Feb. Trip to Paris - Report (LONG)
Mar 3rd, 2006 | 10:59 AM
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Feb. Trip to Paris - Report (LONG)
We were in Paris Feb. 8-16, it was our first trip there and we really enjoyed it. Here’s my trip report...
Some quick notes, the weather was really mild all week and we only had one drizzly day, which was our museum day. I’m not sure if we lucked out, or if this is typical – I’m guessing it was in the mid-40s all week, which is toasty compared to February here in Connecticut. We stayed at the Hotel Jardin de l'Odeon, which we enjoyed. The hotel is in a really great location and the room was great - a typical (aka tiny) euro room, but we knew that going in and didn't mind since we weren't there that much anyway. It was clean, quiet and comfortable, plus apparently the hotel had all been remodeled a couple years ago, so it was quite nice. We bought a 5-day metro pass and used it every day - the Odeon metro stop was right down the street from the hotel. We also walked a ton! It was funny because we would take the train somewhere and be like, wow, thank god we took the train, thinking we had gone pretty far...but then we’d end up walking and walking and found out it wasn't nearly as far as we thought!
Our first day we got in early in the a.m. so we had to just leave our bags at the hotel and hit the ground running. We were exhausted, neither of us slept a wink on the plane, but we were excited to be there. We decided to check out our neighborhood first to get our bearings. We walked up around the Sorbonne and the pantheon - found an internet cafe to email home so we could let the fam know we made it in ok. Then we stopped for our first crepe - nutella and banana, mmmm! After that we headed toward the river and ended up at Notredame. I took lots of pics outside, then we checked out the inside of the church. We wanted to go up in the towers, but needed exact change ($7.50 per person), so we went across to a cafe for a quick snack (croque monsieurs), which gave us the change we needed, and we headed up the towers. Boy, that was a serious hike!! But it was worth it, the view was awesome, from up there, and it was neat to see the gargoyles up close. We headed back to the hotel after that for a quick 1-hour power nap, showers, and then back out. There were lots of places to eat by our hotel, many of which were inexpensive since we were near the college, so that was a bonus. The first night we just ate at a little place across from the hotel and called it an early night.
The second day was all about the Eiffel tower. It was a beautiful, sunny day. We took the metro there and there was virtually no line to go up. We went all the way to the top, which was really cool, we loved it. Then we went across to Trocadero and took more pics - that was a big picture day! I got cotton candy from one of the vendors (I couldn’t resist!), then we took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe. We walked from there all the way down the Champs-Elysses to the Louvre. We hung out by the fountain where all the kids were pushing there boats around and then walked back toward the river and to our hotel.
Saturday we took the metro out to Montmartre, but not before stopping at Poilane for some pan chocolate and croissants. Oh, and then I got sucked into a chocolate shop and got a macaron chocolate, which was sinfully delicious!! Anyway, we opted to take the tram up to Sacre Cour. There were lots of people hanging out on the steps, and when we went into the church, there was a service going on, so we got to hear a little bit of singing. We headed to the square where all the artists were selling their work and doing portraits. I really liked the paintings, but they were very expensive, so we didn't buy anything there. We ended up getting a little painting in one of the shops - certainly not an original, it was inexpensive, but still, a nice souvenir that we're getting framed. In fact, the woman at the frame shop was impressed with it…she had no idea the framing cost about 10 times what the painting cost! That night we went back out to the Eiffel tower to get some night shots, then went to the Arc de Triomphe to hike to the top. It was a nice view, but we were disappointed that we couldn't use a tripod up there - we waited to go up at night so we could take some photos - oh well. We did go into the middle of the Champs-Elysses with the tripod and got some really cool photos of the Arc with the streaming lights of traffic going by. Those and the night shots of the Eiffel were our favorite pictures – oh, and Notredame at night, it’s so beautiful during the day, but so much more dramatic at night.
Sunday we ventured to the Marais, since we had heard that the stores stay open on Sunday. We got off the metro and found our selves in a large outdoor food market, which was really cool – got some great pictures there (in case you can’t tell, we really love taking photos). We walked through and bought some strawberries and raspberries. Then we hit the shops - what a great area, it was one of my favorites. We walked past the Pompidou, but didn't go in - modern art isn't our thing - but what a cool looking building. That night we took a river cruise, which was really fun. We sat up top for part of it, but it got a little to chilly, so we surrendered down to the enclosed area for the rest of the ride.
