Paris trip report (long)

I just got back from my first trip to Paris a couple of days ago. (My
wife had been once before for a day or so). Our trip was from
Saturday to the following Sunday.

Friday: I hadn't been sleeping well, so my plan Thursday night was to
get a good night's sleep, knowing that I would be pretty much losing a
night's sleep on the flight over. We left from K.C., a 7 hour time
change. We would get there at 10:00 a.m., which is 3:00 a.m. our
time, so the night is pretty well shot. Well, I only got 2 hours
sleep, which ruined my plan.

I was pretty much a zombie at work, and had my wife not called ("What
are you still doing there?!"), we would have missed the flight. But
some creative driving got us to the airport on time (but we had to
park in the $18/day parking). But at least we didn't miss the flight!

Saturday: The flight was scheduled to arrive at 11:00, but got there
an hour early. We flew Continental. I liked the flight fine, except
for the leg room. Continental has a nice feature of showing you on a
map of where you are at each moment of the flight.

When we arrived in Paris, leaving the airport turned out to be much
more difficult than getting there. The customs part went fine (very
fast -- the clerk didn't even say a work, just a quick glance at our
passports). I wasn't able to get euros before leaving, so my plan was
to get just enough to get transportation into the city where we could
get them at a better rate than at the airport.

I was surprised to find they only had to lines to exchange currency.
After waiting for maybe 20 minutes in a very slow moving line I found
out when I got to be about 11th that the line was going to close right
in front of me. That is, I was 11th in line and they were going to
serve the next 10. I was unpleased.

So I went to the information booth to find out how much a bus was, and
found out it was $20E. I asked a taxi driver if he would take
dollars, and he said no. So I had a brainstorm. I decided to find
out if anyone wanted to buy dollars. I walked down the line shouting,
"I've got dollars! Does anybody want dollars?". Everyone, it
appeared, wanted euros. I was about to give up, when success hit at
the last moment. A fellow wanted to buy $100 dollars, and then a lady
next to her a couple hundred more, so I wound up with $300E at a very
favorable rate.

We took a bus to the city. The bus seemed to take forever to get away
from the airport. I found out later that it was going from one
airport to the other to pick up passengers, which is why it seemed to
me we had left and were still there (because that's what happened,
sort of). When we got downtown I asked, "Have we left the airport
yet?"

We were told the best stop for us was the Arch de Triomphe, which was
exciting. It was quite a site to see as our introduction to Paris.
But we were preoccupied in finding the Metro.

We met a young lady on the train who helped us find where to get off.
I got a chance to pracise my French. It turns out she was studying to
be a French teacher for foreigners. She said my French was very good.
Everybody told me that. But's it's not. It's very good compared to
someone who knows nothing, but my vocabulary's too limited. But at
least I know enough to carry on a conversation.

So she told us which Metro stop to take, and we struggled our way to
the hotel (she was 2 stops off, so we had a longer walk than we should
have). I wouldn't do it this way again, but I didn't mind travelling
on the Metro and walking with the bags as I was interested to see
things.

My original plan was to stay awake until night time, but that was
impossible. My wife and I took a 3 or 4 hour nap, and then went to
Notre Dame and walked around. We got back around midnight and got
right to sleep, so the nap didn't hurt us.

I actually slept amazingly well the whole time there. Usually it
takes me 10 to 20 minutes to unwind and get to sleep, and everything
has to be just right. No noise. No lights. Not this week! I think
it took me an average of 1.2 seconds to get to sleep, and didn't
matter if the T.V. was on or anything else. I think it was a
combination of wine and too much walking.

Sunday:

We spent most of the day on the islands. It was an intersting walk.
The real estate places have the clever idea of posting rentals and
places for sale on their doors. That way if you see something you
like, you can just walk in and you're already at the right place! I
think it's very practical.

My premonition was right that the prices would be prohibative. There
was one place for sale for several thousand dollars which was 20
square meters. That's not too much bigger than the cube I work in.

I discovered a great mystery on the island. There were cars parked in
a line with maybe 12 inches of clearance between the cars. I couldn't
figure out how they got that way, as it appeared impossible to me that
the cars could have been parked that way. My mistery would be
answered later.

I went to a craperie and explained that I was thirsty and wanted some
water right away, but it didn't do any good. They brought the
beverage, then the meal, and finally the water, when I didn't want it
anymore. Oh well.

The food was so-so. As was the service. This was my experience
overall.

