TRIP REPORT - PARIS - 12 MAY TO 19 MAY

DAY 2 – WED 13 MAY

Breakfasts: Our breakfasts always involve a trip to a nearby patisserie and a take-out coffee place which we take back to our hotel room to each with some fruit that we pick up at a market. For coffee, we go to a chain – Quick, McDonald’s, Starbucks – whatever is close. This is because they seem to be the most convenient places with takeout coffee early in the morning.

Up until the last minute, we had planned to go to Monet’s gardens in Giverny, but we had been there last trip, and hadn’t been to Versailles since 2001, when we only toured the building. So we picked up tix and hopped the RER. Had a quick run through the palace and spent most of the time walking the grounds. We especially liked Marie Antoinette’s little village. Grabbed a couple of sandwiches to eat on the return train.

Transport note - The C train lets us off at St-Michel; generally walkable to our hotel, but not when you're really tired. With the Carte Orange, we just jump on the 96 bus which stops about 50 meters from out hotel.

Wednesday is a market day at Place Baudoyer, right across the street from us. Picked up some oranges and beautiful, ripe strawberries. Since it was cool this week, we just left the bag of fruit on our balcony where it kept for a couple of days without any problems.

Took a little nap – still tired from the lack of sleep over the Atlantic.

The weather got rainy. We were on our way to the Orangerie. When we got off the Metro, it was pouring outside, so we doubled back on Line 1 to the Louvre – you can enter directly from the station without getting rained on.

If it’s you’re first trip to the Louvres, you’ll spend many hours there. It’s our third, so we concentrated on a few areas: the Etruscan collection, the Dutch painters – we love Vermeer, de Hooch and Steen, and Caravaggio and his disciples.

Dinner at the pizza place again – this time we shared a pizza and salad with wine (of course). Then went to Amarino Gelati for ice cream. We love this place. Not as well-know nas Berthillon, but very good. Walked around the neighborhood for awhile; then to bed.


[…to be continued…]

>>Most people would not approve of our dining habits. We tend to find two or three inexpensive restaurants that we like and stick with them the entire trip for dinner.<<

Sounds like common sense to me!

Enjoying your report!

Great Report.

What did you think of USAir? They have some very good fares listed right now but I've heard they offer poor service. I'm tempted to try them because they are so much lower than everyone else.

We love to eat and have never had a really bad meal in Paris. However, we are not big foodies either.

Is there a booking site you use for the hotel?

Suzanne2...

We paid $404 (taxes and fees included) non-stop from Philadelphia. That was such a good fare, that when I saw it early one morning on the USAir site, I woke up my wife and we booked it immediately -- figured we'd worry about hotels later. At the time, all the surrounding fares on their day grid were in the $800-$900 range. Since I'm semi-retired, I'm pretty flexible with dates.

We always fly USAir, mainly because:

(a) They have the most trans-Atlantic flights from PHL, and...

(b) We're in their mileage program -- hooked on it, you might say.

USAir's trans-Atlantic flights are better than their domestic flights -- you get a meal or two and on A330's each seat has its own video system with a wide choice of movies, shows and music.

However, my friends tell me Air France and Brit. Air are a bit more luxurious.

I have no data on luggage service, because we never check bags. Since I've racked up enough miles with their credit card to be in their "Silver Preffered" level (It' really not very exclusive), we get to check in and board with first class -- a minor but appreciated perk.

Their on-time history seems pretty good to me, other than the one time we were delayed 4 hrs in Rome because of a thunderstorm in PHL the evening before, which couldn't be helped.

As for hotels, we have never used a booking service. We first read the usual books - Fodors (of course), Rick Steves, Frommers, etc. We know the neighborhood we want. We also do some Google street-viewing to check out the availability of bakeries, markets, etc.

Then we send out emails to those on our short list and book accordingly. Never had a problem doing it that way in about ten trips. We try to email them every 3-4 weeks and a couple of days before arrival with an innoucuous question, mainly to keep us on their radar. We're pretty comfortable with this system now, but it was a little scary at first.

SS

DAY 3 – THU 14 MAY

Breakfast: The usual pastry (mmmm!) fruit, and coffee.