Monday was museum day. We started off checking out Napoleon's tomb, then went through the army museum, which we really enjoyed - particularly all the ancient armor. DH really loved the WWII section. Then we went to the Louvre. We didn't stay too long, as we had just about had our fill of museums that day, but we enjoyed what we saw.
Tuesday - valentines day - we did a lot of walking, just kind of wandered and shopped. We got our typical breakfast (really brunch, we never made it out very early!) of baguettes with ham and cheese and ate them in the Luxembourg gardens (right around the corner from the hotel), then took the metro to the D'Orsay, walked along the river, checked out the boquinistas and bought a couple little pictures that were painted in enamel on pieces of copper and bought an old (or at least old-looking) sheet of music that we're getting framed. We walked the isles, and I had hoped to stop at Berthillon for ice cream, but it was closed for a couple weeks. I did end up getting some at a nearby café – raspberry sorbet – dee-lish! That night we had dinner reservations at Le Coup Chou, which was really romantic. DH had escargot, which he loved, some sort of seafood medley and mille fueille (sp?) for dessert, which he said was excellent. I had a crawfish and shrimp salad, duck and some sort of dense chocolate cake that was really good as well.
Wednesday, our last full day, we really kept it low-key because we were exhausted from all the walking we had been doing, plus, our metro pass had run out, so we stuck close by. We shopped for some last-minute things we wanted to bring home at some shops in the St. Germain area and went to Bon Marche.
And that's about it. I’m sure I missed some details, but that's essentially the story. I don’t really remember the restaurants we ate at, but they were all fine – nothing fancy. We did well in the $$ dept. We kept the costs down by eating cheaply in the a.m. – I usually could only eat half my baguette, so we’d snack on the other half in the afternoon and usually stop for crepes or pastries at some point. The hotel was less than $100 euros/night, since it was off season. The euro conversion came out to about $120 U.S. for ever $100 euros. We took money out of the atm when we arrived at the airport and used credit cards as much as we could. One observation - people do not clean up after their dogs, so keep your eyes open!! We were actually quite shocked by this - it's such a beautiful city, it's too bad that people don't take the time to clean up after their dogs, we found the sidewalks to be like minefields. DH had to warn me quite a few times to watch my step, so I made it out clean - unfortunately he wasn't so lucky on our last day, yikes!
All in all, we had a really great trip!
Some quick notes, the weather was really mild all week and we only had one drizzly day, which was our museum day. I’m not sure if we lucked out, or if this is typical – I’m guessing it was in the mid-40s all week, which is toasty compared to February here in Connecticut. We stayed at the Hotel Jardin de l'Odeon, which we enjoyed. The hotel is in a really great location and the room was great - a typical (aka tiny) euro room, but we knew that going in and didn't mind since we weren't there that much anyway. It was clean, quiet and comfortable, plus apparently the hotel had all been remodeled a couple years ago, so it was quite nice. We bought a 5-day metro pass and used it every day - the Odeon metro stop was right down the street from the hotel. We also walked a ton! It was funny because we would take the train somewhere and be like, wow, thank god we took the train, thinking we had gone pretty far...but then we’d end up walking and walking and found out it wasn't nearly as far as we thought!
Our first day we got in early in the a.m. so we had to just leave our bags at the hotel and hit the ground running. We were exhausted, neither of us slept a wink on the plane, but we were excited to be there. We decided to check out our neighborhood first to get our bearings. We walked up around the Sorbonne and the pantheon - found an internet cafe to email home so we could let the fam know we made it in ok. Then we stopped for our first crepe - nutella and banana, mmmm! After that we headed toward the river and ended up at Notredame. I took lots of pics outside, then we checked out the inside of the church. We wanted to go up in the towers, but needed exact change ($7.50 per person), so we went across to a cafe for a quick snack (croque monsieurs), which gave us the change we needed, and we headed up the towers. Boy, that was a serious hike!! But it was worth it, the view was awesome, from up there, and it was neat to see the gargoyles up close. We headed back to the hotel after that for a quick 1-hour power nap, showers, and then back out. There were lots of places to eat by our hotel, many of which were inexpensive since we were near the college, so that was a bonus. The first night we just ate at a little place across from the hotel and called it an early night.
