Trip Report: Paris-Burgundy-Provence
Jul 13th, 2004 | 05:53 AM
#1
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Joined: Jan 2004
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Trip Report: Paris-Burgundy-Provence
(note: posted from Word - may be some character blips!)
Woohoo! My (new) husband and I just returned from our ten-day trip to France (not including travel days) and I wanted to check in with our report as reading Fodor's posts helped immensely in planning our honeymoon.
About us: 29/36, Manhattanites, graduate student and professional, I'd been to Paris before, this was hubby's first time to Europe. Here in New York we enjoy eating out, plays, museums and concerts. We went to Napa last summer and were looking forward to comparing the vineyards of Burgundy. We also liked the idea of incorporating both city and country time into our honeymoon. Noting that it was indeed our honeymoon we did a lot of sleeping and eating and perhaps not as much touring around as we might have on a typical vacation.
We decided to go for somewhat of a sampler of France and our trip was split into three main parts: Paris, Burgundy, and Provence with just a few days in each region.
Flight: Using frequent flier miles for one of us, we took a United flight from JFK-LHR and then a BMI flight from LHR-CDG. While we saved a few dollars, I do not recommend taking flights on more than one carrier. Because BMI changed our schedule both coming and going we ended up having 2.5 and 6 hour layovers in London (since our plane was delayed and it was raining when we landed, we decided not to try going into London).
Paris: Taking the RER from the airport was easy and I highly recommend it, our hotel was not too far from the Invalides stop. We had a good time just getting a taste of different areas of the city. If we?d had more time I would have wanted to explore a bit further from the center.
Hotel: Hotel Muguet (www.hotelmuguet.com), booked on y'all's recommendation. Great pick! We had room 64, with a view of the Golden Dome. Our room was decent in size with a sloped ceiling and small but adequate bathroom. Everything was neat and fairly new. The staff helped with calling restaurants and making reservations for us. The location was great. One morning I sat and wrote in my journal, watching joggers go by with a view of the Eiffel Tower. More than one morning we grabbed crepes for breakfast near the La Tour Maubourg metro stop. There was a supermarket, bank and post office all close to the Ecole Militaire metro stop.
Sightseeing: We got the three-day travel and museum pass. It made things very convenient although the lines for most places weren't too, too bad (not high season, yet?). Cost-wise I'd say we probably about broke even, but it was worth it to not have to think about money and we also ended up seeing one or two things we might not have i.e. going up the tower at Notre Dame.
Churches: Sainte-Chapelle (thought we would like it more), Notre-Dame
Museums: Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Musee Rodin, Pompidou Centre
Our favorites were d'Orsay and Pompidou (we also liked the neighborhood around the Pompidou - may try to stay there next time!). I'd heard good things about the museum cafe, but didn't think anything was especially great. I do love the view of the Seine from the terrace.
Food: We developed a two-meals a day habit in France with a little snacking at other times...dinner was always so big!
P'tit Troquet (7e): The food was good but nothing to write home about. The location wasn't easy to find, but the service here was good. However, they put us in a back room with another American family. This is when I started to get suspicious that English-speakers were separated from the rest of the diners.
Lucas Carton (8e): This happened again at Lucas. We booked lunch since that's all we could afford! The room was empty for half of our meal. Eventually two other tables joined us. However, when I went to use the restroom, there seemed to be a whole second floor full of French chatter - any confirmation that there were two dining rooms and a system of segregation? The food was very good - although I couldn't believe the glass of wine I'd had with my meal had been 22 euros! After eating here and at Troquet, I thought that maybe my France dining experience had been lacking so far because I hadn't eaten in a crowded evening dining room.
La Mediterranee(6e): We did get that experience here, but to our detriment. We didn't get served for the longest time - each waitress claiming we were in the other's section. My husband learned that entree meant appetizer (at least his five jumbo shrimp were really good!) and after my two-course prix-fixe we exited as quickly as possible.
Other things we did: went shopping in Marais, saw the view from Notre Dame, took a trip down the Seine, walked a lot!
Overall: Paris was great - I think we could have easily spent another two days here. There were definitely things I noticed only after reading Fodor postings i.e. the many dog droppings and the wastebaskets that were suspended garbage bags instead of actual containers.
Burgundy: We took the TGV to Dijon and picked up our rental car - AVIS (with additional coverage it was $412 for slightly over six days, we drove a Toyota Yaris which was plenty of space for the two of us). Driving overall was a good experience - you definitely can't do it alone as you're trying to keep track of what towns lie in your desired direction.