Started out to do a walk from the Pantheon across Luxembourg Gardens to St-Germain-des-Pres…but after we got out of the Pantheon, it was raining pretty steadily, so we decided to do something indoors. Took the Metro up to St-Denis. This church is a French historic marvel. Besides being (IMHO) in the same class (or better) than Notre Dame and St-Chappel, and it has the tombs of many of the kings of France…including the first one, Clovis (d. 6th c.)

Actually when we got there, the rain had stopped. We bypassed all the touristy cafes in front of the church and headed around the block to a tiny place that sold pitas stuffed with delicious chicken (your choice of curry or paprika sauce) that they grilled in front of you, with a heap of frites and a soft drink for 5 EUR. Not a tourist in the place.

LANGUAGE NOTE: I never took French in school, but with the help of Rosetta Stone software, some books, and a bunch of French language films (with subtitles) I have learned enough over that last few years to get by without speaking much English at all. Actually, if you start every conversation with Bon jour (or soir), sil vous plait, and end with au revoir, everyone is friendly and helpful. I know I made a lot of mistakes, and it took me a long time to say many of the things I wanted to say, but everyone was patient with me – plus I did a lot of hand gestures and pointing. My wife took French in high school. She is reluctant to speak it, but her vocab is not bad and she helps with the reading at museums.

Since the weather had cleared, we picked up the walk (from a library book I checked out a few weeks earlier – if anyone wants to know what it was, I can find it again. It had a lot of great walks.) on the other side of Lux. Gardens and followed it through the area around St. Sulpice and ending at St-Germain-des-Pres. This was a pretty long walk, even without the Gardens.

Home for another nap/rest.

Dinner at Equinox, at 33 R. de Rosiers. Really nice 3-course menu for 15 EUR plus wine cost. I highly recommend this restaurant…a real bargain.

Then we walked around a little more and got the required ice cream. Then bed.

[…to be continued…]

DAY 3 – THU 14 MAY – Addendum

Forgot to tell what we had for dinner:

We both had an entrée of avocado
and shrimp salad.

Linda had some kind of fish in a white
sauce with cooked vegetables.
(I don’t like seafood, so I didn’t taste it.)

I had chicken with a red rosemary
sauce on noodles – very good.

For dessert, we both had a cream,
strawberry "pie-ish" dessert that was
delicious.

Linda had white house wine, I had the red.

39 EUR total with the two glasses of wine.

[…to be continued…]

DAY 4 – FRI 15 MAY

Breakfast in our room: tarte rouge (with blueberries, cherries and raspberries), an éclair, an orange, and coffee.

Took the Metro to the catacombs [N]. Really enjoyed walking among all those bones.

Then a quick 1-1.5 hour stop at the d’Orsay Museum – just the top floor. There’s always a chance of overdosing on art in Paris.

Picked up some baguette sandwiches at our local boulangerie.patisserie and headed back to hotel to eat them with our strawberries and oranges.

This afternoon we actually went to two more museums. First we went to the Musee des Artes Decoratifs [N], but only the floor with the art deco and art nouveau stuff and the tower section which covers the twentieth century.

Then we went to the building with Napoleon’s tomb and the Army Museum…but not to see them. Instead we went to a museum I really wanted to see – the Musee des Plans Reliefs [N]. This is a collection of huge models of cities and fortifications created over the 17th and 18th century and restored under Napoleon, I believe. The Mont Blanc model was the coolest. I love all kinds of maps, and these were exceptional.

Interesting experience there: Linda tripped going up the steps; nothing serious; just bruised her knee. But the employees made her sit down until a medic came to look at it and check to be sure nothing was broken. They were really concerned. She was fine; just a little sore going up stairs the next day.

Home for a nap!!

Dinner at San Antonio again. Pizza, but also a fabulous minestrone soup and a salad.

Had a really nice walk around the Marais after dinner, with ice cream, of course.

[…to be continued…]

I'm enjoying your report. I'm going to check out the hotel where you stayed -- it sounds like the kind of place we like to stay.

Great report. Looking forward to more.

I was trying to check out the hotel too, but I couldn't get a direct site for the hotel. There are reviews of it and an article about it, but couldn't get the hotel itself. Do they have a web site?

Fun report. Reports are the only way I'm "going to Paris" for while.

