Cheap as chips in Paris

Chatrier in full swing

A friend warned me about the prices in Paris, and to a point he’s right: two just about OK coffees and average crepes in a place near the Musee d’Orsay cost €21 which is plain outrageous.  The hotel in the 7e where I’ve stayed for years, but haven’t been for the past three, has hiked the price of a double room from €110 to €230!  That’s for a modest double above a great old brasserie, Thoumieux – well, what used to be one, serving the very best Cassoulet and Confit de Canard.  Now it has gone all poncey on us and the prices have leapt accordingly – the bourgeois burghers of the 7e seem to have lost their taste for the classics of South-Western France.

However, one place that is utterly unchanged is the wonderful Chatrier up north of the river on Rue de Faubourg Montmartre.  For well over 100 years it has been serving good honest food at remarkable prices. I swear to you that two of you can eat a three course meal with a decent half litre of house red for less than €40 – that equates to less than £18 per head which for Paris in this day and age is quite remarkable.



Unprepossessing on the outside: wonderful inside

I started with Celeri Remoulade which is a favourite of mine, and Jane had Salade de Tomates – one course in and we’ve racked up €4.40.  Next came a steak with excellent chips and a cracking pepper sauce, and roast veal served with vegetables - €11 each.  Dessert, which we resisted but the couple next to us had and declared great, was prunes soaked in sweet wine and served with proper vanilla ice-cream.  The house plonk was perfectly acceptable when we started on it, and got better with each sip - at £3 for half a litre it didn't deserve to be!

The atmosphere in Chatrier is wonderful, with more than 500 covers served in well under two hours at lunchtime. When you get there you get seated wherever – we were the outside two seats of a block of six, beside two French couples. The waiters are proper ones, wearing the traditional white aprons beloved of brasseries, and ours, Dizzy – number 21 and says he always will be – was great.  One of the maitres d’ writes your order on the paper table-cloth, and your waiter, who is handling four or five blocks of six, reads it and heads for the kitchen.  Service is quick, charming and delivered with pride – just what Michel Roux’s 'Service' was all about.

The queues at peak times can be long, but they move quickly so don’t be deterred – Chatrier has been making Paris affordable for well over a century and long may it continue.  Put it on your list of Paris essential visits, along with the usual touristy ones.