Tips on preparing for your trip to Paris from hotel suggestions to packing suggestions.
News Art Cafe/Salad bar. An intimate respite from Montparnasse traffic (just around the corner from Avenue du Maine on Rue de l’Ouest) All you can eat salad bar with exotic ambiance, great music, and peace and quiet for a comfortable tete-a-tete.
What is a romantic restaurant? I’m writing this post in response to a recent e-mail. One reader said that ‘romantic restaurants’ were out of the question for her budget.
Quite honestly, one of the most ‘romantic’ meals I’ve ever had were two bologne sandwiches which we ate by candlelight in the cellar of the Vagabond Lodge in Aspen, Colorado. In case you haven’t yet figured this out - a little big of candlelight makes any cave or cellar look suddenly romantic, but the real catalyst is the person who happens to be sitting across the table from you.
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Sandals found at My Dream Wedding
Travel light - and you’ll be glad you did.
What to bring with you:
Cool shades.
Your best-fitting jeans.
An impeccably cut black or navy blazer.
Converse trainers for walking.
‘Just Married’ sandals for Paris Plage and Deauville/Trouville.
Cashmir pullover for cool evenings.
Pocket-size digital camera with extra memory stick and extra batteries.
Corkscrew for spur of the moment picnics on the Seine.
Raingear for summer cloudbursts (i.e. Travelsmith raincoats that roll up into pouches)
Adaptor plugs (220 volt) Make sure your camera attachments cords fit the adaptor plug socket.
For the bride:
Outrageous lingerie.
Little black dress
Cool shades.
Best-fitting …
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So you’re coming to France this summer – and you want to do a lot of walking – but you don’t want to look like a tourist in clunky running shoes.
The solution is simple. Buy a pair of Converse trainers and you’ll fit right in.
In Peggy Frey’s article for Madame Figaro Magazine, Bien Dans Nos Converse’(Comfy in our Converse) she interviews some of Paris’s top names in the fashion world. They confide to Frey their passion for Converse.
Ines de la Fressange tells Frey her favorite colors – navy …
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Where is Jason Bourne when you need him? I’m catching a train at the Gare St. Lazare station – and, as usual, have postponed switching my American sim card to a French one for the last possible minute.
There are many things that I love about the Bourne trilogy – particularly the Pont Neuf scene in Paris, but his ease at switching Sim cards is sheer artistry.
Luckily, I didn’t have to try duplicating that for this quick switch. The trick is finding a Sim card provider when you want one. i.e. they’re always around when you already have your cell phone (or portable as they’e called here) up and running.
Around the Gare St. Lazare station, you’ll find a French Telecom/Orange boutique just to the left of corner when you exit from the station’s main entrance.
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How low can the dollar go? I wish I could bling my magic wand and tell you that by summertime the dollar will soar like an eagle, but sadly, I have no such promises for you. Remember this is reality - here and now in January, 2008 - not reality TV.
I am much less optimistic than the Oxford Club report was, way back when, at the beginning of 2005, for example.
So, here’s my advice to any Parislogue readers contemplating an upcoming trip to Paris: Buy as much of your trip as possible in dollars i.e. dare I say this? Consider package tours.
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Figuring out the SNCF’s train website - is baffling to say the least. If you haven’t already done it the easy way i.e. buying you’reEurail Pass or your Flexipass here is a follow up to some of my past posts on booking train tickets while you’re in France.
I will say the obvious once again. Booking a ticket with no seat reservations in second class is the cheapest and most flexible way to go-especially if we’re talking about mid-week, off-season travel. Today I took the train from Bernay in Normandy to Paris and lolled around in a car with just one other passenger for most of the one and a half hour trip. However for the return trip on a Friday night, catching a non-reserved seat might be a little more dicey. To ensure your chances of picking up a non-reserved seat, arrive at the train station early - i.e. 20 minutes before departure. Once the quai number is posted on the departures screen, you can proceed immediately to your car, and when it’s a non-reserved ticket, just walk and walk until you get to the very end of the train. The unreserved seats are always at the end of the train.
Today, the conductor didn’t even bother looking at my ticket - I tried to hold it up and he said ‘Later’ (which turned out to be never). He couldn’t help but throw in, “There must be a huge difference in price between the reserved and non-reserved seats.”
Of course, when you’re converting these into dollars from Euros - the answer is ‘Yes’.
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Paris in the spring is something quite special. This time of year in the city has been sung about and sighed about, so the only thing left for you to do is get there and sing and/or sigh about it in person. Even though it is not quite the height of the spring travel season in Paris, which means that maybe the weather will not be as perfect as it might be in April or May, going to Paris in March gives you a much better chance on finding a great deal …
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If you’re planning a spring trip for Paris, make sure to be in town on Saturday, May 17 (2008).(I’ve seen different dates posted, and because the official site isn’t set yet for 2008, be sure to reconfirm! This is the tentative date set for the annual national (as well as throughout Europe and parts of South America) free museum night.
The theme in France for this year’s museum night will be ‘The museum opens its doors’.
In past years, over a thousand museums thoughout France and Europe have participated in this event. Doors open around 7 pm and stay open, in some cases, until 1 am.
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My doctor said recently she doesn’t go on vacation without her face mask handy for long flights. She is a very cool doctor - and she would still look very cool even with a face mask. A translatlantic flight from New York to Paris will give you a minimum of six to seven hours to swap germs through the recycled air system so here are some things you can do to protect yourself from picking up a cold enroute:
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You can wander aimlessly, but taking a Paris walking tour is a good way to get to know the city’s neighborhoods. You can quickly get a historical perspective without poring over guidebooks for weeks before your trip. Walking tours make good sense. There are a number of companies offering English language walking tours. The company I chose Paris Walks has a changing schedule of walks with some themes that are bound to entice you such as this their Chocolate Tour.
Chocolate salons are becoming more and more popular in Paris these days. Why not …
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