gruezi

This is my first trip report so please be gentle with me as it’s taken me a while to get some “noive” as the Lion said…I’m not so good about remembering details of prices for food, cabs etc. and I apologize esp. since this trip happened almost two months ago. If I’ve quoted a price or distance, please don’t hold me to it. I am getting to be a better record keeper as I read the amazing trip reports other Fodorites write.

About us:

We are US ex-pats from the NYC area living in Zurich. My daughter has had a bit of a roller-coaster year moving mid-year of 10th grade. She had to give up a lot to come to Switzerland, and even though we knew what she would gain, at 16 that’s hard to appreciate at first. We had some bumpy days, but she’s now in 11th grade and doing really well and we wanted to do something special for her 17th birthday, so we decided to give her a trip to Paris. Lucky me, that she needed someone to go along Her dad also sweetly provided an envelope with some Euros for spending money. Her school schedule is pretty intense, so she can’t miss that many days, and so I decided we’d leave early Friday morning, which was a school holiday, and return on Monday giving us a nice long weekend and only one day of missed classes for her.

I’ve been to Paris once before – I was 23 and traveled alone. I had a fantastic experience and fell in love with this exciting city, but never got to one art museum the whole week. Funny, because as an adult I can’t see enough art! My daughter is way ahead of me. She loves history, is studying art history this year in school, and has traveled to London, Rome, Florence, Venice, Vienna and she is a great and knowledgeable companion in a museum. (BTW, she did thank my husband a couple of months ago for “making me move to Europe, even if I was a real brat about it at first.”)

Of course, there is a lot more to Paris than museums – especially when you are 17. My daughter had told me that a number of her international school friends had found Paris to be a “let down”. I just couldn’t believe this and fortunately she was skeptical too! I was bound and determined that she would fall in love with Paris just as I had so many years before. Her art history teacher has an apt. in Paris and is a bit of an expert, so my daughter asked her for recommendations on which museums to see, where to eat, etc.

My daughter really only was determined to do 3 things: visit the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre and eat plenty of steak frites. Simple enough – I could make that happen. Of course, I read and obsessed for weeks planning the perfect itinerary complete with art, dining, shopping, churches, perfect walks, and lots of wonderful mother-daughter bonding. It was hard to fit everything into our 3.5 days and some brutal cuts had to be made!

About the language thing: We speak only a few phrases of French (learned on the plane) and a little German. Well, and I think we’re pretty good with English



Planning:

So, first thing I did after booking a flight on Swiss (really cheap fares and flying time of around an hour or so) was to come to Fodor’s and do some research. Let me just take a minute here to say a big thank you to all the Francophiles who helped me in my planning through their trip reports and other posts!

Last time I was in Paris I stayed in the 1st but I have been curious about the left bank ever since. I decided on the 6th and based on information here, and in my EW Top Ten Paris guidebook, chose the Hotel D’Aubusson. The appeal of this hotel was location and the jazz bar. My daughter is a musician and loves jazz. I booked some sort of special package (Romantic Weekend or something) that included a superior room, breakfast, afternoon tea, and 2 Louvre tickets for around 500 USD per night. I had no idea what to expect, as I’ve not been to a Paris hotel in many years, but for the price I thought it would be special – which is what I wanted as this was a really special weekend with this darling child who will leave me for college in just another short 1.5 years…(sorry to digress, please bear with my sentimental mother stuff if you can…there will likely be more before I’m done here).

Our flights were non-refundable and a few weeks before our departure I started reading Kerouac’s updates on the transit strike. (Special thanks to Kerouac for all his great Paris reporting and suggestions!) Well, as a former New Yorker I’ve survived some transit strikes, so I wasn’t too worried – at first…. Then, the information just kept looking worse, and a few days before we had to make a decision on losing the airfare but saving the hotel costs. Bottom line, this child of mine is not all that available, and I wasn’t sure when I could steal her away to Paris again. We decided to forge ahead, damn the torpedoes!


