FabulousFrance

Unexpected Paris trip back story…

This was totally unplanned…well unplanned up to the end of Oct when my SIL and her DS who I have known since I will like 12yrs old started saying we should go to Paris for a week. I’m like well- I don’t think that’s even in the realm of possibilities for me. I have just gone on the biggest trip of my life (so far) 5 weeks to Italy and France in June-just 4 months ago.

More phone calls back and forth and okay if you guys are going how can I not go? And let’s do it if we can all get Frequent Flyer tickets.

Much easier for them than for me, I live in Hawaii, so it means flying over the Pacific and then the Atlantic-lots of flying and we are talking one month away now. Can I even get a ticket?

Yes I can, with multiple connections and not the best routing I can get a ticket, so with the blessing from DH and rescheduling work it went from yes it can happen to YES it is happening!

So now the planning starts fast and furious.

I will go for 10 days and the girls will go for 7.

In a previous life I traveled for work and had no problem traveling alone. But this was different-there would be no one meeting me at the other end-no planned meetings, no one waiting for me.

This would be my first Europe trip alone-well for 3 days anyways. And I was excited and freaked out all at the same time.

I read multiple threads on traveling solo on this forum which helped, but truth be told the part that scared me was- what if I got sick?-which is totally irrational cause I rarely get sick. But there it is-that was the part that scared me about being in Paris alone.

I gathered all my gumption and boarded the plane…no turning back now.

Turns out I did not get sick-or at least when I was alone-I did have a sore throat later in the trip-but no big problem as I went to the pharmacy and got lozenges.

The 3 days I spent alone were just as everyone says…the freedom to do whatever you want, when you want is wonderful. I have traveled lots with a few chosen girlfriends and have never had anything but the best of adventures , but to stop somewhere or leave somewhere without conferring with someone else was really an unexpected pleasure of being alone that far outweighs the fear.

Day time was glorious. Night time not as much. I would rather have been with someone, especially when eating dinner. The one night I ate dinner in a restaurant I was within sight of a group of French girlfriends having a great time which made me feel lonely. Now why this did not bother me in the least during the day eating lunch in restaurants who knows, but lunch was no problem for me.

Also I tended to not stay out as late as I do normally- usually being back at the hotel before 8 at night.

As I said, booking so late gave me the worst routing ever. I left the Big Island, flew the opposite direction to Honolulu, then to Kauai, where I changed airlines to fly to San Diego-with a bonus of staying the night with my girlfriend who lives there. I was suppose to leave San Diego at 8 am to go to LAX and wait for 6 hours for my flight to Chicago but decided to splurge and pay an additional $230 to spend the day in San Diego and leave at night, routing directly thru London and arriving at CDG at 5:30 in the evening. Man I really wanted to go on this trip to go thru all this! The good thing was there was no one on the flight from SD to London and I had 3 seats to myself and had a great sleep.

Waking up and flying into London was really cool-I have never been to London but seeing the Thames, and the famous landmarks made me put it on my list of places to visit soon.

The other thing I decided to do in the name of being safe and stress free is to splurge and take a taxi into Paris. I had the idea that I would try and find someone to share a taxi with to split the cost, and even though I did see two potential women traveling solo I was too tired to go thru the motions of asking plus I needed to stop at an ATM and get euros and I wasn’t real sure where one was.

After walking a bit I found an ATM and then out the door and into a waiting Taxi.

We sailed along just fine until we hit the after work traffic. I must remember-5:30pm is not a good time to land at CDG. The fare was 80 euro-ouch…but once again I chalked it up to being safe and stress free. I am a splurge and budget kind of traveler. I budget on some things so I can splurge on others-and being stress free and safe are necessities I am willing to spend the extra money on.

This is my 6th trip to Paris and I have never stayed in the 5th arrondissement or a hotel. So for my first 3 days I am staying at Hotel du College du France. I chose this hotel based on location & price, plus the good reviews on trip advisor. The room and bathroom were really small, but were clean, had a comfy bed and the staff was friendly. The hotel’s location was excellent for exploring the 5th arrondissement and also an easy walk to the St Michel metro, St Germain, Isle St Louis and the area around Notre Dame and the Seine. I would stay here again.

www.Hotel-CollegedeFrance.com

Next up, my favorite things in the 5th arrondissement and what I did with myself in Paris for 3 days.

indyhiker

Can't wait to read more! I stayed at that same hotel on my last trip to Paris and liked it as well. In my opinion, Paris is the ideal place for solo travel. I'm glad you got to enjoy a few days on your own there.

