Any special "Paris moments"?
Dec 1st, 2004, 09:25 AM
#21
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 7,525
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Summer night, warm breeze, moon in the sky, standing on bridge over Seine river looking towards Eiffel Tower whic is all lit up, on my left I see Conciergerie with its spotlights turned on, below a tour boat passes by, the commentary floating up, its floodlights darting here adn there...once in a while catching romantics kissing on the walkway along the river, on my right I see a Right Bank Cafe...neon sign..people having a final meal or coffee while enjoying sitting outside on the patio...and I think...it doesn't get much nicer than this exact moment...
Dec 1st, 2004, 09:29 AM
#22
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 2,630
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
It had been a dark and stormy .. well, day, last November.
Anyway, at dusk, I'm strolling along the Quai du Louvre ... and I suspect my guardian angel tapped me on my right shoulder ... I turned to look and there it was...the Eiffel Tower off in the distance just beginning to Light UP and Twinkle! I am grateful for that magical tap on my shoulder, otherwise I may not have had that moment.
Had a good laugh or two with the staff of docents at the Carnavelet Museum...up the street the fire engines had blocked traffic (very narrow street). Two gentlemen got in a fist fight... One gent in a delivery van with the other gent out of a big black Mercedes... interesting!
Anyway, at dusk, I'm strolling along the Quai du Louvre ... and I suspect my guardian angel tapped me on my right shoulder ... I turned to look and there it was...the Eiffel Tower off in the distance just beginning to Light UP and Twinkle! I am grateful for that magical tap on my shoulder, otherwise I may not have had that moment.
Had a good laugh or two with the staff of docents at the Carnavelet Museum...up the street the fire engines had blocked traffic (very narrow street). Two gentlemen got in a fist fight... One gent in a delivery van with the other gent out of a big black Mercedes... interesting!
Dec 1st, 2004, 10:24 AM
#23
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 1,337
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
We just got back Thanksgiving day, but a couple things come to mind.
Our hotel room had a wonderful spiral staircase leading to a small sitting room and a rooftop terrace that extended around three sides. From one side, we had a magnificent, close-up view of the Arc de Triomphe and from the other, and up the stairs, we could see the Eiffel Tower, twinkling hourly. One night the hotel provided us with a complimentary bottle of champagne, so I was in heaven. And I'll likely never sip champagne again from a Parisian rooftop terrace overlooking two magnificent sights.
Oh, and the other memory was that of Parisian men using the bathroom in public - one in the middle of a subway platform, and another doing something far more disgusting in plain view of a bridge from the 8th to the 7th. I guess the guidebook tried to warn us, but ewww!
Our hotel room had a wonderful spiral staircase leading to a small sitting room and a rooftop terrace that extended around three sides. From one side, we had a magnificent, close-up view of the Arc de Triomphe and from the other, and up the stairs, we could see the Eiffel Tower, twinkling hourly. One night the hotel provided us with a complimentary bottle of champagne, so I was in heaven. And I'll likely never sip champagne again from a Parisian rooftop terrace overlooking two magnificent sights.
Oh, and the other memory was that of Parisian men using the bathroom in public - one in the middle of a subway platform, and another doing something far more disgusting in plain view of a bridge from the 8th to the 7th. I guess the guidebook tried to warn us, but ewww!
Dec 1st, 2004, 10:36 AM
#24
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 49,560
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My first time in Montmartre, years ago, I rounded a corner and there she was - a tall, slim, elegant woman wearing a lavendar Chanel suit and matching hat, shoes, and purse, walking through the Place du Tertre with two small lavendar poodles on a lavendar leash.
Dec 1st, 2004, 11:16 AM
#25
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 77
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Waiting for the metro one night, a singer sat on a bench on the opposite platform, playing guitar and singing Elvis songs as he waited for donations. Three kids arrived at our platform and started heckling him, screaming things at him in French along the lines of "Shut up!" and "You stink!" The singer interrupted his singing here and there to ask them to leave him alone. The back and forth became stronger and stronger until obscenities were being hurled from both sides of the platform. The singer was delivering his in French and English, interrupting his tirade with the strumming of his guitar and a few verses of "You ain't nothing but a hound dog." We were sure one of the parties was going to come meet the other for a fistfight but were deprived of the outcome by our train.
Having a late lunch at Café Victor Hugo facing Place des Vosges, my dear boyfriend and I pulled out our mini-dictionaries to figure out what the plat du jour -agneau- was. We tried to do this discreetly as we wanted to practice our French with the waiter but he caught us and smiled at our feeble attempt at discretion. A few minutes later, the waiter, who did not speak English, came to our table to ask us how to say agneau in English. He apparently encountered a British couple who did not have a dictionary.
