Paris - Just Back
 

Hello all - We're just back from 8 days in France, and I'll attempt to get out a trip report. I'm sure I'll have to do this in several steps, but if I don't get started I'll lose all the details!

Overview: We spent most of our time in Paris, with one side trip to Strasbourg. We've traveled to France several times before (including Paris) and were looking forward to a relaxing trip, exploring and getting a little off-the-beaten path.

High-level:
Friday: Paris
Saturday: Train to Strasbourg
Sunday: Return to Paris
Monday: visit the sewers, then the Orangerie
Tuesday: Visit Musee de la Resistance (Jean Moulin), Cartier-Bresson
Wednesday: Walk the Promenade Plantee
Thursday: Bastille market in the morning, walk the Canal St. Martin in the afternoon
Friday: wander around, shop in the Marais

Arrived Friday, May 18th
Happily we saved enough miles to fly business class on Delta. What a huge difference this makes - I think I slept the entire trip (except for when I was drinking champagne on take-off!) We were on one of the new Airbus A380s - just a gorgeous plane, and so big it seems like it will never really take off, but take off it does. RER from CDG to Chatelet, then metro to Arts et Metiers. After getting a little turned around in our jetlagged state, we got headed in the right direction to our apartment (through Vacation in Paris). Our apartment is in the 3rd, on a street that we come to realize is full of wholesale purse stores (and is generally unlovely, but in a good location). The apartment is also on the 4th floor of a building with no elevator - so lots of exercise this vacation!

We decide to just wander around, soaking in some sun and hoping to get ourselves on Paris time. We wander over toward Dehilleran, to scope out any favorite cooking utensils that may have to go home with us this trip. This evening, we have arranged a wine-tasting dinner through O Chateau. A number of years ago, we did a tasting with Olivier through O Chateau. He was lovely, the wine was very good, and since then, he's opened a wine bar in the 1st (or maybe the 2nd), published a book about the French (tongue in cheek) and seems to be making quite a go of it.

After just a bit of a nap, we head off to our wine tasting. Our wine guide is charming and knowledgeable, we stay awake, and enjoy several lovely wines: a champagne from Monmarthe, a Sancerre from Domaine de la Garenne, a Saint-Emilion Grand Cru from Tauzinat L'Hermitage, and a Saint-Chinian from Mas Champart. The food is good if simple: a cold cucumber-buttermilk soup, roast chicken with pasta & a chocolate cake. The rest of the group hails from all over: US (Oregon, WI, PA, TX), Ireland (just over from Dublin for the weekend), South Africa. Nice conversation & all in all a great first evening.

More late!

This is very timely for me. I am going to Paris for 2 weeks for the first time since 1978! I am also staying in a Vacation in Paris rental. I will be reading your report with great interest. Did you buy a single ticket for the RER from the airport or buy a pass on arrival? Thanks.

Susncrg - glad this will be helpful! We bought a single ticket for the RER, and then just purchased carnets throughout the week when we needed metro tickets. I debated whether to get a pass, but just didn't feel like getting a picture, etc. We may well do that another time.

I would also note that we didn't do anything special with our credit cards. I had considered getting one with the chip and pin technology, but ran out of time. What this means is that your regular US credit cards (with the stripe, requiring signature) won't work in the train station machines. We happened to have Euro left from another trip, and just changed the paper to get change for the tickets. (For some reason, the machines @ CDG didn't take bills, only 1 or 2 euro pieces.) We had no problems anywhere else - ATMs were fine, stores, restaurants, etc.

This looks like it's going to be a good report. :-)

I agree with kerouac - looking forward to more. One or two things on each day (especially when one of them is "wander") is my kind of trip!

looking forward to reading more... didn't get to see the sewers but wanted to

Looking forward to the rest of the report as I am going there in Sept. GLad to hear you enjoyed O CHateau wine dinner as we are thinking of going there.

What is the name of the street with the purse shops?

Thanks!

I also stayed in the third arrondissement a few years ago on a street full of wholesale purse establishments. My apartment was on rue Chapon. There are several such streets. None of these outfits is open for retail sales however.

t

Saturday: Woke up and got ourselves ready for our quick trip to Strasbourg. As luck would have it, a friend from college was going to be in Brussels the same week we were in Paris, so we agreed to meet in Strasbourg, where she has some work colleagues as well.

