Paris ?'s
 

Thanks so much for all the help everyone has given whenever I've posed a ? on this forum. So, here I go again. I will be returning to Paris for the 3rd time this year next month. Yes, Paris and this Forum have become my drugs of choice. This time I will not be with husband and/or child, but with 2 women friends. We will be staying in an apt. in the 6th with wi-fi. Should we bring a laptop? Is it worth the hassle? I'm thinking it would help in getting information/recommendations from Fodors (rather then me printing tons of stuff and schlepping it) and email from home. Next...I'm looking into getting Cingular international for when I'm away, but I'm not sure if my friends will be able to do so on their phones/carrier. Should we all just get phone cards from the tabac? We won't be together 24/7 but would like to be able to be in touch. I've not been to Jim Haynes Sunday dinner, but thought it would be fun to go. How far in advance should I contact him? Finally..where to hear some Easter music. I know there's a Gregorian chant music at Notre Dame on 4/3, any other suggestions. Thanks!

Mmm... You might have to repost with a more specific title. Suggest listing your questions too. Try the search facility too.

If you bring your laptop, then get a Skype account (and possibly a Skype In number). You'll be able to call back to the US, using WiFi in your apartment, for only 3 cents a minutes.

I can't answer all of your questions, but have traveled with my adult daughters and we all have Cingular quad band phones.
We activate the international service with Cingular before leaving home. Unfortunately, we've never had all 3 phones work when we try them in Paris. We call Cingular and they always fix the problem....I think that many of their customer service reps aren't that familiar with the international calling program and don't complete the transaction properly.
The cell phones are great for receiving calls from family at home (we almost always tell them we'll call back using the much cheaper phone card)and for quick calls to each other when we are not doing something as a group but plan to meet sometime during the day. If your friends cell phones won't work there, I'm not sure how you can keep in touch using the phone cards, unless you are calling back to the apartment.
I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time. I travel at least once a year with my daughters and some girlfriends....it's always fun!

check out St Chappelle for music - such a glorious space!

If you want to just make phone calls rather than receive them, you can buy phone cards in France that cost less than 1 euro cent a minute to the United States.

The city of Paris is beginning to set up a free wifi service that will cover much of the city by the end of the year. Unfortunately, it will not yet be in place next month.

Jim Hayne's dinner was a great, fun experience! Do Go! Send him an email a couple of weeks ahead letting him know that you and your 2 friends (he always welcomes women!!!) wold like to come. He will put you on the list and ask you to call the day of for instructions about how to get in. Have a great time!

Could someone explain why you would orgainse dinner with some American you don't know whilst on your holidays in Paris?

I could understand it if you were away for months and a bit homesick....or if he was introducing you to regional specialities? But otherwise, I don't get it.

I you're undecided on the worth of lugging a laptop, don't do it. Friends who manage Paris retals report relatively frequent problems with guests connecting via furnished wi-fi. They at least have a technician who can be summoned to make the necessary adjustments, for a charge, on people's computers. I doubt if many rentals would be able to provide that service at any cost.

Free wi-fi has become my favorite amenity in apartments and hotels. I had no problem using my laptop in a rented apartment in Paris last year.

My laptop is very light and no problem to put it in my carry-on luggage, and it is very convenient for e-mail and other purposes. But it is old, somewhat obsolete, and somewhat broken (it used to belong to my daughter) so I have few if any concerns about losing or damaging it.

You'll be in the 6th, ie surrounded by billions of interned cafés, so don't bother lugging around your laptop, you'd end up spending more time than needed on it, and technical difficulties are bound to happen at some point or another.

Lawchick: Jim Hayne's dinner has been an institution in Paris for 20 years or so. He obviously enjoys meeting all kinds of people and he does all the organizing. All you have to do is make a reservation, show up and pay your 20 euros.

It's an opportunity to meet people from all over the world and talk about all kinds of interesting things from philosophy to politics to art. If you're an introvert or in Paris to only be with whomever you're there with (perhaps a honeymoon)well then... but if you enjoy meeting people, in particular if you don't speak fluent French but want to connect with people, then Jim Hayne's dinner is great fun.

When I went with my 2 daughters, I met people from Great Britain, Ausralia, South Africa, Japan and about 1/3 of the folks there were from Paris. My daughters spoke French all evening. I haven't mastered the language so enjoyed having a lot of English speaking folks to socialize with. It was the first evening of our trip and we got great suggestions for things to do, restaurants, and we also recived invitations for some really fun things later in the week.

That's why some people go to dinner with a bunch of strangers!

The abstract idea (of Jim Haynes) has always made my skin crawl, but at the same time I think that one of the points of traveling is to do things that you would not do at home. And most of us at home would not be attracted to a dinner full of strangers -- unless they were all travelers.

Nevertheless, financially I'm sure that he is doing just fine by charging 20 euros per person.

We always bring our laptop when we travel, internationally or nationally. We've never had any problems with our laptop connecting to wifi (it's an iBook), unless the wifi itself is having problems (in which case, the hotel computers are also having problems). We find it very useful to do research in our hotel and email as we want. It's also great if you bring a few DVDs to watch on the planes or in the hotel room if you're feeling like a night in.

I travel to europe for business and leisure, always bring laptop. No problem with connecting to wifi. Also, it is good for down loading pics from digital camera and for saving all travel paperwork on the HD.