I am in love...with Paris! (Travelogue)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I spent last week in Paris with three friends (all jazz musicians/fans; we met up with some other American jazz friends while we were there). It was AWESOME. :cool: I’d been there in 1984, as a young teen with my family, but this was effectively my first time.

I studied French in grade school, high school, and college (and again before grad school), and before the trip I did some brushing up via Duolingo: my vocabulary is still that of a child, and my grammar and pronunciation are somewhat abysmal, but I was able to conduct short conversations entirely in French and I really enjoyed that. Everyone there seemed to appreciate the effort, and they also appreciated my apologies for mangling their language. :slight_smile: I wish I had the time/money to take a conversational French class.

We stayed in the opera district, just a few blocks from the Palais Garnier (photo: front of the opera house). What an amazing part of the city to walk around in! We landed Sunday morning, and spent the day walking around a little with a late lunch at our first sidewalk cafe. After being able to check into our rooms, we freshened up and then took a dinner cruise on the Seine (photo: the Eiffel Tower at sunset, taken from the cruise). Beautiful scenery, amazing food and wine, and a perfect way to end our arrival day (while we were fighting to stay awake and adjust to Paris time).

Monday was the Louvre. All day, because…Louvre. That evening we had a decadent, luxurious, 3-hour dinner at Café de la Paix, across from the opera house. By the time dessert was done, so were we!

Tuesday started with the Eiffel Tower: we had purchased summit tickets in advance, but by the time we got to the penultimate level one of my friends and I decided that our vertigo couldn’t take another elevator ride. The other two wanted to go all the way to the top, but the line for that elevator wound up being too long so we all hung out at almost-the-top for a while. The views from there were good enough for me! After the tower we headed to the Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe (photo: the Arc from across the street). That evening two of us met up with some other friends at Café Universel, where I sang at the jazz jam session (photos: #1 and #2)!

Wednesday was Notre Dame (photo: the front), and the Musée d’Orsay – which I enjoyed much more than I expected (photo: Sacré-Cœur and Montmartre as seen through the Orsay’s giant clock window). That night was a performance by a DC-based jazz vocalist my friends and I know: her show was the catalyst for the trip. :slight_smile:

Thursday I took the day off! LOL! The jet lag was getting to me, so I slept in and then did some walking and shopping. I met up with everyone for dinner, then one friend went to our singer friend’s second show while the other three of us went in search of some other Paris jazz and discovered a wonderful piano and bass duo at the Café Laurent. Afterwards my companions went back to the hotel, but I joined our other jazz friends for a late dinner and drinks at La Poule au Pot.

Friday morning was a tour of the Fragonard perfume musuem (more interesting than I expected it to be!), and then we finally went inside the Palais Garnier. I believe my exact reaction to the interior was “WOW.” Afterwards I once again split off from my friends, and went back to the hotel to sleep some more – I’d been out until 3am the night before, and knew Friday night would be another late one. Once again we all reunited for dinner – this time at the fabulous Carpe Diem Café – and then made our way to legendary Duc des Lombards jazz club. A Cameroonian pianist was there, playing an interesting and lively fusion of African and traditional jazz, but we were mostly just waiting for the after-hours jam session to begin. :slight_smile: A couple of us got up and sang (not me this time)! It was really something, and we didn’t leave until just after 3am (the jam went until 4am). My last photo in this post is of trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, who stopped by the jam after his gig around the corner.

I definitely want to go back, and have already started a list of things I didn’t get to that I want to do next time (e.g., ride the Metro and go to Montmartre). It’s entirely possible that my thrall is largely because I was only there for a week, but I’d love to find out. Of course the food was simply amazing everywhere (even at the Louvre’s café!), but I also enjoyed the culture and the people. And I did not get to hear enough jazz there. :slight_smile:

Who’s up for Paris 2018 with me? :smiley:

2

The bolded sentence is the single most important thing you can know before you go to France.

