Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report Travelnut's Paris Trip Report

Photos can be viewed at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9520063...739041/detail/

If you click on Slideshow, then also click on the 4 arrows at the bottom right of the screen to get a full-screen view.

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Tues, Oct 28
Our original flight was to depart at 5:25, #604. Around 2:45 I received a flight alert that #604 was going to be delayed until 8:03, meaning we would not make our connecting flight to Paris ! I called Continental under my reservation number and was told I had been rebooked on a flight that was originally to depart at 1:40 but was not leaving until 4:30. So we sped up our tasks at home and left for the airport - on the way I called Continental again to ask about RK’s flight, because we had separate bookings due to my using some freq flyer miles and his ticket being paid. The agent said the earlier flight was full and he wasn’t on it, but could try ‘stand by’. We went on to the Continental counter at JAX where the agent said, ‘Oh, you are both on this flight, no problem’ which gave me a great sigh of relief. We moved through the security check and down to the gate, only to learn that the 4:30 flight was additionally delayed because they were going to switch planes with the 5:25 flight that was now 8:03 ! So we ended up in our original plane leaving at about the original time! We made our connection just fine and were on the way to Paris.

Wed, Oct 29 (drizzly)
We arrived on time at 10:20am, passed through the Passport Control and Customs, on out to the sidewalk to catch the N1 shuttle to the RER station. The line to the ticket window was very long (40 people?) so I tried the kiosk for RER tickets into Paris. The USA-issued Master Card didn’t work (as expected) so I paid with euro coins I had bought on eBay (at a discount) with no problem. At the hotel we unloaded our ‘stuff’ and put the necessary items into the day-bag (ex. small umbrella) and headed out for the Eiffel, our tradition of officially ‘arriving’ in Paris. We ate the baguette sandwiches we’d bought at the boulangerie and enjoyed the Champ de Mars before the early sundown (shorter days in this season), bundled up with hats and gloves, and watched the Eiffel grow bright blue as the sky darkened. The blue lighting and circle of gold stars was in honor of the French Presidency of the European Union. I had decided that I’d try a ‘photo theme’ of carousels, and found a small wooden one going in the Champ de Mars, then a lighted carousel at each end of the Pont de l’Iena.

After crossing up to Trocadero, we walked over to the bus stop to go on to Hotel de Ville, as I’ve seen a carousel there many times – but not this time, as it was apparently removed while an exposition was tented there (I forget what event). We bought the requested magazines for a friend (Elle and Vogue, en francais), crossed over to Ile de Cite and took the metro back to the hotel. We had an easy meal at a Gourmet d’Asie “deli” where the owner seems happy to remember us and we all say our ‘bonjours’. Monoprix is still open so we buy our room supplies (cookies, milk, yogurt, beer, wine, crackers…) then we go to bed not too early and set the alarm for 7:30am (only a loose start time, often ignored).

Thurs, Oct 30 (drizzly)
The ‘real’ sightseeing begins on the 2nd day, so in spite of the chill and drizzly rain, we headed out for the Opera/Pyramides area so I could pick up some brochures from the Tourist Office. I took a couple of pix of the Opera Garnier, which looked as grand as always, then we had coffee at Café Royal Opera (well, I had coffee there – RK saw a Starbucks as we were walking, so he got a ‘to go’ cup). Stopped into a souvenir shop near rue de Rivoli and bought a 5x7 ‘pewter’ frame with a Paris design for 9.95€, then we walked through Jardin de Tuileries to the overlook of Place de la Concorde, where RK was vastly amused at watching the ‘gold ring’ con being pulled. Then onward to the Petit Palais to visit the Musee des Beaux Arts, a very pleasant art and decorative objects collection.

From there we planned to ride out to the La Defense complex but first we needed some lunch. We took a back street near the presidential palace to buy pizza/quiche snacks then took the metro line 1 to the end, coming up underneath the Grande Arche. We walked about 300 meters, seeing a carousel !, the Calder and Miro grand artworks, before the rain started falling more heavily than we cared to walk in, so we turned tail and went back into Paris (the 2nd time we’ve been rained out of a Defense exploration).

After freshening up at the hotel with our in-room ‘wine:30’, we took the metro to Vesuvio’s in St Germain-des-Pres, thinking the musician might be entertaining the dining room as he did last year on Thursday night, but alas, the waiter said he was ‘finished’. After our meal, we took a walk down blvd St Germain into the St Michel area. Pounced on a crepe stand at the beginning of rue de la Huchette and shared a great dark chocolate crepe as our dessert. Took the #38 bus from the Cluny area back to the hotel for the evening, still in a drizzly rain.