The second day was all about the Eiffel tower. It was a beautiful, sunny day. We took the metro there and there was virtually no line to go up. We went all the way to the top, which was really cool, we loved it. Then we went across to Trocadero and took more pics - that was a big picture day! I got cotton candy from one of the vendors (I couldn’t resist!), then we took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe. We walked from there all the way down the Champs-Elysses to the Louvre. We hung out by the fountain where all the kids were pushing there boats around and then walked back toward the river and to our hotel.
Saturday we took the metro out to Montmartre, but not before stopping at Poilane for some pan chocolate and croissants. Oh, and then I got sucked into a chocolate shop and got a macaron chocolate, which was sinfully delicious!! Anyway, we opted to take the tram up to Sacre Cour. There were lots of people hanging out on the steps, and when we went into the church, there was a service going on, so we got to hear a little bit of singing. We headed to the square where all the artists were selling their work and doing portraits. I really liked the paintings, but they were very expensive, so we didn't buy anything there. We ended up getting a little painting in one of the shops - certainly not an original, it was inexpensive, but still, a nice souvenir that we're getting framed. In fact, the woman at the frame shop was impressed with it…she had no idea the framing cost about 10 times what the painting cost! That night we went back out to the Eiffel tower to get some night shots, then went to the Arc de Triomphe to hike to the top. It was a nice view, but we were disappointed that we couldn't use a tripod up there - we waited to go up at night so we could take some photos - oh well. We did go into the middle of the Champs-Elysses with the tripod and got some really cool photos of the Arc with the streaming lights of traffic going by. Those and the night shots of the Eiffel were our favorite pictures – oh, and Notredame at night, it’s so beautiful during the day, but so much more dramatic at night.
Sunday we ventured to the Marais, since we had heard that the stores stay open on Sunday. We got off the metro and found our selves in a large outdoor food market, which was really cool – got some great pictures there (in case you can’t tell, we really love taking photos). We walked through and bought some strawberries and raspberries. Then we hit the shops - what a great area, it was one of my favorites. We walked past the Pompidou, but didn't go in - modern art isn't our thing - but what a cool looking building. That night we took a river cruise, which was really fun. We sat up top for part of it, but it got a little to chilly, so we surrendered down to the enclosed area for the rest of the ride.
Monday was museum day. We started off checking out Napoleon's tomb, then went through the army museum, which we really enjoyed - particularly all the ancient armor. DH really loved the WWII section. Then we went to the Louvre. We didn't stay too long, as we had just about had our fill of museums that day, but we enjoyed what we saw.
Tuesday - valentines day - we did a lot of walking, just kind of wandered and shopped. We got our typical breakfast (really brunch, we never made it out very early!) of baguettes with ham and cheese and ate them in the Luxembourg gardens (right around the corner from the hotel), then took the metro to the D'Orsay, walked along the river, checked out the boquinistas and bought a couple little pictures that were painted in enamel on pieces of copper and bought an old (or at least old-looking) sheet of music that we're getting framed. We walked the isles, and I had hoped to stop at Berthillon for ice cream, but it was closed for a couple weeks. I did end up getting some at a nearby café – raspberry sorbet – dee-lish! That night we had dinner reservations at Le Coup Chou, which was really romantic. DH had escargot, which he loved, some sort of seafood medley and mille fueille (sp?) for dessert, which he said was excellent. I had a crawfish and shrimp salad, duck and some sort of dense chocolate cake that was really good as well.
Wednesday, our last full day, we really kept it low-key because we were exhausted from all the walking we had been doing, plus, our metro pass had run out, so we stuck close by. We shopped for some last-minute things we wanted to bring home at some shops in the St. Germain area and went to Bon Marche.