Sights: We enjoyed just driving through the beautiful vineyards and small towns. Our favorite places were Abbaye de Fontenay and the Hospices de Beaune - as much for the stories behind the places than the actual grounds. We even bought a bottle of red from at a local cellar (the Hospices de Beaune have a famous annual wine auction).
Favorite restaurant of the trip: La Bouzerotte (http://perso.wanadoo.fr/la.bouzerotte/) - a small place a few miles west of Beaune, described as a husband-and-wife run restaurant popular with the locals in Oz Clarke's Guide to Wine in Burgundy. At first the place looked a little sketchy (large highway sign, plastic chairs outside, looked closed), but it was a wonderful delight. The inside decor homey but tasteful service was great and patient (we spent a long time looking things up in our dictionary!), the food both tasty and well presented, the cheese course had so many options (I've become a fan of the Burgundy specialty Epoisse), and the recommended wine very complementary. We almost went there the next night as well, but ended up at a recommendation of our B&B owner.
B&B: Route de Bouze (www.routedebouze.com). Susie Lyddons was a great hostess - hearing her perspective as a foreigner living in France for over twenty years was educational. We learned why it always seemed so dead when we walked around towns (it's very rude to disturb your neighbors), that like many small towns that if you weren't born there you were always an outsider, that Burgundy wine is very high end and most vineyards don't open to the general public unlike the easy access we had in Napa.
Provence: I think that perhaps my husband and I aren't "cute little town" people. We found that with many towns we were content to drive through them - didn't seem to merit much more to us. We did enjoy the fields of sunflowers. We also did enjoy visiting abbeys (Senanque and Montmajour). The former has a mandatory French tour (it's still in operation) and the latter had a surprise photo exhibit (as part of the photography festival in Arles). Lucien Clergue was even there being interviewed in front of some of his pictures.
We did spent a bit of time wandering around Roussillon and L?Isle-sur-la-Sorge which were nice. I felt like we saw more locals wandering around at the latter. We also enjoyed a short trip to the vineyards of Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
Hotel: Mas des Carassins (www.hoteldescarassins.com). For both the hotels I booked I had made a special effort to find ones with A/C and we were glad I did! The weather was quite warm during our time in both Paris and Provence. Our room was cozy (esp. in contrast to the huge space we had at the B&B), but nicely furnished.
Restaurants: We ate at the hotel one night, had pizza the next, and ate at La Prevotte for our last real dinner in France (would be on the TGV the next night). While La Prevotte was a one-star Michelin restaurant (or least was in the guide they had at the hotel) - it was good but not spectacular.
TGV: The station was easy to find and quite modern. The only time our lack of French came into play was that we couldn't understand the announcements over the PA. We would check the board and see the estimated amount of delay for our train but that was all! We ended up sitting right by the platform and asking people each time a train came in if it was ours!
Hyatt CDG: Not the most convenient place - their shuttle only stops at terminals one and two and we were lucky to catch the last midnight shuttle due to train delays, and not being able to figure out the shuttle thing! I booked it using their on-line pay ahead scheme which saved quite a few euros. The place is nice, but definitely the kind of place you'd stay on a business expense account. Hubby can't get over the threadcount of the duvet cover.
Guides: Our backbone was a Fodor?s France. Eyewitness Paris was also helpful as it was divided by arrondisements. We also had a Rough Guide Provence which had a terrible index and was only helpful to decide what we wanted to see.
France was great! We're now addicted to cheese and wine. Thanks for all your help and let me know if I can be of assistance!
Woohoo! My (new) husband and I just returned from our ten-day trip to France (not including travel days) and I wanted to check in with our report as reading Fodor's posts helped immensely in planning our honeymoon.
About us: 29/36, Manhattanites, graduate student and professional, I'd been to Paris before, this was hubby's first time to Europe. Here in New York we enjoy eating out, plays, museums and concerts. We went to Napa last summer and were looking forward to comparing the vineyards of Burgundy. We also liked the idea of incorporating both city and country time into our honeymoon. Noting that it was indeed our honeymoon we did a lot of sleeping and eating and perhaps not as much touring around as we might have on a typical vacation.
We decided to go for somewhat of a sampler of France and our trip was split into three main parts: Paris, Burgundy, and Provence with just a few days in each region.
Flight: Using frequent flier miles for one of us, we took a United flight from JFK-LHR and then a BMI flight from LHR-CDG. While we saved a few dollars, I do not recommend taking flights on more than one carrier. Because BMI changed our schedule both coming and going we ended up having 2.5 and 6 hour layovers in London (since our plane was delayed and it was raining when we landed, we decided not to try going into London).