TPAYT

Excellent report so far with lots of details. I'm definitely along for the ride in my favorite city.

ParisAmsterdam

Don't forget to come back and continue... ;^)

TDudette

Glad you "bit the bullet" on solo travel. Yes, setting one's own agenda is wonderful. For meals alone, I wrote up my notes about the day's activities.

More, please!

vanne

Before I was married I took a number of solo trips (primarily because my friends couldn't afford either the money or time) -- primarily to England -- and I really enjoyed the freedom to do as a I pleased.

Have only taken a couple solo trips since I got married, but
when our interests diverge my husband and I will often go our own ways for the day -- for example, on our last trip my husband spent all day at the Paris Auto Show -- that would have bored me to tears. I spent the day at an art exhibit, shopping, and had tea at Laduree.

Look forward to your report -- the hotel looks like a good option.

travelchat

Excellent start! Looking forward to more. You are a trooper to have undertaken that crazy air itinerary. Did you use FF miles? Just the nine hours from our place on Maui back to our home in Chicago used to wipe me out for at least a week. I give myself two days to acclimate at the front of international travel now, after learning the hard way that jet lag is not my friend. So look at those three days on your own as having had time to adjust your body clock and enjoy a taste of solo travel.

denisea

Glad you are writing a report...interested to read more! Quite a long way just to get there!

FabulousFrance

Merci for reading and encouraging me to continue this trip report
...and to continue to travel solo.

Even though I think I prefer to travel with someone, I will do another solo trip at the end of an upcoming trip with 2 friends in May-this time for 4 days in Aix. Maybe practice will make perfect-I’m willing to try.

After checking into the hotel I go out to walk a bit and see what is in my new neighborhood. I realize quite quickly that I forgot my Paris plan book (map) and only have the card from the hotel which has a small map-darn-but I should be ok.

I walk down a section of St Germain Blvd that is new to me and my instinct tells me to turn around and go to where I know in the 6th arrondissement to find some dinner.

I turn up rue Saint-Andre-des-Arts & see La Crêperie des Pêcheurs and think a crepe sounds nice right about now- an easy light meal after so many hours of traveling.

I enter into a very small and quirky dining room. I am seated at a very small table for one with an even smaller chair. The room and the chair makes me feel topsy-turvey-or just not straight.
I settle on a crème fraiche, tomato, mushroom & onion crepe with a salad, which turns out to be pretty good.
Looking around I see the room is like being in an old wooden ship, there are brass portholes, and compasses hung on the walls & ropes with rigging running along the wood beamed ceiling. Ok, I get it now-The Creperie of Fishermen…it all makes sense.

Not feeling like I want to sit on this chair a minute longer I skip what probably would have been the best part-a desert crepe.

I head over to Notre Dame to see the Christmas tree in front, as I had caught a glimpse of it when in the taxi but the lights were already turned off, so instead head to Shakespeare & Company.

One of my favorite places to be in Paris is in a bookstore and Shakespeare & Co is one of my favorites.

For those who do not know, this bookstore has a long history in Paris and quite a cult following. It sells books and holds readings in an even more quirky space than the crêperie.

This store has a soul to it which I think in part comes from its history of owners and patrons and partly from the space itself. Every nock and cranny is filled with books. Up the rickety stars there is a small alcove with a typewriter and rooms with beds for- well I’m not sure who for but maybe the young people that work in the store?

This particular store is not the original store, which was run by an American, Sylvia Beach, who befriended struggling writers like James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway, but the later version owned by another American, George Whitman, whose daughter now runs the store.

Sorry to go on…but I did say bookstores are one of my favorite places in Paris.

As I am browsing the books by the register I overhear a young American man talking to the cashier, another young American man, about the book he is reading-a Dizzy Gillespie biography & how cool he was-which seems a fitting conversation in this bohemian atmosphere. He heads upstairs and I wonder is he one of the people that sleep in those beds?

It hits me fast…I need a bed-I need to sleep-time to go home to my little Hemingway hovel in the 5th arrondissement.

irishface

Great beginning! I am looking forward to reading about the rest of your adventure.

Nikki

You have me hooked. More please.

FabulousFrance

irishface-Adventure…yes that is how I think of all my trips.

Nikki happy to return the favor as I have enjoyed your reports of the not so usual Paris visit.

“…I have the right to dare everything…” Paul Gauguin.

I see this quote at the Musee d’Orsay.

And that is how this day begins-with the feeling of a whole day in Paris to do whatever I dare- or not.

