flygirl, you can now reserve Frenchie on line!

Yes, Frenchie's is easy to reserve online from the US. It opens at midnight Paris time, so that'll 6:00 East Coast time. I think it's 45 days out. I had no trouble reserving. Septime also has online reservations, but not 45 days out. LaFourchette is a great booking site.
@Patty-Lyon is much bigger than Dijon and more to see. I might say 4 for Lyon and 2 for Dijon. But your 3/3 is fine too. When do u plan to go?

What a great report and wonderful way to re-live Paris! Thanks for all the details. How nice that you were able to meet Fodorite gracejoan.

This reminds me that I have to finish my Paris report. I'll try to do that this weekend.

Good to know about online rez!

Yes, thanks to your mention of it in another thread, I have put the Chagall exhibit on the list for May.

Patty, that is so funny about the Biscoffs. I LOVE those things, and I only have them on planes, which seems so incongruous to me.

I've heard of speculoos, but haven't had the pleasure...yet.

Hi - Louisa -- thanks!
@ YG -- go into Monoprix or Casino and get yourself some -- it's in the aisle with and jams. They have the cookies also. I would have never found it except as I was swooning over it at Frenchie's the woman next to me was laughing and told me where to find it.


Shopping:

Window shopping in Paris is such a gratifying yet somewhat depressing pastime – the clothes and shoes are devine, the prices absurd so I know there will be few purchases. But nonetheless, looking and drooling and fantasizing is well worth the time spent.

The Bastille market on Boulevard Richard-Lenoir (near Place Bastlle in the 11th arrondissement). We went there several times and bought cheeses and flowers and pates and greens and roast chicken with potatoes and items like toothpaste, Mennon stick deodorant shaving cream. I’m not quite sure what you cannot get here – on our first Sunday we saw a couple of furniture dealers. I love how the man at the fromagerie ask when you are planning to eat the cheese and picks one for you accordingly – how wonderful is that?

Monoprix – Quirky clothing and a good grocery section. The Target of France. Multiple locations.

BHV – Fun browsing. Got my new pillow for the apt there on sale, no less. On rue Rivoli.

Arche stores - Well-made, comfortable stylish shoes for men and women. They’re only almost affordable during the sale seasons (Jan-Feb and June-July). The best time to go for the lowest prices are after sales have ended. They further discount the leftovers and you can pick up some decent bargains (not that Arche shoes could really be called bargains.) Multiple locations.

Oksa - Stylish women’s wear. Reasonably-priced.

There’s a small store, Nina Jacobs at 23 Rue de Franc Bourgeois where I seem to always buy a jacket. This store carries the most wonderful line of beautifully constructed boiled wool jackets and coats (Eva Tralala) made in Paris. They are warm, but not bulky. This year I bought a cute red coat. Of course the delightful sales person showed me several different ways to wear it – now if it would only get warm enough to wear it in DC and I remember how she showed me to wear it. Some of you in DC have no doubt seen some of my other purchases from there. I love being complimented on the jackets and saying “Oh, I got it in Paris!”

yestravel,
No idea when yet, hopefully the end of this year. BTW were there any pastries at Genin?

flygirl,
Yes, please finish your report. I'm looking forward to the Reims installment.

@Patty - Jacques Genin had a very limited pastry selection -- 3 types of millefeuille, chocolate, vanilla or carmel. We wanted to share a carmel one, but they were out them so we had a very good vanilla one. There was a note on each table which my have been saying they were no longer serving pastries? Did they used to have a larger selection? I don't read french, but the little I know seemed to suggest that. They also served you a little plate of their chocolates with your order.

That would really be too bad if Jacques Genin stopped serving pastries. I had the best tart citron in December.....even better than Gerard Mulot, which had been my favorite.

YT - Just about to settle in and enjoy your trip report as I always do but wanted to say we're in Milan now after 8 weeks in Italy and have had a lot of grey/rain as you experienced.....but it's still always wonderful.

Best

Liz

@Elizabeth - thankfully we didn't have rain except maybe one evening, just grey dreary cold weather, but as u say it was France in our case. Have you been posting your travels? I love reading them and picking up hints.

@judy - definitely no citron tarts offered. maybe it will be continued again--wish I could have read the french note. The servers didn't speak very good English so I didn't bother them to try and figure the note out. I really wanted the carmel millefeuille. The couple next to us had one and was barely touching it -- I wanted to take it from them, but refrained.

They used to have a full pastry case between the chocolates and caramels. I read that most of his pastry staff quit recently.

I would say the note indicated he was going back to what he loved, chocolates. Sorry I missed his lemon tart as I love Tarte citron.

