In that short time we discovered some incredible restaurants. If you’re in the area, here’s a summary of the best discoveries.

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a city that has undergone a revolution in the past 10 years. Until the end of the ’90s the centre of the city had a dirty, dusty, polluted feel to it. Since the beginning of the new millenium however, it has been reborn, after the car was banished from the narrow streets of the centre and the exteriors of most of the buildings were given a good clean. Today the town is much more welcoming, if somewhat touristic.

If you’re in Bordeaux for a few days, try to visit some of the following restaurants:

• Le petit commerce – situated in a tiny pedestrian steet between the Place st. Pierre and Place du Parlement, this bistrot-style restaurant is open for lunch and dinner throughout the week. The lunchtime menu is a bargain at 12 €. If the weather is good, try to arrive early to get a seat on the terrace.
• For something a little more traditional, try Le plat a oreilles. This small family-run restaurant is somewhat out of place on Rue des Faussets amongst a bunch of mediocre ‘attrape-touriste’ restaurants. Open every evening, the menu at 25€ is great value. Everything (from the starter to the desert) is home-made. the house wine was respectable too and reasonably priced
• I was a little dissapointed by le Bô Bar. After having read the review in Le guide du Fooding I was curious to discover their concept – the wine is served anonymously by the glass, with the only choice being between a light, medium, full-bodied red, or a fruity or dry white. No other clues are given as to the provenance of the wine. While all of the wines we tasted were wonderful, the food was a disapointment, I had the impression our meal was reheated in a microwave, the dry congealed rice was simply unappetizing.
• On sunday morning, you can’t do better than Karl in Place du parlement. We arrived early and were lucky to get a seat in the sun on the terrace, but 1/2 hour later and people were queueing up to get a seat inside. An enourmous selection and huge portions, highly recommended

Its late so I’ll stop there. Tomorrow I’ll try and jot down some of the best restaurants in Arcachon, Saillagouse, Cadaques and Barcelona

So it’s good to know that there are more and more vegetarian restaurants appearing in Paris, here are a couple of vegetarian resources I’ve found recently:

• Paris organic and vegetarian restaurant guide
• Paris vegetarian – a blog written by an American in Paris
• v3ggie.com – A vegetarian search engine, with geographic options

I also discovered v3ggie.com, a vegetarian search engine which gives interesting results, and has a greate recipe search feature.