Sassafrass

Kerouac,
For such a long time, I have enjoyed your posts and greatly appreciate and admire your artistic sensitivity. People get off track all the time, and in the aside information about getting ready for her trip, Gracejoan's mention of her cat seemed appropriate. So, please, rather than dwelling on a tiny thing that bothered you, give us more of the wonderful things you do so well.
Sass

StuDudley

>> myth of the "rude Frenchman" which is unfortunate since my personal experience has been overwhelmingly positive.<<

I don't believe kerouac is a Frencheman - I think he's from the USA - Mississippi I believe.

Stu Dudley

Trophywife007

That would explain a lot.

StCirq

I believe he is French by birth, Stu, and after living awhile in the USA, has lived in France for many years now. Anyway, he gets crusty now and then, as many of us do (me included, for sure), but I love his photo reports and "inside information," so am willing to give him (and others) a break. I don't know what the interaction between him and gracejoan was, but if it was uncomplimentary, I'd not like that, because gracejoan is a woman of tremendous grace and civility.

RobertaL

I consider myself fortunate to have met GraceJoan in Paris several years ago. After providing me with so much useful information, we were able to meet the night before she was departing back to the U.S. We shared cocktails in her apartment, as well as later that night in a local bistro. It was quite late, yet she met us at a pretty late hour. Boy, did we have fun! Great conversation, great lady.

Posters often speak about sidetracked details in their trip reports. Forgetting their passports, losing their reservations, getting sick, etc. Gracejoan is talking about her upcoming trip, sidetracked due to pet's death. According to you, she should've posted this detail separately in the Lounge, titled "Oh, btw, my cat passed away". Ridiculous.

Kerouac, what will Santa bring you this Christmas? Hopefully, a port in a storm.

~Roberta

gracejoan

I have arrived in Paris and will have another for some of you had asked..r this one.

For years..many years I have often told people that Kerouac is a great source for local knowledge.

I don't know what his problem is with me...I do know that there have been a few things that have come up because I am very much a western 7th person and like some fine dining that is not his cup of tea...so what. we all have places we like best..that'shat makes the world go round!

a bientot...
Joan

turaj1

So this is an "east vs west" problem?? and "fine dining vs. not so fine"??? Again if someone does not like a post move on...just don't read. Paris is a vast city with each area offering something unique and after visiting a number of times it is natural to focus on the areas you enjoy the most...my guess is most typical tourists (which many are here)find their comfort level somewhere in between.

kerouac

I have no problem with gracejoan other than her style drifted in recent years to using Fodor's as her Facebook page. It used to be interesting until there was a link to a photo of every item she puts in her mouth at every meal.

While I am sure that this is fascinating to a lot of people here, my main beef is that it is an inefficient way to show what she wants to show. Perhaps a blog would be more appropriate? It would certainly be ten times more user friendly, because whenever any newbies come here (not everybody is 100 years old here), they can only be flabbergasted by some of these threads with 150 posts with the only interventions by other people being "that looks yummy" "give the chef a hug for me" "isn't so-and-so wonderful?" "so sorry that the candied pig snout with truffles and dingleberries didn't live up to its reputation!"

;-)

gracejoan

Kerouac,

Personally, I do not care that much about the photos for myself. The ONLY reason I post them, is that so many seem to want them. It does take time to do this, so I do spend a lot of time doing what others are asking for. This has now shown recently with people asking to please send the again....if they are not wanted, I can save myself a lot of time in doing them...

AlessandraZoe

Kerouac: I have great respect for your knowledge, but I am upset that GraceJoan has been made to feel unwelcome. She has been nothing but kind to anyone who asks for her help, and I hope she continues to post here.

I take issue with the idea that a newcomer would be flabbergasted by her thread. Any aspiring foodie experiencing a first trip to Paris would be in awe of what she has taken the time to post. Just think about it--say one has saved up forever to take the dreamed of trip to Paris just to dine well. She may dine at upscale establishments, but Joan isn't some uppity food trend person. She just loves food! She has <u>pictures</u>, for goodness sakes, to help one make some vital pocketbook decisions. If she doesn't check in here, how will that newcomer get to ask their questions to which she has always responded so willingly?

