paris trip report
 

First of all, endless thanks to all the great advice I got from everyone on the board. You guys are the best. I?ll stay on the board for a day or two, after that feel free to e mail me. I?ll break the trip into categories, hope that helps.

General thoughts
We loved Paris very much. It was the most beautiful city, incredible looking, so clean, so much to do. We wanted to stay forever.

People

Except in a very few cases we found the people to be very nice and helpful. Saying ?Bonjour? everywhere we went made a huge difference. A few words in our poor French made everyone very warm and kind and brought out all their English.

Shopping

Our favorite clothes shopping was in St. Germain and the Marais. Lots of very cool little shops. We also spent too much time in Galeries Lafayete. A great store in that it has everything. The sales help is useless but the selection was endless.

Tours

We did a 2-3 hour walking tour of the Marais with Barbara from Phototours that was the highlight of the trip. She was amazing, took us through endless little streets and gave us so much cool information on the area. We feel we made a friend. I would never go back without scheduling 1 or two .

Day trips

We took a half day trip to Giverney with Paris Vision on their mini bus. It was a great tour, very well done and we enjoyed it.

Restaurants

This section could go on forever. I?ll be brief! The Meurice; incredible service, a wild experience. Ze Kitchen Galerie; lots of fun, good food, nice service. Brasserie du Louvre; a great classic French brasserie in the 1st, nice people good food.

Restaurants- Bad

Had our only rude experience in Le Grand Colbert. The food , excellent classic French brasserie-escargot, oysters, etc. The help-ignore us, served everyone around us, gave everyone free glass of champagne except us, they made us very uncomfortable.
Violin D?Ingres ? not at all worth the money. Decent food, OK service, boring , stuffy atmosphere. Not a one star expierence.

That sums up a few thoughts. Thanks again to everyone who helped us so much. Enjo

Glad you enjoyed yourselves...where did you stay?

Paris is always a great city to visit. Glad you had a nice firsttime visit there except for the rude service and poor but expensive food.

Yes, please tell where you stayed.

I am so surprised about your comments regarding the service at galerie layfayett. I too spent a lot of time there and a lot of money. I had wonderful service from everyone except at the jewelry counter but I didn't find that especially offensive. I found it was kind of like the kind of service you get at most of the big department stores here in the U.S. My brother decided he wanted to return a bottle of cologne he had purchased, filled out the VAT and everything..talk about your ugly american!!!!! LOL anyway, the sales girl could not have been kinder and more patient and it was a paperwork nightmare for her. So I guess it just depends on who you get on any particular day. Glad you enjoyed anyway.

It does depend on who your salesperson is. There are quite a few who are so genuinely friendly and helpful. At Galeries Lafayette quite a few years ago, this older saleslady in the handbag section was so kind and helpful. And she could not speak more than a few words of English and the same for me with French. But we both tried to understand each other and she was very patient.
This is a diff. store-BHV-the young salesman was so kind and helpful. Just depends on your luck. But there are great salespeople out there.

We are going to be in Paris in September and I would really appreciate some more information on the Phototour you took in the Marais. We will be staying in that area. Contact? Price? etc. Many thanks.

>My brother decided he wanted to return a bottle of cologne he had purchased, filled out the VAT and everything..talk about your ugly american!!!!! <

I think you UA sensor is set a tad high.

Hi CSS, Glad you had a great trip. We are going in mid Oct for a week and have just now heard about your 2 tour groups. Would you mind sending their email sites to me at [email protected] so I can check them out. Many thanks in advance. Looking forward to more of your trip report.
Gerry near London Canada

We had bought a stay at teh Meurice thru an auction site (luxury link .com) and that's where we stayed. It was , for us, a once in a lifetie expierence.Completely out of our price range and the most amazing hotel we've ever been. I wish I could move in forever and have their staff care for me day and night. Oh well, back to reality; screaming kids, barking dog, dirty house!

to obygirl: I was joking about the UA, hence the LOL. having said that, it took the poor girl and her supervisor about 40 minutes to get everything returned, new cologne bought, VAT adjusted, etc. I understand that it was her job to fulfill my brother's request but because I own a service business and deal with clients every day I appreciated what she did for him. I have often hung up the phone after a conversation with one of my clients and sat there banging my head on my desk..a la Ally McBeal. I was picturing this poor girl hitting the ladies room after we left the store, standing in a corner, and banging her head against the wall.

Hi can i have more details of the walking tour ?? we are going in august just for a couple of days... whom should i contact ?? any emails ?? plese advise..
lakshmi