Actually we found some nice places towards the end of our stay, but I
was disappointed overall with the food, which I attribute to
unrealistic expectations. I was assuming I could just walk in
anywhere and the food would be good, but found that it's pretty much
like anywhere else. Some places are good and most aren't so good, and
you have to know which is which. None of the place we went to were
bad at any rate. And at least Paris is jammed with chains of things
like KFC, McDonalds and so forth. That's not to say these aren't
there, but the percentage of propriatary restaurants to chains is much
higher there than in the States, which I liked. Another thing I
noticed was the decor was always in good taste.

I was curious to see how the reputation of the French being rude would
bear out. I found that the people I met on the street were
extraordinarily helpful and courteous. I can't think of one bad
experience. Those working in the service industries were another
matter. There were some who were excellent, but others who were
downright rude, which surprised me. One would expect curteousness
when you are spending money, but that wasn't the case.

Another thing that was interesting was the speaking of English. I was
told the French appreciated others speaking to them in French, but
found people would speak to me in English even though I was speaking
to them in French and they had no idea that I spoke Enlish. I say
they had no idea because I spoke to my wife the entire time I was
there in Portuguese. So they had no reason to assume I spoke Enlish.
I guess the assumption was that since French wasn't my native
language, I must speak English.

Sunday turned out to be the first Sunday of the month, so the Louvre
was free. We spent about half an hour there before it closed. So
that was Sunday.

Monday: We walked from the Louvre to the Arch de Triomphe and saw the
ceremony they have for the unknowned soldier. That was a very nice
walk, although tiring. I would recommend it to anyone who likes to
walk. It went Louvre-Tuileries-Concorde Plaza-Champs Elysee-Arch de
Triomphe.

I enjoyed the view from the Arch de Triomphe, as much as the view from
the Eifel tower. There's no bars or glass to obscure the view, and
there are interesting things to see from every side.

Tuesday: In the morning the car parking mystery was explained. I saw
someone park in parking space that had only 12 inches or so of spare
room. It was a brilliant tour do force that I wouldn't have believed
had I not seen it with my own eyes. I felt like giving the guy a
standing ovation. The funny thing was as soon as the guy had
finished, the guy in front of him drove away.

They have many small cars in Paris, which is practical considering the
parking. In particular is a car called Smart, which is worth doing a
Google on.

We went to the Musee D'Orsay even though you're not supposed to
(because the Louvre is closed, so it's crowded). I didn't like it as
much as I expected to. The Louvre, on the other hand, I like more
than I expected to, so things evened out.

We went on a boat cruise on the Seine in the afternoon. We had to
walk a long way to get to it as no one seemed to know where we needed
to go. Once we got on it we had a nice cruise, although I could have
done without the picture takers that obscured our view for much of the
cruise.

Wednesday: We were very tired from the previous day's walking, so we
slept most of the day. We went to the Pompidou center and looked at
the Museum of Modern Art. That wasn't my cup tea. We ended the day
going to the Moulin Rouge. That was more like it! Lots of fun.

Thursday: We went to the Louvre in the morning and later to the Musee
de Montmartre. I thoroughly enjoyed both. The latter especially, as
it was something I did on a lark. It's a private musuem, so not
included in the pass for the Museums, but easily worth the $6.50E. In
addition to many paintings by Monet, there are many by Morisot and a
few others.

We finished off the day going to the Sacred Heart church.

Friday: We finally made it to the Eifel tower. The weather had not
been cooperating, but we decided to take advantage of what looked to
be an opportunity. It was overcast, but there was pretty good
visability. The line moved by pretty fast.

I enjoyed the Eifel tower fine, but not so much as I had been led to
believe. That is, it seemed from what others had written that this
was something you just couldn't miss and so forth, but I enjoyed the
view from the Arch de Triomphe just as much. This isn't to say
anything bad about it, but just to say that for me it was one of many
pleasant experiences in Paris.

We went to the Hotel des Invalide and saw the Musee de l'Armee (which
my wife enjoyed a lot) and the Musee de Rodin (which I enjoyed).

Saturday: We saw some of the Grand Magasins, the department stores of
Layfayette and Printemps. Layfayette has a wonderful view from its
terrace. These were interesting stores. My wife had a really good
time.

In the evening we split up with her going back to Sacred Heart for
some shopping and me going to the Paris Go Club (go, for the
unitiated, is an oriental game of skill, such as chess).

Sunday: Back home.

If/when we go back we plan to spend more money. We were extremely
thrifty this time, spending altogether, including Moulin Rouge, just
something over $1000 for 8 days including everything (other than air
and the hotel). Next time I'd like to go to some nicer restaurants,
take in a couple more shows, and my wife could do some shopping. Also
we'd like to see Versaille. I think my wife would like to see less
museums. We'd probably also try to walk around less. Oh la la! Sore
feet!

