Ahhhhh Paris (and Beyond)!
Oct 25th, 2011, 08:27 PM
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Ahhhhh Paris (and Beyond)!
<b>Paris - Sept. 30, 2011 - Oct 14. 2011
Paris, Cobblestay.com, Overnight in Tours & the Loire Valley, Day Trip to Rouen
Part 1</b>
Our first trip to Paris was 5 years ago; for this second one we were quite a bit more casual once we had all the basics nailed down. Actually, we didn't *mean* to be so casual, but a combo of factors--mostly revolving around work stressors--meant that as we got closer to our departure the sloppier my organization became. Thus I just managed to bring maps, but forgot guidebooks, restaurant and shop lists lovingly compiled through a year of Fodor's and TripAdvisor and other venues, and all sorts of other things I was hoping to bring. Oh well. We were headed to Paris.
Instead of a daily trip report I'm going to do this mostly by category, since our days were mostly leisurely. I'll add prices wherever I have data, since I know that always helps me when I read trip reports.
<b>Air France - SFO to CDG (and back!)</b>
We splurged on Premium Economy (Premium Voyageur), in part because it was only a few hundred more each way than regular Economy. (The total feels significantly more, but I figured if I focused on the extra price per leg instead of the total it wouldn't feel as pricey!) Also, my husband is 6'5" so extra legroom is always welcome. We bought our tickets in late April and ended up paying 3,470 plus 257.06 in taxes etc. We chose our seats for both legs, but the selection was only honored for the first leg. Going to was ultra smooth. At SFO Air France has a separate business line, a separate premium economy line, and separate regular economy line. Thus, check-in was a breeze and we spent way more leisure time at the airport than we needed. They also stamped our boarding passes for a premium line as well as stamped our luggage for premium treatment. Given how early we were I have no idea if we saved a lot of time with the premium security line, but the illusion was nice. Boarding was in the line as the Business passengers, so that was nice too.
On board, we sunk into our seats, the 2-across window ones we'd chosen. The small Premium Econ cabin is separated from the other cabins, and with our seating arrangement it felt nicely calm and private. The PE seats also have individual reading lights and built-in headsets, a leg rest and a foot rest under the seat in front of you. The seats are in shells so no one reclines into you and you don't recline into anyone else's space. There are, thankfully, electrical plugs and USB ports as well for charging your electronics. We found them a bit temperamental, but they worked fine if you jiggled your plug a bit. You also get the same amenity kit business class gets, but I believe the meals are the same as economy. The incline--as I found with Thai Air's premium economy product--is not enough to make for really comfortable sleeping, but it's easier to curl up than with regular economy seats.
The flight was slightly late for its 11:35am arrival and uneventful. We received breakfast and lunch, plus self-serve drinks and uninspired snacks are available in the galley.
When we landed, CDG was a more pleasant experience than I expected. My, what a far cry from the maze and long shuttle bus experience of five years ago! Plus, it was so wonderful to breeze through customs without the type of scrutiny I've gotten used to with even the shortest flight in the U.S. Our guy was chatting with some woman, and he not only barely looked at our passports I wasn't even sure if he had stamped them.
Leaving was a different story. When we checked-in at the airport, they couldn't give us the seat assignments we had initially reserved. After a phone call to his manager after scanning our records (never a good sign) he told us they'd give us our assignments at the gate but assured us we still had Premium Economy seats. Now, I'm rather tightly-wound when it comes to these things, so not having a seat assignment did not make me happy. Upon further discussion, the agent told us we should go to the gate immediately and they'd give us our seats. Security was a breeze (and we were reminded by a fellow passenger that, unlike in the U.S., we didn't have to take off our shoes). However, when we got to the gate the very dismissive gate agent, fulfilling all the stereotypes of the French that I'd only encountered once before over the course of two trips (incidentally, the other was a TGV agent), informed us that no matter what the other agent had said, we could only get our seats an hour before.
So, more anxiety on my part. I wondered if I'd checked-in online, per my usual MO, I should have checked-in online the night before. Turned out, another Prem Econ passenger who *had* tried to check in online told us she also couldn't get her seat assignments. I hovered by the gate. An hour before boarding the agents still hadn't opened up the counter. It wasn't until a bit less than an hour before the flight time that they did. When we got to the front of the line they told us to sit back down, and that they'd give us our assignments when we boarded. Sigh; could *no one* give us accurate information?! So, we finally board, were given our seats, and sure enough, ended up in 4-across middle row. Ugh. Still most of the advantages of Premium Econ, and the seats of seats are slightly separated from each other by a small gap between them, but it wasn't as pleasant as the window side.
<b>Transportation</b>
After a boring wait for our luggage, in which I got to see how hard it can be to distinguish French tourist from American or German ones by visual cues alone, we made our way to the train station. Last time we took a taxi into the city, but since our apartment wasn't supposed to be ready until 4pm I figured we should save money this time. I was very grateful I had remembered to bring instructions printed from the handy Paris by Train site, which allowed me to find, with only a bit of angst, the place to buy our tickets as well as a carnet. http://parisbytrain.com/charles-de-g...aris-by-train/ Since we had American credit cards, the self-service kiosks were probably a no-go.
All told, from the time we landed to the time we got to Gare du Nord was almost exactly 2 hours.
Leaving Paris we used a taxi service. Last time we hike a few blocks to the taxi stand around Republique, but this time we chose one of the two taxi companies recommended in a recent thread. http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ion-needed.cfm. Per the instructions, we called the English-speaking number for G7 the day before and requested a 6:30am Firday pickup outside our apartment. Our phone number popped up on their screen, evidently, and from the tenor of the brief conversation, it seemed like our location did too, since they pretty much just confirmed our address and phone number. The taxi driver, who was jolly and professional, arrived maybe a minute or so late. It was obvious the lateness was purely due to finding his way through the Marais, since when we spied him careening around a block away and waved him over. When I couldn't tell him what terminal we needed, he pulled up CDG flights on his smart phone and had me look up our flight number of we could give him the right terminal. Given the early time, there wasn't a lot of traffic and we got to the airport in just a bit over half an hour. The final fee was about $68 Euros; I think we gave him $75.
