This is very timely for me. I am going to Paris for 2 weeks for the first time since 1978! I am also staying in a Vacation in Paris rental. I will be reading your report with great interest. Did you buy a single ticket for the RER from the airport or buy a pass on arrival? Thanks.

Susncrg - glad this will be helpful! We bought a single ticket for the RER, and then just purchased carnets throughout the week when we needed metro tickets. I debated whether to get a pass, but just didn't feel like getting a picture, etc. We may well do that another time.

I would also note that we didn't do anything special with our credit cards. I had considered getting one with the chip and pin technology, but ran out of time. What this means is that your regular US credit cards (with the stripe, requiring signature) won't work in the train station machines. We happened to have Euro left from another trip, and just changed the paper to get change for the tickets. (For some reason, the machines @ CDG didn't take bills, only 1 or 2 euro pieces.) We had no problems anywhere else - ATMs were fine, stores, restaurants, etc.

This looks like it's going to be a good report.

I agree with kerouac - looking forward to more. One or two things on each day (especially when one of them is "wander") is my kind of trip!

looking forward to reading more... didn't get to see the sewers but wanted to

Looking forward to the rest of the report as I am going there in Sept. GLad to hear you enjoyed O CHateau wine dinner as we are thinking of going there.

What is the name of the street with the purse shops?

Thanks!

I also stayed in the third arrondissement a few years ago on a street full of wholesale purse establishments. My apartment was on rue Chapon. There are several such streets. None of these outfits is open for retail sales however.

t

Saturday: Woke up and got ourselves ready for our quick trip to Strasbourg. As luck would have it, a friend from college was going to be in Brussels the same week we were in Paris, so we agreed to meet in Strasbourg, where she has some work colleagues as well.

We took the metro to Gare de l'Est. We had already arranged our train tickets, and found where our train would be leaving from easily, so went off to find some coffee and a pastry. Nothing fancy, but I was happy to be where we needed to be with plenty of time. The trip to Strasbourg was fast and easy, and allowed us to catch up on some sleep. We met my friend at the train station. We walked from the station to our hotel & checked in. (We stayed at Hotel Gutenberg, which was lovely, clean & modern.) Many streets in downtown S'berg are pedestrian only, which made for nice wandering. I loved seeing the German architectural influence on this French city - so different from other parts of France we've visited. We were able to visit the Cathedral and just enjoy the nice weather Saturday afternoon. My husband found a simple corkscrew for his collection. (He's settled on this as a reasonable souvenir, as he's not a shopper. It makes for a nice way to remember the trip once we're back home.) I found an Alsatian pastry cookbook for my collection.

For dinner, we went to La Tete du Lard, a place my friend knew that she liked for tarte flambee. It didn't disappoint (and now I have to try and figure out the crust, as it was fabulous). The classic tarte flambee has a very thin crust, topped with creme fraiche (and fromage blanc I believe), onions & bacon (the bacon not as highly smoked as you'd find in the US). So tasty, and we washed it down with a nice Alsatian Gewurztraminer. For dessert, we split a slice of rhubarb pie as well as a dessert tarte flambee with apples & brandy lit on fire. After stopping at a wine bar to wind down with an after dinner digestif, we turned in. (Good thing we walk so much, as too many dinners like that might do me in!)

On the schedule for Sunday: boat cruise on the river and brunch at the modern art museum, then the train back to Paris.

Sara J - Nikki's right - these were shops where they were selling purses wholesale (i.e. by the van full) to other folks who would sell them retail. It took a day or two to figure out the system, but after any number of vans drove down the street, stopped, and filled their van with merchandise, I caught on!

I second what Kerouac said. This looks like a very good report. will definitely stay on board.

bmk

Will read your trip report with great interest ... in particular, your afternoon along Canal St Martin. We are debating whether to take the leisurely boat ride through the locks or walk along the canal as you did!

Keep it coming!

saving for later today

Sigh! More, please.

Thanks, everyone, for your interest. On the road this weekend so more to come on Monday!

Will read your trip report with great interest ... in particular, your afternoon along Canal St Martin. We are debating whether to take the leisurely boat ride through the locks or walk along the canal as you did!>>

2010 - i can definitely recommend taking to the water. It's very pleasant on a warm afternoon and the commentary [in english and french] is very interesting.

I'm along for the ride and reading every post with interest.