Really enjoying your report.
My sister and I were there 5/7 - 5/15, so we overlapped with you a bit.
This was the first time I printed out and followed walks posted here by Degas and by Kerouac. IMHO, they are as good or better than any other resource, more detailed, less likely to get lost while following them (although getting lost in Paris is not a bad thing at all), better first-hand information. And less weight to carry. I highly recommend them to anyone who does not already have an in-depth knowledge of the city.
Enjoy the rest of your trip!

Cynthia;
would you happen to have the links to those walks posted by Degas and Kerouac?

Also, I'm enjoying this trip report and how much you guys can do in a day. We, too, find a couple of places we like to eat and go back again and again. You may not be a foodie but you're an "arty". I can relate.
MarieV

Great report. Do you remember how long it took you to get to St. Denis and roughly how long you spent there?

Crefloors...

Here is the Hotel de Nice info:

HOTEL DE NICE
42 BIS RUE DE RIVOLI
75004 PARIS
TEL : +33 1 42 78 55 29
FAX : +33 1 42 78 36 07
Métro : Hôtel De Ville
www.hoteldenice.com

However...I just tried the above link, and it seems to be broken. Not sure why. We used it constantly while preparing for the trip.

Maybe they are in the process of switching providers.

SS

Leely2...

Seems to me that it took about 25 min on the following route: Luxembourg - St-Michel - Invalides - Basilique de St-Denis by B-C-13.

Probably spent 45 min-1 hr in the church; then another 30-45 eating lunch.

SS

"Most people would not approve of our dining habits." Eclairs for breakfast always meet with my approval.
Great report.

DAY 5 – SAT 16 MAY

Breakfast in our room: tarte rouge and something that looked like a Spanish churro, but bigger and with chocolate inside…plus, of course, coffee and fruit.

Started out with an architecture walk that took us through the neighborhood around the Ranelagh and Jasmin Metro stops. Wonderful transition from tradition late 19th c. through Art Nouveau to Deco with an emphasis on the Art Nouveau buildings of Hector Guimard.

[NOTE: Here’s the book with the walks - Frommer's 24 Great Walks in Paris.]

Then we went back to our home area and took some photos that we missed when we had walked around it Friday evening.

We planned to go to Chartres on Monday, so we popped over to Gare de Lyon to buy the tix. We didn’t want to buy them during rush hour Monday morning. This was the only time I spoke primarily English…didn’t want to make a mistake and end up with the wrong thing. We’re both over 60 (old enough for the discount, but never to old to rock 'n' roll), and only certain train times accept the discount-fare tickets.

[NOTE: Although there was an SNCF boutique several blocks from our hotel, it was always very crowded with long wait-times, even during mid-day.]

Lunch: Baguette sandwiches and fruit at the hotel again.

The afternoon was dedicated to the Belleville “Art festival” – that’s not the official name, but that’s what we call it. We discovered it in 2007. Four days in mid-May when over 100 aspiring artists in the Belleville neighborhood open their studios to the public. (Yes…we really are “arties.”). When we booked our flight, one of the first things I did was go to their website and find out if this year’s dates coincided. http://www.ateliers-artistes-belleville.org/pg.php?p=4

We took the 11 Metro to Pyranees, picked up a map of the open studios at the first one we saw (they’re marked with posters), and wended our way down to Menilmontant. Probably visited about 40 studios.

Back to the hotel for a snack.

One of the nice things about our hotel is its closeness to so many things. A few blocks’ walk allowed us to drop in to the Picasso Museum at around 5 pm, an hour before closing. [NOTE: We were there in 2001. This is a museum that, without the museum pass, we would not re-visit on subsequent trips to Paris. Lots of nice works chronologically arranged, but many of his best works are elsewhere.]

Dinner at Equinox:

Entrées: endive and bleu cheese salad and cucumber salad
(I was amazed how the strong cheese and the bitter endive went together so well – together neither was overpowering…how DO they do that?)

Mains: both had some boef with a delicious sauce and potatoes

Dessert: both had gateau tropezienne, a really wonderful cake


Then, an after-dinner stroll in the neighborhood. (Sorry…no ice cream, since dessert was included in our dinner.)