Fri, Oct 31 (drizzly)
Today we started out by taking the bus to reach Musee Zadkine which was being renovated and only had a couple of small rooms available to view, as well as a lovely little walled garden. From there we enjoyed a damp stroll through Jardin de Luxembourg, for photos of the golden leaves and a shiny Fontaine de Medicis. We circled back toward Montparnasse, stopping for coffee at rue Raspail / rue Montparnasse, then onward to the Musee Bourdelle, located on the 15th arr. side of the Tower. This was quite an extensive collection, including Bourdelle’s ‘apartment’ and an elongated interior garden. The traditional collection of sculptures was interspersed with ‘modern’ artworks, of which I had no understanding at all.

We returned to the hotel, picking up some ‘sandwiches Grec’ on the way to have in the warm and dry hotel room. Our afternoon was spent prowling the Cimetiere de Passy, took many photos of the little stained glass windows inside the crypts plus two ‘faithful dog’ statues. We enjoyed a bus ride up to Lamarck-Caulaincourt to walk through Place du Tertre and the terrace of Sacre Coeur (and another carousel photo), before returning to our hotel area by metro.

Sat, Nov 1 (drizzly)
In spite of a 7:30 alarm, we overslept until 9:20, very unusual but obviously needed! Rain be darned, we continued our plans by going to Place de la Bastille’s art market. It had about 30-ish stalls of various painting styles, jewelry, fun ‘décor’ stuff, hand-made hats…. I was nearly done looking around when I stopped at Didier Lespagnol’s stall. Do not pass by him unless you intend to spend money there, as he is an excellent salesman. I liked his somewhat nostalgic painting style of Paris scenes so stopped to eye them.

Alors, he wanted to chat (either in French or heavily accented English, of which I still misunderstood about half), about our US election and our country’s security, answers to my comments about his Paris scene choices and so on. He told me that my French was very good (uh-huh) and once he actually complimented the color of my nail polish ;) . I was already sitting on a little stool he’d pulled out for me so I could page through the bin of prints, which were priced at 1-15€ or 4-50€ My husband began missing me so he called my cell phone. This alerted my new friend that I was about to depart. I told him I would like one print of the little square where Le Reminet stands. He made me a deal of 2 prints for 20€, well one can’t resist that, so I let him choose the other one, which was of an undetermined café street with green vines, very charming. He signed each one, rolled and wrapped them, then in plastic due to the weather, and we shook hands.

I found my husband, and we decided to grab a baguette sandwich before moving on to the Police Museum in the Latin Quarter. Alas, the police security man told me the museum was still not open from its renovations, so we glanced at the little produce market going on and then ducked into the metro to unload our things at the hotel. The skies were beginning to clear up, so we went around to our ‘pocket park’ to relax a bit. We were then in the mood to walk some more, so we meandered through the 14th arr. and over into the Rue des Thermophiles (very quaint villagey look), and a few blocks onto rue Raymond Losserand (quite a few families out and about, nice shops and cafes We ate dinner then went to the cinema - the new James Bond movie wasn’t as good as Casino Royale, in our joint opinion, but we enjoyed the entertainment anyway.

Sun, Nov 2 (partly cloudy)
Because the weather was improved, we took the Tram to Parc Andre Citroen to go up in the ‘Ballon de Paris’ hot-air balloon (tethered). However, there was no one at the ticket window and a sign claimed the winds were too high today (our hotel receptionist stated that no one wants to work on a bank holiday weekend), so we took some ‘fall leaves’ photos around the park, dodging the many joggers, then crossed Paris via the metro to explore the junk / flea market at Place d’Aligre, followed by a walkabout in Belleville.

I doubt that we went in deep enough as rue de Belleville didn’t seem noticeably more ‘ethnic’ than other parts of Paris, maybe just a few more Tunisian or other ethnic establishments. I did get a photo of a wall mural that included that black silhouette of a man whose image is found around Paris (I don’t recall ever finding one before), then we walked downward (upward is not recommended!, very steep) through Parc de Belleville which is quite nice and has a wonderful view over the city. We didn’t want a large dinner that evening, so we shared a pizza at Vesuvio, and followed it up with a little walkabout through rue St Andre des Arts (very lively) to Notre Dame (dark and lonely) then the metro from Cite to the hotel.

Mon, Nov 3 (partly cloudy)
RK had a rough night with sinuses and coughing, so we slept in again and I brought him up a breakfast tray which he appreciated and enjoyed. He had the idea that we should go get a photograph of the square that is in the painting/print I bought, so we did that. Unfortunately, it was marred by one of those gray-and-green ‘travaux’ barriers, but now I think I have taken this photo before so will check when we get home. We like to ‘people-watch’ so crossed over to Notre Dame now that the weather was much nicer and sat there for a while. We made our way down rue Saint Louis en l’Isle and over to le Marais to get our falafels at “L’As Fallafel”. Yes, quite good as everyone says.