Very interesting!

Anxious for more...more...more...

Merci... topping

bmk

ttt

Thanks for clearing up about the purses being "wholesale" I missed that word somehow in my excitement about a street filled with purses! LOL

We're waiting!

I'm jumping in to following along with your report. I spent 6 days in Strasbourg last December and loved it, now I'd like to return during another time of year when the weather might be a bit better!

Looking forward to the walk along Canal St. Michael as we did the boat last year and thought how lovely the route was and that it would be worth exploring. FWIW - the boat ride is lovely and going through the locks was so cool! I suggest taking the boat north from Bastile, it is better to go "up" through the lock as the water rushes in as opposed to the water coming out which is what happens when you travel south.

agree about the direction of travel, Debit. also you have the sun behind you which is nicer of you go that way.

Good points about leaving from Bastille, Debit + annhig! That's what we will do! Perhaps we will spend a leisurely afternoon walking back along the canal.

2010 - if you want a nice lunch or even a snack [we had jambon beurre bagettes and a glass of wine each] before you leave, you could do a lot worse than try the little restaurant we found up by the Bastille end of the canal on the other side of the road from the embarkation point, called la Cavetiere.

it's a real locals' place and while we were there, customers were coming in and kissing madame, buying her a drink, - we decided it must be her birthday. it gets a good review on la fourchette and we would go back another time for a proper meal if we were in the area.

when you get to the other end, there is a big park to explore, or you could as you say walk back along the canal. the whole journey takes about 2 1/2 hours, so when we did it in March, there wasn't a lot of day-light left.

another tip - if you are down by the pont neuf where the vedettes go from, pick up one of their brochures each - they have a €4 off voucher in them, but they want one per person to get the discount. and there are on-line vouchers for the trips on the seine with the vedettes:

http://www.vedettesdupontneuf.com/

Ah, such a busy week I can't believe it's taken me this long to get back to my report!

Sunday in Strasbourg: We woke up and had breakfast at the hotel, as we just did't feel like searching around for coffee. The Hotel Gutenberg offers a 11 Euro breakfast, with coffee, juices, pastries, cereals & muesli, cheeses & meats, fruits, yogurts.

We purchases boat tickets the evening before for a mid-morning tour on the river. While it was a lovely day, we didn't get an open boat (they couldn't tell us the evening before which ones would be covered.) Getting to the dock a little early allowed us to get good seats at the windows. The trip took us through Petite France and allowed us to see parts of the city we couldn't have covered in the short time we were there, including Council of Europe & European Parliament buildings, if I'm remembering correctly. The boat takes you through a couple locks, which are fun as they are barely any wider than the boat itself. Lovely views of the beautiful old buildings and the varied architecture.

After our boat ride, we wandered around, making our way to the Museum of Modern Art for a late brunch. Given it was Sunday, not as much was open, except for gift shops catering to tourists. Brunch was tasty (they had both a buffet as well as a la carte choices) and we enjoyed the beautiful sunny weather.

We took the train back to Paris mid-afternoon. As it was the end of a vacation weekend, the train was full. Despite the various tired and crying children, the ride was uneventful and speedy. After getting back to Paris, we decided to walk from Gare de l'Est back to our apartment, taking us through some colorful neighborhoods. It felt good to stretch our legs and work off a little of the tarte flambee from the night before!

Not having any reservations for dinner that evening, we decided to walk over to the Marais and try to get into one of a couple restaurants I'd identified. We ventured out on the early side, around 8, in hopes that would help our case. Cafe Breizh was a no-go, as the earliest they could get us in was 9:30. Next up was Cafe des Musees. We did get a table, after promising we'd be done by 9:30 (no problem). The fixed price menu was quite the deal, at 24 Euro for entree, plat & dessert. For the entree, they offered a salad with mixed greens, corn, fried chicken skin (which sounds better in French, but was incredibly good) along with a fish tarte. The main course was sweetbreads with roasted root vegetables. This was very good, but also a huge portion (more on how I handled that later)! For dessert, they served what they called Bar Breton, which was a prune tarte. The tarte was fantastic & flaky. After having not finished my sweetbreads, I asked (in French) if there was any way I could take the rest with me. I've never tried that, and figured it was a long shot. The server though jokingly said no, but I interpreted it as he would box it up for me. My husband was sceptical and was sure the dinner was gone for good. Sure enough though, at the end of the meal, he brought my leftovers out in a nice plastic container. They made for a good lunch later in the week... A Paris first - a to-go box! Good efficient service, nice ambience - definitely recommended.