[…to be continued…]

Hello, thank you for the report. I am enjoying it very much. I tend to find places I like to eat and drink and return also. I am usually eating alone and feel good in a familiar place.

I am never hungry in the AM but must have my coffee. It is such a nice pleasure to stop in for a pastry when the first pangs do hit. I love the thick yogurt in glass jars and the fresh fruits also. I can very much enjoy a smaller dining budget.

I am putting St-Denis on my list for the Fall. Thanks for listing your route. What a great airfare!

gg

DAY 6 – SUN 17 MAY

Breakfast in our room: same as yesterday - tarte rouge and something that looked like a Spanish churro, but bigger and with chocolate inside…plus, of course, coffee and fruit.

We were on our way to the left bank on bus 96 (can’t remember where we were going), when we noticed that there was no line at all at St-Chappel, so we quickly jumped off and went in. (We had passed St-Chappel many times and seen the long lines and decided to skip it this trip.) That place never ceases to amaze me.

Since we were on the Ile, we walked through the Sunday bird market [N] (somewhat disappointing), and went to the Crypt at Notre Dame [N]. This was actually quite interesting…filled in a number of gaps in my spotty knowledge of French/Parisian history.

In front of the cathedral were tent booths where we picked up a 4 EUR sampler of four cheeses…dropped this off at our room.

Did a guided walk of the area west and north of Les Halles, including St-Eustache church and the wonderful street market on R. Montorgueil.

Lunch in our room: the cheese, bread, orange and strawberries. (I forgot to mention that the street market across the street from us had been there on Saturday, so we stocked up on oranges and strawberries.)

Next we did our boat ride. We always use Vedettes du Pont Neuf (http://www.vedettesdupontneuf.com/index.htm), because their location is great for us and (as far as I can tell) they are the only provider that allows you to buy a discounted ticket online in advance without specifying a time. Unfortunately, the weather was windy and rainy…but we enjoyed the trip anyway. As the boat docked, the weather cleared (of course!!).

We finally managed to go to the Orangerie Museum [N]. The Monet Water Lilies is great – but the room is actually a little small for it. If you sit in the middle, you are too close. We would stand as far away as we could. The rest of the museum has a fine collection of paintings.

We walked through the Tuilleries back for a second visit to the M. Arts Decoratif – Linda wanted to see the 19th century stuff. [Note: This is another advantage of the Museum Pass…you can do multiple short visits rather than one long one.]

Home and a nap.

Dinner: Back to San Antonio for spaghetti bolonaise, salad and wine.

We decided to take a long after-dinner walk:
– From our hotel to Ile St-Louis
– Along the south quais
– Across Pont de Sully
– Along the river to where Canal St-Martin starts
– Up to Place Bastille
– Back along R. St-Antoine/R. Rivoli
– Detour up R. de Veille du Temple for ice cream (!!)
– Back to the hotel

[…to be continued…]

DAY 8 – MON 18 MAY

Got up early this morning for our trip to Chartres. [N]

Our patisserie didn’t have everything out yet, but we found a great cake with fruit to go with our oranges, strawberries and coffee.

Took the Metro to Gare Montparnasse. Took the 8:19 train, earlier than we had planned. [NOTE: We forgot to time-stamp our tickets in the yellow machine before we boarded. This could have resulted in a large fine, but, luckily we got to Chartres – a nice 1-hour trip – without being caught.]

In Chartres, we stopped at a patisserie and got a couple of quiches (heated).

We had intended to do the 12:00 Malcolm Miller tour, which friends had recommended, but we were in the cathedral shortly after 10:00, so we did the guided tour in the Rick Steves book. It was quite comprehensive and enjoyable (if you can overlook his lame attempts at humore sprinkled throughout). One of the rose windows was out for restoration, but overall, this is a great place to visit – really a lot to see in one building, inside and out.

This was our last day in Paris and the R. Steves tour was so good, that we skipped the Malcolm Miller tour and returned to Paris rather than spend another hour-and-a-half on what might prove to be overlapping tours.

On a previous trip Linda had bought a shade of lipstick in a store on Champs-Elysees. We decided to try to find it and get some more. Walked down the street from the Arc de Triumphe until we found the store. The color was no longer made, but they helped us find a very close match.

