Paris in the summer: a public service announcement

Summer travel can be trying, because the Natives tend to take their vacations and do their travelling in late July/early August also. For every American mom who had hoped that her denim and flipflop wearing children would find inspiration in the streets of Paris, there's a French or Italian family pretending not to notice that they're a bit, um, dressy as they trudge through the streets of New York or Chicago. If you want to observe French people at play, and the Riviera is out of reach, come to New York in August.

Many French, indeed many European, businesses, close for August. This makes getting food problematic in Paris, because even restauranteurs like to get out of the hot city in August. Of recent years, for many Paris restaurants, the August vacation has become 3 weeks, not the whole month, and some enterprising chefs have figured out that if staff takes vacation a week or so early, a business opportunity is created for the rest of the summer. And the lovely people at parisbymouth.com have summed it all up, which restaurants are open this summer, day by day, at

this link      

which I post out of concern for parents and academics whose travel time is limited to times when school or camp is not in session. Well, summer times. For winter vacay or spring break, you're on your own.

It's a nice assortment of types of restaurant and price range, too. Some are splurges - how often do you get to Paris, after all? and some are just nice places for dinner at the end of a hot day of standing on line and walking on sidewalks.  Who deserves it more than you?