Thank you, thank you,THANK YOU.

Can NOT wait for August 14 and 7 nights in Paris. We are NOT first timers......but haven't been there in decades. Why do I have a feeling we are going to want to return.......and return....and return.

I'm printing this out, darlin'. CHEERS!

Moreweird - Glad you found this helpful. Here's the rest...


Music:

Le Piano Vache in the Latin Quarter. We went there on a Monday night and caught two sets of gypsy hot jazz by a group headed by fabulous acoustic guitarist Rodolphe Raffalli and a supporting group that consisted of a fantastic accordionist, a second acoustic guitarist and a stand-up bassist. The first set included covers of the tango classic "Libertango" and Django Reinhardt’s "Nuages." Here’s a video of Raffalli in action with a slighty different line up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya_QGw5Gm80
T
he club itself is half dive bar and half journey to a lost past era, with a true cast of characters. My understanding is that Raffalli plays there regularly. Good fun and highly recommended. 8 Rue Laplace, 75005 Paris, France. http://lepianovache.fr

Unbeknownst to us, we were staying two blocks from Café Bataclan – a premier Paris music venue. Had we only known… Information regarding Parisian music venues is available here
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/201...s-music-venues
and here
http://vingtparismagazine.com/2008/1...nues-in-paris/


Transport:

Carnets (packets of 10 tickets that can be used either for the Metro or bus-lines) cost €13.30. They’re available by machine in all Metro stations. Note that said machine has a limit of twenty coins per purchase transaction; save up your 1 and 2 Euro coins before purchasing. (A few Metro stops still have manual ticket sales windows, but they’re few and far between.)

The 69 bus. This is the perfect introduction to Paris for the first time visitor. You can take it from the hopping 11th to the sedate 7th and see much of the best of Paris in between. We caught it from near Place Bastille and rode it through the Marias, down Rue Rivoli past the Louvre, across the Seine to the Left Bank, past the Musee D’Orsay, then backtracked on Boulevard Saint Germain before turning towards the Champs de Mars and ending at the Eiffel Tower. All for €1.30 apiece.

Walking. Anywhere. It’s Paris. Free.

And how could we leave out the bells of Notre Dame? This was a once in a lifetime experience

2013 is the official 850th anniversary of the construction of Notre Dame. In celebration, the cathedral is replacing nine large bells that have been in use since the mid-19th Century. (The existing bells may, or may not, have gotten out of tune through use; opinion is divided on the matter.) The nine new bronze bells, named after saints and prominent Catholic figures, were on display inside Notre Dame through February 25. There was, for once, no line that day so we braved the throngs inside and visited the bells on the very last day they were on display. Seeing the new Notre Dame bells was an extraordinary experience. I never thought I could get excited over bells, but these were stunning. They were lined up in the center of the cathedral in ascending order of size. The exterior of each hand-forged bell had been worked differently; they were all beautiful. They are now (as of March) being hoisted into place inside a bell tower and tested. Plans are to ring them in their official capacity for the first time on the Saturday before Palm Sunday. Anyone in Paris on that date or after will be treated to the tintinnabulation of the new bells, bells, bells.

More details here:
http://willows95988.typepad.com/tong...otre-dame.html

Love the restaurant list! Love Le Comptoir and Frenchie has always been on the list. Great to know you can reserve online now...many complained that they called and called and no one woud ever answer the phone there!

I live in Atlanta and now you can get Biscoff spread in most stores. No one woukd buy speculoos spread, but they know Biscoff and everyone loves the cookies on Delta ( even if you hate the airlines). You should try the speculoos ice cream at Berthillon on your next trip.

OMG - speculoos ice cream and I missed that??? How tragic! I'm going to look for the spread in this area, DC. I have now finished off the jar of Lotus speculoos spread that I snacked on in Paris and brought back.

We lucked into Frenchie's shortly after it opened having a sublime lunch there in 2010, but then we were never able to get reservations for subsequent trips. So the online reservations is great. We actually had made 2 reservations online, but decided to try someplace else for our last nights and cancelled via phone once in Paris.

We managed to get Frenchie reservations twice, most recently 12/12, when flygirl got them for us......not a task for anyone without a lot of patience!!
I'm happy to hear things have changed but the challenge (and cost of many calls to Paris) of making those reservations sort of soured me on the restaurant.

We have friends who live in Paris and tried to call for for us on a trip in 2011 and gave up in disgust -- thought it was absurd that no one ever answered their phones - didn't seem to matter when they tried to call. So the online res is great if you want to eat at Frenchie and plan ahead as they do get booked up quickly.