Brett

My wife and I will be in Paris From 5/27-6/2 and staying in the 6th. Anyone joining us? <BR>

s

Brett, <BR>I'll be there 24-27 May, then flying to Cote d'Azur on 28. Do you arrive on 27 May or is that your first full day? Maybe we can meet for lunch on 27 May at St Andre des Arts or breakfast on 28 May? Feel free to e-mail me. <BR> <BR>s

Heather

I will be there from late on 6/1 through 6/4. Please email me if you are organizing a get-together. That would be great, as I'm traveling alone and may be sick of myself by then.

Larry

My wife and I will be in Paris with our best freinds June 1-9. We will be staying in the Hotel Champ de Mars just off Rue Cler in the 7th. On the 9th we head to our Gite in in the Luberon valley for 2 weeks of relaxation. <BR>Feel free to drop us a note. Maybe we can meet up for a meal.

lisa

I'll be in Paris May 26-31 & staying in the 6th as well. This is not my real e-mail address, but if you choose a date, time & meeting point and post it here I'd love to join.

Brett

How come you all couldn't have planned better and been in Paris all at the same time...or at least ONE of the same days!! <BR> <BR>Sounds like breakfast on the 5/28 and/or something on 6/1 ?

Ivan

<BR>Yes Fodorites unite! <BR>Go to Paris! <BR>Meet others just like yourselves! <BR>Fodorites--sounds like Trotskyites! <BR>Unite--you will be away for so long--maybe a day or more how can you not want to get together with <BR>other simpletons from this site! Allstaying in the same hotels (Champs de Mars--etc. the same arrondissments--God forbid anything but the 6th and 7th and all Rick Steves woorshippers) <BR>Oh why do the wrong people travel?(Noel Coward) (See Fodorites he was a writer)

Michael

<BR>Ivan, <BR>Thanks for saying what I have been thinking every time one of these posts comes up. (What is it - every other day?) I mean, sure, if you will be gone six months or a year it might be nice to meet with some compatriots, but to be so insecure as to want to schedule a get-together during a one/two week vacation baffles me. Then again, maybe I'm just confusing apples & oranges with <BR>tourists & travelers.

kalena

It's good I scrolled down past the 1st 50! I'll be the one with the handsome guy and the two teenage boys, wearing a blue ribbon and looking severely jetlagged. Arriving at Ile St. Louis juin 2, so unlikely that anything would happen on that date. But for whomever might want to wander to the Brasserie Saint Louis wearing a blue ribbon on the third, c'est possible. Or maybe at the queue at Berthillion? <BR>After that, we're off to the countryside to a hereby undisclosed location. <BR>Happy wanderings, tourists, travelers and fodorites one and all.

John

Actually, I think travel is what you make of it. If people decide it will be fun to meet new people in a new place that happen to share a love of travelling and speak the same language, I think that's cool. If you, on the other hand, prefer that in a city of millions, you would like to pretend you are the only one to discover it and therefore you are not a tourist, that's fine too. A bit naive but fine. Meet for drinks or breakfast or whatever! <BR> <BR>Enjoy your adventures and make whatever you want of it! Ignore the snobs who feel that the only people worth meeting are locals. Some of the greatest people I have ever met while traveling have been from the same state as me and I met them halfway around the world. <BR> <BR>I travel enough that it is not possible for me to learn every language in every country I visit and I enjoy conversing with people. What good is it for me and a Korean guy to stare at each other and pretend we have become friends since he was able to say, "please pass the sugar" in English and all I could say was "here you go" in Korean. <BR>Meaning full conversation and shared experience is the beauty of life. <BR> <BR>'nuff said.

Sue

What wet blankets! I'm surprised they travel at all since they are obviously afraid of anything new. We're there May 26-30 and would be glad to meet up. I'm not sure breakfast is good because we try to get to museums early to avoid crowds.

