Christina

I believe the Hotel Littre is a 4* hotel, and I certainly would expect such a hotel to have both a corkscrew and real glasses. A lot of bathrooms don't have real glasses any more, just plastic cups, though. They would be okay if necessary, but to me wine actually tastes and feels better in proper wine glasses, and I can even notice the difference in a cheap wine glass compared to a plastic cup. SO, I wouldn't substitute a plastic cup myself.

That hotel is near several good kitchen supply stores, actually, and you can always buy a couple cheap glasses at the Inno which is behind Montparnasse Tower on rue du Depart at the corner of bd Edgar Quinet. That's a large general discount store with a grocery in the basement (and housewares, I think glasses would be down there). They have a decent wine selection in there, also--nothing super expensive, of course.

A very good large kitchen supply store near there is Kitchen Bazaar at 11, ave du Maine. It's on the other side of the tower than Inno.

NYCFoodSnob

Of course, you leave a note if you're not handing an individual a gift. Does every common sense thing need to be spelled out?

This might come as a surprise but very few hotel guests purchase fresh flower arrangements for their hotel room. The majority don't. Many good hotels will have a vase for you to borrow if you ask.

I imagine any hotel in Paris, no matter what the star rating, will manage to come up with two wine glasses for any guest, which is one of the reasons I thought this thread silly. The French drink wine!!!

Aneliz, I don't doubt the sincerity of your thread. But that doesn't make it less silly to me. I'm not competing for a Miss Congeniality award so being "gracious" means little to me in this context.

Giovanna

Mischka: What a good idea! I too like pewter and we do have a couple of pewter wine goblets. We won them when we were showing our Afghan Hounds many years ago. Always loved it when the trophies were pewter rather than silver (no polishing). Thanks for the tip. May pack them on our next jaunt!

elaine

There's "nothing more depressing"?
Sure there is.

BDM

Quick note: Leave your corkscrew in your room. We've always traveled with a swiss army knife and a cork screw and since 9/11 they ALWAYS cause security problems at the entrance major sites. YOu'll have to check them and reclaim them later.

I've drank my fair share of great wine ($50+) out of bathroom cups and have also left sets of glasses over there. $15 for a few decent wine glasses is miniscule given the total price of your trip; I think so anyway.

Bon voyage

Aine

I cant believe I am admitting to this in public because I have always thought it was very silly but I may as well jump in. We usually bring champange/wine glasses EVERYWHERE with us. I got a great small but sweet set, from Crate & Barrel here in the US (multpurpose V shape just a base no stem). I have a big handbag and just wrap them in a paper towel and pop em in a plastic bag. They have lasted for about 6 months now, not bad! Myself and my husband joke about it alot but we are always ready for an on the spot picnic, as well as an 'as we are getting ready to go out to dinner' glass of champagne in our room. If I did not bring my own though, I would definitely buy a couple of glasses and leave them behind if they were nothing special.

m_kingdom

Most hotels, even very basic ones provide some form of drinking vessel, I'd imagine ranging from plastic cups to a wide selection of glasses in higher end properties. A word of caution, and I'm sure you are aware of this, due to post 11/9/01 regulations items such as a corkscrew are not allowed in handbaggage. I feel that this is ridiculous, firstly some chemists post security sell saftety razor blades, an item prohibited by this regulation. Secondly, if you're really determined one can take knives etc. on board, and god forbid other weapons, and explosives. Thirdly, glass bottles as sold in duty free shops, when smashed would be more dangerous than a corkscrew, so I believe.

Yes, it was a tragic, terrible, unprovoked attack on America, yes, lessons should be learnt, but lets scan bags more thoroughly, but examine each case, a corkscrew is hardly a weapon of choice for an islamic alcohol free suicide bomber? People should think before confiscating other's possessions.

Whilst we should not be complacent, does lightening really strike twice? Hopefully never.

Aine

I hope that this makes some of you laugh and that you try it. Be careful though! It is a trick my dad showed me. It really works. Use in case of emergency.

