Now this is living history I can get into... NY Times writer revisits the sights, sounds, and tastes of an early 19th c. French guide book, Almanachs des Gourmands, penned by Napoleonic-era aristocrat Alexandre-Balthazar-Laurent Grimod de la Reynière. Some of the restaurants he lists are still around today. http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/travel/22Grimod.html