Heather

Thank you, "Ivan", for letting us know that you are the "right" person to be traveling. You sound like a joy. Why does it bother you what people that you don't even know are planning to do with their own vacation time? I express ignorance that there exists one "right" way to travel. Perhaps, you are writing a book to enlighten a travel Philistine such as myself who thought traveling was supposed to be whatever one chooses to make of it.

Tiffany

Frankly, I can see Ivan's point. <BR> <BR>I'll be going to Paris in a couple of months, and the last thing I'd want to do is make arrangements to see fellow Americans there. If I wanted to do that on my vacation, I might as well go to New York or Yellowstone National Park. <BR> <BR>I travel to Paris to see Parisians, not Americans. I suppose Brett (initiator of this thread) and his wife will want to meet Fodorites at McDonald's or -- for that truly romantic French experience -- the Hard Rock Cafe. Then they'll be off to a movie in English. <BR> <BR>Tiffany

George Case

Tiffany, I agree. And I think people like Brett want to meet Americans somewhat out of a sense of insecurity - so they want to stick to their own kind. As for me, I would rather share a table with Parisian strangers (with the potential to become friends or at least engage or attempt to engage in an interesting conversation) than the familiarity of other Americans. <BR> <BR>George Case

Eva

Brett is asking whether or not anyone will be in Paris to perhaps meet up - not if you disagree with him or not. I can't stand it when people need to ruffle each others feathers on this site. It's ridiculous!

Shanna

Good grief - is there, embedded in this thread, a gathering of the Pompous Ass Club? I'll be there 5/24-30, in the 5th, and would love to get together with others who will have the same doofy "I love Paris" look on their faces that I will be wearing (along with a blue ribbon) and talk about who's doing what. Is this a crime? So arrest me. Arrest me in Paris. Brett, post here so we'll all know. And the PAs can take a break from trying to improve others to be worthy of friendship. jeez

JanetT

I agree with Tiffany, too. It seems like Brett has to be insulated by other Americans. How will you ever get to know the French (or any other natives) if you travel this way? <BR> <BR>Personally, I don't spend thousands of dollars and precious vacation time to fly so many hours to Europe (or wherever) just to be with other Americans.

lisa

So I'm going to France and Belgium by myself for a total of 8 days, but if I take an hour or two out of those 8 days to meet a few English-speakers over breakfast one morning then I must not be interested in Parisian culture? Is it OK if I chat in English to other Americans I meet in my hotel elevator, or is that taboo too? Hmmm...I've been to Paris twice before and stayed in the 1st and 15th those times, but now that I'm trying the 6th I'm a blind follower of guidebooks? You mean the same guidebooks that recommend places in the 8th, 4th, & elsewhere too? If I stay in the 20th is it OK to talk to an American I meet on the metro? I never realized there were so many rules governing how I spend my own vacation time, or that my authentic European experience -- the museums, markets, cathedrals -- would be so rendered so inauthentic and meaningless by talking to other English speakers for a couple of hours over coffee. It's a good thing you warned me off of it -- otherwise I might have made the fatal error of meeting some fellow travellers with whom I have something in common, when clearly it would be in my better interest to eat breakfast alone at my hotel. You're right: if I eat one meal with other Americans, there's no chance I'll meet any French or Belgian people during the entire remainder of my eight-day trip. I must be terribly timid and need to constantly surround myself with familiar things if I'm going to Europe by myself for eight days and planning to (gasp!) meet some total strangers for breakfast one day.

Brett

Actually, Ivan, Michael, Tiffany, George Case, JanetT, who seem to be the only ones who know the right way to travel have made some rather insulting assumptions about me. You five are actually the true narrow-minded nationialist asses who have all assumed I am American. <BR> <BR>Now don't you feel stupid?

Michael

Brett, <BR>No, I don't feel stupid. First, I never said my way was the ultimate, right or only way to travel. Second, I was expressing an opinion on a forum - which, if not appropriate, then *excuse me*. Third, just where did I mention anything about the US? BTW - where are you from? And where am I from, oh wise one?