I had a plan for this morning but decide to abandon it and just walk.

After a stop at Eric Kayser on Rue Monge, and a gothic church I end up on the back side of Notre Dame and run right into The Deportation Memorial.

While waking up slowly this morning I listened to Rick Steve’s Historic Paris Walks podcast & heard about this and was interested as the book I brought to read while on this trip is the Book Thief which takes place in Germany in the days before WWII. And now here it was right in front of me without me even trying to find it.

I feel like I need to ask permission to tell about this as it is not my story. But it is a story that needs to be heard again and again so please forgive if I don’t by my telling, give it the justice it deserves.

This is a moving memorial to honor those Jewish residents of Paris that were deported to the German concentration camps of World War II.

You walk down a narrow concrete stairway which leads you to below street level where beyond steel bars you can see just a glimpse of the outside & the river flowing by. There is a long dark hallway with walls covered by 200,000 lighted crystals that represent each of the French victims deported. At the end of the hallway in a darken space is the eternal flame of hope. “They went to the ends of the earth and did not return” is etched in a plaque on the concrete floor.
The inscription which is also at all Nazi sites, Forgive but Never Forget, is above the exit.

This memorial left a huge impression on me. Amazing what the human spirit had to and can endure.

Back up to street level and the blue sky of Paris I walk thru the park with people enjoying their freedom and take a good look at Notre Dame-beautiful!

Back on track with my plans for the day-

A benefit of going to Paris early December is museums without crowds. My plan is to buy a 2 day pass with the top of the list l'Orangerie and the Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera exhibition.

I hop on the RER to Musee d’Orsay buy my pass, check my coat-best tip-and start in the art nouveau rooms. I love this style-they have some fabulous pieces here.

The great thing about the museum pass, besides skipping long lines, is the freedom to leave before you get art fatigue because you know you can come back.

In search of lunch I go to the café on level 5 of the museum. With a view of the large clock I have a good chicken caeser salad.
An American girl sits next to me and orders a dry martini-just that-and looks at me and said it sucks sightseeing on your own. I say, yeah, but the flip side is you can do whatever you want. She said yeah-like order a martini lunch-Touché!

I leave the museum and walk across the Tuileries to rue du Rivoli and window shop the Limoges, Lalique and Daum crystal, scoping out to see if my splurge piece is here. Maybe a Lalique piece, but its early in the trip so I keep going.

I go into another favorite book store-WH Smith. This is more like a Barnes & Noble which I do not have where I live.

I am browsing the language section and see the sales girl writing down information. Then I hear her talking to a customer and he said “thank you for the list of addresses on where to find these books I will give it to my driver”.
Who saids that?
Who has a driver?
An important man from Cameroon that’s who!
I know this because as I leave the store the sidewalk is blocked off and there are official looking cars with flags from Cameroon.

My next stop is Brentano’s on rue Opera, but because of the sidewalk detour I end up on rue du Mont Thabor and it is time for a rest and a drink. I was going to go to Angelinas but right here is a pretty looking cafe. Very old world Italian with a French twist- Da Rosa, great place to refresh.

Thinking a little clearer after this rest I decide to make it a full museum day as I am already over in this part of town and I have the pass. Brentano’s will have to wait for another day.

I walk back thru the Tuileries which is really pretty this time of day as the sun is starting to set casting beautiful lighting on the trees.
I walk thru the garden over to l’Orangerie to see the Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera exhibition.

I am really looking forward to this exhibit as I have seen their work many years ago in Mexico. It does not disappoint. I had read a book about Frida Kahlo before I came so was aware of her work and her short time in France-which she did not like much as she thought the French were too stuffy. But I did not realize that Rivera had spent time here with Mondrian & Modigliani and adopted the cubism style of Picasso & the vivid colors of post impressionism. I have only know his work as the big social statement murals that I saw in Mexico, but here there were paintings of his that were done in the cubism style and beautiful portraits and florals with brilliant color.

I moved into the rooms to see Monet’s Water Lilies. It was near closing time and there were very few people in these rooms. In one room there was only one other person. It was a great place to sit down and relax.

To complete the museum day I go back to the Musee d’Orsay which is open late and go see my favorites-the Impressionist.

I sit on a bench and text back and forth with my DH for awhile and marvel that I am half way around the world by myself and how fortunate I am to see all I have seen today!

Then it’s time to head back to my neighborhood and dinner. I stumble around and can’t decide where to eat…so end up going to the grocery store and back to my room to eat.

