrooms became havens for private, relaxing escapes) and winds up with ironic, post-modern photos and c-prints signed by Alain Jacquet, Erwin Blumenfeld, and Bettina Rheims.

All in all, the French clean up quite well.

© 2015, Corinne LaBalme

La Toilette, Naissance de l’Intimité, Feb. 12-July 5, 2015, at the Musée Marmottan Monet, 2 Rue Louis Boilly, 16th arr. Metro La Muette or RER Boulainvilliers. Closed Monday.

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Shangri-La, a welcome addition to the top tier of 5-star hotels of Paris, is a discreet establishment. Its discretion begins with its location, which is respectably askew from the glitter of the city’s golden triangle.

Detractors cite its distance from the hubbub of high fashion and gastronomy in Paris. So do admirers. Count me among the latter.

The building at the heart of Shangri-La, the former Palais Iéna, was built 1892-1896 as the home of Roland Bonaparte (1858-1924), Napoleon Bonaparte’s grandnephew. Shangri-La is an Asian chain (this is their first European venture) yet it has largely maintained the original patrician Parisian spirit of the ground-floor public rooms. They were and remain an ode to the marriage of aristocracy and industrial achievement. Shangri-La’s public spaces successfully play the Parisian parlor game of showing class through restraint, with the occasional silk vest standing by to let you know that the Shangri-La chain is indeed based in Hong Kong.

I will write soon on France Revisited of the appeal of the rooms (which start at $1000 per night), of the 19th century themes of straight lines, dark wood, marble, bronze, gilt, of the beautiful wall paper, and of the Eiffel Tower views.

L and I, however, didn’t come for the night. We came for the evening.

Le Bar

Discreetly entered beyond the hotel’s reception area, the contemporary Empire décor of Le Bar offers an easy-going invitation to dream of foreign and local adventures. There’s a faux minimalism to the center of the bar that on first glance on a relatively empty evening can make it feel that something is missing from the décor, but then we realized that it was us—and here we were!

It all came together when we took a seat and got in deep conversation about a choice of a cocktail with head bartender Christophe Léger, who previously tended at the Bar Vendome at the Ritz for 13 years.

I’d felt duty-bound to ask for a Pink Lady since that’s the house specialty, but Mr. Léger saved me from the embarrassment of sitting in front of a pink drink by explaining that the egg white and cream in it made it too heavy before dinner. After a brief bit of cocktail history—something at which the head bartenders at top hotels are known experts—Mr. Léger steered us to what can only be considered a women’s drink (something slightly sweet) for L and a man’s drink (some kind of sour) for me.

Forty minutes later there was a question of trying other concoctions and of considering a fine selection of olives and nuts as our appetizer, but then we remembered that an enticing dinner adventure awaited just down the hall.

La Bauhinia is an airy east-meets-west rotunda sporting a Maurano 3-tiered chandelier and crowned by a glass canopy.

There’s a wavering moment as you enter since you’re aware that people sit at these same tables in the morning ordering veggie omelets or paying $50 for coffee and a croissant, and your enthusiasm deflates slightly at the thought that you’ve come to a hotel restaurant and not a real restaurant. But that impression goes away as soon as the waiter pulls out the table for your date to sit on the banquette and your date, rearranging her pearls, says, “Thanks for bringing me here, I thought this was just going to be a hotel restaurant but it’s really quite nice,” and you see how lovely and comfortable she looks against a background of celadon vases.

So we toasted our good fortune at dining together.

La Bauhinia, named for the flower on the flag of Hong Kong, serves polished cuisine that’s largely French along with select Asian dishes. The hotel has a separate restaurant of more rarified gastronomy, the intimate and formal L’Abeille (The Bee), named for a symbol of the Bonaparte family. A third restaurant, Shang Palace, slated to open at Shangri-La this summer, will serve gourmet Cantonese cuisine.

We were testing La Bauhinia in springtime, so L started with a fresh salad of grapefruit, shrimp, peanuts and a spicy vinaigrette (photo below) while I took the white and green asparagus with a light leek sauce.

We then tried a second appetizer, a gift from executive chef Philippe Labbé, of braised endives with black truffles and a while truffle cream sauce—and a most pleasing gift it was, our shared favorite.

Makes you want to dive right in.

Next came L’s lotte (monkfish) and my lamb. La Bauhinia serves well prepared, non extravagant gastronomy. It’s the kind of meal one has when one wants to eat chic and well without having to deal with attitude or a picture-perfect plate. Here is L’s dish of chunky pieces of sauced-up lotte.

L’s dessert was so pretty that we simply admired it. There was a question of rather to begin by forking or spooning it. L preferred to spoon.

We followed the meal with tea, as much for the desire to prolong our communion at the table as for the pleasure of having the celadon color tea set on the table, with the vases over L’s shoulder.

L then bore her soul to me and proffered a piece of chocolate.

Neither overly refined nor overly brash, pricey but Parisian, an evening at Le Bar and La Bauhinia at Shangri-La is just right when you want to head confidently, though not excessively, upscale—and grab what life offers you with both hands.

Bauhinia at Shangri-La Hotel, 10 avenue d’Iéna, 16th arrondissement. Tel. 01 53 67 19 91. Open for breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner. Dress code: smart casual. For dinner count on 75-100 euros per person for 3 courses, without drinks, or 150-175 euros per person for an evening that begins at the bar and ends well.

Read the review of the Shangri-La Hotel, particularly its rooms, decor and location, here.

For the prequel to this article see In Transit: The Route to Shangri-La Is Paved with Good Intentions.

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