Hi manouche and John,

of course, nothing is wrong with reserving quite far in advance! But during the preparation for my previous trips to Paris I learned that many restaurants don´t accept reservations so far in advance. Some will tell you to call again a month, others 4 or 3 weeks before the desired date. So this involves a lot of phone calls and understanding the rapid French answers on the phone can be quite a task for a non native speaker. That was why I thought I could make life a bit easier for me by asking whether fellow chowhounds might have some experiece when to reserve. Apparently, nobody knows, so I have to go on calling. Well, at least good practice for my French!

Dear Chowhounds,
we have our dinner itinerary all set for the beginnning of January.
Now I wonder how far in advance can I reserve the following restaurants:
Les Papilles
Roseval
Le Galopin
Thank you!

We are going to Paris for an extended weekend during Pentecost.
I had my food itinerary completely ready when I learned that on Pentecost Monday some restaurants which are usally open on Monday will be closed. In our case this was La Regalade St. Honrore which I shifted to Friday dinner instead.
Now I would like your thoughts about lunch on Pentecost Monday, please!
Our itinerary so far:
Friday dinner: La Regalade St. Honore
Saturday lunch: Le Galopin
Saturday dinner: Le Gaigne
Sunday lunch: picnic (weather permitting) or light bite in the Marais
Sunday evening: Chatomat
Monday lunch:???????
We have checked our list of places to go and came up with the following options, which would all somehow fit in our culture/walking itinerary for Monday:
Mini palais (Attracted to the beautiful terrace if the weather is fine)
Vivant
Semilla
Axuria (Basque and Fish)
What would you recommend?What would the best addition to our list? Any thoughts?
I know that usually for Monday you will be recommended Saturne and Neva on this board.
We are not particulary attracted by Saturne, which gets quite mixed reviews lately, and we already have with Le Galopin and Chatomat young chefs on our list who do modern French cuisine with a bit of an experimental twist (At least that what I hope for.....)
All we have heard about Neva sounds great and it is absolutely on our to do list for a future visit to Paris but this time its location does just not really fit in our plans.
Thank You everybody

I am planning our visit to Paris in january and with the help of all the reviews and tipps from chowhounders on this side we have already sorted out our restaurant list.

There are two websides "toptable" and "the fork" which I could use to book some of the restaurants which would be so much easier for me than trying to phone or email them with my somewhat limited French. Are these sides reliable? Is one preferable to the other? Or is it better to go on trying to reserve on my own or maybe ask the concierge of our hotel to do it?