We also pre-purchased tickets for our overnight stay in Tours and our day trip to Rouen. This site was invaluable for navigating the TGV site:
http://www.nickbooth.id.au/Tips/FrenchTrain.htm
For Tours I bought our tix exactly 3 months prior. We paid 80 Euros total for our two round trip tix for the Paris to St. Pierre des Corps and back route,, and 5.20 total for the St. Pierre to Tours central. I broke up the purchases into two transactions otherwise the site wouldn’t allow me to choose e-tickets for the St. Pierre legs. The shorter ticket I picked up at a TGV office when I got to Paris. All this was to circumvent issues I might have trying to retrieve tix in the automatic kiosks without a chip and pin card.
For Rouen, I paid 40 euros for both tix.
The only time they checked our tickets was in the Paris to St. Pierre des Corps leg. I was happy I’d brought our passports, which the purser asked for to check our tix. No one checked our tickets in any of the other trips.
<b>Cobblestay.com Apartment</b>
http://bookings.cobblestay.com/Unit.mvc/Details/43268
I'll do a more detailed apartment review for the Paris Apartment Thread, but suffice to say that the apartment met all expectations. We took a chance on this relatively new agency mainly because my first choice of agency, Vacation in Paris--chosen for their reputation but mainly because I liked the idea they usually send a key in advance--didn't have anything for our timeframe that fit our critieria. (Near a food shopping street; in the Marais; at least one bedroom; washer and dryer; around $250ish, no more than $300, a night; preferably a decent sized bathtub; a bed without a footboard to accommodate my tall husband). I think I found Cobblestay after spying their apartment on Flipkey (or Homeaway?) and navigated to their site.
This particularly apartment seemed ideal. Last trip we had stayed in the same area--around Rue de Bretagne--and knew its charms intimately. (Though I was dismayed both to see a Subway on the street now, and by how popular it seemed to be among the locals.) I was going to "settle" for an apartment with ViP on Rue Rambuteau, but we were really happy to be back around Rue de Bretagne. The 2nd floor apartment didn't get direct light, but had plenty of ambiant light, and lots of electrical lights, including reading lights for the bed. The only real negative was the 4pm check-in time although when we arrived 20 min early the apt representative was already there. They had bottled water, cheese, fruit, and a baguette waiting for us at the apartment, as well as eggs and butter in the small undercounter frig. They also had plenty of Nespresso capsules for the Nespresso machine. There was also plenty of other supplies (salt, instant coffee, pancake syrup, bullion, mustard, etc.); most seemed to be left from previous tenants but some--like the sugar--looked as if it had been supplied by the apt owner. We added to the supply when we left.
There was also an ample supply of toilet paper and paper towels. Prior tenants had left shampoo and conditioner that we happily used, and--joy-upon-joy--the apt had a blow dyer. We had free WiFi and free local calls plus free calls to land lines in the U.S. (though we never used it). I'd say that there wasn't a basic necessity that the apartment didn't already possess and it was obvious the owner took great pride in keeping the apartment welcoming.
We ended up paying $2,889, which included a $49 damage waiver fee. The 2 week stay put our daily rate down to well within our price range; if we’d stayed only a week I think the apt may have been outside our budget. We paid via credit card an initial 20% deposit and then they billed our credit card the remainder about 45 days prior to arrival, per the rental agreement.
<b>Sights & Smells</b>
No Museum Pass for us this time. I dithered about it, but since there was no longer a three-day option, we decided to waste a little money and time in favor of flexibility. This trip, we also skipped the Louvre, and due to the consistently overcast days during the 2nd week, we never made it back to the awe-inspiring St. Chappelle as I had planned. Last trip to we also hit some places--the doll museum, the Orsay, the Rodin, Versailles--that we didn't feel the need to revisit. We also tried to visit the Marmottan but the day we tried they were closed in preparation for an exhibit. But, we did make it to a few other places:
<i>The Cluny (Musée National du Moyen Age)</i> remains my favorite major museum in Paris. I wasn't a fan of Medieval art until our last trip to the Cluny--which completely turned me around. It is such a perfectly curated museum. Everything is thoughtfully placed and lit, with the walls painted lovingly to best showcase the art. It is not overwhelmingly large, yet it is substantial enough for a good couple of hours. I don't know if there's any truth to this, but it completely has the feel of someone's highly personal, perfectionist hand. If you like Medieval art, or just want a good intro to it, I can't imagine a better place.
<i>Centre Pompidou</i> - We visited the Pompidou Center this time around primarily to catch the Munch exhibit. If you're there while it's still open, go. In my mind, Munch pretty much equated to "The Scream" so this show gave me a whole new appreciation for the creativity of his art. We went around 4pm and it wasn't nearly as crowded as we heard it could be earlier in the day. I understand if we had been patient and had gone even later at night it would have been better. Also, don’t forget to give yourself some time just to stop and watch the Paris skyline from the upper floors.
<i>Paris Sewer Tour</i> - This self-guided tour gave me a lot more history than I thought it would about the Paris sanitation system. It was worth it for that alone. However, be warned it does get quite smelly and, me being of that sort, I kept being just a tad scared that one of the grates would fail and I'd be the first person in the history of the Sewer Tour to be plunged into the dark waters below.
<i>Pinacotheque</i> - We were lucky enough to have the German Expressionist art exhibit open on our last full day in Paris. This is probably my favorite period in art history, so I was eager to see it. It had a heavy emphasis on some women Expressionists I'd never seen live before, and had some very nice pieces.
<i>L'Orangerie</i> - We were there primarily to see the Waterlilies again, but they were showing a great exhibit of Spanish art spanning across the late 19th century through the early part of the 20th. So interspersed among some famous names like Picasso, Dali and Miro, it also intrroduced me to some new favorites such as Joaquin Mir.
<i>Musee Jacquemart-Andre</i> - It would have been foolish for us to miss the Fra Angelico exhibit and, ahhhhh, it was extraordinary. The vibrancy of the colors, the details, the warmth in the faces of the Madonnas! The only issue was the crowds, but it’s a small enough museum if you’re just patient enough a space will open up so you can study a painting more carefully.
<I>Galleries Lafayette</I>: We purely went to see, for the first time, the famous peacock colored dome and go up to the 8th floor for the view of Paris. Pretty nice for a free venue. (Well, free if you refrain from shopping!) It was a Monday, but between the throngs of tourists and throngs of locals taking advantage of the fall sale, it might as well have been the weekend before Christmas. Packed, packed, packed.