Thanx for posting your review, there aren't enough of them posted...
myself included.

jay
Tue, Sep 16, 2003





In article ,
(Tom Ewall) wrote:

I just got back from my first trip to Paris a couple of days ago. (My
wife had been once before for a day or so). Our trip was from
Saturday to the following Sunday.

Friday: I hadn't been sleeping well, so my plan Thursday night was to
get a good night's sleep, knowing that I would be pretty much losing a
night's sleep on the flight over. We left from K.C., a 7 hour time
change. We would get there at 10:00 a.m., which is 3:00 a.m. our
time, so the night is pretty well shot. Well, I only got 2 hours
sleep, which ruined my plan.

I was pretty much a zombie at work, and had my wife not called ("What
are you still doing there?!"), we would have missed the flight. But
some creative driving got us to the airport on time (but we had to
park in the $18/day parking). But at least we didn't miss the flight!

Saturday: The flight was scheduled to arrive at 11:00, but got there
an hour early. We flew Continental. I liked the flight fine, except
for the leg room. Continental has a nice feature of showing you on a
map of where you are at each moment of the flight.

When we arrived in Paris, leaving the airport turned out to be much
more difficult than getting there. The customs part went fine (very
fast -- the clerk didn't even say a work, just a quick glance at our
passports). I wasn't able to get euros before leaving, so my plan was
to get just enough to get transportation into the city where we could
get them at a better rate than at the airport.

I was surprised to find they only had to lines to exchange currency.
After waiting for maybe 20 minutes in a very slow moving line I found
out when I got to be about 11th that the line was going to close right
in front of me. That is, I was 11th in line and they were going to
serve the next 10. I was unpleased.

So I went to the information booth to find out how much a bus was, and
found out it was $20E. I asked a taxi driver if he would take
dollars, and he said no. So I had a brainstorm. I decided to find
out if anyone wanted to buy dollars. I walked down the line shouting,
"I've got dollars! Does anybody want dollars?". Everyone, it
appeared, wanted euros. I was about to give up, when success hit at
the last moment. A fellow wanted to buy $100 dollars, and then a lady
next to her a couple hundred more, so I wound up with $300E at a very
favorable rate.

We took a bus to the city. The bus seemed to take forever to get away
from the airport. I found out later that it was going from one
airport to the other to pick up passengers, which is why it seemed to
me we had left and were still there (because that's what happened,
sort of). When we got downtown I asked, "Have we left the airport
yet?"

We were told the best stop for us was the Arch de Triomphe, which was
exciting. It was quite a site to see as our introduction to Paris.
But we were preoccupied in finding the Metro.

We met a young lady on the train who helped us find where to get off.
I got a chance to pracise my French. It turns out she was studying to
be a French teacher for foreigners. She said my French was very good.
Everybody told me that. But's it's not. It's very good compared to
someone who knows nothing, but my vocabulary's too limited. But at
least I know enough to carry on a conversation.

So she told us which Metro stop to take, and we struggled our way to
the hotel (she was 2 stops off, so we had a longer walk than we should
have). I wouldn't do it this way again, but I didn't mind travelling
on the Metro and walking with the bags as I was interested to see
things.

My original plan was to stay awake until night time, but that was
impossible. My wife and I took a 3 or 4 hour nap, and then went to
Notre Dame and walked around. We got back around midnight and got
right to sleep, so the nap didn't hurt us.

I actually slept amazingly well the whole time there. Usually it
takes me 10 to 20 minutes to unwind and get to sleep, and everything
has to be just right. No noise. No lights. Not this week! I think
it took me an average of 1.2 seconds to get to sleep, and didn't
matter if the T.V. was on or anything else. I think it was a
combination of wine and too much walking.

Sunday:

We spent most of the day on the islands. It was an intersting walk.
The real estate places have the clever idea of posting rentals and
places for sale on their doors. That way if you see something you
like, you can just walk in and you're already at the right place! I
think it's very practical.

My premonition was right that the prices would be prohibative. There
was one place for sale for several thousand dollars which was 20
square meters. That's not too much bigger than the cube I work in.

I discovered a great mystery on the island. There were cars parked in
a line with maybe 12 inches of clearance between the cars. I couldn't
figure out how they got that way, as it appeared impossible to me that
the cars could have been parked that way. My mistery would be
answered later.

I went to a craperie and explained that I was thirsty and wanted some
water right away, but it didn't do any good. They brought the
beverage, then the meal, and finally the water, when I didn't want it
anymore. Oh well.

The food was so-so. As was the service. This was my experience
overall.

