Fodorite Says Paris Anniversay Trip a Big Success
 

--thanks to help from fellow posters . . .

Our 25th anniversary trip to Paris started off with the excitement of being delayed an hour and 45 minutes in Louisville because of heavy air traffic in Newark. We landed with five minutes to make our connection, which we did with the help of a little man with an electric cart; but, of course, the luggage didn’t. However, any true Fodorite knows to pack for this kind of emergency, so I was prepared with the basics in our carry-ons.

We flew on Continental. The flight was uneventful, and I actually got a little sleep. Customs was a breeze, baggage control already knew our bags weren’t there and only needed the name of our hotel, and we had no trouble getting into the city on the RER to St. Michel (€8 each), especially since we only had the carry-on luggage to deal with. I deeply appreciate your help with my transportation questions.

Our hotel was the Parc St. Severin on rue de la Parchemenerie quite close to the metro station. We had no trouble finding it, either; and thanks also to whoever mentioned the corner gelateria as a landmark. We checked it out several times. (Pina colada is the best flavor.) The street is short and so narrow that cars don’t use it.

The hotel room was a fair size with twin beds pushed together, a shelf above the beds, two small nightstands with lamps, two chairs, a decent size closet, and a small TV with only CNN in English. The décor was red and cream, quite pretty. The bath was plenty big enough with a tub and hand held shower but no shower curtain. Rate was €140 per night. We did have a room facing the street and needed to leave the windows open. There was a restaurant just under the windows and a couple more up the street, so it was pretty noisy with young people partying. We are probably too old for the Latin Quarter.

DH had not slept on the plane and hardly any the night before we left with pre-trip excitement, so after we went out to get a quick lunch we came back and had a nap. I never had done this, thinking it would make jet lag worse, but it worked for both of us in that after an early night we were pretty much okay for the rest of the trip.

During our stay we did a lot of the things and ate a lot of the food that Fodorites recommend. We ate our anniversary dinner at Perraudin, a Fodors recommendation, and a good one.

Here are some lists:

Museums/Sights:
Cluny Museum
Les Invalides
Arc de Triomphe
Jaquemart-Andre Museum
Deportation Museum

Churches:
Notre Dame
St. Severin
St. Julien de Pouvre
St. Germain des Pres
St. Sulpice
St. Chappelle
American Church for worship service on Sunday morning

Day Trips:
Chartres
Giverny (my favorite day—Monet’s house and gardens are fabulous, and lunch in the American Gardens was very good.)

Miscellaneous:
Shakespeare & Company Bookstore
Luxemburg Gardens

Food:
Croissants and pain chocolat for breakfast at Paul’s
Café crème
Pate
Onion soup
Boeuf bourguignon
Croque monsieurs
Lemon meringue pie (strange)
Fois gras
Baguette sandwiches
Gyros
Nutella crepes
Chocolates from Cacao et Chocolat
Berthillion ice cream cone (crème caramel—OH MY GOODNESS!)

Desserts:
Crème brulee
Tarte tatin
Profiteroles
Laduree macaroons (box of the miniature size of one each of 15 of the 16 flavors; we passed on the licorice)
Laduree raspberry tart and chocolate éclair
Banana cake with ice cream and gooseberry conserve

We spent the last of our time in Bayeux at Le Lion d’Or Hotel. It was charming, and the dining room was gorgeous and with good food, as well. My eleven-year-old grandson wishes he could have been along at this point as he is sure he would have won a prize on Funniest Home Videos when we described our arrival in Bayeux. There weren’t any taxis at the train station, and the attendant said it was only a ten-minute walk to the hotel. Well, maybe so if you knew exactly where you were going, and you weren’t pulling two roller bags with a carry-on sitting on top of each one over cobblestone streets in addition to my purse and a gift bag of stuff, and the smaller person pulling the bag with the smallest wheels could keep it from twisting around going over the curbs, and it hadn’t started to rain, and the wind hadn’t blown off her rain scarf, and the larger person hadn’t dropped his water bottle when he chased after it. You get the picture.

The following day we had an all-day, small-group, van tour of the D-Day beaches, stopping in St. Mere Eglise where the paratrooper fell onto the church steeple, at the German cemetery, the statue of Iron Mike (paratrooper famous for his defense of a critical bridge), Utah Beach, Pointe du Sur, Omaha Beach, the American Cemetery, and Arromanches. It was all so touching and heart breaking.

We had dinner that night back in Bayeux at Le Petit Bistrot, another Fodors recommendation, and it was probably the best meal we had on the trip. I had a pork with apple appetizer, trout, and a dessert dish with a layer of pureed kiwi, a thick layer of sweetened, chopped fresh strawberries, and a topping of sweetened whipped cream. It would be easy to make at home, and it was delicious.

