A morning in Paris
 

My wife and i are morning people, we love to get up early in a strange city, and find a good place to eat before we start our day. Besides your hotel, can anyone suggest a good cafe or restaurant to start our day off just right. We will be staying at grand hotel des balcons in the 6th.

There are cafes all over. Enjoying your breakfast and paper (or the passing parade) at a sidewalk table is one of the quintessential experiences in Paris. On the day you arrive, just take a walk around the block and see what looks appealing. Go to www.pariszoom.com. It's a bit tricky, but there's a screen where you can type in the address of your hotel and take a virtual walk from there in any direction. Everything along the way is listed. Give it a try!

You could try Cafe de la Mairie in the Place St Sulpice, L'Ecritoire in the place de la Sorbonne or one of the many cafes in the rue de Buci market place.

Just reading your heading made me smile at the thought of many wonderful mornings in Paris. One of our favorite things to do is find a bakery and pick out a delicious pastry, walk to a cafe, order cafe au lait, and just sit and enjoy the morning and plan the day. Enjoy!

Actually, you have different options : <BR> <BR>- "normal Parisian employee" (my favorite, what I do when I come back from abroad) : Le Danton, place de l'Odéon. It's busy, rather noisy, but full of café-crème smells and Parisian jokes, regulars, and so on. The same atmosphere in a nicer setting can be found at "Le Vieux Colombier", at the corner of rue de Rennes and rue du Vieux Colombier <BR> <BR>- "contemplative" : OK, Café de la Mairie wil do it, facing the Renaissance saint-Sulpice church and its pigeons. <BR> <BR>- "touristy, but why not" : get your Visa card ready, and pay an arm and a leg to have the privilege to sit in Simone de Beauvoir's chair at Les Deux Magots, opposite Saint-Germain des Prés church. <BR> <BR>- "never too late to be a student" : any café on place de la Sorbonne, even though in summer you'll meet more Dutch tourists and Mexican au-pairs than actual students. <BR> <BR>One last piece of advice : NEVER eat anything in a French café or restaurant that you haven't bought on the premises. Cafés do sell their own croissants and "tartines beurrées" (fresh baguettes with butter and jam), and waiters will display their best French attitude to make you understand it is not done. Anne was very lucky to get away with it !

Vincent's suggestion of Deux Magots is good. I have heard that Cafe le Flore, next door, has a good breakfast. Try some hot chocolate at either. For something different, try the street market on Rue Cler (see Rick Steves' books or web site) or walk the streets of somewhere like Rue Mouffetard or Ile-St-Louis and pop into bakeries for some great pastries and croissants.