We walked back to our apartment, content & a litte tired. The jet lag was hitting us both, so we stayed up later than usual, which meant of course getting up later than usual too the next day. I guess that's the point of vacations! On the agenda for Monday: visiting the sewers & a museum, depending on the weather.

How necessary is it to make restaurant reservations for dinner? We will be in Paris from July 29 through August 4, & I haven't made any reservations yet. It's really difficult to predict where & what time we would want to eat on any given night. I don't like to make reservations for dinner while on vacation; prefer to decide spontaneously that day where we want to eat. Is this a mistake in Paris? We never had reservations in Barcelona or Prague & it wasn't a problem.

If you are not going for high end gastronomic meals, there is no need to make a restaurant reservation in Paris. We locals never do, and if we get turned away from a place from time to time, we just go somewhere else -- no lack of possibilities in Paris, no matter what neighborhood you are in.

kerouac, thanks for your helpful reply. I feel better now about not havinig reservations.

I agree with Kerouac, and would second having a back-up plan. When we haven't had reservations, we almost always get in, but as above, it helped that I knew of another option. (Wandering around and not quite being sure what we want or where to go leads to crankiness for us!)

Since we were usually dead tired by the time we became hungry, the first open place we came to was often where we ate!

One thing that has always helped me is that I am an early riser and basically an early doer of everything. So I am also among the first people to eat in the evening -- around 7pm or 7:30, when you have your pick of just about anywhere. Yet even with friends who eat later, or after a movie or play, we have never had trouble finding an acceptable meal.

We often didn't have reservations anywhere either, and as long as you don't mind waiting a little, you can usually get into most places. Lunch time is a good time to go to places that might be too crowded at dinner time also. Like someone already said, it's good to have a list of a few restaurants near each other that are good in case you can't get in somewhere.

Bookmarking

Hi annhig,

Thanks for the restaurant recommendation & other tips!

Also, I checked out la fourchette. What a great website! Here it is for others who may want to search Paris restaurants:

www.lafourchette.com

kwoo - I agree with kerouac that you don't normally need to reserve, unless you are wanting a high-end meal/one that is very popular/are targeting a particular restaurant/are in a group.

this obsessive reserving of tables is, dare I say it, a american thing.

[donning protective headgear and retiring to the bunker!]

Great report!

I hate to say but we always make reservations now if there is somewhere we specifically want to eat. I hate wandering around trying to find something when we are hungry! Plus, being big foodies, I love researching restaurants haha!

Looking forward to me!

More!! Not me!! Stupid autocorrect!!

I do sometimes make reservations in a restaurant I would particularly want to try, (I also like researching on good yet affordable restaurants in a particular place I would be visiting) but then you are restricted to go there on that particular day and time. Even though you might not be charged for a cancellation, it is still embarrasing and in my opinion inethical to cancel or even worse not turn up - unless of course that cancellation was inevitable.

On leisurely days it would be fine, but on some days when you have certain sites etc planned you have to be sure you would be able to make it, example you can never know exactly how long it would take to go up the Eiffel tower, so booking for lunch at a particular restaurant on the same day prove to be a bit risky.

I loved reading your very interesting report, thank you. Paris is lovely and you are bring back some lovely memories.

This trip report has actually taken longer to get to than the trip report!

So, Monday arrived with grey skies & rain. We slept in, then I ran out to the grocer around the corner to stock up on yogurt, cream for coffee and juice. We decided to venture out to the sewers (which my husband has wanted to do for years) - umbrella in hand. We took the metro to Alma-Marceau and walk across the bridge to the left bank & the sewers. Even in the rain, Paris is beautiful and we got a couple great photos of the Eiffel Tower half obscured by fog.

Upon arriving at the sewers, we find out that parts of the sewer museum are blocked off, because of the heavy rain. Fine with me! The sewers are for the most part not as stinky as expected - there's only one area where my scarf comes in handy as I hold it over my nose. It's pretty interesting to learn the history and with all the rain, the storm sewers are really flowing at full blast!