On to the City of Light:
Friday

I was too excited to sleep the night before we left.☺ We were up at 5 am and off to Paris on Friday, Nov. 16th – the transit strike was in full swing and so our plan was to take a taxi to our hotel. We landed at CDG at around 9 am and went to baggage claim. We quickly retrieved my daughter’s bag, my larger bag and then watched the carousel go round and round and round, but my second bag (included just in case we did some shopping) never arrived. It wasn’t very full, but I did have some necessities in there. Deja vu for me, as the last, and only other time I was in Paris, I also had luggage problems and I’ve only ever lost luggage now twice in my life – both times Paris – next time I better do carry-on! Finally, we accepted the bag wasn’t going to miraculously appear on the carousel no matter how hard we wished it would, and so registered a claim, were told the bag was still in Zurich, would arrive that afternoon, and be delivered to our hotel. “Really? Even with the transit strike?” “Oui!”

After waiting patiently in line with other congenial travelers for a taxi, we had a long, but otherwise pleasant ride, in lots of traffic, to our hotel. I think it took about 1.5 hours. I thought that was not a big deal since we had such an early flight, even with the lost luggage and traffic, it was still before noon.

Still, I was impatient to be there and get going!!! Zzzzzzzz….My daughter napped on the way. Teenagers – gotta love their ability to sleep in any situation. Well, in fairness, my husband also has really refined that ability.

Side Note on International Relations:

For those that wonder about the language barriers and such, I always gave the cabbies a piece of paper with our destination written on it and I carried the hotel’s business card with me so that I didn’t have to actually say where we wanted to go at any point since I am terrible at French pronunciation. I have found this works well in a foreign city. And we do a lot of Bon Jours and Mercis (or whatever the local language is) to be polite and well-behaved Americans abroad. In fact, we consider ourselves diplomats on a very, very small scale to Europe, and so put our best face and manners forward. The French were wonderful to us during our weekend, as have the Swiss been all year…

Arrival and on to “tourist” Lunch:

On arrival our room was not yet ready, so we checked our luggage at the Hotel D’Aubusson, first impressions slightly underwhelming, but desk staff helpful and courteous. Mentioned the lost luggage delivery and they made note of it. Then we headed out to grab some lunch before our 1 pm Louvre tour.

We had originally booked our Louvre tour for 4 pm to have the whole Friday evening there, but with the strike we were hearing about early museum closings so we tweaked the plan a little. The weather was cold but sunny (rain had been predicted for the whole weekend so we were feeling lucky) and we had a pleasant walk over the Seine and toward the Louvre, with food in mind, but no restaurant plan and not a ton of time.

We ended up at the kind of place wise Fodorites know better than to eat at – you know the plastic laminated menus with photos of the food – but such is the traveler’s life sometimes. We had some really bad food but, thankfully, the company and conversation was priceless since we paid almost 40 Euros for the meal…but….WE WERE IN PARIS!!! (My ever-enthusiastic daughter repeated this line many times in the next few days with glee in her voice and a brilliant smile on her face – bless her soul.)

I admit here and now, the poor restaurant planning on this trip was my own darn fault and (foodies be warned!) the bad restaurants/food theme will continue here, I’m very, very sorry to say. Yes, I did bring along a printout I had meticulously compiled from this website of recommended restaurants, as well as my ever faithful Eyewitness Paris book with listings of restaurants by neighborhood, but somehow I haven’t quite mastered the art of finding the right restaurant, in the right place, at the right time (you know, when you are hungry, and they are open and serving).

The Louvre:
Friday

Honestly, I’m confessing right now that I had this really ignorant mental picture of the Louvre that couldn’t have been more wrong. I just pictured huge, dark, somewhat ugly and filled with boring “old master” kind of stuff. (Apologies to those that like that sort of thing…) I was only going to the Louvre “for my daughter”…as I was far more interested in the Rodin and the D’Orsay… Well, I couldn’t have been proved any more wrong…don’t you just love when that happens?