<I>Palais Garnier</I> - The famous Paris opera house is just across the street from the Galleries Lafayette so it seemed silly not to go. It was too late in the season for their in-house English-language tours. I also contemplated taking one of the third party paid tours, but the one I read about in another trip report required that we print out our online tickets and we didn’t have a printer in the apartment. So….we did the self-guided tour. Turned out perfect fine. It was great seeing the famous Chagall roof, but the Grand Foyer was a sight to behold. If you’ve never seen pictures of it, it’s like squishing together Versailles into the size of a ballroom. It’s incredibly, impressively, over the top ornate.
<I>Canal St. Martin Tour</I> - I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do this. I get bored easily (you should see what a terror I am on beach vacations), so the idea of a slow 2.5 hour boat ride didn’t exactly make me jump for joy. However, it was hot, I wasn’t feeling well, and we thought it would be a good, relaxing outing. I looked up the times for Canauxrama, misjudged the time, then spent a bit of time at the ticket booth near Bastille wondering why no one was there before learning they were selling tickets at the boat, and managed to get on 15 min before sailing as one of the last two passengers allowed onboard. We’d heard that the underground part got cold enough, even on a hot day, to necessitate a sweater, but it ended up being simply refreshing. Was I bored silly? Pretty much. I actually think being sick made it worse because I couldn’t get into a calm state and just remained antsy. It takes quite a bit of time to fill a lock, so after the underground part there were quite a few long waits.
I <I>was</I> pleasantly surprised by the sound system. I’ve been on plenty of tours where you couldn’t hear a word the guide was saying, but this time the speakers both from the top and inside the boat conveyed the guide’s voice clearly. She gave the history of the canal in both French and English, in a nice amount of detail, which helped stave off my boredom for a good chunk of the ride.
For those of you who not as bad as I am with sedentary activity, here are a few other observations: Get there early so you can stake out the best seats--which are the very front of the top section or the open front area --what they call the “front terrace”---of the bottom section. (However, be warned that the front terrace area will get you splashed a bit when the locks fill.) During the initial underground part of the tour you have to be in an open area or you pretty much miss seeing the top of the tunnel. If you’re seated at the top, you also want to be in front because on our boat the seats at the top pretty much also ran the length of the boat, facing in instead of outward or toward the front. So, if you’re on the same boat we were you would pretty much see nothing of where you were going unless you were really close to the front. If you can’t be near the front, after the underground section I think it’s a toss up between the top and moving to the inside of the boat. The inside has advantages because you’re at canal level, so you get a direct vantage point. Plus the seats all face the front, so even if you’re not right up front you can see where you’re going.
<i><b>Next installment...Tours & the Loire, Rouen, Odds & Ends...</b></i>
Paris, Cobblestay.com, Overnight in Tours & the Loire Valley, Day Trip to Rouen
Part 1</b>
Our first trip to Paris was 5 years ago; for this second one we were quite a bit more casual once we had all the basics nailed down. Actually, we didn't *mean* to be so casual, but a combo of factors--mostly revolving around work stressors--meant that as we got closer to our departure the sloppier my organization became. Thus I just managed to bring maps, but forgot guidebooks, restaurant and shop lists lovingly compiled through a year of Fodor's and TripAdvisor and other venues, and all sorts of other things I was hoping to bring. Oh well. We were headed to Paris.
Instead of a daily trip report I'm going to do this mostly by category, since our days were mostly leisurely. I'll add prices wherever I have data, since I know that always helps me when I read trip reports.
<b>Air France - SFO to CDG (and back!)</b>
We splurged on Premium Economy (Premium Voyageur), in part because it was only a few hundred more each way than regular Economy. (The total feels significantly more, but I figured if I focused on the extra price per leg instead of the total it wouldn't feel as pricey!) Also, my husband is 6'5" so extra legroom is always welcome. We bought our tickets in late April and ended up paying 3,470 plus 257.06 in taxes etc. We chose our seats for both legs, but the selection was only honored for the first leg. Going to was ultra smooth. At SFO Air France has a separate business line, a separate premium economy line, and separate regular economy line. Thus, check-in was a breeze and we spent way more leisure time at the airport than we needed. They also stamped our boarding passes for a premium line as well as stamped our luggage for premium treatment. Given how early we were I have no idea if we saved a lot of time with the premium security line, but the illusion was nice. Boarding was in the line as the Business passengers, so that was nice too.
On board, we sunk into our seats, the 2-across window ones we'd chosen. The small Premium Econ cabin is separated from the other cabins, and with our seating arrangement it felt nicely calm and private. The PE seats also have individual reading lights and built-in headsets, a leg rest and a foot rest under the seat in front of you. The seats are in shells so no one reclines into you and you don't recline into anyone else's space. There are, thankfully, electrical plugs and USB ports as well for charging your electronics. We found them a bit temperamental, but they worked fine if you jiggled your plug a bit. You also get the same amenity kit business class gets, but I believe the meals are the same as economy. The incline--as I found with Thai Air's premium economy product--is not enough to make for really comfortable sleeping, but it's easier to curl up than with regular economy seats.
The flight was slightly late for its 11:35am arrival and uneventful. We received breakfast and lunch, plus self-serve drinks and uninspired snacks are available in the galley.
When we landed, CDG was a more pleasant experience than I expected. My, what a far cry from the maze and long shuttle bus experience of five years ago! Plus, it was so wonderful to breeze through customs without the type of scrutiny I've gotten used to with even the shortest flight in the U.S. Our guy was chatting with some woman, and he not only barely looked at our passports I wasn't even sure if he had stamped them.
Leaving was a different story. When we checked-in at the airport, they couldn't give us the seat assignments we had initially reserved. After a phone call to his manager after scanning our records (never a good sign) he told us they'd give us our assignments at the gate but assured us we still had Premium Economy seats. Now, I'm rather tightly-wound when it comes to these things, so not having a seat assignment did not make me happy. Upon further discussion, the agent told us we should go to the gate immediately and they'd give us our seats. Security was a breeze (and we were reminded by a fellow passenger that, unlike in the U.S., we didn't have to take off our shoes). However, when we got to the gate the very dismissive gate agent, fulfilling all the stereotypes of the French that I'd only encountered once before over the course of two trips (incidentally, the other was a TGV agent), informed us that no matter what the other agent had said, we could only get our seats an hour before.
