How are we going to choose the restaurants?

I've added a few bistros today to our google map of Paris, trying to stick around our neighborhood. And I ran across this posting from The Independent: France: There's a great place I know ... that interviews famous Francophiles about their favorite restaurants. As long as they are inexpensive bistros that might be a place to start. And here's the Belly of Paris article from Saveur, where they mention Chez Clovis and Chez Denise near the old Les Halles.

I'd also like to go to a Brasserie, which they say means brewery and so I interpret it as a German Beer Hall since they are supposed to be large and loud... Here's a list of Aveyronnais bistros in Paris, which sound to me a lot like brasseries. Aveyron is a department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in the southwest of France.

I'm reading a book by one of David Lebovitz's friends, Alexander Lobrano, called "Hungry for Paris: The Ultimate Guide to the City's 102 Best Restaurants". I usually don't like reading restaurant guides but this one has actually interested me in going to every other restaurant that he tells a story about. Especially the ones with regional French food like L'Ambassade d'Auvergne where he tells you not to miss the country-ham smoked over a chestnut wood fire, the pounti (terrine of pork, swiss chard and prunes), the lentil salad seasoned with goose fat and bacon, the stuffed cabbage and the aligot (potatoes whipped with Tomme cheese and garlic). I guess we'll just have to go after we hit the Pompidou on Sunday evening. How can you say no to a restaurant whose website plays Bach (isn't it)? Although Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne would have been more appropriate, or am I the only one that likes them? Or maybe we could go there for lunch since they have a menu for 20 euros IN CASE OF LITTLE HUNGER AND LITTLE THIRST.

John Whiting has a short review of L'Ambassade d'Auvergne.

Alexander Lobrano also has Gourmet articles on Eight Great Places for Roast Chicken in Paris and another one on A Remembrance of Things Present (A Paris transplant decides to revisit some old-style restaurants where they serve the soul-satisfying food on which French cuisine was built.)