We took the metro to Gare de l'Est. We had already arranged our train tickets, and found where our train would be leaving from easily, so went off to find some coffee and a pastry. Nothing fancy, but I was happy to be where we needed to be with plenty of time. The trip to Strasbourg was fast and easy, and allowed us to catch up on some sleep. We met my friend at the train station. We walked from the station to our hotel & checked in. (We stayed at Hotel Gutenberg, which was lovely, clean & modern.) Many streets in downtown S'berg are pedestrian only, which made for nice wandering. I loved seeing the German architectural influence on this French city - so different from other parts of France we've visited. We were able to visit the Cathedral and just enjoy the nice weather Saturday afternoon. My husband found a simple corkscrew for his collection. (He's settled on this as a reasonable souvenir, as he's not a shopper. It makes for a nice way to remember the trip once we're back home.) I found an Alsatian pastry cookbook for my collection.

For dinner, we went to La Tete du Lard, a place my friend knew that she liked for tarte flambee. It didn't disappoint (and now I have to try and figure out the crust, as it was fabulous). The classic tarte flambee has a very thin crust, topped with creme fraiche (and fromage blanc I believe), onions & bacon (the bacon not as highly smoked as you'd find in the US). So tasty, and we washed it down with a nice Alsatian Gewurztraminer. For dessert, we split a slice of rhubarb pie as well as a dessert tarte flambee with apples & brandy lit on fire. After stopping at a wine bar to wind down with an after dinner digestif, we turned in. (Good thing we walk so much, as too many dinners like that might do me in!)

On the schedule for Sunday: boat cruise on the river and brunch at the modern art museum, then the train back to Paris.

Sara J - Nikki's right - these were shops where they were selling purses wholesale (i.e. by the van full) to other folks who would sell them retail. It took a day or two to figure out the system, but after any number of vans drove down the street, stopped, and filled their van with merchandise, I caught on!

I second what Kerouac said. This looks like a very good report. will definitely stay on board.

bmk

Will read your trip report with great interest ... in particular, your afternoon along Canal St Martin. We are debating whether to take the leisurely boat ride through the locks or walk along the canal as you did!

Keep it coming!

saving for later today :)

Sigh! More, please.

Thanks, everyone, for your interest. On the road this weekend so more to come on Monday!

Will read your trip report with great interest ... in particular, your afternoon along Canal St Martin. We are debating whether to take the leisurely boat ride through the locks or walk along the canal as you did!>>

2010 - i can definitely recommend taking to the water. It's very pleasant on a warm afternoon and the commentary [in english and french] is very interesting.

I'm along for the ride and reading every post with interest.

Very interesting!

Anxious for more...more...more...

Merci... topping

bmk

ttt

Thanks for clearing up about the purses being "wholesale" I missed that word somehow in my excitement about a street filled with purses! LOL

We're waiting!

I'm jumping in to following along with your report. I spent 6 days in Strasbourg last December and loved it, now I'd like to return during another time of year when the weather might be a bit better! :-)

Looking forward to the walk along Canal St. Michael as we did the boat last year and thought how lovely the route was and that it would be worth exploring. FWIW - the boat ride is lovely and going through the locks was so cool! I suggest taking the boat north from Bastile, it is better to go "up" through the lock as the water rushes in as opposed to the water coming out which is what happens when you travel south.

agree about the direction of travel, Debit. also you have the sun behind you which is nicer of you go that way.

Good points about leaving from Bastille, Debit + annhig! That's what we will do! Perhaps we will spend a leisurely afternoon walking back along the canal.

2010 - if you want a nice lunch or even a snack [we had jambon beurre bagettes and a glass of wine each] before you leave, you could do a lot worse than try the little restaurant we found up by the Bastille end of the canal on the other side of the road from the embarkation point, called la Cavetiere.

it's a real locals' place and while we were there, customers were coming in and kissing madame, buying her a drink, - we decided it must be her birthday. it gets a good review on la fourchette and we would go back another time for a proper meal if we were in the area.

when you get to the other end, there is a big park to explore, or you could as you say walk back along the canal. the whole journey takes about 2 1/2 hours, so when we did it in March, there wasn't a lot of day-light left.

another tip - if you are down by the pont neuf where the vedettes go from, pick up one of their brochures each - they have a €4 off voucher in them, but they want one per person to get the discount. and there are on-line vouchers for the trips on the seine with the vedettes:

http://www.vedettesdupontneuf.com/

Ah, such a busy week I can't believe it's taken me this long to get back to my report!