I splurged (after all this is part of her education!) and booked a private Paris Muse Louvre Highlights tour. A few Fodorites had recommended this tour, and it was definitely perfect for us. It was expensive, and for a tiny bit more, it was private. I sprang for the private tour, as I knew my daughter would want to ask questions and see certain things, and I wanted her to have that flexibility and not be self-conscious. I don’t think it is necessary to go for the private, as they keep their groups pretty small, but it made this experience really special for us and certainly got our trip off to a really wonderful start. I asked in advance for a native English speaker if possible, as we have had trouble sometimes with tours where we cannot understand the very heavy accents of the guide esp. in a crowded museum environment. I must say, Paris Muse was a pleasure to work with from start to finish and we had a really lovely American-born guide who was a doctoral candidate (not in art or history but perhaps French lit?) and knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and best of all, a nice role model for my daughter.

www.parismuse.com


Well, I will say it right now. The Louvre had us at hello or should I say at the I. M. Pei pyramid. We spent an amazing few hours here seeing many highlights I previously knew nothing about, but my daughter had seen before in her school textbooks.

My favorite part was when we came to Hammurabi’s stone and my daughter looked at the guide with astonishment and said, “Oh my God! is that the REAL one?” “Yes, it is” “Oh my gosh, Mom, I’ve been hearing about this since, like, 6th grade – this is so cool.” (Well, shhhhhhh, but I’d never even heard of Hammurabi’s stone before, but she was right it was, indeed, cool.)

And on and on the afternoon went! We both were pretty speechless when we got a look at the side of Hermaphrodite that they never show in the photos. Actually, it was a bit creepy up close and personal! The Mona Lisa was far better than I expected, and a little bit less than she expected. She went crazy for the Winged Victory and we both loved those enormous ancient stone horses that I should now know the proper name of, and believe me a certain offspring of mine would be very disappointed that I still don’t, as she told me all about them a few times. Anyway, forgive my ongoing ignorance, but they too, were really cool.

The Venus de Milo was the only place where we felt it was annoyingly crowded. Lot’s of Asian tourists were literally jogging through the museum in search of various better-known exhibits and taking photos of themselves in front of them. Venus was a very popular photo op. In retrospect, it was funny, but at the time I didn’t like the pushing and shoving in such an amazing place that it almost feels like being in a church.

Did I mention the scale and architecture of the Louvre itself? Wonderful. And, not dark or foreboding at all. Well, I don’t want to go on and on any longer, (well, actually I do, but I think you get the point) but do go and enjoy this Wonder when in Paris.

Next installment: Notre Dame – not so exciting after the Louvre? 2 heathens confer in the pews…

Ps. Would anyone like to share how to use the bold and italics? Merci…

gruezi

Fodorite018

Great start! Can't wait for the rest of it I too moved in 10th grade, so can relate...although we didn't move anywhere near as interesting, lol!

lucy_d

gruezi, I love mother-daughter trip reports, and yours is one I am anxiously looking forward to reading.

What a lucky girl your daughter is to have such a special birthday weekend. I can tell from your post how lovingly you planned the trip.

Please continue!!

janisj

Wonderful report! Looking forward to reading more. Your daughter has one terrific mom.

as for the <b>Bold</b> and <i>italics</i> and <u>underline</u> -- without any spaces, type &lt; B &gt; before, and &lt; /B &gt; after what you want <b>BOLD</b>,

Or (again w/o spaces) &lt; i &gt; &lt; /i &gt; for <i>italic</i>, or &lt; u&gt; &lt;/u &gt; for <u>underline</u>, or &lt; red&gt; &lt; / red &gt; for <font color="red"> red
</font> and so on

swisshiker

Gruezi gruezi This is a lovely report you've written. I am so jealous that you can just hop on over to Paris for a weekend jaunt!

I love your daughter's enthusiasm! I remember taking my children when they had just finished taking an art history class in high school. They, too, were amazed at seeing &quot;the real deal.&quot;

I'll be right here waiting for the next installment!

Oh, and to help out with bold and italics, it's easy.

You use the &lt; then an i for italic or b for bold, then &gt;

Then you type your text.

To discontinue the bold or italic, use &lt; then / then the i or b and then the final &gt;

sunnyflorida

Wonderful so far. I am taking my 17 yo to Paris and Rome for her high school graduation. I can't wait to read more.

WillTravel

I'm looking forward to reading this! We have three nights coming up in Paris, for my 16-year-old daughter and me. We also went last year, and it was mostly good, but I know she felt Paris a little more &quot;difficult&quot; than some other cities she's visited. This was both in terms of the language (she wanted to speak only French there and it was tough), and the size of Paris. Nonetheless, she chose Paris to revisit (or actually we mutually agreed to return to Paris and she was happy with it). I can imagine that an expat teenage girl like your daughter might find some aspects of being away from her home country quite difficult, no matter how great the opportunity is.

