If you buy the L'Indispensable Le Petit Parisien, do get the one with all 3 plans. It makes it simple to have them all in the one guide. I carry it, along with one of the metro/bus maps that you pick up at a metro station, and that does it all. They are expensive from Amazon. You can pick them up at most any tabac in Paris. Easy to spot with the dark blue background, red stripe L'Indispensable and white lettering.

I think either bus/metro travel and crowds depends on the time of the day, too. Some routes have areas that are always a problem..like the #69 along the eastern part of 7th..always construction and the bus squeezes through many areas. I can get on the #42 and be at Pl. de la Concorde, Madeleine or Opera in no time at all.

a bientot..

Joan

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CHRISTMAS DINING IN NEARBY 7th

I have called a number of places..is this great..
Au Bon Accueil will be serving both the 24th and the 25th..set menu 60 euros
liktotravel..great for you..just down the street on Monttessuy #14..I would call ASAP..use the cheap 1010 dialing numbers (0) 1 47 05 46 11 or email me with info and I will make it for you.

Thoumieux will decide next week (0) 1 47 05 49 75 website www.thoumieux.com
http://s271.photobucket.com/albums/j...t=420d14b6.pbw

a bientot...

Joan

I previewed an apartment at noon and then walked over to Bosquet..#73 Bosquet, Ristorante Tina. Cute little place, friendly people. They had moules on the menu..will have to return!

Here are a couple pics..sorry, I forgot to take the one until I had eaten half of it!!
http://s271.photobucket.com/albums/j...t=c55fb36c.pbw

a bientot....

Joan

Joan,

Sharing your photos, daily excursions, and information is wonderful~especially to those of us who are making plans for Paris. Thank so much!!

I contacted La Riboto de Taven and booked 2 nights per your recommendation. I mentioned your name and they recognized you immediately.

We will be in Paris the last week of June and want to make lunch reservations at Le Cinq. How long in advance must I make them?


Again...Merci

plufmud,

You will enjoy Riboto along with both Christine and Philippe. Their grounds are beautiful. Such a great area. From there, you can wait until all the day tourists have gone, then go to the Les Baux tourist area.

Many great areas to explore from there. Great dining. Do plan to have a meal at Riboto..Jean-Pierre (Christine's brother) is an excellent chef.

I'm sure you will be driving..if so, take the D99 and do not turn where it goes into St. Remy..continue on to the D27..you will see it on your map..kind of watch for it..there will be a Les Baux sign. You will enjoy the drive..as you get into the Alpilles there are places to stop and look and to take pictures...A good market in St. Remy..Wed., I think. A nice market.Go to Maussane etc...beautiful area, with clean, clean air. Another world..very laid back! Wonderful people.

a bientot...

Joan

GraceCO and two adult sons are leaving today and will arrive in the morning. I will be following their flight. Shuttle-Inter is meeting their flight.

I told Grace that I always arrive in the morning and go to Les Cocottes for lunch on arrival day. She will be a couple blocks away from me. We will meet at Les Cocottes at noon! It is almost across the street from me.

We have not met before. I helped her with some Paris trip plans in Sept. and we have kept in touch. Now we will meet one another! Sorry that she will not be able to make it to our little GTG on the 10th. She will be leaving on the 8th.

We do have plans for Sat. to go to l'Obe in the Crillon for lunch and then perhaps on over to the Bar Vendome for whatever..

Betty1 arrives on Friday and will be staying with me.

a bientot....

Joan

shuttle-inter just emailed me that they did, indeed, meet the Stantons and that they were on their way. She would meet me at Les Cocottes for lunch about noon!!

Pictures later.

a bientot..

Joan

I walked over to Les Cocottes to get a table near the door to see Grace when she arrived. I did not notice the people outside until Grace spoke my name. She and 2 sons were there ahead of me.

Their apt. was not ready for them, so they had gone to the PP Welcome Center and left their luggage. So, we had a nice leisurely lunch until time for them to go back to office and meet with their greeter and go to their apartment. I'm sure they are getting all settled in now.

We had a nice lunch and visited about many things.

a bientot...

Joan

I went to Petite Sud Ouest for dinner last night. It was not a nice evening..rainy and chilly. Nice people there.

I walked down to Florent's this morning for breakfast. I always forget to take a picture of it. I remembered this morning.http://s271.photobucket.com/albums/j...t=4bba1e45.pbw

I will wath Betty's flights today to see if she makes all connections...Greenvlle/PHL/CDG. Most say that PHL is no a good place to fly from...can't say many that are good!

a bientot...

Joan

Florent's breakfast looks delicious! Today is a beautiful day in NJ (65 degrees in the morning) after a night of horrible rain and big winds. Well, that's the nicest thing going on today so far. I'd rather be in Paris.

-Roberta

RobertaL:

Joan and I are having lunch at Violon d'Ingres a week from tomorrow. Join us! 1 P.M.