I understand why you think she should have a blog. But surely her choice of internet use is not anyone else should dictate. And if you think her style is not user-friendly, well, you probably are not using her information anyway. Others, though, are.

I have. And I don't hug chefs .
(Well, not unless I've consumed two bottles of wine)

Again, I so appreciate what you have brought to the table time and time again, Kerouac. I also very much appreciate Joan's pictures <u>OF</u> the table.

I rely on both of you--and I love you both.

kerouac

Well, obviously we will all have different opinions. As long as it is agreed that I have the right to give my opinion too, that is perfectly fine with me without people thinking that I have turned into a monster. I did not mind at all the fact that gracejoan mentioned that she had to euthanize a pet -- as I'm sure a lot of you know, I mention little things about my personal life as well. What bothered me was exactly the same as the "maitaitom episode". He mentioned losing a pet just before the trip and started his trip report, and about the next 15 messages were just overwrought sob sister condolence messages where each person tried to outdo the previous one with their heartfelt extreme grief about this terrible tragedy, about which they had never heard until two minutes before. Nobody seemed to care anymore about the trip report -- all they wanted to do was show how sensitive they were, for all of Fodor's to see. When I intervened that time, it was to stop all of that so that poor maitaitom could finally talk about his trip, and he understood that by killing that thread and starting a new one, which was (as usual) exceptional, entertaining, funny.

That's why I blew my fuse when I saw the same thing happening again. Gracejoan just made an extremely brief mention of what happened and all of a sudden, everybody was focused on that, which I really do not believe was gracejoan's intention at all.

Gracejoan, you could at least make a public photo album for the food addicts to see what's in your plate. It would be much easier for you to keep adding to it and much easier for other people to see it. And it would make your trip reports a lovely thing to read again without 10 "blue clicks" per post.

However, if other people absolutely have nothing better to do and just want to click on the links without caring much about what you write (since basically they only comment about the pictures most of the time), I think it is rather sad, but Fodor's is a free country.

turaj1

"However, if other people absolutely have nothing better to do and just want to click on the links without caring much about what you write (since basically they only comment about the pictures most of the time), I think it is rather sad, but Fodor's is a free country."

Guess I have nothing better to do and enjoy both the photos and the writing and I don't find that sad.

colduphere

Perhaps a policy of "à chacun son gout" is appropriate. There was a thread about that phrase here.

AlessandraZoe

But Kerouac, you are not a Fodor's Editor. You are a poster, albeit a VERY valuable one. We posters are not here to pass judgment but only to share information and yes, experiences, with others. I don't read posts from the "in" crowd here--it bothers the heck out of me--but I'm not going to waste any time worrying about it.

If Joan was a person who was horribly unkind to others, then a critique would make sense. She is a very, very kind and generous person (and I am not on her email list--promise).

Please play nice. I'd offer a hug, but I'm thinking that might not go down well... Let's just say that no matter how much I disagree with you, I value all of the valuable and essential information you provide here.
AZ

kerouac

Frankly, my first paragraph above was the only important one. I will continue to express my disapproval of "sob sister" behavior when it takes threads off track.

yestravel

well, kerouac, if you plan to monitor those posts that take a thread off track, you can include posters who start exchanging all sorts of personal stuff in the middle of a thread about another poster's travel plans or TR. An origin post requests info and another poster decides to tack on and ask other questions. I notice that threads go off the rails fairly often and I too, can get frustrated when I'm trying to glean useful information from the original thread. So let the monitoring begin...

Fra_Diavolo

The sob sister stuff is pretty awful even when appropriate.

Surprised to learn that Grace Jones is a regular here and look forward to her input.

yestravel

esp. her musical suggestions...

colduphere

She isn't anymore:

http://m.ibtimes.co.uk/britains-olde...ed-522300.html

kerouac

There's "off topic" and there's "way off topic." Some threads are of little interest to begin with and going off topic often improves them, even if they lose any utility for travel information. It's one of the reasons that the "Fodorite Lounge" branch exists, even if I only take a look there about once every 3 months.