And that's about it. I’m sure I missed some details, but that's essentially the story. I don’t really remember the restaurants we ate at, but they were all fine – nothing fancy. We did well in the $$ dept. We kept the costs down by eating cheaply in the a.m. – I usually could only eat half my baguette, so we’d snack on the other half in the afternoon and usually stop for crepes or pastries at some point. The hotel was less than $100 euros/night, since it was off season. The euro conversion came out to about $120 U.S. for ever $100 euros. We took money out of the atm when we arrived at the airport and used credit cards as much as we could. One observation - people do not clean up after their dogs, so keep your eyes open!! We were actually quite shocked by this - it's such a beautiful city, it's too bad that people don't take the time to clean up after their dogs, we found the sidewalks to be like minefields. DH had to warn me quite a few times to watch my step, so I made it out clean - unfortunately he wasn't so lucky on our last day, yikes!
All in all, we had a really great trip!
Mar 3rd, 2006 | 05:09 PM
#6
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 15,646
Likes: 11
Glad you enjoyed your trip. When you were eating at Le Coupe Chou, did you sit in a candle lit room with a glass roof you could see the sky through? If so, the apartment I rented in Paris last week looked down on your table. Although I arrived February 17, so I guess I didn't catch your dinner.
Mar 5th, 2006 | 11:46 AM
#7
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 101
Likes: 0
mas16: thanks for your report. my husband and I will be staying at the same hotel next month so i am curious about more of the hotel details. what kind of room did you book and what did you get? we booked the classic double. how did you get from CDG to the hotel?
thanks!
thanks!
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Mar 6th, 2006 | 05:03 AM
#8
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Joined: May 2003
Posts: 76
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Nikki - we did eat in a beautiful candle lit room at Le Coup Chou, however there was no glass roof - we were on the first floor. What a great area to rent an apt!
lhs624 - We booked the classic double room as well and that is what we were given. It was small but didn't that bother us - I placed my suitcase on top of the small desk and DH put his underneath, that was really the only option, otherwise we would've been tripping over them. The bed was comfortable (one mattress, not two pushed together). We had a large window that we usually cracked open at night because the heat worked so well!
The bathroom was good sized with a tub/shower - plenty of hot water and nice water pressure.
We had arranged a shuttle through the hotel to pick us up from CDG and bring us back - I think it was $34 for two each way. They give you a phone number to call when you are picking up your luggage and then they tell you where to wait. Unfortunately, they told us where to wait, but didn't tell us who we were looking for (and us being dazed and jet-lagged we forgot to ask), so we waited and waited, but no luck. We tried calling the number again, but it only worked from the phone in the luggage area. So we ended up asking a waiting car if they were there for us but they were waiting for a private client - when the client arrived, he agreed to share his taxi with us, so we split the cost $25 each), which was very nice of him. Turns out he lived right around the corner from our hotel, so it worked out perfectly. We did end up using the shuttle on the way back and it worked out fine. We paid a deposit to the hotel and then paid the balance when we arrived at the airport.
Hope that helps - let me know if you have any other questions!
lhs624 - We booked the classic double room as well and that is what we were given. It was small but didn't that bother us - I placed my suitcase on top of the small desk and DH put his underneath, that was really the only option, otherwise we would've been tripping over them. The bed was comfortable (one mattress, not two pushed together). We had a large window that we usually cracked open at night because the heat worked so well!
The bathroom was good sized with a tub/shower - plenty of hot water and nice water pressure.We had arranged a shuttle through the hotel to pick us up from CDG and bring us back - I think it was $34 for two each way. They give you a phone number to call when you are picking up your luggage and then they tell you where to wait. Unfortunately, they told us where to wait, but didn't tell us who we were looking for (and us being dazed and jet-lagged we forgot to ask), so we waited and waited, but no luck. We tried calling the number again, but it only worked from the phone in the luggage area. So we ended up asking a waiting car if they were there for us but they were waiting for a private client - when the client arrived, he agreed to share his taxi with us, so we split the cost $25 each), which was very nice of him. Turns out he lived right around the corner from our hotel, so it worked out perfectly. We did end up using the shuttle on the way back and it worked out fine. We paid a deposit to the hotel and then paid the balance when we arrived at the airport.
Hope that helps - let me know if you have any other questions!