Actually we found some nice places towards the end of our stay, but I
was disappointed overall with the food, which I attribute to
unrealistic expectations. I was assuming I could just walk in
anywhere and the food would be good, but found that it's pretty much
like anywhere else. Some places are good and most aren't so good, and
you have to know which is which. None of the place we went to were
bad at any rate. And at least Paris is jammed with chains of things
like KFC, McDonalds and so forth. That's not to say these aren't
there, but the percentage of propriatary restaurants to chains is much
higher there than in the States, which I liked. Another thing I
noticed was the decor was always in good taste.

I was curious to see how the reputation of the French being rude would
bear out. I found that the people I met on the street were
extraordinarily helpful and courteous. I can't think of one bad
experience. Those working in the service industries were another
matter. There were some who were excellent, but others who were
downright rude, which surprised me. One would expect curteousness
when you are spending money, but that wasn't the case.

Another thing that was interesting was the speaking of English. I was
told the French appreciated others speaking to them in French, but
found people would speak to me in English even though I was speaking
to them in French and they had no idea that I spoke Enlish. I say
they had no idea because I spoke to my wife the entire time I was
there in Portuguese. So they had no reason to assume I spoke Enlish.
I guess the assumption was that since French wasn't my native
language, I must speak English.

Sunday turned out to be the first Sunday of the month, so the Louvre
was free. We spent about half an hour there before it closed. So
that was Sunday.

Monday: We walked from the Louvre to the Arch de Triomphe and saw the
ceremony they have for the unknowned soldier. That was a very nice
walk, although tiring. I would recommend it to anyone who likes to
walk. It went Louvre-Tuileries-Concorde Plaza-Champs Elysee-Arch de
Triomphe.

I enjoyed the view from the Arch de Triomphe, as much as the view from
the Eifel tower. There's no bars or glass to obscure the view, and
there are interesting things to see from every side.

Tuesday: In the morning the car parking mystery was explained. I saw
someone park in parking space that had only 12 inches or so of spare
room. It was a brilliant tour do force that I wouldn't have believed
had I not seen it with my own eyes. I felt like giving the guy a
standing ovation. The funny thing was as soon as the guy had
finished, the guy in front of him drove away.

They have many small cars in Paris, which is practical considering the
parking. In particular is a car called Smart, which is worth doing a
Google on.

We went to the Musee D'Orsay even though you're not supposed to
(because the Louvre is closed, so it's crowded). I didn't like it as
much as I expected to. The Louvre, on the other hand, I like more
than I expected to, so things evened out.

We went on a boat cruise on the Seine in the afternoon. We had to
walk a long way to get to it as no one seemed to know where we needed
to go. Once we got on it we had a nice cruise, although I could have
done without the picture takers that obscured our view for much of the
cruise.

Wednesday: We were very tired from the previous day's walking, so we
slept most of the day. We went to the Pompidou center and looked at
the Museum of Modern Art. That wasn't my cup tea. We ended the day
going to the Moulin Rouge. That was more like it! Lots of fun.

Thursday: We went to the Louvre in the morning and later to the Musee
de Montmartre. I thoroughly enjoyed both. The latter especially, as
it was something I did on a lark. It's a private musuem, so not
included in the pass for the Museums, but easily worth the $6.50E. In
addition to many paintings by Monet, there are many by Morisot and a
few others.

We finished off the day going to the Sacred Heart church.

Friday: We finally made it to the Eifel tower. The weather had not
been cooperating, but we decided to take advantage of what looked to
be an opportunity. It was overcast, but there was pretty good
visability. The line moved by pretty fast.

I enjoyed the Eifel tower fine, but not so much as I had been led to
believe. That is, it seemed from what others had written that this
was something you just couldn't miss and so forth, but I enjoyed the
view from the Arch de Triomphe just as much. This isn't to say
anything bad about it, but just to say that for me it was one of many
pleasant experiences in Paris.

We went to the Hotel des Invalide and saw the Musee de l'Armee (which
my wife enjoyed a lot) and the Musee de Rodin (which I enjoyed).

Saturday: We saw some of the Grand Magasins, the department stores of
Layfayette and Printemps. Layfayette has a wonderful view from its
terrace. These were interesting stores. My wife had a really good
time.

In the evening we split up with her going back to Sacred Heart for
some shopping and me going to the Paris Go Club (go, for the
unitiated, is an oriental game of skill, such as chess).

Sunday: Back home.

If/when we go back we plan to spend more money. We were extremely
thrifty this time, spending altogether, including Moulin Rouge, just
something over $1000 for 8 days including everything (other than air
and the hotel). Next time I'd like to go to some nicer restaurants,
take in a couple more shows, and my wife could do some shopping. Also
we'd like to see Versaille. I think my wife would like to see less
museums. We'd probably also try to walk around less. Oh la la! Sore
feet!

