Please enlighten me if you have a recommendation in Paris or the South of France.

I don't know Paris well, but in a previous job a company I was doing some work for took me to a place called Les Sans-Culottes, 27 rue de Lappe, in the 11eme near the site of the Bastille. I had duck-breast and raspberry vinegar salad and it was superb.

You're dead right, though, that finding the good non-touristy places to eat in a big city you don't know is always difficult.

Looking at Pau on the map, wouldn't it have all sorts of exciting Basque and Catalan cookery going on?

Peter