Hi Joan, Sorry to hear it has been rainy & chilly. Did you see Kerouac's photos of the Christmas lights? Absolutely wonderful! He even did a little video showing the lights falling from the trees like snow.
I can take cold but my DH abhors any weather less than 26C. Guess I'll have to grab some gal friends and we can do a little pre-Christmas Paris one year!

Thanks for the invite, I'd be there if I could. I will return to Paris for sure (and probably run into you & Joan).

-Roberta

Phil has a good idea Roberta..you have plenty of time!!

Joan

sigh...

Enjoying your Part II, Joan.

I, too, always use the Middleditch Paris Map Guide, which is great.
But wish I had known about those "Bus Guides" when I was in Paris in October. I muddled through with the thing they give you at the Metro Station, but that wasn't easy. Oh, well, next time I'll know! I REALLY liked using the buses, though.

Catch up..

Betty 1 did arrive. FlightView gives you runway landing time and US Air does not give arrival info until 20 min or so after the plane is at gate..some 1/2 hr. to 45 min after landing.Shuttle-Inter was right there for her.

I was changing apts. and not moving til 1:00 so Betty left her luggage at welcome center and came to my apt. We went to Cafe Constant for lunch, picked up my luggage and went by welcome center for her luggage and greeter for move to other apt. All within 2 blocks of one another. Worked out well.

We got settled in. She made a call and made arrangements to preview a place that she is renting for her group in the spring.

Decided to check where we might go fo dinner. I found that my phone gave a funny message when dialing out..call failed..call barred. I sent an email to Roam-Simple. What great people they are. Immediate response. Somthing wrong with Orange fr. Would be fixed within 12 hrs.I sent another saying it was Friday and they wer probably closed over the weekend. Another quick response that the tech support were there and would take care of it. I had incoming calls. Will check it soon to see if fixed.They are good people!

We went to Auberge Bressane for dinner. I forgot to take pictures!!We went early, 7:30 so Betty could get to bed early!
It was good to do so as it was an elbow to elbow seating and the reserved table next to us was not filled til after we had finished. We had a good dinner. I had a hen pheasant main and dessert. Betty had chicken with raisins and don't remeber what else.

Weather is cooler, as it should be!

Today we will meet with GraceCo and go to l'Obe at the Crillon and then on over to the Ritz Bar Vendome. We will do some Christmas sight seeing in the area. Much to see around the area.

a bientot...

Joan

We had a good day today. It rained rather hard early. We went nearby for our cafe creme, Croissant and baguette. We returned home and did some things. My cell is only receiving calls. Roam Simple is SO good..immediate response. Orange Fr has some tower problems..affect some and not others. Betty has a Roam Simple sim and hers is fine. GraceCO has the same problem that I have..c'est la vie!

We met GraceCo at the bus stop only to find a #42 manifestation..so we walked to Ecole Militaire and took the metro. We spent some time in the Crillon boutique and looked at their beautiful decorations..the headed back to l'Obe for lunch. I think we all did enjoy! We spent quite a bit of time there. We the walked over to the Ritz and to the Bar Vendome. It was quite crowded. The hostess did recognize me and said she was making an 'exception' and seaed the 3 of us at a nice round table backing up to the patio windows. Grace and I had a glass of champagne. Betty cafe. We visited for some time, wandered back to Hemingway and Ritz Bar and then back to bus stop in front of Crillon to check on #42 bus. It would arrive in 6 minutes.It did take a deviation route due to the marche. I never saw so many tour buses! We arrived home just about dark.

Some pictures of our day...

http://tinyurl.com/ydhvdf8

I'm guessing that lunch was as fantastic as it looked? The presentation made my mouth water, especially the pumpkin soup...wow! Was that creme fraiche in the center?

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. We had snow in NJ for several hours today. Didn't stick too much to the pavement, my idea of a perfect snowfall.
-Roberta

We had a busy day today..wlaked up to rue Cler for petite dejeuner, checked out Davoli and then went to Ecole Militaire for Betty to get her Navigo and to get mine loaded for next week.

We then took the Metro to the Marais for an exhibition at Carnavalet Museum on the French Revolution. Betty taught the subject so it was more interesting to her than to me, most likely.

We decided to take the bus to St. Germain, but then got off at BHV for Betty to buy a hair curler of some sort. Caught the bus again for St. Germain.

It was lunch time and we had moules/frites. We then walked to the St. Germain Marche (mall) where I showed her the nice grocery store in there. We then walked down to the St. Germain Christmas Marche. We thought we would take the 87 bus back home but ended up taking the metro. It was raining quite hard when we arrived, so stopped in the corner brasserie for a cup of tea before coming hme.

She looked for the picture she had for her Navigo, but decided that she had lost it. She is on her way now down to Ecole Militaire to the picture machine and will stop at a tabac and pick up a 3 plan Le Petite Parisien.

Here is lunch: http://tinyurl.com/ygby77n

a bientot...

Joan