--

Legend insists that as he finished his abject...
Galileo muttered under his breath: "Nevertheless, it does move."

Tom Ewall wrote:
I wasn't able to get euros before leaving, so my plan was to get just
enough to get transportation into the city where we could get them at a
better rate than at the airport.

I was surprised to find they only had to lines to exchange currency.
After waiting for maybe 20 minutes in a very slow moving line I found out
when I got to be about 11th that the line was going to close right in
front of me. That is, I was 11th in line and they were going to serve the
next 10. I was unpleased.

Next time you might try your ATM card. In addition to being cheaper than
exchanging cash, it always, as you have perhaps discovered, far faster and
more convenient than trying to change cash or checks.

miguel
--
Hit The Road! Photos and tales from around the world: http://travel.u.nu
Site remodeled 10-Sept-2003: Hundreds of new photos, easier navigation.

I thought maybe this one was a hoax... perhaps I'm being too suspicious,
but the claims of speaking some French, and the wild spelling of French
words somehow just don't seem to go together.

Also the currency exchange stuff: if one is able to send a trip report to
rec.travel.europe, surely one would have read a few of the discussions here
about exchange rates, ATMs, etc.

Ditto for thinking all restaurants in Paris would be great, and that food
would be cheap. Also, if anyone had spent a minute on rec.travel.europe,
wouldn't they have an inkling about getting to their hotel by public
transportation, or even know which stop left them closest to their
accomodations? I usually have that info before I even book a Paris hotel,
and not because I'm that smart: every website, every guide book, every ad
for Paris hotels or flats almost always has a listed Metro or RER stop
included.

And yet, why would anyone take the time to concoct a lengthy report that
was a hoax? I'm confused...

Go Fig wrote:

Thanx for posting your review, there aren't enough of them posted...
myself included.

jay
Tue, Sep 16, 2003



In article ,
(Tom Ewall) wrote:

I just got back from my first trip to Paris a couple of days ago. (My
wife had been once before for a day or so). Our trip was from
Saturday to the following Sunday.

Friday: I hadn't been sleeping well, so my plan Thursday night was to
get a good night's sleep, knowing that I would be pretty much losing a
night's sleep on the flight over. We left from K.C., a 7 hour time
change. We would get there at 10:00 a.m., which is 3:00 a.m. our
time, so the night is pretty well shot. Well, I only got 2 hours
sleep, which ruined my plan.

I was pretty much a zombie at work, and had my wife not called ("What
are you still doing there?!"), we would have missed the flight. But
some creative driving got us to the airport on time (but we had to
park in the $18/day parking). But at least we didn't miss the flight!

Saturday: The flight was scheduled to arrive at 11:00, but got there
an hour early. We flew Continental. I liked the flight fine, except
for the leg room. Continental has a nice feature of showing you on a
map of where you are at each moment of the flight.

When we arrived in Paris, leaving the airport turned out to be much
more difficult than getting there. The customs part went fine (very
fast -- the clerk didn't even say a work, just a quick glance at our
passports). I wasn't able to get euros before leaving, so my plan was
to get just enough to get transportation into the city where we could
get them at a better rate than at the airport.

I was surprised to find they only had to lines to exchange currency.
After waiting for maybe 20 minutes in a very slow moving line I found
out when I got to be about 11th that the line was going to close right
in front of me. That is, I was 11th in line and they were going to
serve the next 10. I was unpleased.

So I went to the information booth to find out how much a bus was, and
found out it was $20E. I asked a taxi driver if he would take
dollars, and he said no. So I had a brainstorm. I decided to find
out if anyone wanted to buy dollars. I walked down the line shouting,
"I've got dollars! Does anybody want dollars?". Everyone, it
appeared, wanted euros. I was about to give up, when success hit at
the last moment. A fellow wanted to buy $100 dollars, and then a lady
next to her a couple hundred more, so I wound up with $300E at a very
favorable rate.

We took a bus to the city. The bus seemed to take forever to get away
from the airport. I found out later that it was going from one
airport to the other to pick up passengers, which is why it seemed to
me we had left and were still there (because that's what happened,
sort of). When we got downtown I asked, "Have we left the airport
yet?"

We were told the best stop for us was the Arch de Triomphe, which was
exciting. It was quite a site to see as our introduction to Paris.
But we were preoccupied in finding the Metro.

We met a young lady on the train who helped us find where to get off.
I got a chance to pracise my French. It turns out she was studying to
be a French teacher for foreigners. She said my French was very good.
Everybody told me that. But's it's not. It's very good compared to
someone who knows nothing, but my vocabulary's too limited. But at
least I know enough to carry on a conversation.

