Paris trip summary

My family just came back from Paris last week (seems quite a few TA readers did the same). This was basically our first trip to Paris, since I was 12 the last time I went. My daughter is 13 so we thought she would be ready for it. I completely relied on TA’s forum and Fodor’s Paris guide. I will only highlight issues that seem prevalent in this forum so that it would be easily helpful to others:

To and fro CDG and Hotel Royal St Michel: After reading most of the advice here, I decided to take a taxi. The average cost turned out to be only $EU40 and both drivers were courteous, efficient, and helped with our bags (unfortunately, I cannot same the same thing concerning our local SFO taxi which did not help with our bags and complained that we should have waited for a larger minivan even though there were only three of us and we only had one suitcase and two small carry-ons! Typical rude SFO’an! ;) )

Traveling around town: I came to Paris prepared to purchase the Carte Oranges (brought along photos), however, since our hotel was centrally located to all the places we wanted to go and we wanted to experience as much of Paris as possible, we decided to walk to most of the sites except for the ET and the Arc. We did take the subways on the way back but in total we did not spend over 30 EU’s of tickets. Our feet were killing us on the second and third day, but were fine by the fourth. Guess we deadened the nerves by then.

Weather: It was cold (low 40’s), wet and overcast. However, the rain was of the light drizzly kind and lasted less than 30 minutes each. We were worried that we’d stood out in our hooded ski jackets, but found a lot of people; including a lot of locals wore the same thing. All the museums we went to were heated and had free coat checks so we wore single layered shirts underneath our coats.

Sites and Museums: We were there for six full days so we took a chance and bought the 5 day passes. We visited the Louvre and the d’Orsay twice, Pompidou, Picasso, Notre Dame, ET, the Arc, Champs-Elysees, Marais, and Haussman (GF and Printemps, specifically). Since my daughter was allowed free admission, the convenience of the passes was well worth it. We did the dumb touristy thing and went to the Louvre on Sunday morning and were pleasantly surprised to see that it was not crowded and that there were only 15 people gawking at the Mona Lisa, a great reason to come in February. Don’t take the guided tours; get the audio guides, instead. They are informative AND allow you the freedom to go when and wherever you want. The tours take away the “wow” factor when you enter each gallery for the first time, since you are obligated to follow your guide and listen to them. Also, PLAN on spending two days at the Louvre and d’Orsay; you won’t be rushed, feel more relaxed, and can absorb the art work more comfortably and personally.

The locals: Even though our French consisted of bonjour, SVP, pardon, merci, desole, au revoir, un, deux, and troi, (my daughter also knows “sucre crepe”, too) everyone was really friendly and helpful so include me as another crusader in quashing the “rude Parisian” myth. I believe saying a friendly “Bonjour!” with a smile at the start may have helped. A lot of Parisians wore jeans and sneakers; HOWEVER, their jeans were dark blue (not faded) and were more “fitted” while their shoes usually were brown/black leather sneakers, shoes or boots. Virtually no one wore the oversized hooded coats, hip-hop, baggy, under the @$$, pants with the white “kicks”, so if you want your teenage son to improve his wardrobe, make him come to Paris and have all the pretty French girls laugh at him.

Eats: All the restaurants we ate at had three things in common: they were packed with Parisians, had no English menus, and the waiters/waitresses could barely translate them beyond describing the dish as “beef” “duck” “chicken” and “sheep”. We still managed to figure things out with the help of our books and their persistence. We were pleasantly surprised at the efficiency of the service at all the places, so another myth taken down. We really liked Le Berthoud (sautéed calamari, duck with couscous, and scallops with vinaigrette) and Le Petit St. Benoit (duck confit, escargots, and steak tartare). Although my daughter enjoyed certain dishes, she couldn’t completely comprehend French food, so we went to a couple of Italian places which were also really good. She noticed how slim Parisians were, and that there were fewer “fat” people even though they are famous for their cuisine. Since they are not known to be either exercise-nuts or mass bulimics/anorexics, I told her it’s perhaps they put emphasis on the QUALITY of the food they eat rather than the QUANTITY.

Paris was everything we had hoped for and more. We were surprised how much fun we had even though the weather was not ideal. My wife has been “fantasizing” about going back every day since we came home.

Thanks for all the advice and help TA contributors. Au revoir.

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Thanks for your review! We leave in a few days so all your info is helpful

gail

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ccrevival -

Enjoyed reading about your trip, and it heightens my anticipation of our upcoming trip this April.

thanks for sharing

Terry

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We were there in March 2004 and experienced the same weather patterns. Fortunately, the sunny break occured while we were at the Rodin musee and we had a lovely picnic in the garden.

Agreed, the Parisian/French %26quot;attitude%26quot; was non-existent for us also. I am partially fluent (stress the PARTIALLY) but as long as I tried to communicate, and since we were respectful and not %26quot;loud demanding Americans%26quot; we were treated exceptionally well.

My philosophy is that I am a GUEST in their country, and I behave as such.

A note - my dear husband tried to get us coffee our second day there (we had a lovely balcony terrace on the left bank) and he wanted to surprise me when I got out of the shower. He went into 2-3 places - they looked at him, waited half a beat, then went back to what they were doing. (There weren%26#39;t any Starbucks there then). When we went out (after my shower) for the day, we went into one of the same patisseries and I said %26quot;Bonjour!%26quot; The same employee that %26quot;ignored%26quot; my husband said in reponse %26quot;Cafe?%26quot; %26quot;Oui! SVP!%26quot;

Poor hubby didn%26#39;t know that you must GREET the shopkeeper to be waited on, but he knows now!

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Thanks so much for this post. I%26#39;m especially grateful for your little not about the weather. I%26#39;m leaving in just two days (I can hardly believe it!) and have been wondering just how persistent/hard the rain fall was going to be. Sounds like you had a wonderful time.

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As mentioned, the rain was of the light drizzly kind and lasted for very short periods of time. Many did not even bother to cover themselves since it did not rain hard or long. Our hooded ski jackets were perfect, since they provided warmth, wind-blocking, and sufficient rain retardation. The only other items you may want to consider are gloves and either ear muffs, scarfs, or caps to keep your head and ears warm; windchill was sometimes nasty at nights. Most of the locals carried umbrellas and wore long wool jackets and scarfs. If you want to bring an umbrella, be aware that most museum coat checks only take the LONG ones, not the short retractables.

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Thanks for your report , I enjoyed reading it very much, but, what are all the strange symbols in your post?

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I prewrote my summary on MS Word and copy/pasted it directly onto the TA site without reviewing it. The funny symbols seem to be either %26#39; or %26quot;.