Toucan2

Wonderful report. Can't wait to read more.

tod

gruezi - You have done a sterling job on your report so far.....nothing to fear from us fellow Fodorites!

Yes, it was a pity about your first resto choice and I was a little surprised you did not know about the Louvre Food Court - this would have been perfect for you, but now you know for next time!

Looking forward to more soon.

Dejais

As a fellow mother-daughter traveler, I must say I love your trip report. Anxiously awaiting your next installment.

Canada_V

As a mother with young sons, and no plans to ever end up with a teenage daughter thanks for letting me eavesdrop into your world... I'm really enjoying your style and detail/anecdote/feelings blend!

gruezi

Dear Fodor friends,

Thank you so very much for your many positive comments on my report. You inspire me to carry on.

Thanks for helping me on the type formatting question - I'm going to try it the next post.

It has been really nice &quot;reliving&quot; our weekend through the words I've written here. It was a very special time for us, and I appreciate your kind words as I share with you. Those with daughters, or mothers!, know that these relationships are complex and require lots of attention and care. Well, I think so anyway. But so worth it, too...

gruezi

gruezi

<b>Notre Dame</b>

After we left the Louvre on a cloud of excitement, we still had a few hours until dinner so we took a walk toward Notre Dame and Ste. Chapelle. My daughter had recently studied both churches in her art history class and was anxious to get a look. It was a pretty quick walk to ND and we walked in and looked about. It was full of tourists, but still reasonably quiet and sacred-feeling. We looked about a bit, and my daughter explained the period of the church to me as well as what the proper name was for the various windows and the vaulted ceiling. I smile because I am so happy for her that she has had the opportunity to study art history while she is living in Europe. She is pretty mature and actually does “get” how amazing and special this is.

After about 3 or 4 minutes gazing about the interior of ND, we kind of looked at each other like “well, what should we do now?” I think we were missing the wonderful commentary of our Louvre tour guide and I hadn’t really brought a good enough guidebook for self-exploring churches and museums. Plus, I guess I should mention we have been inside a lot of churches in the past year since we arrived in Europe, so maybe the grandeur was starting to lose its power over us.

So, for lack of a better plan, I said, “let’s have a seat” which we did. Well, we are Catholic (sort of) but not currently practicing, so it felt a little fake to kneel and say a prayer or light a candle like I would have done years ago. On the other hand, we were in one of the world’s most famous churches so we felt we should be in some kind of spiritual state. Don’t get me wrong, this is an impressive building, but we just didn’t feel much of anything at that moment.

After a quiet minute or two (where I said my own kind of mother’s prayer for a good weekend and health and happiness for my daughter) I said, “you want to go?” “yup!” and so we did. Don’t worry – more positive observations on ND later…

We had a little powow outside ND and decided that since we were in the neighborhood, we should go see Ste. Chapelle. Just as we got there, they were putting up signs announcing their early closure due to the transit strike, so we couldn’t go in. Probably just as well, as we were maybe just a bit too church-jaded at the moment.

What next? We had a 7:30 dinner reservation and we were getting tired, so it was time to head back to our hotel, have tea, get settled, showered and ready for our first night in this magnificent city.

We walked back to Hotel D’Aubusson and before we were shown to our room stopped in the parlor for our complimentary tea. The parlor has a large fireplace and a very small fire was burning. We waited and waited for someone to serve tea and eventually someone did bring tea, hot chocolte, and a couple of cookies. We both noticed the parlor furniture was really soiled, so I was getting a bit nervous about the quality of the room. Eventually, we headed up to room 405 (I think) which was a bit dark and just shy of dingy, but clean, spacious and with a large bathroom complete with a huge selection of Hermes amenities. There was a basket of fruit and note welcoming us. I was hoping for something a bit more charming, so was a bit let down, but my wiser daughter kept saying, “mom, it’s fine – we’re going to have a great time and we’re only sleeping here anyway…” She’s so smart. But I will confess here that part of me kept thinking “so this is what $500 gets you in Paris…” We unpacked a bit, showered and got ready for dinner.