So, more anxiety on my part. I wondered if I'd checked-in online, per my usual MO, I should have checked-in online the night before. Turned out, another Prem Econ passenger who *had* tried to check in online told us she also couldn't get her seat assignments. I hovered by the gate. An hour before boarding the agents still hadn't opened up the counter. It wasn't until a bit less than an hour before the flight time that they did. When we got to the front of the line they told us to sit back down, and that they'd give us our assignments when we boarded. Sigh; could *no one* give us accurate information?! So, we finally board, were given our seats, and sure enough, ended up in 4-across middle row. Ugh. Still most of the advantages of Premium Econ, and the seats of seats are slightly separated from each other by a small gap between them, but it wasn't as pleasant as the window side.
<b>Transportation</b>
After a boring wait for our luggage, in which I got to see how hard it can be to distinguish French tourist from American or German ones by visual cues alone, we made our way to the train station. Last time we took a taxi into the city, but since our apartment wasn't supposed to be ready until 4pm I figured we should save money this time. I was very grateful I had remembered to bring instructions printed from the handy Paris by Train site, which allowed me to find, with only a bit of angst, the place to buy our tickets as well as a carnet. http://parisbytrain.com/charles-de-g...aris-by-train/ Since we had American credit cards, the self-service kiosks were probably a no-go.
All told, from the time we landed to the time we got to Gare du Nord was almost exactly 2 hours.
Leaving Paris we used a taxi service. Last time we hike a few blocks to the taxi stand around Republique, but this time we chose one of the two taxi companies recommended in a recent thread. http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ion-needed.cfm. Per the instructions, we called the English-speaking number for G7 the day before and requested a 6:30am Firday pickup outside our apartment. Our phone number popped up on their screen, evidently, and from the tenor of the brief conversation, it seemed like our location did too, since they pretty much just confirmed our address and phone number. The taxi driver, who was jolly and professional, arrived maybe a minute or so late. It was obvious the lateness was purely due to finding his way through the Marais, since when we spied him careening around a block away and waved him over. When I couldn't tell him what terminal we needed, he pulled up CDG flights on his smart phone and had me look up our flight number of we could give him the right terminal. Given the early time, there wasn't a lot of traffic and we got to the airport in just a bit over half an hour. The final fee was about $68 Euros; I think we gave him $75.
We also pre-purchased tickets for our overnight stay in Tours and our day trip to Rouen. This site was invaluable for navigating the TGV site:
http://www.nickbooth.id.au/Tips/FrenchTrain.htm
For Tours I bought our tix exactly 3 months prior. We paid 80 Euros total for our two round trip tix for the Paris to St. Pierre des Corps and back route,, and 5.20 total for the St. Pierre to Tours central. I broke up the purchases into two transactions otherwise the site wouldn’t allow me to choose e-tickets for the St. Pierre legs. The shorter ticket I picked up at a TGV office when I got to Paris. All this was to circumvent issues I might have trying to retrieve tix in the automatic kiosks without a chip and pin card.
For Rouen, I paid 40 euros for both tix.
The only time they checked our tickets was in the Paris to St. Pierre des Corps leg. I was happy I’d brought our passports, which the purser asked for to check our tix. No one checked our tickets in any of the other trips.
<b>Cobblestay.com Apartment</b>
http://bookings.cobblestay.com/Unit.mvc/Details/43268
I'll do a more detailed apartment review for the Paris Apartment Thread, but suffice to say that the apartment met all expectations. We took a chance on this relatively new agency mainly because my first choice of agency, Vacation in Paris--chosen for their reputation but mainly because I liked the idea they usually send a key in advance--didn't have anything for our timeframe that fit our critieria. (Near a food shopping street; in the Marais; at least one bedroom; washer and dryer; around $250ish, no more than $300, a night; preferably a decent sized bathtub; a bed without a footboard to accommodate my tall husband). I think I found Cobblestay after spying their apartment on Flipkey (or Homeaway?) and navigated to their site.
This particularly apartment seemed ideal. Last trip we had stayed in the same area--around Rue de Bretagne--and knew its charms intimately. (Though I was dismayed both to see a Subway on the street now, and by how popular it seemed to be among the locals.) I was going to "settle" for an apartment with ViP on Rue Rambuteau, but we were really happy to be back around Rue de Bretagne. The 2nd floor apartment didn't get direct light, but had plenty of ambiant light, and lots of electrical lights, including reading lights for the bed. The only real negative was the 4pm check-in time although when we arrived 20 min early the apt representative was already there. They had bottled water, cheese, fruit, and a baguette waiting for us at the apartment, as well as eggs and butter in the small undercounter frig. They also had plenty of Nespresso capsules for the Nespresso machine. There was also plenty of other supplies (salt, instant coffee, pancake syrup, bullion, mustard, etc.); most seemed to be left from previous tenants but some--like the sugar--looked as if it had been supplied by the apt owner. We added to the supply when we left.
There was also an ample supply of toilet paper and paper towels. Prior tenants had left shampoo and conditioner that we happily used, and--joy-upon-joy--the apt had a blow dyer. We had free WiFi and free local calls plus free calls to land lines in the U.S. (though we never used it). I'd say that there wasn't a basic necessity that the apartment didn't already possess and it was obvious the owner took great pride in keeping the apartment welcoming.
We ended up paying $2,889, which included a $49 damage waiver fee. The 2 week stay put our daily rate down to well within our price range; if we’d stayed only a week I think the apt may have been outside our budget. We paid via credit card an initial 20% deposit and then they billed our credit card the remainder about 45 days prior to arrival, per the rental agreement.
<b>Sights & Smells</b>
No Museum Pass for us this time. I dithered about it, but since there was no longer a three-day option, we decided to waste a little money and time in favor of flexibility. This trip, we also skipped the Louvre, and due to the consistently overcast days during the 2nd week, we never made it back to the awe-inspiring St. Chappelle as I had planned. Last trip to we also hit some places--the doll museum, the Orsay, the Rodin, Versailles--that we didn't feel the need to revisit. We also tried to visit the Marmottan but the day we tried they were closed in preparation for an exhibit. But, we did make it to a few other places:
<i>The Cluny (Musée National du Moyen Age)</i> remains my favorite major museum in Paris. I wasn't a fan of Medieval art until our last trip to the Cluny--which completely turned me around. It is such a perfectly curated museum. Everything is thoughtfully placed and lit, with the walls painted lovingly to best showcase the art. It is not overwhelmingly large, yet it is substantial enough for a good couple of hours. I don't know if there's any truth to this, but it completely has the feel of someone's highly personal, perfectionist hand. If you like Medieval art, or just want a good intro to it, I can't imagine a better place.
