• The Champs Elysees hold several clusters of the summer restaurants, which open as soon as the chestnut trees are in blossom. Ledoyen’s, on the south side of the central road, has been a favourite dining-place for more than half a century. Guillemin, who was cook to the Due de Vincennes, brought the restaurant into great favour about 1850. Ledoyen, whose name the restaurant bears, was originally a plongeur , and 24 The Gourmet's Guide to Europe it may be that his early experiences in a cellar gave him the knowledge of wine which enabled him later Ledoyen’s, in life to lay down one of the best Champs Elys6es cellars of wines in Paris. Ledoyen’s is built on the plan of most of the open-air restaurants. A gay little pavilion, which contains the kitchen and some salons, and round three sides of which runs a glazed shelter, a refuge should the weather be cold or rainy, is the hub of the restaurant. Flowering creepers and grape vines are trained up the supports of the shelter, and fuchsias and other flowers give a plenitude of colour. In front of the little house is a gravel space, which is enclosed either by a privet hedge or by shrubs in green tubs. Trees large or small give shade to the enclosure, and the white- clothed tables are dotted here and there. Ledoyen’s is not an expensive restaurant, and all the worlds of Paris go there. On a Sunday you will see a grey- headed old retired officer giving breakfast to his son, who is in the uniform of a military college, and the little clerk entertaining his fiancee and his future mother-in-law, as well as the well-to-do Parisian and his wife, and the inevitable parties of Americans and English. At Ledoyen’s the waiters push about great dishes on high cradles, and the joints of the day are carved at the little tables. To say that one always gets one’s food at the out-of-doors restaurants as hot as one does where one is nearer to the kitchen would be to say the thing which is not ; nor is the service always as quiet-footed and unhurried as in the classic restaurants ; but the out-of-door restaurants vary as much as the indoor ones do in character — and in price. The Pavilion d’Elysee and Laurent’s, on the north side of the central road, near the Rond Point, are quite first-class in every way, even as to prices. The Elysee is a charming little building, and is a magnified Taris 2 5 jewel-case in stone and glass and metal. It has its pink and white awnings for hot days, and its in- terior is light and bright and summery. Pavillond-Elys4e, Paillard opened it, and then parted with Durand’s, his rights to a company, and the com- ChamPs Elysees pany made it over to the proprietors of Durand’s. The proprietorships and managements of the Parisian restaurants change as often as do those of the Paris theatres, and only the tax-collectors try to keep well informed as to the various permutations and combina- tions. The Elysee remains what Paillard made it — a very charming little summer restaurant, with excel- lent cuisine and service, and prices to match.

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• The Champs Elysees hold several clusters of the summer restaurants, which open as soon as the chestnut trees are in blossom. Ledoyen’s, on the south side of the central road, has been a favourite dining-place for more than half a century. Guillemin, who was cook to the Due de Vincennes, brought the restaurant into great favour about 1850. Ledoyen, whose name the restaurant bears, was originally a plongeur , and 24 The Gourmet's Guide to Europe it may be that his early experiences in a cellar gave him the knowledge of wine which enabled him later Ledoyen’s, in life to lay down one of the best Champs Elys6es cellars of wines in Paris. Ledoyen’s is built on the plan of most of the open-air restaurants. A gay little pavilion, which contains the kitchen and some salons, and round three sides of which runs a glazed shelter, a refuge should the weather be cold or rainy, is the hub of the restaurant. Flowering creepers and grape vines are trained up the supports of the shelter, and fuchsias and other flowers give a plenitude of colour. In front of the little house is a gravel space, which is enclosed either by a privet hedge or by shrubs in green tubs. Trees large or small give shade to the enclosure, and the whiteclothed tables are dotted here and there. Ledoyen’s is not an expensive restaurant, and all the worlds of Paris go there. On a Sunday you will see a greyheaded old retired officer giving breakfast to his son, who is in the uniform of a military college, and the little clerk entertaining his fiancee and his future mother-in-law, as well as the well-to-do Parisian and his wife, and the inevitable parties of Americans and English. At Ledoyen’s the waiters push about great dishes on high cradles, and the joints of the day are carved at the little tables. To say that one always gets one’s food at the out-of-doors restaurants as hot as one does where one is nearer to the kitchen would be to say the thing which is not ; nor is the service always as quiet-footed and unhurried as in the classic restaurants ; but the out-of-door restaurants vary as much as the indoor ones do in character — and in price. The Pavilion d’Elysee and Laurent’s, on the north side of the central road, near the Rond Point, are quite first-class in every way, even as to prices. The Elysee is a charming little building, and is a magnified Taris 2 5 jewel-case in stone and glass and metal. It has its pink and white awnings for hot days, and its interior is light and bright and summery. Pavilion d'Elysee, Paillard opened it, and then parted with Durand’s, his rights to a company, and the com- ChamPs Elysees pany made it over to the proprietors of Durand’s. The proprietorships and managements of the Parisian restaurants change as often as do those of the Paris theatres, and only the tax-collectors try to keep well informed as to the various permutations and combinations. The Elysee remains what Paillard made it — a very charming little summer restaurant, with excellent cuisine and service, and prices to match.

The gourmet's guide to Europe