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Life in Paris: Sunday Dinner with Jim Haynes (14th Arrond.)

// October 4th, 2009 // General, Restaurants

For those of you who follow my Twitter account, you are probably already aware that last Sunday I attended my first ever Jim Haynes dinner over in the 14th Arrondissement. Many who live in Paris or frequent the city may have already heard of Jim, but for the rest of you let me provide a brief introduction. Jim Haynes, a world traveler and expat living here in Paris, has opened his home to complete strangers every Sunday for the past 30 years or so.

In Jim’s own words,

“Every week for the past 30 years, I’ve hosted a Sunday dinner in my home in Paris. People, including total strangers, call or e-mail to book a spot… Every Sunday a different friend prepares a feast. Last week it was a philosophy student from Lisbon, and next week a dear friend from London will cook.

People from all corners of the world come to break bread together, to meet, to talk, connect and often become friends. All ages, nationalities, races, professions gather here, and since there is no organized seating, the opportunity for mingling couldn’t be better. I love the randomness.

I believe in introducing people to people…”

As you might imagine, Jim is an extremely interesting and personable man whose outlook on life is inspiring. The writer of a number of books, Jim has enough experiences with people, traveling and women (according to his books) to make just about any conversation and interesting and enlightening one. He does a wonderful job of going out of his way to make a personal connection with just about every person who attends his dinners.

I first heard about the “Sunday Dinners with Jim Haynes” a few years ago, but had completely forgotten about them since. Recently, my friend Ben visited Paris and recalled hearing about the dinners himself, so we decided to give it a shot. After a brief call to Jim (only 30 minutes before the dinner was to start), we were on our way. Immediately after entering Jim’s home, we felt welcome and began to meet people…from England, Germany, Australia, China…people who were traveling, lived in Paris, expats, newlyweds, and so on. A more eclectic and interesting group of people would be hard to find in one place on a random Sunday night in Paris.

The environment is perfectly set-up to encourage interaction among all the guests. Given the fact that there is no assigned seating or even a dinner table for that matter, we spent most of the night mingling with internationals in the kitchen or out in the garden. Dinner, which included three courses, was delicious.

Jim’s dinners attract a very international community, so the language of choice tends to be English, but there was no shortage of French and other languages being spoken. For the most part everyone was very interesting, though as you might expect you’re bound to meet a couple rather awkward people when you bring a group of 60 strangers together for dinner. Regardless, everyone had an interesting story to tell.

Sunday dinner at Jim’s was a unique and worthwhile experience, without question. I met some very good people, practiced a little bit of my French, discussed business with people from all over the world and may have even made a new friend or two. If you happen to find yourself in Paris on a Sunday evening and want to meet have a good dinner and interesting conversation, you should certainly make time to reserve a spot at Jim’s next time you’re in town.

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