Continued on, to Pl. FDR, and up to the St-Augustine church (past some really upscale art galleries). Here we began another guided walk. The church was nice and we sat for a rest while the organist played. The walk went down to the Madeleine church – there was a chorus performing a free concert. (Always lots of free music in Paris churches!)

Look in the stores in Pl. de la Madeleine – way too expensive for us. Took a picture of some truffles (the fungi, not the candy) that had a 590.00 EUO per kilo price tag. Sorry guys, but no food on earth can be worth that much.

Continued to Concorde…then home for a rest.

We decided to walk over to the Pompidou before dinner…only the floor with the first half of the 20th c. We are huge fans of fauvisim, and they have a few nice ones. [NOTE: My own fauve site is http://sanderhome.com/Fauves/index.html for those that are interested.

The our last dinner at Equinox:
– Both had delice (a ham concoction) with asparagus. Very good but filling for an entrée.
– Duck l’orange and mashed potatoes for the main – really good!
– I had a baba rhum cake and Linda had crème broulet for dessert
– Wine, of course

Last walk – a very slow stroll across Pont Louis Phillippe and Pont St-Louis to Notre Dame. Then back for packing, bill-paying, and bed at the hotel.

[…to be continued…]

OOPs -- That previous post was DAY 7, not DAY 8.

SS

TRAVEL DAY – TUE 19 MAY

On Sunday, we had picked up our RER tix to CDG (as well as a carnet of ten metro tix for Monday’s sightseeing since our Carte Orange had expired), so we were all ready to leave.

Ate our last oranges, left the hotel at 7:30 a.m., and got on the Metro at Hotel de Ville.

[NOTE: Our plane was schedule for 11:30, but we had a really close call with long security lines at CDG our last trip, so we decided to try to get the airport 3 hours before takeoff.]

Transferred to RER B at Chatalet/Les Halles and took the first train, a local, rather than waiting for the express. Got to the check-in counter by 8:30. Our USAir Silver Card allowed us to use the 1st class counter, so there was no wait at all.

Stopped at a food place for pastry; then proceeded onward. Immigration and security lines were not too long, so we were at the gate with lots of time to kill.

The plane departed pretty much on time, and we arrived in Philadelphia on time after a pleasant flight.

I will try to post my photos on my website www.sanderhome.com sometime in the next day or two.

END OF TRIP.

Nice report. Thank you.

I never refer to Chatalet without saying 'the dreaded Chatalet.'
I appreciate that such a place must exist but it should be avoided when possible.

Wonderful report. You travel similarly to my husband and I. Great fun to read your descriptions. I feel like I'm still there.

I've yet to do my trip report for our week in May. We've been back since May 15 -- I think I need to get to it soon, before I lose the immediacy.

Paule

Oh, I completely agree with you about the Orangerie. You wrote:

<<We finally managed to go to the Orangerie Museum [N]. The Monet Water Lilies is great – but the room is actually a little small for it. If you sit in the middle, you are too close. We would stand as far away as we could. The rest of the museum has a fine collection of paintings.>>

I found the display a little hard to view - the round room is a nice idea, but there isn't enough space to step back and really view the work. Especially with all those folks having their picture taken in front of the work! We did enjoy the lower level with their collection of other artists, though.

Paule

Thanks for the nice report. You've made me add a couple of items to the ever-expanding list of things I want to do in Paris.

For my photos, go to:

http://sanderhome.com/Paris0905/index.htm

SS

Thanks very much! What was disappointing about the bird market? We were planning on a mild detour to "pass through it" - what were your thoughts?
V

Great report, ssander! Loved that you got to various artists' galleries. Do you have a favorite? How did you find out about it?

DH and I are also 60s and frugal travelers. What a super plane fare-I will watch USAir more often. We go from Dulles or BWI so BA or Air France are our usuals.

Also, is that your piece at the Fauvist site? Very cool.

Happy traveling!

Interesting wallpaper! I hope you aren't prone to headaches.

Love your photos--thank you! What a nice little web site. You are getting me excited for my trip--leave Sunday.
Marie

"Either this wallpaper goes or I do." Oscar Wilde

Maybe it was the same hotel?!

Canada_V...

The bird market was mostly pet supplies and only a few stalls for pretty standard pet-type birds - mostly canaries and parakeets. I guess I expected exotic things and lots of live fowl for cooking.