After the sewers, we decided to head over to the Orangerie. (Seemed to be an appropriate balance with all the dark of the sewers!) We had never made it here before, as it had been closed. The water lilies are beautiful and the filtered light from the skylights provides a nice setting. The crowds weren't too oppressive, though folks were a bit crabby due to the weather. The rest of the collection was interesting as well, with a nice selection of other impressionist works, from Cezanne to Gauguin and beyond.

I can't recall what we did for lunch this day, but for dinner, we headed out to a place near the Sorbonne we'd been before. The restaurant is Corsican, called Le Cosi. The ambiance is lovely, with art deco lights and dark red walls. We had a tasty Corsican red wine recommended by the server, and started with the tarte aux tomates confites avec confitures des onions. The tarte is so good, and I think I could eat just that! My husband had the stifatu agneau - Corsican lamb stew, and I had the monkfish medallion wrapped in Corsican bacon. For dessert we had the pain perdu made from brioche with carmelized pears. The highlights were definitely the tarte & the dessert; the service was excellent throughout. The server brought us a complimentary digestif - liquor de myrte - a Corsican after dinner drink made from myrtle berries. It reminded me a little of Campari, but so much better! I have to see if I can find some now that I'm back home.

Fortunately, the rain had mostly abated by dinner time, so our walk back to the metro and then our apartment was relaxed and enjoyable. Again we stay up late (my husband is now hooked reading the Hunger Games!) On deck for Tuesday, museums, crepes & dinner at L'Hedoniste!

ttt

Corsican wine is excellent if you enjoy hearty (coarse?) wine. Algerian wine such as Sidi Brahim is quite similar and is highly recommended to anybody going to a couscous restaurant.

Thankfully Tuesday is no where near as rainy as Monday. We take our umbrella just in case, but it was mostly unnecessary for much of the day. We decide to head to the 14th and 15th arrondissements for some off-the-beaten track museums today.

First up is the Musée Jean Moulin, a museum about the resistance fighter in WWII. The museum is right near the Gare Montparnesse, tucked away at the back of a small park. The museum is small, but filled with many details and items. There's narrated movie loop upstairs that helps hightlight the history. While the topic was interesting, this museum really could be so much more. (There was almost too much detail, that became overwhelming, and could have done with a better big-picture overview.) In any case, we were glad to make our way there.

Since we were in the neighborhood, and hadn't made it to Cafe Breizh earlier in the trip, we decided to try Ty Breizh for crepes for lunch. The decor is homey in what is I'm sure traditional Breton (or what I imagine it to be in any case.) Happily we got a table right away. We shared a savory crepe with ham, egg & mushroom, and then shared an apple-filled crepe for dessert. A little cider and we're ready to tackle the afternoon!

For the afternoon, we went to the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation. There was a fantastic photography exhibit on display, by a Japanese photographer whose name I now can't remember. While I was actually thinking there would be some Cartier-Bresson on display (there wasn't), it was a nice diversion.

Walking around these less familiar neighborhoods reminds me that Paris isn't all about the 1st - 7th, not just the Arc de Triomphe, etc. It's a little gritty, a city going about its business, but helpful to remember it's not just about the fairy tale.

For dinner, we head out to L'Hedoniste, near rue Montorgeuill. We have 8:30 reservations. We walk over, and enjoy what is now nice weather again in Paris. For dinner, my husband had the duck with sea salt, eggplant puree & fava beans. I had the fish (lieu jaune, I believe) with black rice, chorizo & basil. Both are very good. The dessert was cherries confites, with whipped cream and sablee breton (a kind of butter cookie.) The dessert was fantastic. It all went nicely with a Fleurie, which played well with both the fish & the duck. The service was attentive and professional, and the atmosphere was modern and calming. About half way through our dinner, a large table of what had to be a group of business folks came in for dinner. Most were French, judging by their accents, but at least one was English. In any case, that restaurant became known as the one with the captains of industry.

On the agenda for Wednesday: the Promenade Plantee!

When travelliong alone in Paris, I never had reservations, hoping for a serendipity experience which did often happened but I did get into a few high ends withot a reservation.

Where can I find the rest of this trip report?

Ginitown I don't think it was ever finished!

Rats, it had such promise... I was hoping to hear about the Canal St. Martin.

"fried chicken skin"--be still my heart! Enjoying this, thanks!

Rats - I'm so sorry - I didn't ever finish it. I still have hopes of doing so... How is it 6 months ago now?