HOW TO OPEN A BOTTLE OF WINE WITH A PEN WHEN YOU HAVE NO CORKSCREW. (hopefully somebody has a pen)

place bottle on steady surface
take foil off the bottle
Take a strong pen with the cap on
place the bottom - flat end of the pen on the cork in the middle (where you would put a corkscrew)
wrap pen with a THICK cloth napkin/small towel - t-shirt you don?t care about
leave a little cloth hanging down over top of bottle in case it splashes a little
grasp bottle around the "shoulders"? (some cloth should be under your hand)
stand over the bottle
very slowly and firmly push the pen - which will push the cork into the bottle
start off the pouring by holding the cork - which is now inside the bottle - back with the pen
for about a half ounce
enjoy your wine
this works like a dream, I've done it many times, but be very careful of course

m_kingdom

Pushing a cork into the bottle, please don't murder a wine by doing that, I'm sure this is not a method endorsed by any sommelier.

Aine

In the spirit of the very best of fun of course - if I am having a picnic bottle of wine, or a bottle in my room and I am stuck without a corkscrew OF COURSE I will do that. I doubt many sommeliers would bother to comment over any $20 or $30 bottle of wine I buy for my room or a picnic, and if they do, maybe they need a new job. Wine can be and should be fun - no wine snobs please, its jaded, believe me, its long gone around us before the wine even knows the cork hit the bottle. And , it was in contact with the wine all that time beforehand . . . . hmmmmmmm

m_kingdom

Whilst 30USD might not be so much anymore with the rapidly plunging dollar, it still buys a wine that would retail at maybe 100USD in a restaurant, or more in an hotel. Perhaps you would be better to spend 5USD on a bottle seeing as you knock it back so quickly? afterall what's the point of paying for complexity if you're not going to appreciate it? Save your money and knock back blue nun - nice screwtop so no worries there then.

Aine

OK, you are right of course. I will keep that in mind next time. But if you are ever stuck for a corkscrew, you will think of me.

Aine

What's Blue Nun and how do you know its screwcap? Just kidding

suze

I would not bother bringing anything from home.

When you arrive, check if your hotel front desk will loan you glasses and a corkscrew (I've done this before & they have). If not, on your 1st trip out to buy the wine, buy a corkscrew and glasses too.

Alternately, I've gotten the wine shop to open the bottle there and used the bathroom glasses in my room. Where there's a will, there's a way!

Bitter

Aine: Thanks for the tip. Sure beats my "chip the cork into a thousand pieces, that we will find in our teeth later" technique! And thanks for reminding us that wine is fun. A floating cork will not "murder" the wine. I think one of the wine tastings or classes I attended, the expert stated something like "the more snobbish someone is about wine, the less they likely know about wine." I like that tidbit, and the suggestion that for most of us, if you smell the cork, it will smell, well, like a cork.

m_kingdom

The cork offers one the first opportunity, before even having to pour the wine, to tell if the bottle is corked. Therefore, a sommelier always imbues the odours from the cork before pouring wine for the customer to taste.

Aine

m kingdom - NO - You are wrong and here is another little tip for you - you do not even have to taste the wine to know if it is corked. A quick sniff from the "taste" portion in the glass - it will be unmistakable if the wine has been ruined by the cork. And wine does not have "odours" it has a bouquet. You should let yourself go and try that "pen" thing, I think it would broaden your mind.

m_kingdom

"Sniffing" the cork allows one to instantly detect a 'corked' wine, without even having to pour it. I use the word "odour" rather than bouquet, as a corked wine has anything but a "bouquet".

SantaChiara

This is a side note to an interesting thread (Aneliz, I applaud your joie de vivre, and you definitely have your priorities straight.)

I agree with mkingdom (I think) about security. I did not realize that I had a corkscrew in my carry-on luggage (it was buried way down deep in a side pocket, leftover from another trip) until security fished it out. News to me. The real news was that I had traveled Rome to London to Houston and back before it was "discovered" on my return London-to-Rome leg.

FlyFish

Just so, Bitter. Thankfully the pretentious "ceremony of the cork" has all but passed into memory at most good restaurants. You're going to smell and taste the actual wine in a few seconds, so why stick an old bit of tree bark up your nose first?

While we're at it can anyone explain to me how a wine is "murdered" by pushing the cork into it - assuming you clean off any mold that may have developed under the capsule first, that is, which seems like a fairly obvious thing to do. I have about a thousand bottles of second and third growth Bordeaux from very good vintages in my cellar and I wouldn't hesitate to use Aine's method on any of them in a pinch. I would take a peek at the ullage before trying it, though.