<b>Dinner at Les Ombres with Views of the Twinkling Eiffel Tower</b>

I always think when you travel somewhere new, the first day can really set the tone. So I really wanted to dine someplace special the first night out. I had carefully researched restaurants with a view of the Eiffel Tower and had finally decided on Les Ombres. The HD concierge had reserved a few days prior for us and placed a written confirmation in our room. (They made a point of doing this for everything we asked for help on, and I must say they were the most pleasant and thorough concierge team I’ve experienced so far in a European city.) From what I later learned, I think the reason we were able to get this reservation with very short notice was because of the transit strike keeping lots of Parisians and tourists home. There is a silver lining to every cloud!

On the way out to dinner, the concierge told me they had called the airline to locate my bag – I had not asked them to do this! – and that they were still working on it being delivered. Well, I think that is really good service! I started getting ready to spread some love with my euros…

So, we set off on foot toward the Musee D’Orsay and Les Ombres and after a 15 or 20 minute walk arrived at the museum only to find neither a restaurant sign nor an unlocked entrance. We finally located an entrance for a restaurant around the block and in our very poor French said we had a reservation at the museum restaurant. We were told that the restaurant had a private party that night. “You mean you cannot honor our reservation?” “non”… all communicated in very polite tones with dramatic hand gestures. “Parlez vous Anglais?” “non”…. “Sprechen Sie Deutsch?” “Ja, ein bisschen”… So in my really bad German I explained our situation, they very generously called our hotel concierge who explained to them in French that we were to be at Les Ombres at the Musee du Quai Branly <i>not</i> the Musee D’Orsay, which they explained to us and then directed us to where we <i>might</i> find a cab although they didn’t seem too hopeful that we actually <i>would</i>. They were extremely gracious and we merci’d them to death…and as we headed to find a cab talked about how helpful, courteous and nice all the French had been to us so far, and how we don’t understand why they get such a bum rap…

Well, by now we were already late for our reservation, had very tired feet, were a little cold, tired and hungry. The type A in me was getting worried because if this was like NYC I imagined they would give up our restaurant reservation if we were more than 15 or 20 minutes too late. I called the hotel concierge and asked them to phone ahead to the restaurant for us and let them know we definitely were coming, but we’d be a bit longer.

We headed in the general direction of the Musee du Quai Branly, all the while looking for a cab. My daughter was quite proud when she pounced on a cab just as it let another party out. I handed over the address and we were dropped off in less than 10 minutes. But, again, no sign for the restaurant and all the museum doors were locked! The museum grounds were actually all lit up with some type of garden light exhibit and looked very cool but not a single solitary sole was in sight. By now I am getting frustrated, and trying to keep my cool, but sort of tired of the whole quest. Wise daughter, “mom, WE’RE IN PARIS!!! Don’t worry, it will be fine.” And, well you know, she was right. (Again.)

Finally found the entrance, headed upstairs by elevator, shown to a very nice table with a very up close and personal view of the Eiffel tower that had just begun its hourly 10 minute twinkling just for our grand entrance. Pure magic. Ordered champagne and toasted to ourselves, our trip, and, of course, to Paris.

A lovely dinner followed – sorry I just don’t remember what I ate (big Fodor demerit to me!) - with friendly, English-speaking service. We sat for the next hourly Eiffel twinkling and my daughter went out on the terrace and took 10 billion photos.

I think with 2 glasses of champagne, appetizers and entr&eacute;e, but no dessert or coffee it came to 140 Euros. I’m pretty spoiled about food I think, and probably a bit picky, so I thought the food was very good but not unbelievable. I think my daughter felt the same way. It was worth it to us for the view alone which I can’t imagine being any better. The restaurant was never more than ½ full all evening and I attribute this to the strike as I had read these were “the hottest tables in town” ….Yes, really, but I can’t remember where I read that…

After dinner we walked over to the Eiffel Tower and there was just about no one there – no lines at all – although the cars up were still running. We had this wonder to ourselves and we felt so lucky.

