La Madeleine

The dining room is shaped like the bow of an ocean liner and sits at the tip of a small island above the River Yonne, which gives you a sense of how seriously the room takes its own drama. It's a Michelin one-star restaurant where the chef presents the daily specials personally, leans hard on fish and seafood from the market, and rolls out four separate cheese trolleys, because apparently one was never going to cut it.

One honor, in evidence: