My Husband Won't Take Me Back to France Until I Get the Trip Report for this Trip Is Finished First!
Oct 12th, 2004, 09:33 AM
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My Husband Won't Take Me Back to France Until I Get the Trip Report for this Trip Is Finished First!
My husband, Rob, and I returned from two glorious weeks in France. Last night I gave him one of those designed-to-make-your-husband-melt kind of smiles as I asked him if he'd like to look at some Paris apartment rental websites for our <i>next</i> trip. He asked me if I'd written up my trip report yet, and said that he wasn't interested in any future trips until I had! Okay, Fodorites, the man has me in a tough spot. If I want to see France again with the best travel companion in the world, I have to turn out some travel literature for you. He said it's only fair, since our trip wouldn't have been half as good had I not culled so much valuable information from this site! And you know, that's the truth. We owe a big debt to so many of you who love France and love travel. So here's my report, written with the hope that some of you will find it helpful or at least a little amusing! (Just like the title, which for some reason I can't seem to edit, now that I've typed it. Yes I know it has an extra verb in it. Sigh.)
We hadn't intended on visiting France at all. We were supposed to go to the beach with our teenage son and daughter, as we do most summers. However, this summer they decided they wanted to bring along friends, which we thought was a fine idea. Until I started looking at the price of beach houses. Common sense dicates that you absolutely cannot let four teens of opposite sexes share a room together, which meant that we'd have to rent a larger house. Talk about astronomical rent! I thought to myself that I could go to Paris for that kind of money. I broached the idea with Rob and the kids. The kids were delighted with the idea of NOT having to go on vacation with us after all (I tell you, ya gotta have a healthy ego to deal with the way teens blow their parents off...) and my husband thought it was a fantastic idea. I called my parents in Naples, Florida and asked them if they'd want to hold the fort down while we were gone, and they were game. Bingo! We had a trip to France.
We left for Paris from the balmy Midwest on the 23rd of September. The temperature was in the mid-80s. Paris was 20 degrees lower, and as soon as I got hold of my suitcase, I put on nearly every article of outerwear I had brought with me! I felt like the Michelin tire man but at least I was warm. The Charles de Gaulle airport has the oddest escalators. I don't know if you could actually call them escalators, because they never turn into steps on their descent, like most do. They're more like moving ramps that move you up and move you down. I mention this because I walked off the plane so exhausted from a sleepless night that I nearly tipped over as this ramp started on its way down! I was expecting to get a firm footing on a step that never materialized. So be aware of this little airport oddity.
We caught a shuttle bus from the airport. It was part of the package we had bought from www.go-today.com, which included the air, transfer, and six nights hotel, with breakfast. (We extended our trip to allow for a week in the South as well, with no penalty to us.) We were really pleased with go-today. I'd upgraded the hotel slightly and it was marvelous! We chose the Hotel Regence on 33, Rue St. Petersbourg. The closest metro was Place de Clichy, which was five minutes down the street. The hotel doesn't have its own website, but if you google it, there's plenty of access to it. Our room was small but not postage stamp size, with cheerful yellow walls and patterned navy carpeting. There was a desk and mini fridge, which we took no time at all in filling with cheeses, beer, yogurts, cider and all sorts of delicious picnic items! The bathroom was very large with an extra deep tub. Heavenly. The breakfast room was in the cellar. It was brightly lit with ceiling can lights, and had stone walls decorated with tapestries and a tiled floor. It was a nice room to be in, and like the rest of the hotel, spotlessly clean.
We hadn't intended on visiting France at all. We were supposed to go to the beach with our teenage son and daughter, as we do most summers. However, this summer they decided they wanted to bring along friends, which we thought was a fine idea. Until I started looking at the price of beach houses. Common sense dicates that you absolutely cannot let four teens of opposite sexes share a room together, which meant that we'd have to rent a larger house. Talk about astronomical rent! I thought to myself that I could go to Paris for that kind of money. I broached the idea with Rob and the kids. The kids were delighted with the idea of NOT having to go on vacation with us after all (I tell you, ya gotta have a healthy ego to deal with the way teens blow their parents off...) and my husband thought it was a fantastic idea. I called my parents in Naples, Florida and asked them if they'd want to hold the fort down while we were gone, and they were game. Bingo! We had a trip to France.
We left for Paris from the balmy Midwest on the 23rd of September. The temperature was in the mid-80s. Paris was 20 degrees lower, and as soon as I got hold of my suitcase, I put on nearly every article of outerwear I had brought with me! I felt like the Michelin tire man but at least I was warm. The Charles de Gaulle airport has the oddest escalators. I don't know if you could actually call them escalators, because they never turn into steps on their descent, like most do. They're more like moving ramps that move you up and move you down. I mention this because I walked off the plane so exhausted from a sleepless night that I nearly tipped over as this ramp started on its way down! I was expecting to get a firm footing on a step that never materialized. So be aware of this little airport oddity.
We caught a shuttle bus from the airport. It was part of the package we had bought from www.go-today.com, which included the air, transfer, and six nights hotel, with breakfast. (We extended our trip to allow for a week in the South as well, with no penalty to us.) We were really pleased with go-today. I'd upgraded the hotel slightly and it was marvelous! We chose the Hotel Regence on 33, Rue St. Petersbourg. The closest metro was Place de Clichy, which was five minutes down the street. The hotel doesn't have its own website, but if you google it, there's plenty of access to it. Our room was small but not postage stamp size, with cheerful yellow walls and patterned navy carpeting. There was a desk and mini fridge, which we took no time at all in filling with cheeses, beer, yogurts, cider and all sorts of delicious picnic items! The bathroom was very large with an extra deep tub. Heavenly. The breakfast room was in the cellar. It was brightly lit with ceiling can lights, and had stone walls decorated with tapestries and a tiled floor. It was a nice room to be in, and like the rest of the hotel, spotlessly clean.
Oct 12th, 2004, 10:22 AM
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The hotel room wasn't ready when we arrived about noon, so they offered to store our luggage and handed us a tourist map with the route to Montemartre highlighted. As tired as we were, it was wonderful not to have to figure out what streets to go down! We walked past the Moulin Rouge and up to the Montmartre Cemetery which looked so interesting that we had to explore. Our first Paris photograph was of a gravesite that featured a nude male torso sculpture sprouting up from the pediment. Our brains were half asleep because it never occurred to us to walk around to the front to see who the torso belonged to. Ah well. You know what they say about saving things for the next trip. We'll eventually find out! French gravestones are so beautiful that I decided that when it's my turn to rest for eternity, I want a fancy French granite stone to immortalize me. There's nothing stodgy about them. You can get any typeface you want from Art Deco to copperplate, any shape gravestone, and they look great! (My family said that if I can figure out a way to drop dead in Paris, they will happily accomodate my wishes, lol.)
We wandered down Rue des Abbesses with all its bakeries, butcher shops and fruit stands before stopping for lunch at Cafe Le Bruant. A nice enough place where Rob ordered a slice of quiche and I a bowl of onion soup. We each had a small glass of red wine--no particular vintage requested--and toasted our arrival to Paris. The bill came to 27€! Our two little glasses of wine (19 cl so you know they weren't exactly generous in pouring it) cost 12.60€. I nearly choked. I needn't tell you that after that we very carefully checked the wine menu before we ordered wine, and never again casually asked for any old glass of red!
We walked further down the Rue des Abbesses so we could see the famous metro stop that shows up on all the postcards, and then headed back to our hotel for some much needed sleep. At 7 pm we had arranged to meet Dudi and her family for the Vedette cruise on the Seine. Dudi was another Fodorite who was posting Paris questions before the trip, as I was, and we discovered we were both planning on the same boat ride.
As you might expect, we had to make a mad dash through the streets of Paris to get to the Pont Neuf for the boat ride--overslept by a bit! It took us just half an hour of fast walking to get there. Look on the map; we started close to Place du Clichy, and I did the whole thing in heels. (Not bad if I do say so myself.) Paris is one of those gorgeous cities that is made for walking and this was the first of many, many walks we took.
We wandered down Rue des Abbesses with all its bakeries, butcher shops and fruit stands before stopping for lunch at Cafe Le Bruant. A nice enough place where Rob ordered a slice of quiche and I a bowl of onion soup. We each had a small glass of red wine--no particular vintage requested--and toasted our arrival to Paris. The bill came to 27€! Our two little glasses of wine (19 cl so you know they weren't exactly generous in pouring it) cost 12.60€. I nearly choked. I needn't tell you that after that we very carefully checked the wine menu before we ordered wine, and never again casually asked for any old glass of red!
We walked further down the Rue des Abbesses so we could see the famous metro stop that shows up on all the postcards, and then headed back to our hotel for some much needed sleep. At 7 pm we had arranged to meet Dudi and her family for the Vedette cruise on the Seine. Dudi was another Fodorite who was posting Paris questions before the trip, as I was, and we discovered we were both planning on the same boat ride.
As you might expect, we had to make a mad dash through the streets of Paris to get to the Pont Neuf for the boat ride--overslept by a bit! It took us just half an hour of fast walking to get there. Look on the map; we started close to Place du Clichy, and I did the whole thing in heels. (Not bad if I do say so myself.) Paris is one of those gorgeous cities that is made for walking and this was the first of many, many walks we took.
Oct 12th, 2004, 10:34 AM
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Hey dln!
I had a blast meeting both of you for the Marais walk. I can't wait to see your photos.
Nice to see you're getting your report together. I'm still dealing with jetlag and haven't even started my France/Greece report.
I had a blast meeting both of you for the Marais walk. I can't wait to see your photos.
Nice to see you're getting your report together. I'm still dealing with jetlag and haven't even started my France/Greece report.
Oct 12th, 2004, 10:52 AM
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Great start dln!
Am imagining the moving ramps and laughing, it does sound wierd. LOL. You think you are planning too early? I have a trip to italy planned for this november and am already looking at air-fares for the next trip to Paris in Feb!! Waiting for the rest of the report and very grateful to your husband for giving you the incentive to write it up
Am imagining the moving ramps and laughing, it does sound wierd. LOL. You think you are planning too early? I have a trip to italy planned for this november and am already looking at air-fares for the next trip to Paris in Feb!! Waiting for the rest of the report and very grateful to your husband for giving you the incentive to write it up
Oct 12th, 2004, 11:05 AM
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Why, thanks, palette and ssachida, I happen to agree with you. I'm even looking at my jewelry box to see what treasures I can sell on EBay, if that's what it takes to get back to Paris! Statia: how is island weather these days? Better? Indy: I see you are back--how was Greece?
The Pont Neuf Vedette cruise is fun to go on. We had no trouble finding Dudi and her husband, who were there with parents. Dudi was the one wearing little pink mittens! If I ever thought I was cold, coming from Midwest weather, she was colder, coming from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Talk about a big climate change there! I took out the bottle of red wine that I had in my purse (there is a big advantage to carrying a sturdy Longchamp leather bag; it's <i>exactly</i> the right size to discretely hold a bottle of wine) and we all enjoyed sipping as we watched the sights of Paris from the water. It was a perfect way to start a Paris vacation. BTW, that bottle of wine cost only 3.30€ at the Caviste shop on Rue des Abbesses. I made a joke about buying cheap wine but it really did taste good, so we never spent much more than that on any of the (many) bottles of wine we drank in France. I might even have bought the bottle I saw for 1.99€ at the grocery store one day but my husband nixed that, saying you had to draw the line somewhere!
We said our goodbyes to Dudi and her family, who were heading off to Bon Marche for a food shopping expedition. It was lovely meeting her, and if any of you have the chance to meet up with fellow Fodorites on your travels, follow it up!
Rob and I couldn't bear to take the Metro back to our hotel. It was a beautiful if brisk evening and we wanted to stroll around and soak up all the sights before dinner. We ended up walking near Les Halles and saw that big head sculpture that sits by St. Eustache. Cool! Then we veered off the path a bit to Blvd. Montmartre where we knocked two passages off our "to see" list. Thank you Degas for that post listing all the passages--I carried it with me every day! We saw the Passage des Panoramas and the Jouffrey, across the street. I like looking at the passages; it's like stepping back into another world to amble down their aisles and look into the shops. And it's fun finding them, too. Some of them take a little bit of ferreting out to discover.
The Pont Neuf Vedette cruise is fun to go on. We had no trouble finding Dudi and her husband, who were there with parents. Dudi was the one wearing little pink mittens! If I ever thought I was cold, coming from Midwest weather, she was colder, coming from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Talk about a big climate change there! I took out the bottle of red wine that I had in my purse (there is a big advantage to carrying a sturdy Longchamp leather bag; it's <i>exactly</i> the right size to discretely hold a bottle of wine) and we all enjoyed sipping as we watched the sights of Paris from the water. It was a perfect way to start a Paris vacation. BTW, that bottle of wine cost only 3.30€ at the Caviste shop on Rue des Abbesses. I made a joke about buying cheap wine but it really did taste good, so we never spent much more than that on any of the (many) bottles of wine we drank in France. I might even have bought the bottle I saw for 1.99€ at the grocery store one day but my husband nixed that, saying you had to draw the line somewhere!
We said our goodbyes to Dudi and her family, who were heading off to Bon Marche for a food shopping expedition. It was lovely meeting her, and if any of you have the chance to meet up with fellow Fodorites on your travels, follow it up!
Rob and I couldn't bear to take the Metro back to our hotel. It was a beautiful if brisk evening and we wanted to stroll around and soak up all the sights before dinner. We ended up walking near Les Halles and saw that big head sculpture that sits by St. Eustache. Cool! Then we veered off the path a bit to Blvd. Montmartre where we knocked two passages off our "to see" list. Thank you Degas for that post listing all the passages--I carried it with me every day! We saw the Passage des Panoramas and the Jouffrey, across the street. I like looking at the passages; it's like stepping back into another world to amble down their aisles and look into the shops. And it's fun finding them, too. Some of them take a little bit of ferreting out to discover.
Oct 12th, 2004, 11:42 AM
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Thanks, all! Rob and I ended up eating our first dinner in Paris at a bistrot very close to our hotel. It was <b>Le Cafe Jules on 17, Rue des Batignolles, telephone 01 43 87 77 80</b>. It was a small place near the Boulevard des Batignolles. The decor was traditional with a modern edge to it and the food was very well prepared. We chose the plat du jour at 15€. Rob started out with a piece of salmon that tasted like lox but it wasn't sliced thin. It was a nice thick slice and more than a few bites managed to end up in my mouth! I had duck pate and we both shared a basket of bread. For dinner, Rob had a leg of duck (I didn't write the name down but those of you up on French menus will know what he had), with oven roasted potatoes on the side. I had tenderloin tips with a delicious brown sauce, flavored with spices I didn't recognize. It was very good and I wish I knew how to prepare it in my own kitchen! Creme brulee for us both for dessert and a petite cup of coffee, black with a sugar cube and downed in one minute flat.
We had ordered a demi pichet of wine with our meal and I noticed that you buy your wine by the quantity you want. It's all metric so here are the translations. The first cafe that we went to in Montmartre served us a teeny weeny glass, 19 cl, at an exhorbitant price. All other restaurants we patronized served us bigger glasses! If we wanted a glass of wine apiece, we ordered 25 cl. If we wanted approximately four glasses of wine throughout our dinner, we asked for the pichet which held 50 cl, and if we were really thirsty, we could have ordered 75 cl, standard bottle size. Learn those numbers, everyone, so you can get the wine you want!
We had ordered a demi pichet of wine with our meal and I noticed that you buy your wine by the quantity you want. It's all metric so here are the translations. The first cafe that we went to in Montmartre served us a teeny weeny glass, 19 cl, at an exhorbitant price. All other restaurants we patronized served us bigger glasses! If we wanted a glass of wine apiece, we ordered 25 cl. If we wanted approximately four glasses of wine throughout our dinner, we asked for the pichet which held 50 cl, and if we were really thirsty, we could have ordered 75 cl, standard bottle size. Learn those numbers, everyone, so you can get the wine you want!
Oct 12th, 2004, 12:03 PM
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I'm enjoying your report as I fantasize about my next Paris trip (not until Nov 2005).
Souns like a wonderful trip so far. I'm chuckling at the image of trying to drop dead in Paris for the glamorous grave stone. Maybe eating yourself to death would work? Death by chocolate? Death by fois gras? Death by croissants?
Souns like a wonderful trip so far. I'm chuckling at the image of trying to drop dead in Paris for the glamorous grave stone. Maybe eating yourself to death would work? Death by chocolate? Death by fois gras? Death by croissants?
Oct 12th, 2004, 12:23 PM
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Great report so far dln, so glad you found my favorite city (oh and I guess it's some others favorite too) so wonderful. I was really surprised by that first glass of wine cost! wow, I've never had that happen but good to know you figured out the glass size stuff. The first time I ever went with my best friend we would just ask for wine, not a glass and they always brought us a bottle. We honestly didn't think you could order by the glass! haha! WE DRANK A LOT OF WINE THAT TRIP!
Oct 12th, 2004, 01:37 PM
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Merci beaucoup for all the sweet compliments 
. I am scenting my luggage with the lavender oil that was given to me as a present while we were in Provence! Maybe Rob will take the hint sooner rather than later, since I am now a confirmed Francophile? (Cigalechanta, will you send me the website addy of that French forum you use? I think I may be doing some more research even if I have to sell off my jewelry to finance the next trip...).
A few short words about the neighborhood we stayed in at the Place du Clichy. I chose it in part because it looked nice, but also because it was at the edge of 17th arrondisment, which I was interested in. Gourmet magazine had an article in their March 2001 issue called "The Paris of Parisians" and it spoke about the lesser visited neighborhoods of Paris, one of which was the area surrounding Blvd. des Batignolles. This was the next street over from the Regence Hotel. The 17th does indeed have a real, authentic feel to it. Not too many tourists, in fact hardly any at all. But plenty of good little shops (I wished I had made the time to have gotten my haircut at one of the many salons), cafes, an excellent grocery, and a small church on the square. It's a bit rough about the edges compared to the 8th, but this is not to say it has a shabby look to it. It doesn't, but it's not as gentrified as the neighborhoods more on the tourist beat. We liked it a lot and were very glad to be near it. It looks like it's way out of the way, but if you like walking it presents no problem getting to the Champs-Elysees, the Musee d'Orsay, Pont Neuf, etc. We did them all, one of us in heels, as I mentioned!
Further down the street from us on the main drag was the Moulin Rouge and near it, all the sex shops on Blvd. de Clichy in the Pigalle. It's a lively area at night (okay, that's an understatement when there's dozens of full-sized tourist busses on the streets dumping out tourists for the show!) but it really doesn't have as sleazy a feel to it as you might have expected, given that you can find out all you want to know about leather just from looking in a few shop windows. We never felt unsafe walking in the evening, nor were we ever approached while passing by the peep shows. Hey, it's atmosphere, and after we went down it once, we took to walking the side streets that ran parallel to the boulevard. Much prettier going by all the lovely apartment buildings with their flowery balconies, anyway.
. I am scenting my luggage with the lavender oil that was given to me as a present while we were in Provence! Maybe Rob will take the hint sooner rather than later, since I am now a confirmed Francophile? (Cigalechanta, will you send me the website addy of that French forum you use? I think I may be doing some more research even if I have to sell off my jewelry to finance the next trip...).A few short words about the neighborhood we stayed in at the Place du Clichy. I chose it in part because it looked nice, but also because it was at the edge of 17th arrondisment, which I was interested in. Gourmet magazine had an article in their March 2001 issue called "The Paris of Parisians" and it spoke about the lesser visited neighborhoods of Paris, one of which was the area surrounding Blvd. des Batignolles. This was the next street over from the Regence Hotel. The 17th does indeed have a real, authentic feel to it. Not too many tourists, in fact hardly any at all. But plenty of good little shops (I wished I had made the time to have gotten my haircut at one of the many salons), cafes, an excellent grocery, and a small church on the square. It's a bit rough about the edges compared to the 8th, but this is not to say it has a shabby look to it. It doesn't, but it's not as gentrified as the neighborhoods more on the tourist beat. We liked it a lot and were very glad to be near it. It looks like it's way out of the way, but if you like walking it presents no problem getting to the Champs-Elysees, the Musee d'Orsay, Pont Neuf, etc. We did them all, one of us in heels, as I mentioned!