So she told us which Metro stop to take, and we struggled our way to
the hotel (she was 2 stops off, so we had a longer walk than we should
have). I wouldn't do it this way again, but I didn't mind travelling
on the Metro and walking with the bags as I was interested to see
things.

My original plan was to stay awake until night time, but that was
impossible. My wife and I took a 3 or 4 hour nap, and then went to
Notre Dame and walked around. We got back around midnight and got
right to sleep, so the nap didn't hurt us.

I actually slept amazingly well the whole time there. Usually it
takes me 10 to 20 minutes to unwind and get to sleep, and everything
has to be just right. No noise. No lights. Not this week! I think
it took me an average of 1.2 seconds to get to sleep, and didn't
matter if the T.V. was on or anything else. I think it was a
combination of wine and too much walking.

Sunday:

We spent most of the day on the islands. It was an intersting walk.
The real estate places have the clever idea of posting rentals and
places for sale on their doors. That way if you see something you
like, you can just walk in and you're already at the right place! I
think it's very practical.

My premonition was right that the prices would be prohibative. There
was one place for sale for several thousand dollars which was 20
square meters. That's not too much bigger than the cube I work in.

I discovered a great mystery on the island. There were cars parked in
a line with maybe 12 inches of clearance between the cars. I couldn't
figure out how they got that way, as it appeared impossible to me that
the cars could have been parked that way. My mistery would be
answered later.

I went to a craperie and explained that I was thirsty and wanted some
water right away, but it didn't do any good. They brought the
beverage, then the meal, and finally the water, when I didn't want it
anymore. Oh well.

The food was so-so. As was the service. This was my experience
overall.

Actually we found some nice places towards the end of our stay, but I
was disappointed overall with the food, which I attribute to
unrealistic expectations. I was assuming I could just walk in
anywhere and the food would be good, but found that it's pretty much
like anywhere else. Some places are good and most aren't so good, and
you have to know which is which. None of the place we went to were
bad at any rate. And at least Paris is jammed with chains of things
like KFC, McDonalds and so forth. That's not to say these aren't
there, but the percentage of propriatary restaurants to chains is much
higher there than in the States, which I liked. Another thing I
noticed was the decor was always in good taste.

I was curious to see how the reputation of the French being rude would
bear out. I found that the people I met on the street were
extraordinarily helpful and courteous. I can't think of one bad
experience. Those working in the service industries were another
matter. There were some who were excellent, but others who were
downright rude, which surprised me. One would expect curteousness
when you are spending money, but that wasn't the case.

Another thing that was interesting was the speaking of English. I was
told the French appreciated others speaking to them in French, but
found people would speak to me in English even though I was speaking
to them in French and they had no idea that I spoke Enlish. I say
they had no idea because I spoke to my wife the entire time I was
there in Portuguese. So they had no reason to assume I spoke Enlish.
I guess the assumption was that since French wasn't my native
language, I must speak English.

Sunday turned out to be the first Sunday of the month, so the Louvre
was free. We spent about half an hour there before it closed. So
that was Sunday.

Monday: We walked from the Louvre to the Arch de Triomphe and saw the
ceremony they have for the unknowned soldier. That was a very nice
walk, although tiring. I would recommend it to anyone who likes to
walk. It went Louvre-Tuileries-Concorde Plaza-Champs Elysee-Arch de
Triomphe.

I enjoyed the view from the Arch de Triomphe, as much as the view from
the Eifel tower. There's no bars or glass to obscure the view, and
there are interesting things to see from every side.

Tuesday: In the morning the car parking mystery was explained. I saw
someone park in parking space that had only 12 inches or so of spare
room. It was a brilliant tour do force that I wouldn't have believed
had I not seen it with my own eyes. I felt like giving the guy a
standing ovation. The funny thing was as soon as the guy had
finished, the guy in front of him drove away.

They have many small cars in Paris, which is practical considering the
parking. In particular is a car called Smart, which is worth doing a
Google on.

We went to the Musee D'Orsay even though you're not supposed to
(because the Louvre is closed, so it's crowded). I didn't like it as
much as I expected to. The Louvre, on the other hand, I like more
than I expected to, so things evened out.

We went on a boat cruise on the Seine in the afternoon. We had to
walk a long way to get to it as no one seemed to know where we needed
to go. Once we got on it we had a nice cruise, although I could have
done without the picture takers that obscured our view for much of the
cruise.

Wednesday: We were very tired from the previous day's walking, so we
slept most of the day. We went to the Pompidou center and looked at
the Museum of Modern Art. That wasn't my cup tea. We ended the day
going to the Moulin Rouge. That was more like it! Lots of fun.