<i>Centre Pompidou</i> - We visited the Pompidou Center this time around primarily to catch the Munch exhibit. If you're there while it's still open, go. In my mind, Munch pretty much equated to "The Scream" so this show gave me a whole new appreciation for the creativity of his art. We went around 4pm and it wasn't nearly as crowded as we heard it could be earlier in the day. I understand if we had been patient and had gone even later at night it would have been better. Also, don’t forget to give yourself some time just to stop and watch the Paris skyline from the upper floors.
<i>Paris Sewer Tour</i> - This self-guided tour gave me a lot more history than I thought it would about the Paris sanitation system. It was worth it for that alone. However, be warned it does get quite smelly and, me being of that sort, I kept being just a tad scared that one of the grates would fail and I'd be the first person in the history of the Sewer Tour to be plunged into the dark waters below.
<i>Pinacotheque</i> - We were lucky enough to have the German Expressionist art exhibit open on our last full day in Paris. This is probably my favorite period in art history, so I was eager to see it. It had a heavy emphasis on some women Expressionists I'd never seen live before, and had some very nice pieces.
<i>L'Orangerie</i> - We were there primarily to see the Waterlilies again, but they were showing a great exhibit of Spanish art spanning across the late 19th century through the early part of the 20th. So interspersed among some famous names like Picasso, Dali and Miro, it also intrroduced me to some new favorites such as Joaquin Mir.
<i>Musee Jacquemart-Andre</i> - It would have been foolish for us to miss the Fra Angelico exhibit and, ahhhhh, it was extraordinary. The vibrancy of the colors, the details, the warmth in the faces of the Madonnas! The only issue was the crowds, but it’s a small enough museum if you’re just patient enough a space will open up so you can study a painting more carefully.
<I>Galleries Lafayette</I>: We purely went to see, for the first time, the famous peacock colored dome and go up to the 8th floor for the view of Paris. Pretty nice for a free venue. (Well, free if you refrain from shopping!) It was a Monday, but between the throngs of tourists and throngs of locals taking advantage of the fall sale, it might as well have been the weekend before Christmas. Packed, packed, packed.
<I>Palais Garnier</I> - The famous Paris opera house is just across the street from the Galleries Lafayette so it seemed silly not to go. It was too late in the season for their in-house English-language tours. I also contemplated taking one of the third party paid tours, but the one I read about in another trip report required that we print out our online tickets and we didn’t have a printer in the apartment. So….we did the self-guided tour. Turned out perfect fine. It was great seeing the famous Chagall roof, but the Grand Foyer was a sight to behold. If you’ve never seen pictures of it, it’s like squishing together Versailles into the size of a ballroom. It’s incredibly, impressively, over the top ornate.
<I>Canal St. Martin Tour</I> - I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do this. I get bored easily (you should see what a terror I am on beach vacations), so the idea of a slow 2.5 hour boat ride didn’t exactly make me jump for joy. However, it was hot, I wasn’t feeling well, and we thought it would be a good, relaxing outing. I looked up the times for Canauxrama, misjudged the time, then spent a bit of time at the ticket booth near Bastille wondering why no one was there before learning they were selling tickets at the boat, and managed to get on 15 min before sailing as one of the last two passengers allowed onboard. We’d heard that the underground part got cold enough, even on a hot day, to necessitate a sweater, but it ended up being simply refreshing. Was I bored silly? Pretty much. I actually think being sick made it worse because I couldn’t get into a calm state and just remained antsy. It takes quite a bit of time to fill a lock, so after the underground part there were quite a few long waits.
I <I>was</I> pleasantly surprised by the sound system. I’ve been on plenty of tours where you couldn’t hear a word the guide was saying, but this time the speakers both from the top and inside the boat conveyed the guide’s voice clearly. She gave the history of the canal in both French and English, in a nice amount of detail, which helped stave off my boredom for a good chunk of the ride.
For those of you who not as bad as I am with sedentary activity, here are a few other observations: Get there early so you can stake out the best seats--which are the very front of the top section or the open front area --what they call the “front terrace”---of the bottom section. (However, be warned that the front terrace area will get you splashed a bit when the locks fill.) During the initial underground part of the tour you have to be in an open area or you pretty much miss seeing the top of the tunnel. If you’re seated at the top, you also want to be in front because on our boat the seats at the top pretty much also ran the length of the boat, facing in instead of outward or toward the front. So, if you’re on the same boat we were you would pretty much see nothing of where you were going unless you were really close to the front. If you can’t be near the front, after the underground section I think it’s a toss up between the top and moving to the inside of the boat. The inside has advantages because you’re at canal level, so you get a direct vantage point. Plus the seats all face the front, so even if you’re not right up front you can see where you’re going.
<i><b>Next installment...Tours & the Loire, Rouen, Odds & Ends...</b></i>
Oct 26th, 2011, 05:46 AM
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thanks, Peg for a well organized report. we were recently in France and we also flew Air France Premium Voyageur. Our experience was pretty much the same as yours, except that we did get our expected seat assignments.
I did check in on line the night before our return from CDG to JFK, and got boarding passes, thanks to our Guest Apartment Services managers, who happily printed them out for us.
Also I took the advice of the experts on the Air Travel part of this Fodor's forum, I think maybe it was rkkwan, who suggested certain flights which would have certain "metal" ( meaning a particular plane) and to be sure to book with Air France, not the code sharing American partner (Delta?) to be sure to get the right kind of seats, etc.
I don't know if it would have made any difference in your situation though.
I'm also writing a report, as time permits - and I'll be following yours with great interest.
I did check in on line the night before our return from CDG to JFK, and got boarding passes, thanks to our Guest Apartment Services managers, who happily printed them out for us.
Also I took the advice of the experts on the Air Travel part of this Fodor's forum, I think maybe it was rkkwan, who suggested certain flights which would have certain "metal" ( meaning a particular plane) and to be sure to book with Air France, not the code sharing American partner (Delta?) to be sure to get the right kind of seats, etc.
I don't know if it would have made any difference in your situation though.
I'm also writing a report, as time permits - and I'll be following yours with great interest.
Oct 26th, 2011, 07:45 PM
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Thanks all. I'll try to get the next installment done in the next few days. Work has been craaazy. I guess too much fun in Paris means too much work when one gets back!