SS

TDudette...

We really didn't have a favorite at Belleville. The talent was uneven...some really great stuff, especially sculpture, and some amatuerish artists as well.

We stumbled on it by accident before our 2007 trip. Linda found it described in a book from our local library on insiders things to see in Paris. I wish I could remember the title - it might have been DK's Paris E-Guide. It just happened to be the week we were going.

This time we looked for it on their website, and, luckily, it was also the same week.

http://www.ateliers-artistes-belleville.org/pg.php?p=4

We talked to one of the artists for awhile, and she said it's not really well-known even in Paris. She was very surprised to find out we knew about it in the U.S.

And, yes, that Fauve website is mine. I made it quite some time ago, and really haven't updated it at all in a long time.

SS

Nikki & MarieVia...

About the wallpaper...when I first saw it, I thought Linda would freak, because she is very much affected by her environment. I thought it was too wild, but I am pretty much oblivious to my surroundings.

However, she thought it was "quirky" and liked it.

I was pleasantly surprised that the trip didn't start off badly.

SS

I viewed the Water Lily's in Nov. 2006. I loved that time of year, no crowds. I was thinking how difficult it would be to really see them during the real busy times. I like to look at them really close up and see all the "blobs" of paint, and then back away. I can't find it amazing that a painter can do work like that, blobbing paint all over the canvas and end up with a result like that. How do they DO that? I love Monet.

Thanks for the hotel link SS, I'm going to keep the hotel information and keep trying to hook up. I got the broken link too, from Google..so I'm sure they will have a working link at some point.

I loved the hotel I stayed in last trip..close to Montparnasse, but it's more expensive than yours, so looking for future possibilities. Thanks again. Wonderful report.

Thank you, thank you, thank you - great report and we will be dining on r. de Rosiers next month on your rocommendation.

To MarieVia,

from the New York Times 2.0

PARIS, Nov. 30 (1900) -- Oscar Wilde died at 3 o'clock this afternoon in the Maison du Perier, Due des Beaux Arts, in the Latin Quarter. It is a small, obscure hotel, at which Wilde had been living for several months under the name of Manmoth.

I've also heard that he stated "I'm dying beyond my means."

To SS:

Great photos and excellent advice. Thanks for taking the time to share. I am now enticed to try another hotel neighborhood besides the sixth.
How do you stay so thin with all those pastries? The walking, I guess...
Hi to LS.
Your friend BQ

This was a very nice report, and I was particularly thrilled to see that some people know how to avoid the $9 beer or hot chocolate that seem to prey on others.

Thanks SS re: bird market observations - I think I was imagining what you were imagining parrots and peacocks and poultry. So I think we will still stroll through, but I won't "sell it" to the kids

Thanks for the reporting. Just planning our first trip to Paris this summer so all these detailed trip reports help to give me a feel for the city and what we might accomplish in our 7 days there. I have enjoyed the read.

Very nice report! Thank you for posting it.

FYI...

The Hotel de Nice site seems to be back up and running:

http://www.hoteldenice.com/index.php

SS

ssander - thanks for posting this. I particularly enjoyed the photos from your Art Nouveau/Art Deco walk. If I understood you correctly, this was a guided walk from the Frommer's guidebook?

yk...

Not one of Frommers' regular guidebooks...a book on walks:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470228970/ref=s9_subs_gw_s5_p14_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=1TZFDX4YHKGJ6J443KAY&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938811&pf_rd_i=507846

24 Great Walks in Paris

Actually published by the British Auto Associtaion, and may be the exact same book as:

http://www.amazon.com/History-Mystery-Paris-AA-Publishing/dp/0749554193/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243587604&sr=1-1

Paris: History & Mystery

The 24 Walks book was out of stock at Amazon last week, so I ordered the BAA book. When it comes, I'll let you know if it's the same one as I checked out of the library before I went on my trip.

SS

Thanks, SS! I've bookmarked the atelier site for future reference. Again, super report and I hope you have marketed your work!

Thanks for the links, ssander! How many walks did you do from the book on this trip? Are they listed by arrondisements or listed by "themes"? Do you feel that there is enough description of sights along the routes, and are the directions adequate? It seems like it can't be too thorough if it has 24 different walks, unless the book is really thick...