Thursday: We went to the Louvre in the morning and later to the Musee
de Montmartre. I thoroughly enjoyed both. The latter especially, as
it was something I did on a lark. It's a private musuem, so not
included in the pass for the Museums, but easily worth the $6.50E. In
addition to many paintings by Monet, there are many by Morisot and a
few others.

We finished off the day going to the Sacred Heart church.

Friday: We finally made it to the Eifel tower. The weather had not
been cooperating, but we decided to take advantage of what looked to
be an opportunity. It was overcast, but there was pretty good
visability. The line moved by pretty fast.

I enjoyed the Eifel tower fine, but not so much as I had been led to
believe. That is, it seemed from what others had written that this
was something you just couldn't miss and so forth, but I enjoyed the
view from the Arch de Triomphe just as much. This isn't to say
anything bad about it, but just to say that for me it was one of many
pleasant experiences in Paris.

We went to the Hotel des Invalide and saw the Musee de l'Armee (which
my wife enjoyed a lot) and the Musee de Rodin (which I enjoyed).

Saturday: We saw some of the Grand Magasins, the department stores of
Layfayette and Printemps. Layfayette has a wonderful view from its
terrace. These were interesting stores. My wife had a really good
time.

In the evening we split up with her going back to Sacred Heart for
some shopping and me going to the Paris Go Club (go, for the
unitiated, is an oriental game of skill, such as chess).

Sunday: Back home.

If/when we go back we plan to spend more money. We were extremely
thrifty this time, spending altogether, including Moulin Rouge, just
something over $1000 for 8 days including everything (other than air
and the hotel). Next time I'd like to go to some nicer restaurants,
take in a couple more shows, and my wife could do some shopping. Also
we'd like to see Versaille. I think my wife would like to see less
museums. We'd probably also try to walk around less. Oh la la! Sore
feet!

--

Legend insists that as he finished his abject...
Galileo muttered under his breath: "Nevertheless, it does move."

On 16 Sep 2003 11:43:28 -0700, (Tom Ewall) wrote:

I just got back from my first trip to Paris a couple of days ago. (My
wife had been once before for a day or so). Our trip was from
Saturday to the following Sunday.



Someone needs to prepare for trips better....


--
------- o
----- #\,
--- ()/()
Belfast Biker
"When Religion And Politics Ride In The Same Cart.....The Whirlwind Follows"

In article , Go
Fig writes
Thanx for posting your review, there aren't enough of them posted...
myself included.

I'm going tomorrow for four days and if I can manage to remember what I
get up to will post something.

Meanwhile, here's about as much as I can recall from my last trip there
in 2002 when I and a companion went during Bastille weekend (July 14),
though not specifically for that particular reason.

We travelled from London Waterloo via Eurostar and got a discount rate
of UKP70 even though I think we missed the cut off date for the offer.
During the trip I updated my PDA diary, something I should have done
while I was in Paris as well.

We stayed at Hotel Williams du Pre in rue Mayran (9eme arr), just off
Rue La Fayette). I think the rate was about 70 euros a night, but not
entirely sure now. It was clean, comfortable and convenient - only a 10
minute walk from Gare du Nord. I chose it because we were visiting a
friend and his apartment is just round the corner.

Another hotel (Trois Poussins) wouldn't take my booking because we were
only staying two nights but it was a 'busy weekend' and although there
were vacancies, they wanted a booking for three nights. The Williams du
Pre had no difficulties with this.

It was Saturday lunchtime when we reached Gare du Nord and while my
friend got ready we had a drink in a little cafe bar on the corner of La
Fayette and Rue Cadet. After visiting his fifth floor apartment we
strolled toward Opera, stopping in occasional interior and clothes
stores, and then on to Place de la Concorde, which was being readied for
the Bastille ceremonies the following day. I'm sure I've seen it before
on earlier visits, but the scale of the place is impressive.

He bought a book in an English bookshop opposite Jardins des Tuileries,
and we then wandered through the jardins, stopping at a little park cafe
for a glass of wine and a chat. Very civilised.

We returned to the hotel on foot and after freshening up, we set out for
Hôtel de Ville. We were planning to walk but it began to rain, so we
dived into the Cadet metro. At Hôtel de Ville we emerged into a
downpour, but it quickly eased off and we explored the area. My friend
described it as a little like London's Soho.

We found a little trendy bar up a short alley way and stopped here for a
drink before moving up the street to the restaurant we'd booked - Le
Gamin de Paris. The unusually decorated ground floor dining room was
packed, so we took a table downstairs. I can't remember much about what
we ate, but I know it was OK if not remarkable. Our waiter turned out to
be from the UK.