Taconictraveler, thanks for your experience. We did book directly with AF but, yeah, I have no idea if anything would have made a difference. I had read about other people getting their seat assignments changed, so I re-checked religiously pre-trip, but maybe I should have checked during the trip as well.
Taconictraveler, thanks for your experience. We did book directly with AF but, yeah, I have no idea if anything would have made a difference. I had read about other people getting their seat assignments changed, so I re-checked religiously pre-trip, but maybe I should have checked during the trip as well.
Oct 27th, 2011, 04:40 PM
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Happy for you that you got to see the Fra Angelico and Munch exhibits. They were favorites of mine last month.
I too flew AF Premium Voyager and thought it was worth the extra money. Sorry they messed up your return trip.
On your next trip, you might enjoy visiting the museum in Ecouen. It's only a short train ride from Paris and filled with beautiful art: http://parisvoice.com/travel/47-visi...le-chau-ecouen
I too flew AF Premium Voyager and thought it was worth the extra money. Sorry they messed up your return trip.
On your next trip, you might enjoy visiting the museum in Ecouen. It's only a short train ride from Paris and filled with beautiful art: http://parisvoice.com/travel/47-visi...le-chau-ecouen
Oct 28th, 2011, 03:07 AM
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Enjoying your report. I, too just returned & visited some of the same museums. Unfortunately, I booked cattle-car
flights which seemed pricey. Didn't you just love the
pristine clean cloth-seat trains to the outer boroughs?
Wish we had them here!
flights which seemed pricey. Didn't you just love the
pristine clean cloth-seat trains to the outer boroughs?
Wish we had them here!
Oct 30th, 2011, 07:49 PM
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<b>
Part Deux
Tours & the Loire Valley. Oh, and Rouen.</b>
As a day trip, I toyed with the idea of going to the Loire Valley, with the intention of at least seeing Chambord and Chenonceau. After doing a lot of research, it became apparent that trying to get to both places without a car, during the shoulder season, would be more trouble than it was worth. I’m not a huge fan of packaged tours either, especially being rushed from site to site, but in this case it seemed like the best alternative, even though seeing both sites would mean a full day that included a number of other chateaux. Instead of taking an early train to Tours, I also decided it might be worth it to stay overnight so we would have a chance to experience a new town (and not have to wake up at the crack of dawn to catch a train).
http://www.tours-tourisme.fr/index_en.php
We got into Tours a little after 10am and, armed with a map on my Nook, tried to figure out how to get to our hotel -- Hotel Ronsard. Let’s just say it took awhile. As much as I love my gadgets, sometimes an old-fashioned paper map is really the best way to get the lay of the land, without having to scroll and pinch/zoom and squint to see text. We also discovered really quickly that, for some odd reason, the city of Tours had decided to pry many of their street signs off their buildings. It *looked* like they meant to replace the signs they’d removed, but hadn’t gotten around to most of them. Which meant that, unlike in Paris, you could be standing on a street corner and have no clue where on the map you might be.
Since we were early for check-in, thoroughly lost, and I was famished, and it was drizzling, we decided to pop into one of the many cheap restaurants along the Place du Grand Marche---a street presided over by a huge metal mole creature.
I was recovering from a cold, which meant I was craving comfort food. Since I’m Chinese-American, comfort food was translating to “noodles” at that moment. Which meant, against my better judgment, I dragged my husband into one of the Wazawok franchises. I never meant to go there, and will probably never go there again, but they claimed to have noodles. What you do at a Wazawok is you choose your choose of fixings, your choice of sauce, and either noodles or rice. Then they toss it all up into a wok and throw it into a carton. My noodles were way too sweet, but they momentarily quelled my craving, and I can now thank the Wazawok fast-food chain for teaching me the French work for “coconut.”
Okay, back to the great hotel hunt. We wended our way through the streets, and found ourselves back at the train stations. Sighed. Re-grouped. Re-oriented. And head off again. This time--Eureka! (Or whatever the French equivalent may be. “Eureque” perhaps?)
Hotel Ronsard is a small, very well-reviewed hotel. We booked on booking.com and paid 76 Euros. I gather it was recently taken over by new owners and renovated. It has many charms. The proprietor was kind and patient, the common areas attractive, the location convenient, and the price was cheap. Plus free Wi-Fi! My only caveat is that if you’re expecting an incredible bargain, this isn’t it. The Motel 6 price pretty much gets you a Motel 6 room. The small room (and we chose a “superior” room instead of the “standard,” which meant the addition of a twin bed against one wall) is gussied up with tasteful, modern colors, and there’s a towel warmer, but there’s a teeny shower stall with a showerhead that was low for my 5‘3“ self and way too low for my much taller husband, a small sink, shampoo and cheap bar soap only (so no conditioner and no lotion), no alarm clock, and the toilet paper dispenser is the kind that dispenses one sheet at a time. Would I stay there again? Sure. But probably only if I really wasn’t planning on spending any time in the room and only at around the same price. http://www.hotel-ronsard.com/
So onto Tours. The area around the restored Medieval part is very much like central Paris--in that if something wasn’t a monument it was a store or restaurant. If I had more time or were in the right mood or with a bunch of shop-til-you-drop girlfriends, Tours would have made a great shopping town.
The city has a very nice, large tourist office a block away from the train station. We picked up maps from the office, and decided to do their self-guided tour. The map for the tour looks well-designed, but the instructions are…kinda crappy. It often detailed sights out of order, which meant we were constantly stopping and backtracking to follow the map. However, it was pretty comprehensive.
I was very impressed by the cathedral at Tours (Saint Gatien's Cathedral). It’s a lovely structure, but someone also created charts describing each panel of many of the stained glass windows. It’s all about the information.
There are also a number of darling Medieval houses, some picturesque partly-restored structures, and the pleasant bustle of a large town filled with a good mix of tourists and residents. After seeing Amboise, I’m glad we decided on Tours. Central Amboise is much smaller and is pretty much taken over by tourist shops. I think we would have been bored silly if we’d spent an entire day there.
We had dinner at Relais L’Alstrace, mainly because they had bulots (a running theme of our trip), then turned in for the night.
We asked Hotel Ronsard for a wakeup call, which arrived on time. Breakfast (basic assortment of packaged cheeses, Dannon yogurt, packaged fruit cups, prunes, and a nice croissant basket) was at the hotel, since we had to make it over to catch our chateaux tour.
