Taking a reluctant traveller to Paris trip report
 

It all started with a low airfare to Paris email alert, I asked DH if he could go, he said no, but I should ask my friend to go with me, knowing she would say no. Wouldn't you know, after years and years of asking her to go places and getting no for an answer, she said yes this time. She had just renewed her passport, her last one expired without use. Her and her husband have been talking about going places for years but never do. I don't know why the sudden change, but I was not going to miss this opportunity to get her out of the US. I took care of all the details and within 2 weeks we were landing in Paris. I should note, she has never taken any interest in Paris what so ever, I had no idea what she would want to see or do, she didn't even glance at a guide book before going. The one thing I knew she was not going to do, was to spend excess money on food, so I planned our activities but left out food. I knew that if I was going to be in charge of all the activities, I was going to need a break once in a while, so I did something I have never done before, booked planned tours. Below is a brief description of our trip. Did she end up enjoying Paris? you'll have to read to find out.

The Apartment:
On such short notice, most hotels were booked, I must have sent out 200 emails for apartments before finding an available apartment. We ended up with this one. http://www.paristay.com/index.php?menu=fiche&id=1076 . We found it through Paris Stay, but it's listed with the agency www.aslom.com . If you are interested in it I would try to book through aslom first because ParisStay add's an additional agency charge, ours was around 200 euros. However I was not put in contact with aslom until after I paid the fee.

The apartment is located right behind Notre Dame, on qaui aux fleurs, facing the Ile St. Louis. It is on the fourth floor, with a small lift. The apartment is small but pristine. It had the sleeping alcove with a queen sized bed and a sofa bed in the main room. I took the sofa bed. The trick to making the sofa bed comfortable is to put the sofa cushions under the pull out mattress. But to be honest, its' Paris I would have slept on the floor. I felt the view from the apartment was amazing, I spent all my free time just looking out the open window listening to the sounds and sights of Paris. I love it. My friend however spent her time in her sleeping alcove reading. My DH asked her what she thought of the apartment and she said it was ok, but the washer/dryer took a long time. I however could care less about the washer/dryer, it's Paris after all. Our perspectives may be just a little different.

Hamman:
Our first night, I thought it would be fun to visit a hamman, I told her of our experiences in Turkey and she seemed a little interested. I didn't really research too much, but just came up with this one, it was a close walk from the apartment.

http://www.la-mosquee.com/htmluk/entreeuk.htm , Oddly enough she enjoyed this more than I did. I found it to be a little dirty, a little confusing, and not too much like Turkey. But did ever feel nice to have a short massage after a long flight, and the mint tea in the courtyard was very enjoyable. Afterwards we walked through the Latin Quartier picked up a pizza to go, a bottle of wine, and ate looking out the window of the apartment. Heaven.

more to come.

What a good idea to have a Turkish bath and massage after a long flight! I'll have to remember that. Looking forward to more of this report.

Great start, looking forward to hearing about the trip.

I'm hooked. I love that you gave your report some narrative interest by taking your non traveling friend.
The other thing I loved was seeing your apartment at the beginning of the post. That makes it so much more real to me. Keep it coming.

Like your friend, my sister cared not at all in advance of our recent Paris trip. But once we were there - WOW. She soaked it all in, but did read in her room instead of enjoying the view of Notre Dame that we had paid extra for. I will be waiting to see how your friend developed on this trip.

I corralled a very reluctant friend once into going to Paris and the Dordogne--called it the "Give France a Chance Tour"--and it worked out beautifully. She became a convert. I hope your story has a happy ending as well.

Enjoying the report!

Waiting for more!! I'm hoping your report will give me some ideas to get my reluctant DH to go back to Paris... it's got me hooked too. - many thanks.

waiting to hear more about reluctant travelers...

I can't wait for the rest. My only experience with a reluctant traveler to Paris was a total disaster. She saw and experienced only what she had imagined she would, and no experience to the contrary would change her mind. It was embarrassing, to say the very least.

