Lazare

Feted chef Eric Frechon - who has 3 michelin stars to his name - has opened a brand new restaurant, Lazare, at the busy right bank Paris train station, Gare St Lazare. Unlike Frechon's rarefied restaurant at the Bristol Hotel, Lazare is affordable and democratic - open to all, serving food all day in a place better known for its cheap fast food chains. Food here is inspired by traditional, homely French fare, prepared to high standards. Despite being in a station, the street level restaurant is bright and airy, with quirky train references in the likes of faux-timetables on the wall announcing dishes on offer and a daily paper style menu, detailing starters such as escargot with tomatoes and parsley butter (€18), mains such as grilled salmon with seasonal veg (€18) or veal entrecôte with mushrooms (€39), and desserts such as the house speciality of the vanilla-laced Paris-Deauville (€7), which references Frechon's home region of Normandy, reachable by train from this very station. There are also a selection of cheeses, cold meats, and the old French classic of the ham and butter baguette, La Parisien (for an ultra-affordable €7.50). Tables in the main dining room need to be booked in advance, but last minute diners can be seated at the bar or the counter seating.  

Cinema Paradiso at Le Grand Palais

Right now in Paris, under the vast steel-and-glass roofed Grand Palais, the biggest drive-in EVER is taking place. Until 21st June, Cinema Paradiso brings together a film screenings, shopping, exhibitions, food and club nights at one of the capital's most iconic monuments. Chow down on American Diner style food (burgers, mac n cheese, coleslaw...), knock back Champagne, buy some kitsch US-imports from Colette (including extortionately priced Pop Tarts) before settling into a cute Fiat 500 to catch a cult movie - Drive, Taxi Driver, ET, for example - on the mammoth 25m-long screen (250m2 of Ryan Gosling? Yes, please). In the daytime there is also an exhibition on classic video games and a roller disco. After dark, the Super Club starts - offering club nights hosted by big names on the Paris scene (Le Baron, Wanderlust, Kitsuné...) - and frolics continue until well into the night. Tickets to be purchased in advance for the cinema (from €19), otherwise general access tickets can be bought on the door (€10). 

Banana Republic Opens on the Champs Elysees

Banana Republic, the American high-street brand offering classic US luxury at affordable prices, opens its first French store on Paris' iconic Champs Elysees today. 

Le Mini Palais

Between the Champs Elysees and the gilded Alexandre III bridge, in a wing of the impressive Grand Palais and just opposite the Petit Palais, is the Mini Palais restaurant - although the only thing mini about it is its name. Opened in 2010, the grand restaurant was styled by architects Gilles & Boissier who created a clean setting in this large, high-ceilinged space, inspired by the idea of the artists studio, with marble details, grand mirrors and decorated with sculptures as a reference to its artistic setting. On one side of the restaurant are windows looking onto the vast and immense interior of the Grand Palais, on the other side is the wide terrace bordered by neo-classical columns and palm trees, onto the Petit Palais. The menu has been conceived by three Michelin-starred chef Eric Frechon of Le Bristol and is suitably refined and impressive for the setting. The dishes all put the quality and flavour of individual ingredients in the spotlight, and feature fish from renewable sources as part of the adorably named Mr Good Fish scheme. There are several of Frechon's signature dishes on the menu, including the Asian-influenced golden cod in coriander and lemongrass broth (below) and a deliciously decadent giant rum baba with vanilla ice cream. The fare and the setting can also be enjoyed for afternoon tea, or for a bite to eat at any time of the day with a snack menu being served outside of mealtimes. The sublime setting, the excellent food, the reasonable prices, the location so near to many iconic Parisian monuments and attractions, and the fact that food is served all day every day all add up to this being a great restaurant to know about -  and a great destination for visitors to Paris who are hungry after a shlep up the Champs Elysees but still have their high standards in tact. 

Mini Palais

at the Grand Palais

Avenue Winston Churchill 

75008 Paris

Tel: 01 42 56 42 42

Open everyday, 10am - 2am

All photos copyright Kim Laidlaw

The Breakfast Club

Paris is the city that never sleeps. Oh no, wait - that's New York, not Paris, isn't it? Paris is the city that shuts up shop at around 2 or 3 am. 

Well not anymore it isn't. Paris might just become a worthy contender for the title of party capital, if the guys at A Tale of Three Cities have anything to do with it. Fed up with finding themselves turfed out onto the street come closing time, the team behind the super successful Book Club event has come up with a way to keep the party going until dawn with the advent of their new night (although "night' doesn't quite cover it) - The Breakfast Club. 

From midnight Friday until 6am Saturday morning, knock back the cocktails and dance the night away to tunes from DJ Aurelien B at Paris' notorious (and fabulously monikered) Le Schmuck and just after 5am reward your endurance by feasting on an epicurean breakfast prepared by The House That Jack Built, the culinary duo behind the Blossom Party at Candelaria. Treats will include egg, bacon and spinach muffins, Nutella pastry swirls and cornflake cakes to give you a boost and to keep you going a little longer...because sometimes you just don't want the night to end. 

The Breakfast Club

Midnight Friday 27th - 6am Saturday 28th May

Le Schmuck, 43 rue de Ponthieu, 75008