The Tours website has a pretty good detailing of the various local tours. I booked in advance with Acco-Dispo, after checking out all the offerings, mainly because they were the most well-known of the ones that had the tour I wanted. 102 Euros for both of us, booking was easy via their website, and they asked us to reconfirm via email a week in advance. Payment itself is in cash, directly to the tour guide. http://www.accodispo-tours.com/engli...xcursions.html
The mini-van seats 8, and our tour guide/driver kept a running commentary--first just in English, then alternating with English and French when we picked up other passengers--through much of the drive. We chose to sit in the front, next to the tour guide, which ended up working pretty well. She tried to project her voice, but I suspect those in the last row missed a few things. Other than at Amboise, the tour guide collected our money at each stop (exact change is good), bought us our tickets, and then instructed us when and where to meet back up. I was pretty pleased with the excursion for what it was. I wouldn’t have minded spending at least 15-30 more minutes at some places (Amboise, Chenonceau) and less time at others (Cheverny and Chambord), but I know the distances determined how much time we were able to spend at each place.
I’d seen the pictures of the chateaux we were to visit, and pretty much knew what I’d love and what I would find more meh. Indeed, I admired but didn’t love Chenonceau. Its best quality, in my mind, was how completely furnished it was, so it gives you a good glimpse of what it might have been like to live there.
My husband was tickled by the Tin Tin association with Cheverny, but it didn’t move me. We both adored the fairy tale appearance of Chambord. Unexpectedly what I loved the most was Chateau d’Amboise. Of all castles, stark Medieval keeps tend to move me most consistently. On our last trip, I was thrilled by Provins and Vincennes. Amboise is in that same vein. It rises above the town and the nearby Loire, with sections of ramparts still intact. Amboise was originally a throw-away chateau for me. If we hadn’t taken a tour no doubt I wouldn’t have gone there at all. Thus, I was floored by how much it struck me.
In the late afternoon, on the freeway back to Tours, I was grateful that the intermittent drizzle had created a skyscape full of clouds. The setting sun cast golden sheets of light that shimmered across the horizon. When I think of the Loire Valley, my memories will always include that enchanting farewell.
<b>Rouen</b>
Poor Rouen. We hit Rouen two days after coming back from Tours, when it was even colder and rainier. It has more intact Medieval houses, but I think we did it an injustice by visiting it right after the larger, more well-equipped Tours. The city is small, and it’s pretty much a straight shoot walking from the train station to the central tourist area. The tourist office, housed in a historic building, lacked the efficiency of the Tours office. Plus, unfortunately, a number of the buildings on the map were closed for restoration, so by the time we finished the self-guided tour we still had time to kill. The famous cathedral is impressive, but, partly under restoration, not significantly more so than the one at Tours. The Musee des Beaux-Arts de Rouen has some nice works of art (Gericault, Delacroix, etc.), but is a strangely…padded…museum. For instance, they have a room dedicated to Duchamp. Since there are not enough works of art by Duchamp to fill up that room, they had an entire wall where an artist had painted scenes from Duchamp’s life. I would have preferred a written bio, I think. The Joan of Arc museum is indeed as ugly as others have said it was, but more so. From the few photos I’d seen I didn’t expect the shingled roof to look quite that . So, you have an ugly, misguidedly modern structure, studded with shoddy shingles.
My favorite site was actually the iron works museum (Musee le Secq des Tournelles), due to its uniqueness. It contains works of wrought iron from signs to medical equipment to household items. I also liked the tower where Joan of Arc was imprisoned during her trial, but then you already know I’m a sucker for those simple Medieval structures.
Leaving Tours was also not as easy as we’d hoped. As one of the Fodor’s/TripAdvisor regulars later reported, due to a stabbing on another train, workers were striking for safer conditions. Our train out of Tours was canceled. We were able to get on the one leaving an hour later, but it was packed. We got seats, but the aisles were filled with people standing as if it were the Metro at rush hour.
Okay, I’m beat. I’ll post the next installment in a few days. Apologies in advance for any strange typos in this post!
<b><I>Next up: Paris food, shopping, odds and ends, anything I might have missed, final musings</b></I>
Part Deux
Tours & the Loire Valley. Oh, and Rouen.</b>
As a day trip, I toyed with the idea of going to the Loire Valley, with the intention of at least seeing Chambord and Chenonceau. After doing a lot of research, it became apparent that trying to get to both places without a car, during the shoulder season, would be more trouble than it was worth. I’m not a huge fan of packaged tours either, especially being rushed from site to site, but in this case it seemed like the best alternative, even though seeing both sites would mean a full day that included a number of other chateaux. Instead of taking an early train to Tours, I also decided it might be worth it to stay overnight so we would have a chance to experience a new town (and not have to wake up at the crack of dawn to catch a train).
http://www.tours-tourisme.fr/index_en.php
We got into Tours a little after 10am and, armed with a map on my Nook, tried to figure out how to get to our hotel -- Hotel Ronsard. Let’s just say it took awhile. As much as I love my gadgets, sometimes an old-fashioned paper map is really the best way to get the lay of the land, without having to scroll and pinch/zoom and squint to see text. We also discovered really quickly that, for some odd reason, the city of Tours had decided to pry many of their street signs off their buildings. It *looked* like they meant to replace the signs they’d removed, but hadn’t gotten around to most of them. Which meant that, unlike in Paris, you could be standing on a street corner and have no clue where on the map you might be.
Since we were early for check-in, thoroughly lost, and I was famished, and it was drizzling, we decided to pop into one of the many cheap restaurants along the Place du Grand Marche---a street presided over by a huge metal mole creature.
I was recovering from a cold, which meant I was craving comfort food. Since I’m Chinese-American, comfort food was translating to “noodles” at that moment. Which meant, against my better judgment, I dragged my husband into one of the Wazawok franchises. I never meant to go there, and will probably never go there again, but they claimed to have noodles. What you do at a Wazawok is you choose your choose of fixings, your choice of sauce, and either noodles or rice. Then they toss it all up into a wok and throw it into a carton. My noodles were way too sweet, but they momentarily quelled my craving, and I can now thank the Wazawok fast-food chain for teaching me the French work for “coconut.”
Okay, back to the great hotel hunt. We wended our way through the streets, and found ourselves back at the train stations. Sighed. Re-grouped. Re-oriented. And head off again. This time--Eureka! (Or whatever the French equivalent may be. “Eureque” perhaps?)