I no longer travel with anyone I don't already know really, really well and with whose travel style I agree. I guess you can get lucky, but I sure didn't. Lesson learned.

Looking forward to reading the rest of the report!

More, please!

:-)

I'm waitng, too.

This is going to be interesting..............
Don't keep us waiting too long!

I admire your courage! If it were me, I'd rather go alone (which I've done many times).

It's fun to hear your stories, I hope mine turns out as positive.

Our first day, I walked our tails off. Some co workers had told her about the Orsay, and anything someone had told her about, I made sure we did. We first visited the Rodin, picked up a 2 day museum pass and then headed to the Orsay. She looked a little, but it was hard to gauge wether or not something interested her. I would ask if she would like to do this or that, and she would say o.k., So we went on to visit Musee de l'armee, tomb of Napoleon, etc. I left out churches because after her reaction to Notre Dame ( a few second glance), I knew churches were of no interest to her.

We made it to the Monoprix just off Rue Bonapart, and finally a glimmer of hope. She actually let me separate from her in the store. She was looking at clothing, soap, food, all of it. She is not a shopper, so this was a big surprise. She bought a few chocolate bars, some yogurt and some diet coke ( a friend told her, they once paid 9 euros for a diet coke, I could not let that misconception continue, and pointed out diet coke all over Paris for much less than 9 euros).

I took her in the pharmacy on Rue Bonapart, to show her how the shoppers lined up to ask the pharmacist's guestions about skin care products. She even found some oil, similiar to the oil used in the hamman which she wanted.

We continued on to Lauderee and Pierre Herme. She purchased macrons at each. We went back to the apartment before heading out for our night tour.

Fat Tire evening bike tour. http://fattirebiketours.com/paris I think this was her highlight. I don't know if you have ever done one, but to me it resembles a bike shop in the US. When you enter the office, you immediately forget you are in Paris, american english is spoken by everyone. It's a strange phenomenon. Our group consisted of mostly americans, and a couple from Australia. The guide was a young man from the US, but has lived in Paris for 2 years. It was fun, but I wonder what the parisians think of these tours. We did get told off by a few, once for taking up too much room on the bike lane, and once for more for being on the sidewalk. After the tour ended about 11:30 pm, we took our first Metro ride, this is when I found out she did not like the metro and preferred the bus. We got off at St. Michel and managed to find just a couple places open for eating, we ended up getting crepes. She said she had never had a ham and cheese sandwich that tasted so good. All in all, I think she enjoyed her first full day in Paris.

Now, not only I admire your courage, I also admire your patience! You are a saint ("<i>anything someone had told her about, I made sure we did.</i> " I don't think I can deal with traveling w/someone who shows no interest at the destination (ie, didn't bother with reading guidebooks), and I think it's very frustrating as well as stressful when you have to keep wondering if she's actually enjoying the sights you took her to! This doesn't sound like a vacation for you with all these concerns!

Yeah I have done the Fat Tire bikes in Paris and Barcelona and think the locals are annoyed. In Paris a group of about 25 of us "charged" across the traffic thru Place de Concorde yelling YEE HAH (as instructed by our leader). I suspect that is the kind of thing that gives Americans a bad reputation.

I did a trip to London a few years ago with a friend who had never been out of the country. She did not care to do any research beforehand (because I had been there before) and she informed me on the plane over that she was not interested in history, old buildings or any churches!!. What!! I ended up being a tour guide.
Hope your trip ends up better than mine.

You get a gold star for your patience with your friend! I hope she appreciated all you did! Can't wait to read more.

Oh, you are so brave, happy! You get a gold star for you effort, no matter how creepy the rest of the story turns out.

As for those bike tours, we Parisians just watch them go by and don't really give it much of a thought. Bicycles have become extremely common in the city, so the tours are not a shock. However, any Parisian who comes across a Segway tour usually finds the concept appalling. Paris is such a compact walking city that it seems like an abomination to roll around on electric things when you could be walking.