Paris: Taking the RER from the airport was easy and I highly recommend it, our hotel was not too far from the Invalides stop. We had a good time just getting a taste of different areas of the city. If we?d had more time I would have wanted to explore a bit further from the center.
Hotel: Hotel Muguet (www.hotelmuguet.com), booked on y'all's recommendation. Great pick! We had room 64, with a view of the Golden Dome. Our room was decent in size with a sloped ceiling and small but adequate bathroom. Everything was neat and fairly new. The staff helped with calling restaurants and making reservations for us. The location was great. One morning I sat and wrote in my journal, watching joggers go by with a view of the Eiffel Tower. More than one morning we grabbed crepes for breakfast near the La Tour Maubourg metro stop. There was a supermarket, bank and post office all close to the Ecole Militaire metro stop.
Sightseeing: We got the three-day travel and museum pass. It made things very convenient although the lines for most places weren't too, too bad (not high season, yet?). Cost-wise I'd say we probably about broke even, but it was worth it to not have to think about money and we also ended up seeing one or two things we might not have i.e. going up the tower at Notre Dame.
Churches: Sainte-Chapelle (thought we would like it more), Notre-Dame
Museums: Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Musee Rodin, Pompidou Centre
Our favorites were d'Orsay and Pompidou (we also liked the neighborhood around the Pompidou - may try to stay there next time!). I'd heard good things about the museum cafe, but didn't think anything was especially great. I do love the view of the Seine from the terrace.
Food: We developed a two-meals a day habit in France with a little snacking at other times...dinner was always so big!
P'tit Troquet (7e): The food was good but nothing to write home about. The location wasn't easy to find, but the service here was good. However, they put us in a back room with another American family. This is when I started to get suspicious that English-speakers were separated from the rest of the diners.
Lucas Carton (8e): This happened again at Lucas. We booked lunch since that's all we could afford! The room was empty for half of our meal. Eventually two other tables joined us. However, when I went to use the restroom, there seemed to be a whole second floor full of French chatter - any confirmation that there were two dining rooms and a system of segregation? The food was very good - although I couldn't believe the glass of wine I'd had with my meal had been 22 euros! After eating here and at Troquet, I thought that maybe my France dining experience had been lacking so far because I hadn't eaten in a crowded evening dining room.
La Mediterranee(6e): We did get that experience here, but to our detriment. We didn't get served for the longest time - each waitress claiming we were in the other's section. My husband learned that entree meant appetizer (at least his five jumbo shrimp were really good!) and after my two-course prix-fixe we exited as quickly as possible.
Other things we did: went shopping in Marais, saw the view from Notre Dame, took a trip down the Seine, walked a lot!
Overall: Paris was great - I think we could have easily spent another two days here. There were definitely things I noticed only after reading Fodor postings i.e. the many dog droppings and the wastebaskets that were suspended garbage bags instead of actual containers.
Burgundy: We took the TGV to Dijon and picked up our rental car - AVIS (with additional coverage it was $412 for slightly over six days, we drove a Toyota Yaris which was plenty of space for the two of us). Driving overall was a good experience - you definitely can't do it alone as you're trying to keep track of what towns lie in your desired direction.
Sights: We enjoyed just driving through the beautiful vineyards and small towns. Our favorite places were Abbaye de Fontenay and the Hospices de Beaune - as much for the stories behind the places than the actual grounds. We even bought a bottle of red from at a local cellar (the Hospices de Beaune have a famous annual wine auction).
Favorite restaurant of the trip: La Bouzerotte (http://perso.wanadoo.fr/la.bouzerotte/) - a small place a few miles west of Beaune, described as a husband-and-wife run restaurant popular with the locals in Oz Clarke's Guide to Wine in Burgundy. At first the place looked a little sketchy (large highway sign, plastic chairs outside, looked closed), but it was a wonderful delight. The inside decor homey but tasteful service was great and patient (we spent a long time looking things up in our dictionary!), the food both tasty and well presented, the cheese course had so many options (I've become a fan of the Burgundy specialty Epoisse), and the recommended wine very complementary. We almost went there the next night as well, but ended up at a recommendation of our B&B owner.
B&B: Route de Bouze (www.routedebouze.com). Susie Lyddons was a great hostess - hearing her perspective as a foreigner living in France for over twenty years was educational. We learned why it always seemed so dead when we walked around towns (it's very rude to disturb your neighbors), that like many small towns that if you weren't born there you were always an outsider, that Burgundy wine is very high end and most vineyards don't open to the general public unlike the easy access we had in Napa.
