Tour d'Argent Restaurant

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In the opinion of many, the Tour d’Argent /tuːʁ daʁʒɑ̃/ (“Silver Tower”) is the world’s finest restaurant. This is the exterior of the restaurant, on the quai de la Tournelle at the southern end of the pont de la Tournelle.

This restaurant is more than four hundred years old. It was the first place in the world to use forks for eating, in fact (in the olden days, people used to just eat everything with their hands). For centuries it has been renowned for its extraordinary cuisine. Today it is run by the Terrail family, specifically, Claude Terrail. Unlike the owners of many restaurants, Monsieur Terrail actually presides in the restaurant, and you can say hello to him on your way in and out of the dining room.

In addition to the superlative cuisine, the restaurant has some other attractions to offer. For the past hundred years, it has offered numbered ducks as part of its menu; that is, if you order duck, you get a postcard with the serial number of your duck stamped upon it as a souvenir—the restaurant raises its own ducks on its own farm, specifically for the restaurant. The Tour d’Argent also offers a wine cellar of more than half a million bottles of the world’s finest wines. Finally, the dining rooms themselves have a commanding view of the Seine River and Notre-Dame Cathedral, very similar to the picture in my gallery taken from the bridge in front of the restaurant.

Of course, there’s a flip side to all this: You have to reserve for dinner months in advance, and you can expect to easily drop $US 300 or more per person for lunch or dinner.

If you cannot afford the restaurant itself, there is an excellent boutique across the street managed by Claude Terrail’s wife, Tarja, that offers gourmet foods and souvenirs of the restaurant (cups, plates, etc.).

Photographed on January 10, 2000.