Having a late lunch at Café Victor Hugo facing Place des Vosges, my dear boyfriend and I pulled out our mini-dictionaries to figure out what the plat du jour -agneau- was. We tried to do this discreetly as we wanted to practice our French with the waiter but he caught us and smiled at our feeble attempt at discretion. A few minutes later, the waiter, who did not speak English, came to our table to ask us how to say agneau in English. He apparently encountered a British couple who did not have a dictionary.
Dec 1st, 2004, 11:32 AM
#26
It was many moons ago that my friend, Nathalie, and I were in Paris for the first time. We were staying at the hotel, France et Choiseul.In this time the hotel was exactly like I thought a hotel in the city of light would look like. Every morning, the lady cnciage in her "box"would bring out her huge Siameese cat and sit him at a table where we had breakfast. Back in those days it looked exactly like the building used in a film I later saw, "The Madwoman of Chaillot"that starred Kathyrn Hepburn and based on a play by Jean Giradoux. Years later I went back to look at the hotel that was now a memory, it changed hands and remodeled and was unrecognizable.
Nathalie and I were about to cross the street from the hotel when two young men raced up to us. One being the most gorgeous young man I had ever seen and he rattled off something in French. My friend translated that he had to talk to me and meet them across the street at a cafe and he explained. He said I looked exactly like his fiancee who was killed in a boating accident. I said to Nathalie to tell him it was the best line I've heard recently. With that he pulled out a photo and I and Nathalie were astounded. She did look like me and almost dressed like me. Welll we sat at that cafe and I chatted with help from a dictionary and my friend. He took me one day to his aunt's salon de Te and to several places. We exchanged letters for awhile and he wanted to come to school here in Boston. But he was alittle younger and I felt uncomfortable with my having the look-alike situation. So I told him it was an impossible idea.Now much older, married, I look back on that as a very special experience.
Nathalie and I were about to cross the street from the hotel when two young men raced up to us. One being the most gorgeous young man I had ever seen and he rattled off something in French. My friend translated that he had to talk to me and meet them across the street at a cafe and he explained. He said I looked exactly like his fiancee who was killed in a boating accident. I said to Nathalie to tell him it was the best line I've heard recently. With that he pulled out a photo and I and Nathalie were astounded. She did look like me and almost dressed like me. Welll we sat at that cafe and I chatted with help from a dictionary and my friend. He took me one day to his aunt's salon de Te and to several places. We exchanged letters for awhile and he wanted to come to school here in Boston. But he was alittle younger and I felt uncomfortable with my having the look-alike situation. So I told him it was an impossible idea.Now much older, married, I look back on that as a very special experience.
Dec 1st, 2004, 11:33 AM
#27
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 654
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
On my first trip to Paris many years ago, DH and I had dinner at Chanterelle in the Quartier Latin. My French was very rusty, and the owner (a lovely woman) spoke no English. So to translate the menu for us, she did impersonations of chickens, fish, etc, and drew pictures of frogs, etc. Charming.
Dec 1st, 2004, 11:45 AM
#28
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 1,082
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I described one of my favorite Paris moments in a previous post so I am just copying it here.
"That night, we had dinner at our favorite Cafe Varenne again. We had more laughs as our waiter had to act out the type of dish on the menu for us because Taylor (our 13 year old grand daughter) wanted beef but it was "finished" for the day. He flapped his arms, jerked his head back and forth and went "coo coo' to describe the pigeon which Taylor refused to try. He then walked around saying "baa baa" which she also refused. I can't remember what she finally ordered but we had a blast trying to figure it out."
"That night, we had dinner at our favorite Cafe Varenne again. We had more laughs as our waiter had to act out the type of dish on the menu for us because Taylor (our 13 year old grand daughter) wanted beef but it was "finished" for the day. He flapped his arms, jerked his head back and forth and went "coo coo' to describe the pigeon which Taylor refused to try. He then walked around saying "baa baa" which she also refused. I can't remember what she finally ordered but we had a blast trying to figure it out."
Dec 1st, 2004, 02:06 PM
#30
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 1,337
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
gomiki: We stayed at the Hotel Raphael, in the Duplex Suite. Pictures here - but they don't do the view justice: http://miseajour.apicius.com/raphael...ion-duplex.asp. Hotel site is www.raphael-hotel.com. I think some of the other suites have terraces, too.
The published rates on the room are so expensive (don't rely on them), but we got 6 nights in an auction from LuxuryLink.com - for less than a third the rack rate, including 1 formal dinner and 6 days of breakfasts. They constantly have auctions on luxurylink.com - there's one open right now. I couldn't recommend the hotel more!
The published rates on the room are so expensive (don't rely on them), but we got 6 nights in an auction from LuxuryLink.com - for less than a third the rack rate, including 1 formal dinner and 6 days of breakfasts. They constantly have auctions on luxurylink.com - there's one open right now. I couldn't recommend the hotel more!
