Thanksgiving in Paris

The hunt continues for a place to have Thanksgiving dinner here in Paris. So far, the results have not been that encouraging. Through Fusac, a magazine for English-speaking expats, we’ve located close approximations of turkey dinners at Tex-Mex, Cajun, and Canadian (???) restaurants, but those all seem sketchy somehow. (Cajun stuffing? No thanks.)

We’re not completely gung-ho about the whole Thanksgiving thing, but it would be nice to have some good ole-fashioned turkey with gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. Does anyone out there know how to do Thanksgiving in Paris?

Update (11.25.03): Since I’ve been getting a bit of email from people wondering what we ended up doing for Thanksgiving in Paris last year, I’m going to pass along what I learned.

Many places in Paris (the English bookstore WH Smith for example) have free English magazines like Fusac where you can find a number of options. I didn’t think of this at the time, but you might also try asking the staff there if they know of any good places.

I received lots of recommendations for Thanksgiving in the Marais. They sell cooked turkeys and all the fixin’s on Turkey Day…not entirely sure if the attached restaurant has a specific TD meal with a bird, stuffing, et. al. Several people also recommended American chain restaurants like TGI Friday’s or Hard Rock Cafe.

Meg and I ended up going to Joe Allen, located in the 1st. They had a nice Thanksgiving meal, bilingual wait staff, French and California wines, etc. The menu contained a few different choices; most of it was straightforward Thanksgiving food, turkey, ham, stuffing, yams, potatoes, cranberries, etc. For two slightly homesick Americans, it was just the thing.