Paris - How far out for reservations

All -

Travelling to Paris in November for the first time in over a decade. All the various threads on this board are (of course) insanely useful, but a question that I haven’t seen answered elsewhere:

How far out do I need to make reservations? I’ve poked around on a few restaurants’ websites, and it looks like most open up their calendar for reservations 3-4 weeks in advance. I guess that means that I (or the concierge at the hotel) will need to be prompt come October - I assume that for the most in-demand restaurants, the slots quickly fill up as soon as (within hours of) they are opened up for reservations?

Are there other restaurants that accept reservations farther out - or more importantly, that I will NEED to reserve at further out? I’m ready and able to make reservations now for a must-eat if that’s what’s necessary to get in.

Just want to make sure we’re not shut out from a great place - we may do one or two three-star lunches, but for dinner we’re going to need to be opportunistic.

It is all over the map. What I can say is that most restaurants require a phone call. I usually call one hour before lunch or dinner service starts.

A few have online systems (e.g, Pierre Gagnaire, Septime)

I have made reservations up to one year in advance for hard to score spots. Try and see if they take it you can always cancel

Curious which ones?

Spent a week in Paris last summer. Made all reservations online. Including Michelin 1, 2 and 3 stars. Walked in to many cafes. I don’t get the call 1 hour before service. If I was travelling to Paris I would want to plan my meals much more in advance.

George

I’ve found that it helps to have a local/France phone number for reservation confirmations. Many restaurants call a day or two in advance to confirm and some will cancel your reservation if unconfirmed. I’ve made it a practice to call and confirm if I haven’t received a confirmation call from the restaurant two days prior.

George what I meant is that when I call for reservations I found the best times to call places like Le Chateaubriand is one hour before service not 1 hour before I want to show up.

I go to Paris 4-5x per year and many restaurants require a phone call.

Robert, My mistake. I did receive a couple of emails requesting confirmation and certainly a credit card was needed to make some of the reservations. Don’t remember getting any phone calls but that is a very common practice here in the U.S.

George

Would you guys say it makes more sense to work through the concierge at my hotel then?

I’ve had excellent luck using hotel concierges in Paris for restaurant reservations (and it’s a good strategy anywhere really).

Using your concierge is very smart.

If you have a credit card with concierge service they can do it for you.

any decent hotel will handle everything for you. there are a very, very few places that need some manual work (septime comes to mind), but i generally give the hotel an email with what i want, when i want it, and that’s it. sometimes we go back and forth on something, so maybe 2-3 emails total. restaurants prefer a call and i don’t feel like dealing with their timezone or language issues - in my experience, the hotels are best set up for this. they’re there, they more often than not, know the actual people at the restaurant, and will get back to you quickly.

I just booked everything via email for our early September trip. Did it all in the past week for August 31-5. No issues. Just have to call and confirm a day or two before the res for each one. Some just require an email to confirm. But each place emailed me back within 12 hours with an email confirmation for the reservation.