Whew…what a big day in Paris!

kovsie

I am on for the ride.

You have packed in a lot for one day - thanks for taking time to post this. I do agree with you about 'art fatigue'! So nice to be able to go back later and absorb some more beauty.

If you remember, it would be nice if you could post some of the prices that you pay. I may be going to Paris in summer, and I am starting to think about the budget.

Maudie

Great report, very enjoyable. Love the Book Thief, wonderful story, it's now being made into a movie starring Geoffrey Rush. That must have been very moving, I will put that on my list.

Would love to know your thoughts on the hotel too.

Looking forward to your next instalment.

latedaytraveler

Hi Fabulous France,

Really enjoying your trip with you – merci. Wow, you really covered a great deal that day going from the Orsay to the Orangerie and back again across the river to the Orsay. But so worthwhile I am sure. When I trekked from one to the other, it was raining hard so the distance seemed formidable.

I loved the lower level of the Orangerie, especially the Modiglianis – it’s a spectacular collection.

Kudos for soldiering along solo and sharing your adventures. Looking forward to more…

TDudette

You really did cover some ground!

ParisAmsterdam

Those beds at Shakespeare & Company are for writers/employees to sleep on. A man who spent a year there in one of those beds wrote a wonderful memoir: "Time Was Soft There" by Jeremy Mercer. It's an interesting and entertaining read... like your trip report is. ;^)

FabulousFrance

I did cover some ground but you know this is my normal pace in Paris-GO- I have some much to see.

But I have also learned to take it in small chunks and rest in between-I love watching the world go by sitting in a café chair or on a garden bench.

Thanks ParisAmsterdam…I was hoping someone knew the story on those beds! Can’t wait to read the book-I already requested it from my library.

kovsie & Maudie- I actually prefer to stay in apartments-more room to relax and a nice place to eat -rather than just a bed, but for a solo trip a hotel works out better.
I paid 98 euros a night for the hotel booking directly thru their website. It was a very small room as I stayed in a single, not much room to walk but had everything I needed –a place to put my luggage & little desk- it had a comfortable double bed, it was clean, in a great location and the staff was really lovely.

The museum pass was 39 euro for a two day pass. If you plan on visiting multiple museums I think the pass is worth it to skip the entrance lines and also to be able to leave when you have had enough art and come back to see more after you are rested.
Their website is www.parismuseumpass.com

My thoughts on museums are:
- Only go if you are interested. The thing with art is you don’t know what may appeal to you. A pass gives you the advantage of leaving if the art doesn’t move you without staying and wasting your time just because you paid $ to get in.
-I don’t like crowds in museums so I don’t go in the busy season of summer-too many other things to do then to try a see art over a bunch of heads.

Next up my last full SOLO day in Paris-

And it was a good one-
A Paris walking tour in the 5th arrondissement, the Crown of Thorns mass at Notre Dame and a few more uses of the museum pass.

TAW

Oh, I can't wait to hear more....wonderful report!

FabulousFrance

Merci, TAW.

Last SOLO day in Paris:

This morning I have planned a walking tour of the 5th arrondissement with Paris Walks.

I have never taken a tour with them before and also have not spend any time in the 5th so I thought this would be a fun new to experience a new area.

I enjoyed it so much I will now take one each time I am in Paris. They are cheap at 12 euro, informal, interesting and last about 2 hours. Here is their website which lists the different tours they offer:

www.paris-walks.com

Not wanting to be late I skip my usual chocolat chaud & pain du chocolat and head to the Cardinal Lemoine metro entrance.

The tour group meets at 10:30 am. What is amazing is how slowly this city wakes up- there are not very many people on the street and I find my way easily even though I’m not sure of where I am going. I see about 8 people talking in small groups on the sidewalk so this must be it. I walk up and ask, & yes that is what they are waiting for. A few more people arrive and then finally our guide.

Dang, I would have had time to stop and get a chaud chocolat-hate starting the day without chocolate!

Our tour guide is Chris, an Englishman with a good sense of humor, who now lives in Paris. In total there are about 16 people, mostly couples but a few solo like me.

Chris immediately has our attention as he takes us through the windy streets of the 5th arrondissement, pointing out things I would have surely missed had I been on my own.

Our first stop is a private courtyard where we hear the story of Sylvia Beach, the owner of the original Shakespeare & Company bookstore and her sponsorship/friendship with Irish writer James Joyce. The apartment where he penned most of his novel, Ulysses, looks out onto this courtyard.

