| Christina |
Jan 24th, 2000 01:54 PM |
I'm the same way and since I go there quite a bit I have this all figured out. First, you didn't say, but I'm assuming you drink black coffee, otherwise, there's no problem at all -- you can easily order a large cup of coffee with milk in any cafe (ask for a "grand cafe creme", that term is more commonly used in cafes/restaurants than cafe au lait which is used more at home, but either will get you a big cup of coffee with hot milk). I need a cup first thing in the morning to get going and thus travel with a small amt of my favorite instant and one of those electric boiling coils, you can get one that works with a 220V Eur. outlet at a travel/luggage store. You can buy a small jar of French instant espresso coffee in a French supermarket which isn't bad, either, just a strong version of weak instant coffee, which I prefer anyway. Also, in my experience,if you eat breakfast at your hotel in the breakfast room, French hotels usually serve regular filtered Am-style brewed coffee for breakfast. It's usually very good and you probably will get your own little pot (they don't serve espresso at included breakfast in hotels). For example, one moderate hotel I stayed at that did this and had a very good breakfast (good croissants and coffee) was the Hotel St Thomas d'Acquin in the St-Germain quartier, or maybe just across the border of the 7th arr; it's a decent budget/moderate 2-star hotel in a good area a few blocks from the St-Germain metro. (I wasn't that thrilled with their rooms, frankly, but I had a single and singles are usually the worst in the hotel; it's a decent hotel and nice mgt.). If you really like good regular coffee in the morning, I'd suggest you pay for the in-house breakfast; I usu. prefer to go out to a cafe, but since I do that several times a day anyway, having a good breakfast in-house can be convenient and you'll get good coffee that way. In theory, some cafes/restaurants have this and it's called "cafe filtre" on the menu -- well, it would be but I will admit I have never once seen it offered on any Parisian cafe's menu, but just thought I'd mention it in case you run across it. Finally, American-oriented restaurants in Paris tend to have it; you can find ads for them in English expat publications like FUSAC which you can pick up for free at McDonalds or Shakespeare & Co. bookstore near Notre Dame. I know the Indiana Cafes (Tex-Mex food) serve regular American coffee as I usually go there for breakfast if I want that, as my usual hotel is only a few blocks from one of them; their food isn't bad, either, if you get tired of the French cafe steak/frite, chicken, etc. menus which I do. There's several around town as it's a chain (e.g., 130 bd St-Germain, 72 bd Montparnasse and at places Republique and Bastille, I think). Finally, French cafeterias may have regular brewed coffee, not just espresso. There is one cafeteria chain I go to, Melodines, which does as I recall. Their food is pretty good, also and very cheap--better than many cafes at half the price. They aren't located in main tourist areas and the staff probably won't speak English, if that bothers you; since it's a cafeteria, you can't go too far wrong with pointing and you pay at a register. Getting coffee is a little tricky as you have to ask for a dummy coin slug (called a "jeton") when you pay for your meal (you won't see coffee offered with the other beverages, they do have beer and wine, also), and then you put that jeton in the coffee machine on the floor where you sit down to fill your cup; you only get one cup per jeton, so if you want 2 cups, ask for two jetons when paying. There's a Melodine near the Pompidou Center at 21 rue Beaubourg and one on rue d'Alesia in the 14th arr. just a few steps east of the Alesia metro stop on the north side of the street (across from the movie theaters), I think. The one on rue d'Alesia is probably out of the way for most tourists, but I thought I'd mention it.
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