Hotel Ronsard is a small, very well-reviewed hotel. We booked on booking.com and paid 76 Euros. I gather it was recently taken over by new owners and renovated. It has many charms. The proprietor was kind and patient, the common areas attractive, the location convenient, and the price was cheap. Plus free Wi-Fi! My only caveat is that if you’re expecting an incredible bargain, this isn’t it. The Motel 6 price pretty much gets you a Motel 6 room. The small room (and we chose a “superior” room instead of the “standard,” which meant the addition of a twin bed against one wall) is gussied up with tasteful, modern colors, and there’s a towel warmer, but there’s a teeny shower stall with a showerhead that was low for my 5‘3“ self and way too low for my much taller husband, a small sink, shampoo and cheap bar soap only (so no conditioner and no lotion), no alarm clock, and the toilet paper dispenser is the kind that dispenses one sheet at a time. Would I stay there again? Sure. But probably only if I really wasn’t planning on spending any time in the room and only at around the same price. http://www.hotel-ronsard.com/
So onto Tours. The area around the restored Medieval part is very much like central Paris--in that if something wasn’t a monument it was a store or restaurant. If I had more time or were in the right mood or with a bunch of shop-til-you-drop girlfriends, Tours would have made a great shopping town.
The city has a very nice, large tourist office a block away from the train station. We picked up maps from the office, and decided to do their self-guided tour. The map for the tour looks well-designed, but the instructions are…kinda crappy. It often detailed sights out of order, which meant we were constantly stopping and backtracking to follow the map. However, it was pretty comprehensive.
I was very impressed by the cathedral at Tours (Saint Gatien's Cathedral). It’s a lovely structure, but someone also created charts describing each panel of many of the stained glass windows. It’s all about the information.
There are also a number of darling Medieval houses, some picturesque partly-restored structures, and the pleasant bustle of a large town filled with a good mix of tourists and residents. After seeing Amboise, I’m glad we decided on Tours. Central Amboise is much smaller and is pretty much taken over by tourist shops. I think we would have been bored silly if we’d spent an entire day there.
We had dinner at Relais L’Alstrace, mainly because they had bulots (a running theme of our trip), then turned in for the night.
We asked Hotel Ronsard for a wakeup call, which arrived on time. Breakfast (basic assortment of packaged cheeses, Dannon yogurt, packaged fruit cups, prunes, and a nice croissant basket) was at the hotel, since we had to make it over to catch our chateaux tour.
The Tours website has a pretty good detailing of the various local tours. I booked in advance with Acco-Dispo, after checking out all the offerings, mainly because they were the most well-known of the ones that had the tour I wanted. 102 Euros for both of us, booking was easy via their website, and they asked us to reconfirm via email a week in advance. Payment itself is in cash, directly to the tour guide. http://www.accodispo-tours.com/engli...xcursions.html
The mini-van seats 8, and our tour guide/driver kept a running commentary--first just in English, then alternating with English and French when we picked up other passengers--through much of the drive. We chose to sit in the front, next to the tour guide, which ended up working pretty well. She tried to project her voice, but I suspect those in the last row missed a few things. Other than at Amboise, the tour guide collected our money at each stop (exact change is good), bought us our tickets, and then instructed us when and where to meet back up. I was pretty pleased with the excursion for what it was. I wouldn’t have minded spending at least 15-30 more minutes at some places (Amboise, Chenonceau) and less time at others (Cheverny and Chambord), but I know the distances determined how much time we were able to spend at each place.
I’d seen the pictures of the chateaux we were to visit, and pretty much knew what I’d love and what I would find more meh. Indeed, I admired but didn’t love Chenonceau. Its best quality, in my mind, was how completely furnished it was, so it gives you a good glimpse of what it might have been like to live there.
My husband was tickled by the Tin Tin association with Cheverny, but it didn’t move me. We both adored the fairy tale appearance of Chambord. Unexpectedly what I loved the most was Chateau d’Amboise. Of all castles, stark Medieval keeps tend to move me most consistently. On our last trip, I was thrilled by Provins and Vincennes. Amboise is in that same vein. It rises above the town and the nearby Loire, with sections of ramparts still intact. Amboise was originally a throw-away chateau for me. If we hadn’t taken a tour no doubt I wouldn’t have gone there at all. Thus, I was floored by how much it struck me.
In the late afternoon, on the freeway back to Tours, I was grateful that the intermittent drizzle had created a skyscape full of clouds. The setting sun cast golden sheets of light that shimmered across the horizon. When I think of the Loire Valley, my memories will always include that enchanting farewell.
<b>Rouen</b>
Poor Rouen. We hit Rouen two days after coming back from Tours, when it was even colder and rainier. It has more intact Medieval houses, but I think we did it an injustice by visiting it right after the larger, more well-equipped Tours. The city is small, and it’s pretty much a straight shoot walking from the train station to the central tourist area. The tourist office, housed in a historic building, lacked the efficiency of the Tours office. Plus, unfortunately, a number of the buildings on the map were closed for restoration, so by the time we finished the self-guided tour we still had time to kill. The famous cathedral is impressive, but, partly under restoration, not significantly more so than the one at Tours. The Musee des Beaux-Arts de Rouen has some nice works of art (Gericault, Delacroix, etc.), but is a strangely…padded…museum. For instance, they have a room dedicated to Duchamp. Since there are not enough works of art by Duchamp to fill up that room, they had an entire wall where an artist had painted scenes from Duchamp’s life. I would have preferred a written bio, I think. The Joan of Arc museum is indeed as ugly as others have said it was, but more so. From the few photos I’d seen I didn’t expect the shingled roof to look quite that . So, you have an ugly, misguidedly modern structure, studded with shoddy shingles.
My favorite site was actually the iron works museum (Musee le Secq des Tournelles), due to its uniqueness. It contains works of wrought iron from signs to medical equipment to household items. I also liked the tower where Joan of Arc was imprisoned during her trial, but then you already know I’m a sucker for those simple Medieval structures.
Leaving Tours was also not as easy as we’d hoped. As one of the Fodor’s/TripAdvisor regulars later reported, due to a stabbing on another train, workers were striking for safer conditions. Our train out of Tours was canceled. We were able to get on the one leaving an hour later, but it was packed. We got seats, but the aisles were filled with people standing as if it were the Metro at rush hour.
Okay, I’m beat. I’ll post the next installment in a few days. Apologies in advance for any strange typos in this post!
<b><I>Next up: Paris food, shopping, odds and ends, anything I might have missed, final musings</b></I>
