The Great Parisian Plate Debate

The Rules…Indeed, rules are an important part of any challenge. For without rules, can there truly be any challenge?

The Great Parisian Plate Debate Challenge was born from the realization that the majority of our limited time in Paris is spent within the central few arrondisements. Little is known about those mysterious outer neighborhoods, and that translates to travesty. Our original plan had been to complete the Challenge by the time Dan was originally to depart Paris - June 15 - but fate intervened in the form of making any May Challenge event an impossibility. Struggling with the loss of an entire month and greeted with news of Dan’s extended stay, a new end date was set - August 17th, which also conveniently happens to be Sandcastle Day. There are twenty arrondisements in Paris and the goal of this challenge is to visit each of them - not once, not twice, but thrice.

With this noble ambition in mind, we realized that venturing off to sixty restaurants in eighty-three days may bruise the euro supply. A compromise was soon found, crafted without violating the main tenet of the challenge. Of the three visits, one is to be food related, leaving the other two free to focus on the art of imbibing. In order to regulate this duality of purpose, two sets of laws were clearly a categorical imperative.

EAT

• Thou shalt frequent one restaurant in each of the 20 arrondisements, in descending order
• Thou shalt consume a minimum of one bottle of wine
• Thou shalt not dine with a party greater than five
• Thou shalt have photographic evidence involving Christian, Dan and the wine bottle
• Thou shalt only eat at locally owned restaurants
• Thou shalt not dine in a restaurant previously visited
• Thou shalt have the choice to not order a full French menu (although greater risk of damnation will be incurred)

DRINK

• Thou shalt frequent two drinking establishments per arrondisement, in no particular order
• Thou shalt consume a minimum of one bottle of wine
• Thou shalt have photographic evidence involving Christian, Dan and the wine bottle
• Thou shalt not return to a bar previously visited

And so it begins…