As with any good tour guide Chris tells us enough bits of juicy gossip to keep us interested and forgetting that even though we are standing in a serene courtyard, it is a very chilly December morning in Paris.

We continue on the windy, charming streets of the Latin Quarter, stopping at old buildings and schools to hear a little bit of their history.

We come up the side of Saint Etienne and stop at the steps made famous from the Woody Allen movie, Midnight in Paris. These are the steps where the main character, Gil, gets picked up and swept into the past with characters from Paris’s “lost generation”.
Even if you do not like Woody Allen movies, if you love Paris, you need to see this film.

After waiting for a funeral service to leave the church, we go in and have a 10 minute or so rest sitting in the pews, while Chris tells us about the significant features of this church.

We continue on past Place de la Contrescarpe, which I know nothing about except that it is very picturesque, and onto the wonderful food street Rue Mouffetard.

All along Chris is feeding us little tidbits to draw our attention to what we are passing by.

We end the tour at the bottom of Rue Mouffetard.

Rue Mouffetard is one of those perfect Paris streets, with the butcher, baker & candlestick maker…well not really candlestick maker, but you get the idea.

Now I am starving.

When I get tired or hungry it is hard for me to make a decision and this is one of those times.

I see a shop with a line of locals which I take as a good sign so I get in line.
I choose a quiche and a slice of pomme de tarte.
But then I forget how to say that I would like the quiche hot…so dumb…really!
I mean I can say chocolat chaud quite easily, why can’t I remember how to say that I want the quiche chaud, s’il vous plait.

Arghhhh…luckily the French speaking man next to me was able to do it for me so that I did not have to have a cold quiche for lunch.

I walk back to Place de la Contrescarpe and leaning against the rail have a wonderful lunch with a fabulous view.

The hotel is a straight shot down the road from here. I pick up a Starbuck’s mocha and go to my room to rest and enjoy my mocha and pomme de tarte.

I think about going to the Panthéon as I have never been and it is covered under the museum pass, but decide to go to Notre Dame for the once a month Crown of Thorns mass.

I have been to this before so I won’t go into detail, other than to say I knew to sit on an aisle for the best viewing and was more aware of what was going on then the last time. Sitting behind me were a man and women with heavenly voices that added a nice touch when there was singing.

If you want to read more about the Crown of Thorns ceremony you can get to my other trip report by clicking on my name (I wrote about it in my “Paris Glitters” trip report).

Fully rested after sitting in such a relaxing space I head outside hoping to see the lights on the tall Christmas tree outside Notre Dame-no such luck.

I pop into St Chapelle as it is right here, admission is covered under my museum pass and it was built to house religious relics including the Crown of Thorns, all logical enough reasons for me to stop.

It is undergoing restoration so part of the windows were covered and the chairs that normally line the walls were gone which made everyone crowd into the center making the space uninviting. After the quickest visit ever I leave and continue on my way over to the Musée des Arts Decoratifs.

I love the Musée des Arts Decoratifs; you never know what you are going to see here.

Today I start in the jewelry gallery. The jewelry is stunning, a lot of art nouveau pieces. I am the only one in these rooms, not like the time I was here and the big jewels from Cartier, Tiffany and Van Cleef & Arpels were on display. That time it was shoulder to shoulder people and I even saw someone using a penlight to get a better look. Still, the pieces displayed today are dazzling works of art. I especially like the Rene Lalique jewelry.

I move onto the other galleries looking for something to catch my eye and was just about to give up when I wander into the rooms that display furniture in real room settings. Here among all the craftsman furniture are mannequins posed in all sorts of manner dripping in costume jewelry and beautiful gowns. Cool!

I leave the museum and go downstairs to the Carrousel du Louvre.
I stroll in and out of shops that catch my eye-I love the hat shop-not too pricey for some cute hats, but I don’t buy one yet.
Surprise, there is Mariage Frères Salon de Thé here. Maybe it’s been here for awhile, if so I've missed it. I love this place. Their teas smell so good. I always buy some to bring home along with their incense-Fall in Love.

It’s Friday night and the Louvre is open late. This is not my favorite museum, in fact I really don’t like it all that much, but I am here, and it is the last night of my museum pass so I go in. I don’t stay long-I watch a class sketching for a little while, swing by the Mona Lisa and just basically walk by all the other paintings & sculptures on my way out.

I catch the metro, get off at Pont Marie and make my way home via Isle St Louis,the whole time enjoying the Christmas lights strung across streets and the festive window displays.
Nothing like walking in Paris in December to make you happy.

Tomorrow the girls come!