Next morning before going back to Paris, we saw the Cathedral and the Bayeux Tapestry, which is great. The town is noted for its lace making and embroidery. I bought a pendant made of stiffened lace in a medium brown shade. It is sort of leaf shaped and has a couple of tiny gold beads and a small teardrop pearl on the end. It was only €30, but that is my kind of souvenir.

We spent our last night at the Suitehotel Roissy because we had an early Sunday morning departure. DH is a nervous plane catcher, and we weren’t sure how long it would take for the shuttle, so we ended up being the very first people in line at CDG for our plane home. That must be a record of some sort.

Miscellaneous comments:

It is worth going to Laduree on the Champs Elysee just to see the women’s room.
You can wear jeans; just be sure they are skin tight.
You can wear white athletic shoes. Our waitress in Chartres, who couldn’t speak a word of English, had on jeans and white Nikes.
The weather in Paris was sweater weather, but Normandy was rainy, cold, and very windy.

This has gotten quite long in spite of me, but we had a really good time and I am very appreciative of all the information I got from this forum.

What a wonderful anniversary trip!

Thank you for the report.

Byrd

Happy Anniversary and what a lovely way to celebrate!
Thanks for the report..

Thanks for sharing, C.

Sounds like a wonderful visit.

((I))

SMNOVELLA, is your favorite flower a hyacinth..? ;)

Paris is a great place to celebrate anniversaries (or anything, actually). I enjoyed reading your post and it helped with my Paris withdrawl.

We celebrated our 25th there and several others. FYI, the traditional 32nd anniversary gift is apparently conveyances. We conveyed ourselves to Paris!

Carolyn,
Thanks for the lovely trip report and congratulations on your 25th! We plan to celebrate our 25th in France (and Spain) next year and I'll be adding this to my France pages.

Smnovella, the restaurants we ate in aside from the two I did mention were all in the Latin Quarter close to our hotel. One was Le Pre Grill and another was Bistro St. Emilion. We ate a couple of times at the Petit Pont which is next door to the Shakespeare & Co. bookshop and just across the bridge from Notre Dame. It was pretty good, but the cafe cremes were €7.50 each! They don't give free coffee refills, of course, and my husband is a coffee fiend. By the end of the trip, he began to order tea.

I figure I'll serve the Bayeux strawberry dessert at my next famous candlelight dinner since they are in season. So glad to know you are cultured, too.

Thanks Byrd, Scarlett, and Ira for your good wishes.

Parisonmymind2 and Artlover, you must have posted while I was. Thanks to you, too; and I'm most impressed to think I will be copied into someone's notes for a future trip.

We had a lovely lunch at Petit Pont years ago!
Where will you be going for the next anniversary? :D

Carolyn,

Thank you for a nice trip report. My brother is in Paris right now and I have Paris envy!

Can you tell me the name of the tour you did for the WWII sites? I'd like to surprise my fiance with a hop over to Normandy during our honeymoon next year and would like tour suggestions. I have visited some sites as part of a tour I took several years ago but it was for a general France tour, not specific to Normandy. Thank you in advance.

Scarlett, probably the poor house. We are off this Friday for two weeks in Waikiki. My daughter travels in her work and has mega free air miles. I take her son to school and keep him during the summer, so she is paying me back by booking all five of us (DD, SIL, GS, DH, and me) to Hawaii. Of course, we will have hotel, food, and entertainment expenses, and I haven't got the bill for Paris yet. I just try to think of that new Capital One credit card I got that gives air miles and doesn't charge foreign conversion fees.

Coldwar27, The hotel booked the Normandy tour for us after we arrived. It was with a private guide who used to work with a tour company and then went out on his own. The only thing I know is that his name was Stephan (Steff-an) and he was very knowledgeable. His van was 7-passenger, and a father-son military pair liked him enough that they booked him privately to drive their car the next day and take them other places. I'm sure if you called Le Lion d'Or you could find him. He charged €75 each, and lunch was on your own at Utah Beach. There was a restaurant, but we shared a baguette sandwich and Orangina from a snack stand because we didn't want to take the time to sit down and eat.

I'll be glad to answer any other questions that I can.

I forgot to say that I owe Cosmopolitan €5 for his pronunciation to order tap water, "k'raf dough." We ordered successfully until we got to Le Petit Bistrot in Bayeux, but there the waitress had very little English and didn't understand tap water. A "helpful" Canadian woman seated nearby gave her a French phrase and smiled at us, we thanked her, and then we received a very large bottle of still mineral water. At that point, I used the Cosmo term in my best rural KY French accent, and the expression on the waitress's face was like Ira's lightbulb came on. It was wonderful. Then the €5 turned up on the bill, but she quickly removed it.

So, thanks, Cosmopolitan!

This is the best list I have seen yet on what to do in Paris:

"Desserts:
Crème brulee
Tarte tatin
Profiteroles
Laduree macaroons (box of the miniature size of one each of 15 of the 16 flavors; we passed on the licorice)
Laduree raspberry tart and chocolate éclair
Banana cake with ice cream and gooseberry conserve"