Sunday in Strasbourg: We woke up and had breakfast at the hotel, as we just did't feel like searching around for coffee. The Hotel Gutenberg offers a 11 Euro breakfast, with coffee, juices, pastries, cereals & muesli, cheeses & meats, fruits, yogurts.

We purchases boat tickets the evening before for a mid-morning tour on the river. While it was a lovely day, we didn't get an open boat (they couldn't tell us the evening before which ones would be covered.) Getting to the dock a little early allowed us to get good seats at the windows. The trip took us through Petite France and allowed us to see parts of the city we couldn't have covered in the short time we were there, including Council of Europe & European Parliament buildings, if I'm remembering correctly. The boat takes you through a couple locks, which are fun as they are barely any wider than the boat itself. Lovely views of the beautiful old buildings and the varied architecture.

After our boat ride, we wandered around, making our way to the Museum of Modern Art for a late brunch. Given it was Sunday, not as much was open, except for gift shops catering to tourists. Brunch was tasty (they had both a buffet as well as a la carte choices) and we enjoyed the beautiful sunny weather.

We took the train back to Paris mid-afternoon. As it was the end of a vacation weekend, the train was full. Despite the various tired and crying children, the ride was uneventful and speedy. After getting back to Paris, we decided to walk from Gare de l'Est back to our apartment, taking us through some colorful neighborhoods. It felt good to stretch our legs and work off a little of the tarte flambee from the night before!

Not having any reservations for dinner that evening, we decided to walk over to the Marais and try to get into one of a couple restaurants I'd identified. We ventured out on the early side, around 8, in hopes that would help our case. Cafe Breizh was a no-go, as the earliest they could get us in was 9:30. Next up was Cafe des Musees. We did get a table, after promising we'd be done by 9:30 (no problem). The fixed price menu was quite the deal, at 24 Euro for entree, plat & dessert. For the entree, they offered a salad with mixed greens, corn, fried chicken skin (which sounds better in French, but was incredibly good) along with a fish tarte. The main course was sweetbreads with roasted root vegetables. This was very good, but also a huge portion (more on how I handled that later)! For dessert, they served what they called Bar Breton, which was a prune tarte. The tarte was fantastic & flaky. After having not finished my sweetbreads, I asked (in French) if there was any way I could take the rest with me. I've never tried that, and figured it was a long shot. The server though jokingly said no, but I interpreted it as he would box it up for me. My husband was sceptical and was sure the dinner was gone for good. Sure enough though, at the end of the meal, he brought my leftovers out in a nice plastic container. They made for a good lunch later in the week... A Paris first - a to-go box! Good efficient service, nice ambience - definitely recommended.

We walked back to our apartment, content & a litte tired. The jet lag was hitting us both, so we stayed up later than usual, which meant of course getting up later than usual too the next day. I guess that's the point of vacations! On the agenda for Monday: visiting the sewers & a museum, depending on the weather.

How necessary is it to make restaurant reservations for dinner? We will be in Paris from July 29 through August 4, & I haven't made any reservations yet. It's really difficult to predict where & what time we would want to eat on any given night. I don't like to make reservations for dinner while on vacation; prefer to decide spontaneously that day where we want to eat. Is this a mistake in Paris? We never had reservations in Barcelona or Prague & it wasn't a problem.

If you are not going for high end gastronomic meals, there is no need to make a restaurant reservation in Paris. We locals never do, and if we get turned away from a place from time to time, we just go somewhere else -- no lack of possibilities in Paris, no matter what neighborhood you are in.

kerouac, thanks for your helpful reply. I feel better now about not havinig reservations.

I agree with Kerouac, and would second having a back-up plan. When we haven't had reservations, we almost always get in, but as above, it helped that I knew of another option. (Wandering around and not quite being sure what we want or where to go leads to crankiness for us!)

Since we were usually dead tired by the time we became hungry, the first open place we came to was often where we ate!

One thing that has always helped me is that I am an early riser and basically an early doer of everything. So I am also among the first people to eat in the evening -- around 7pm or 7:30, when you have your pick of just about anywhere. Yet even with friends who eat later, or after a movie or play, we have never had trouble finding an acceptable meal.

We often didn't have reservations anywhere either, and as long as you don't mind waiting a little, you can usually get into most places. Lunch time is a good time to go to places that might be too crowded at dinner time also. Like someone already said, it's good to have a list of a few restaurants near each other that are good in case you can't get in somewhere.

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