Another confession…I don’t love heights, but I used to go up the WTC and the Empire State building so I hadn’t really made a decision about the ET, but now that I was there I just could absolutely not imagine going up there at all, but I didn’t want to say that.

I had never actually been right under the Eiffel Tower during my first trip to Paris and the architecture really took my breath away. My daughter was as in awe as I was. “Do you want to go up, sweetie?” “I don’t know Mom, what do you think?” “If you want to go I’ll go with you” “I don’t know Mom – maybe tomorrow?” “Okay, no problem” Phewwww… that was a close one. No way did I want to go up there!!

Later, “do you think we’ll go up this weekend?” “I don’t know Mom, that was a lot scarier looking than I expected…” “Okay, we’ll see.” “Maybe when we come back to Paris with Dad and sister” Phewwww… sounds good to me… I know her sister does not like heights and definitely would not go up there either. She’ll have to go with her Dad.

Took about 10 billion more pictures of ourselves under the Tower, smiled and laughed a ton, stood on benches to get better shots, etc. etc. We were pretty impressed.
(Note about the heights… Well, all weekend I thought about getting up the “noive” to go up that tower but I just couldn’t see myself doing it. I’ve been working on my heights thing a lot and have made some progress and maybe someday I will be brave enough. I hope so…)

We were just too over the moon to head back to the hotel so we walked back along the Seine watching the many boat cruises and talking about our day, our plans for the next few days, life, her future, our move to Switzerland, friends back home, and on and on….

Back at the hotel the jazz bar was in full bloom, “do you want to sit for a while?” “No, Mom, I’m really tired. Is it okay if we go to bed?” “Yup”

Good news from the concierge… Your bag has been delivered and is in your room! Hurrah!

Oh, my! the Hotel D’Aubusson does a really beautiful turndown service with a nice note, a sweet treat, the weather report for morning and the most absolutely wonderful linens. HD was starting to grow on me.

Daughter rang for the wakeup call, read a few pages of the Da Vinci Code she had bought at the airport, and fell fast asleep. I did my last look over of tomorrow’s plans and went off to sleep. And visions of a twinkling tower danced in our heads…

<b>Up Next: D’Orsay, Galleries Lafayette, Laduree, and PMS</b>

gruezi

I don't know why the edit function is not working for me... This was supposed to come after the ET...


&quot;Mom, I just can't believe anyone would say Paris is a letdown!&quot;

&quot;Me neither it was love at first sight for me.&quot;

&quot;I really love it here too - it's way better than I even thought&quot;

&quot;Really?&quot;

&quot;really, mom.&quot;


Phewwww.... my work is done, and my heart is full...

Fodorite018

gruezi--Your report really makes me smile. Last summer DD (16), myself and my mother went to France. My mother had never been overseas before. So I can relate about how mother/daughter trips can be Very good, but you never quite know. BTW, we celebrated my mothers bday at the ET and had dinner up there. If you get the chance, definitely go all the way up. I don't care for heights either, but for some reason that didn't bother me.

Sally30

What a great trip report! I would have loved to have gone to Europe with my mother when I was in high school. I did take two mother/daughter trips with my mom after college and loved both. The one to paris was particularly special. Now that I have a baby, not sure when we'll do it again as mom is my #1 babysitter to help out my husband when I'm away. Can't wait to finish the rest of the report. Your daughter sounds wonderful too.

klondike

Am loving your report, greuzi!

I have fantastic memories of 2 trips taken with my sister and adult parents driving through Europe for 6-8 wks. That was almost 30 years ago and we still talk and laugh about it...even the yucky moments have become favorites.

In hopes that our two sons will feel the same, my husband and I are foregoing our usual September ramble and have to resort to August travel -ugh-due to university constraints. But we feel the family experiece will far outweigh the inconveniences.

Continuez, svp!

swisshiker

&quot;<i> I started getting ready to spread some love with my euros.</i>&quot;

Your trip sounds absolutely charming, gruezi. Your daughter sounds like a delightful teenager, so patient and grateful for this opportunity to travel with mother.

amyb

I've been to Paris 4 times before, and am going again in April, and this is one of those trip reports that just gets me all excited for that trip. Your enthusiasm is actually palpable. Thank you for sharing!

Heavens

Great trip report. Thanks for sharing your lovely time...