Provence: I think that perhaps my husband and I aren't "cute little town" people. We found that with many towns we were content to drive through them - didn't seem to merit much more to us. We did enjoy the fields of sunflowers. We also did enjoy visiting abbeys (Senanque and Montmajour). The former has a mandatory French tour (it's still in operation) and the latter had a surprise photo exhibit (as part of the photography festival in Arles). Lucien Clergue was even there being interviewed in front of some of his pictures.
We did spent a bit of time wandering around Roussillon and L?Isle-sur-la-Sorge which were nice. I felt like we saw more locals wandering around at the latter. We also enjoyed a short trip to the vineyards of Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
Hotel: Mas des Carassins (www.hoteldescarassins.com). For both the hotels I booked I had made a special effort to find ones with A/C and we were glad I did! The weather was quite warm during our time in both Paris and Provence. Our room was cozy (esp. in contrast to the huge space we had at the B&B), but nicely furnished.
Restaurants: We ate at the hotel one night, had pizza the next, and ate at La Prevotte for our last real dinner in France (would be on the TGV the next night). While La Prevotte was a one-star Michelin restaurant (or least was in the guide they had at the hotel) - it was good but not spectacular.
TGV: The station was easy to find and quite modern. The only time our lack of French came into play was that we couldn't understand the announcements over the PA. We would check the board and see the estimated amount of delay for our train but that was all! We ended up sitting right by the platform and asking people each time a train came in if it was ours!
Hyatt CDG: Not the most convenient place - their shuttle only stops at terminals one and two and we were lucky to catch the last midnight shuttle due to train delays, and not being able to figure out the shuttle thing! I booked it using their on-line pay ahead scheme which saved quite a few euros. The place is nice, but definitely the kind of place you'd stay on a business expense account. Hubby can't get over the threadcount of the duvet cover.
Guides: Our backbone was a Fodor?s France. Eyewitness Paris was also helpful as it was divided by arrondisements. We also had a Rough Guide Provence which had a terrible index and was only helpful to decide what we wanted to see.
France was great! We're now addicted to cheese and wine. Thanks for all your help and let me know if I can be of assistance!
Jul 13th, 2004 | 06:38 AM
#3
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 654
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I'm so glad you had a wonderful honeymoon! Burgundy is one of our favorite regions of France, and we are headed there for the 4th time in September. As for you dining experience at Lucas Carton, we felt the same way when we had dinner there 4 years ago. It was not one of my favorite places, and I doubt I would ever return. Now, Grand Vefour is another story. Just wonderful.
Congratulations on your marriage!
Congratulations on your marriage!
Jul 13th, 2004 | 02:38 PM
#4
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 504
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Very nice report. Did you request non-smoking at Le P'tit Troquet? Perhaps that is why you were in the back room with practically all Americans. Can't comment on Lucas-Carton. Please clarify for me the restaurant "La Prevotte"; is it possibly Prévôté in Isle sur la Sorgue?
Jul 15th, 2004 | 06:43 AM
#5
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Yes, the restaurant was the one in Isle sur la Sorgue. In general, it was disappointing that our "splurge" meals weren't our best, but you always take a chance I guess! I would say that for $30 you eat better in Paris than you would in NYC (even considering the exchange rate!).
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Jul 19th, 2004 | 09:24 AM
#8
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Laidback - that makes total sense now! We were unknowingly self-segregating by answering "non-smoking" for seating preference!
ira - the vineyards in Burgundy seemed to go on and on...the biggest difference that I noticed was in the producers. In Burgundy there didn't seem to be any small mom-and-pop type operations, everything seemed established and high end. Also, the producers weren't typically open for tasting and tours - so maybe less touristy in a way.
ira - the vineyards in Burgundy seemed to go on and on...the biggest difference that I noticed was in the producers. In Burgundy there didn't seem to be any small mom-and-pop type operations, everything seemed established and high end. Also, the producers weren't typically open for tasting and tours - so maybe less touristy in a way.
Jul 19th, 2004 | 12:11 PM
#9
Joined: Dec 2003
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Burgundy actually has many small vintners; you just don't see them unless you know who and where they are and make an advance appointment to taste their wines. Even the larger operations discourage drop-ins, as not all have tasting rooms. Also, not all vintners bottle their own wines--quite a few send the grapes on to be processed elsewhere.
The best way to do non-reservation tasting is to visit the wine communes, like Gevrey-Chambertin or Savigny-lès-Beaune, along the wine roads; most have tasting rooms offering wines of the region.
The best way to do non-reservation tasting is to visit the wine communes, like Gevrey-Chambertin or Savigny-lès-Beaune, along the wine roads; most have tasting rooms offering wines of the region.
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