Further down the street from us on the main drag was the Moulin Rouge and near it, all the sex shops on Blvd. de Clichy in the Pigalle. It's a lively area at night (okay, that's an understatement when there's dozens of full-sized tourist busses on the streets dumping out tourists for the show!) but it really doesn't have as sleazy a feel to it as you might have expected, given that you can find out all you want to know about leather just from looking in a few shop windows. We never felt unsafe walking in the evening, nor were we ever approached while passing by the peep shows. Hey, it's atmosphere, and after we went down it once, we took to walking the side streets that ran parallel to the boulevard. Much prettier going by all the lovely apartment buildings with their flowery balconies, anyway.
Oct 12th, 2004, 01:43 PM
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Dear dln,
I guess Rob had better start packing LOL
This trip sounds so wonderful, I am so glad that you were so happy with everything. So when do we all start helping with the next trip?
Paris with a side trip to the Loire?
I guess Rob had better start packing LOL
This trip sounds so wonderful, I am so glad that you were so happy with everything. So when do we all start helping with the next trip?
Paris with a side trip to the Loire?
Oct 12th, 2004, 02:20 PM
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Saturday found us awake bright and early (well, early enough not to miss breakfast with its 10 am serving cutoff). What a great breakfast at Le Regence! The buffet was set with a carafe of coffee and hot milk and there was orange juice as well. We were served a basket containing one pain au chocolate, two croissants and two rolls. Every morning we did the exact the same thing with that pain au chocolate: split it <i>precisely</i> down the middle so neither of us would get the bigger share. There was a small platter with cold cuts and cheeses, or we could choose cold cereal. Think we did? 
We set out on foot in search of an internet point so we could see if the grandparents were surviving the grandchildren (they were). It cost 2€ for 30 minutes of internet use and that wasn't enough because they had only French keyboards. No qwerty boards. Do you all know that "qwerty" is NOT a word, even though you can say it like a word? I felt like a really nincompoop when my technophile husband mentioned--only in passing, mind you--that the it was a pain to use keyboards that weren't lined up in the Q W E R T Y configuration. Lightbulb went off in head! So allow more time than you think you'll need to write your messages because you'll be hunting all over the place looking for simple symbols like exclamation points. Oh, and the timer goes off a minute early, so if you're typing and getting close to the end of your allotted time, <i>wrap it up quick or you'll lose it.</i> Words to the wise after the fact!
We set out on foot in search of an internet point so we could see if the grandparents were surviving the grandchildren (they were). It cost 2€ for 30 minutes of internet use and that wasn't enough because they had only French keyboards. No qwerty boards. Do you all know that "qwerty" is NOT a word, even though you can say it like a word? I felt like a really nincompoop when my technophile husband mentioned--only in passing, mind you--that the it was a pain to use keyboards that weren't lined up in the Q W E R T Y configuration. Lightbulb went off in head! So allow more time than you think you'll need to write your messages because you'll be hunting all over the place looking for simple symbols like exclamation points. Oh, and the timer goes off a minute early, so if you're typing and getting close to the end of your allotted time, <i>wrap it up quick or you'll lose it.</i> Words to the wise after the fact!
Oct 12th, 2004, 03:18 PM
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dln, I'm loving your report! We're off to Paris and Burgundy next week.
I related to your CDG escalator comment. On arrival once, I started down that tube, heard a commotion behind me and saw a very large woman lose her footing. She was careening toward me and there was nowhere to go. She took me out on her way and we landed in a heap with carryons and purses at the bottom of the escalator!
Can't wait to read more!
I related to your CDG escalator comment. On arrival once, I started down that tube, heard a commotion behind me and saw a very large woman lose her footing. She was careening toward me and there was nowhere to go. She took me out on her way and we landed in a heap with carryons and purses at the bottom of the escalator!
Can't wait to read more!