[I'm not going to Paris anytime soon, but it'll be a good resource when we go next time - who knows when?]

yk...

We did four walks on this trip. Each one has a sort-of theme. The directions are excellent -- a map for each. We found the descriptions OK, but I suppose they could have been more detailed. I suggest you check the book out of a local library if possible and judge for yourself. The walks in the "regular" Frommers' books tend to be a little more detailed as I remember.

SS

yk...

The British Auto Assn book, Paris History & Mistery arrived today, and it is the exact same book as the Frommers 24 Great Walks in Paris (with a tougher cover).

So, even though Amazon (and every other seller I looked at) is out of stock for the Frommers book, you can get the AA book from one of the third-party vendors.

SS

Thanks for the update, SS. Much appreciated!

Bookmarking to read later - this looks like a really good trip report!

ssander: I wonder if this (". . . and something that looked like a Spanish churro, but bigger and with chocolate inside . . . ") is "une patisserie suisse" that I had for breakfast on about half of our mornings in Paris in May 08.

Kerouac: You wrote, "I was particularly thrilled to see that some people know how to avoid the $9 beer or hot chocolate that seem to prey on others." We found that the one (only) thing McDonald's is good for (apart from les toilettes) is their beverages. The price for Diet Coke, for example, is very reasonable.

Thanks for the excellent report. I learned a lot from your observations. WRT bird market...yes, it was disappointing (I don't know what I expected). But it's a kind of a very different thing to do on Sunday morning and close to many other attractions. I planned my sightseeing around the area that morning. I think it's worth seeing once. I've never seen anything quite like it anywhere. And it's free. Go for it.

d_claude_bear...

Yes...we tend to be a little embarassed about getting coffee at McD or StarB...but it really is the best way to get takeout coffee early in the morning to bring back to our hotel.

The McDonald's (near the corner of R. du Renard and R. de la Verrerie) was a morning coffee place on our 2007 trip - we stayed on R. Simon le Franc then. A small was 1.10 EUR then.

This time, the Starbucks on R. de Bourg Tibourg (I think) was closer. A pretty large one was about 3 EUR -- large enough to share with my wife...we don't drink a lot of coffee, as do some folks.

SS

ssander--We stayed in an apartment near Gare d'Austerlitz and often started our day from the Metro or RER there. The McD's across the street was a good source of coffee if we had not made some in the apartment. Twice I sat and sipped a Diet Coke while reading in the McD's in the shopping center in/under the main office tower at Place d'Italie while my wife explored the shops there. It was overrun with teenagers both times but otherwise pleasant--but definitely not the same as the cafe scene.

ssander,

Nice trip report, I will read the rest after I finished making my lumpias. I love your pictures! Thanks.

I have a question, can I but the carte orange without the navigo?

jcamargo--I think not The C.O. used to be the "ticket" (for a week or a month, for sepcified zones of travel) used with a a gray folder and ID card; now it is only a figure of speech, as what used to be a C.O. ticket is now electronic info coded into the plastic Navigo Decouverte card. There is no physical C.O. any more.

Very nice report- thank you for sharing.

I have stayed at Hotel de Nice several times and enjoy the surrounding area and easy access to transportation. Next time you stay there, try the pizza at Caffe Vito (2 blocks from the hotel). Some of the best pizza I have ever eaten. And cheap too!

Caffe Vito-
12, Rue des Archives
75004 Paris, France
+33 1 42 74 08 84

Really enjoyed your report and pictures,We were in Paris May 8-15.and have plans to return next May.If you buy the Carte Orange ,which we did ,and used it for the metro all the time,is it also good to use on any bus>We usually walk or take the metro,but may try the bus next year.

Lainie...

Yes...good on the bus, too. And the buses have the Navigo "swipers," so it's really easy.

You can never get lost in Paris. Just hop on ANY BUS, and within a couple of stops, you'll be see a Metro sign -- from where it's easy to get wherever you want to go.

SS

Nice trip report...bookmarking for walking tour info among other great details!

We, too, visited the Belleville arts studios/galleries in May 2009. Most of them were small storefront spaces with a varied array of interesting art and, usually, the chance to talk with the artist. It was worthwhile.