Over to Pompidou, with its quirky fountain, past les Halles and over to the courtyard of the Louvre (another ring con artist), and down through the Tuileries (the boat man was out at the pond today), reaching the overlook of Place de la Concorde for a rest. RK was amazed at a ‘gang’ of ring scammers, and watched them work the crowd for about 30 minutes. We returned to the hotel to drop off things, then used the free Paris wi-fi at our ‘pocket park’ to check on some things. Later, while waiting outside the hotel, a lovely gentleman stopped to talk to me. We chatted a moment, he mostly in excellent English, and he told me he’d been to NYC “before the towers”, and also queried me about the election. (anyone who asked about the election seemed to want to know what we thought and who would win but never expressed anything but polite comments themselves, and sometimes I couldn’t tell for sure which candidate they preferred, and there was never a lecturing tone).

We went on to our dinner in Montparnasse, followed by a night-time pass by the famous literary cafes La Rotonde, Le Select, etc. A white-jacketed waiter at Le Select was in the process of ejecting a street bum, who apparently was ‘selecting’ some half-good cigarette butts out of the sand urn.

Tues, Nov 4 (beautiful sunny, breezy)
Election Day and our last day in Paris! It was nice and sunny, so we gave the Ballon de Paris folks another try, and this time I joined a group of school children in ascending by balloon. The view was nice although the usual Paris landmarks were quite off in the distance but I enjoyed it. I could just see the Liberty statue at the end of Allee des Cygnes, the Eiffel way over there, the gold dome of Invalides and Tour Montparnasse. Sacre Coeur was mostly obscured by haze or whatever, so this gives you a little idea.

We decided to go to the Arc de Triomphe to watch the traffic circle (always an amazing ballet there) – on the way, we jumped off the metro at rue du Commerce to buy some delish pastries to eat while warming a bench at Place Charles de Gaulle.

We took a bus down the Champs Elysees, roamed around a bit, then went over to the Jardin de Luxembourg to see the “Pinocchio” marionette show. It was fun to watch the kids and hear them shout when the lion hides behind Pinocchio, and worth the 4€ or so entry fee. The park trees were lovely, with those black tree trunks against the yellow fall leaves, which were fluttering down like butterflies in the breeze. Every activity was filled with boisterous children and I got another carousel photo as well.

We returned to the hotel, packed up most of our stuff, then ate another dinner at the Asian deli, and it is after we’ve paid and begun eating that I realize we’ve been ‘comped’ some items for our meal which was a very sweet thing for the owner to do. Departing there, we took one last walk back to the hotel.

Wed, Nov 5 (drizzly)
We didn’t oversleep the alarm today, time to go home to Skeeter the dog, so we arose at 5:30 and fixed coffees with our little beverage heater, ate bananas and ‘fruit cakes’, watched TV to see who our President-elect was, then checked out. We decided to splurge on a taxi in spite of being near the RER station and paid 44€ + a tip for the fare to CDG-T2.

We had our boarding passes printed out already, so we went straight to the Passport check, then the xray/security check then the gate. From the time we got the taxi to the time we sat down at the gate, less than one and half hours had elapsed (yes, including the taxi ride time!). There were lines at the airline counter check-ins, so we missed that line as well as having to wait for the security check along with the same crowd. Our flight was 9:55am and left on time. The aircraft has an electrical outlet about 1 per 3 seats, so I’ve been typing this report as we fly home, using my new Acer mini-laptop which works like a charm.

Here are some additional notes for your enjoyment:

Miscellaneous:

Lunches:
mostly boulangeries for a couple of sandwiches or little quiches and a beer or soda: 7-9€
two sandwiches ‘grec’ with frites and a beer 12€
L’As Fallafel: 1 ‘special’, 1 ‘schawarma’, 1 beer, 1 Evian: 16€

Dinners:
Asian deli food: 2 meats, noodles, veggies, shared a beer 16-17€
Italian: spaghetti or pizza, bread basket, 2 glasses of wine 38€
Local cafes or restaurants: usually an entrée and a main, + glass of wine each 36-54€

Snacks, drinks:
Wine from Monoprix – 8-10€
Cheap beer from Monoprix - 1.6€/bottle
Café coffees - 2 for 6€ (by the window)
Large macarons from Belleville patisserie, 3€ each
Street crepes, patisserie goodies – 1.00-3.00€

Stuff:
RER tickets to Paris 8.20€ each, one way
Navigo Decouverte + weekly Carte Orange 21.30€ each
Metal 5x7 photo frame 9.95€ (seen in other stores for 10-15€)
2 8x10ish “prints” of original paintings from Bastille art marche for 20€ (owner negotiated an enticing price)
One Paris postcard with the Montmartre carousel on it for 1.10€ at CDG airport
James Bond movie at neighborhood cinema, 7€ each for “seniors”
Ballon de Paris ride, 10€ per person, weekday
Musee Bourdelle, 7€ per person entry fee
Musee Zadkine, free entry
Marrionettes at Jardin de Luxembourg, about 9€ for 2 tickets
Wi-Fi, free at the hotel with code and free from city of Paris at the local park

So, hope you found some enjoyment from my report and photos...