Popular flavours for apple dumplings include brown sugar, caramel, or cinnamon sauces.

Fare ranges from an appetizer of seared sea scallops and polenta with blue cheese, shiitake and truffle oil to a veal fillet with veal sweetbreads, sweet corn, wild garlic and corella pear in cinnamon sauce.

Guinea hen casserole with candied shallots and cinnamon sauce, however, was intolerably harsh.

Deep-fried eel with a glossy cinnamon sauce is fabulous, and features cinnamon of such a high quality that even the uninitiated will notice.

If calories don't worry you, you might try banana beignets, a monster concoction of mammoth crispy fritters served in a banana split bowl, topped with butterscotch ice cream, candied hazlenuts, whipped cream and cinnamon sauce.

We also liked the warm Sicilian apple cake with cinnamon sauce and cinnamon gelato.

Among its Dutch specialties are a herring and eel plate, stamppot (meat and vegetable stew), leg of hare and apple bowl with hot cinnamon sauce.

Desserts include sherbet with berry coulis; pistachio and chocolate biscuits with a praline and hazelnut sauce, and a plate of apple specialties with a cinnamon sauce.

The duck leg and sliced breast sported a crisp skin and boasted a medallion of rich foie gras mousse and chickpeas in a cinnamon sauce.

For less expensive meals there is Dame Tartine, 2 Rue Brisemiche, (fourth), 42.77.32.22, conveniently close to the Pompidou Center, serving chicken with almonds and cinnamon sauce for just $6.40.