After the meal we returned to the bar, which was busier than earlier,
but we sat at the same table as before and had several more drinks -
Cointreau digestifs for me. The music was loud but not overbearing and
included a lot of jazz, while the crowd was friendly and interesting -
I'm sure it included several transvestites. It was quite late by the
time we left - it might have been around 1am, in search of another
interesting place to find a drink.

We were quite drunk by now and headed for Le Louvre, but were too late
for the cafe bar or wherever it was that our friend thought might still
be open there. We strolled instead through the grounds and then followed
the river, which took us out of our way home. We then decided there was
no chance of another drink anywhere, so headed back the hotel, which was
now quite a way off. We meandered through deserted square and avenues,
and then joined a taxi queue, where a group of young beggars accosted
us. Although we weren't next in line, our host dived into a waiting
taxi, we climbed in too, and it sped off to shouts from the vagrants and
others in the queue. Bit embarrassing that.

Next morning I was watching telly in the hotel room which was showing
the celebrations taking place live in the Place de la Concorde. It was
odd, seeing and watching squadrons of air force planes fly overhead from
the hotel room, and then watching them appear on the screen seconds
later. Only later when I got home and heard the news did I realise that
there had been an incident at the ceremony involving a man with a knife.

After a shower and quick hotel breakfast, we joined up with our host
again and strolled up Rue de Rochechouart, which on a Sunday morning is
lively with locals buying delicacies for breakfast or lunch and eating
in cafes.

We continued climbing up to Sacre Couer, which was teeming with
visitors, but rather than go in we just admired the view. On the way
down we found a restaurant in which we had lunch. Again, nice food, but
couldn't tell you what I ate.

Our host had other business that afternoon, so we took ourselves off to
Le Tuileries again. The exertions and drink from the night before had
wearied us to such a degree that we weren't able to do more than sit in
chairs next to a fountain and doze for an hour or so in the sunshine
before returning to the hotel to collect our bags. At Gare du Nord, as
we had time to spare, we stopped for a drink at one of the nearby
restaurants - 11 euros for a large beer and a coke - outrageous!

Nothing much to report about the Eurostar trip back, apart from a large
man opposite who cleaned out a litre tub of Ben & Jerry's and then
snored the rest of the way to Waterloo. I was too tired to care and
probably nodded off as well.

--
congokid
Eating out in London? Read my tips...
http://congokid.com

(Tom Ewall) wrote:

I just got back from my first trip to Paris a couple of days ago. (My
wife had been once before for a day or so). Our trip was from
Saturday to the following Sunday.

Friday: I hadn't been sleeping well, so my plan Thursday night was to....
-------------
Nice trip report . I recognize the sore feet . Funny thing about
Paris is that despite the metro , you end up walking and walking and
then some, because there is something new and interesting to see all
the time.
The long walk from Louvre to the Arc d´Triomphe is great - and its
fun to watch the traffic from the top of the Arc.

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 11:43:28 -0700, Tom Ewall wrote:


Another thing that was interesting was the speaking of English. I was
told the French appreciated others speaking to them in French, but
found people would speak to me in English even though I was speaking
to them in French and they had no idea that I spoke Enlish. I say
they had no idea because I spoke to my wife the entire time I was
there in Portuguese. So they had no reason to assume I spoke Enlish.
I guess the assumption was that since French wasn't my native
language, I must speak English.

That does not quite match our experience. When speaking Portuguese to my
wife around Paris, about half the time people around would end up
answering us in Portuguese.

Especially at places such as street market. I would tell her in
Portuguese, "I think you need to give him one more penny," and the guy
would immediately follow in Portuguese, "sim, mais um centavo."

Next time you might try your ATM card. In addition to being cheaper than
exchanging cash, it always, as you have perhaps discovered, far faster and
more convenient than trying to change cash or checks.

Also you can buy a ticket into Paris on the RER with a VISA card.

Another thing that was interesting was the speaking of English. I was
told the French appreciated others speaking to them in French, but
found people would speak to me in English even though I was speaking
to them in French and they had no idea that I spoke Enlish. I say
they had no idea because I spoke to my wife the entire time I was
there in Portuguese. So they had no reason to assume I spoke Enlish.
I guess the assumption was that since French wasn't my native
language, I must speak English.

The French are very good at spotting Americans & Brits. My wife is very
good at it, and I, an American, am making good progress. I sometimes spot
them before she does. Often I will spot an American and she'll tell me I'm
wrong. We'll come up with some ploy to get close enough to them to hear
them speak and she'll be right. Frustrating it is! But seriously,
Americans in Paris stick out like a sore thumb.

Sounds like you had a nice trip. I think if you had read a lonely planet
beforehand you would have had an even better trip. A little preparation can
make a trip go more smoothly.

Michael