Before my trip (thus far I’ve only been once), I was told to get a phrase book and learn some basics about the language. I was told to begin conversations/interactions in French, which I did, apologizing in the first couple of sentences for my lack of proficiency. And just as I was told, nearly every single person I encountered in Paris did the exact same thing: “Merci. I speak English.” And everyone I encountered in that week was awesome (except one waiter, but he was prolly just having a bad day).

If you’re going to another country, be a mensch and try and learn some basics about the local language. The effort is likely to be mostly unnecessary, but will be appreciated more than you can imagine.

I am!

3

We spent 2 weeks in Paris in 2016, but fell even more in love with Scotland earlier this year, so my 2018 vacation is to Edinburgh for 2 weeks.

Paris is such a great city. I speak about zero French (a few words and phrases) but I got along fine because I was polite! Manners go a long way. Never ran into anyone rude or who disliked Americans. My travel companion and crime really didn’t want to go to the Louvre, so we did Louvre Express. Mona Lisa, Venus, and Winged Victory which made me cry.

You will not bored with a return trip. There is still so much to see. Spend an afternoon at one of the many outdoor cafes (shameless tourists that we are, I got blitzed on Cubra Libres at Les Deux Magots). Boat ride down the Seine. Take a day trip to Versailles.

4

Yep. The DC-based jazz singer we were in Paris to hear? Her pianist is Swedish. We hung out with him several nights. She has performed in Sweden with him many times, and all of their talk about the place got me thinking about a trip to Malmö. First thing I’ve already done? Fire up Duolingo’s Swedish module! It’ll be much more difficult than French, but I don’t like to go anywhere unless I can at least say “please” and “thank you.” :slight_smile:

I’m not really much of an art person, but you know what made me tear up a little? In the Orsay, Monet’s painting of his wife on her death bed (“Camille sur son lit de mort”). Just imagining the grief he must have been feeling, and how he must have needed to process it through his art. sniff

Done, several times (the afternoon-at-an-outdoor-cafe part, not the blitzed-on-Cuba-Libres part :wink: ).

Done the very first day/night (see OP). Though we all agreed we’d do it again, maybe next time on a tour boat.

On the list! :slight_smile:

5

Love Paris and have been many times. Next time hike up to Sacre Coeur in the Monmarte District.

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Yes, Montmartre is already on my list for next time (see OP) and Sacré-Cœur is definitely part of that! They *were *on my itinerary for this trip, but I wound up skipping them on Friday afternoon in favor of napping. :slight_smile:

7

Oh yeah, I meant to post this at the end of the OP:

Things I Learned While In Paris/About Paris

[ul]
[li]Pedestrians and motorcyles/scooters rule. They go wherever they want, whenever they want.[/li]
[li]Lane markings are merely suggestions. Cars go wherever they can fit.[/li]
[li]Weather forecasts are useless, at least in late September. Even forecasts for that same day. It often rained when it wasn’t supposed to, or was warmer/cooler than expected. I managed to be pretty comfortable most of the time, but all of the “wear layers and be prepared for anything” advice suddenly made crystal clear sense.[/li]
[li]All meals are leisurely. Not just dinners. Don’t go to an outdoor cafe for breakfast if you only have an hour.[/li]
[li]Some people can travel the world and never leave the USA. I was appalled by some of the entitled, rude, provincial behavior and attitudes I saw from Americans who are fairly well-traveled…unfortunately, they were people I knew![/li][/ul]

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You may enjoy this beautiful video - the opening scene of the movie “Midnight in Paris”.

It’s an expression of being in love with Paris.

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Thanks, GreenWyvern! :slight_smile:

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Oh, gosh, what a wonderful trip. Thank you for sharing! I never had problems in France. I, too, had some high school French and my trying it was appreciated. Anyone who’s humble will not have a problem. I did come across some of those entitled Americans and cringed. No way did I let on I was American when I was near them.

I love Paris, but I was lucky enough to spend a month in the Loire Valley. To me, that was the ultimate French experience.

11

I spent several days in the Loire Valley, based out of Tours. It was a road trip, so I avoided Paris like the plague on the way from Cologne. On the way back, though, we’d decided that it would be a shame at least not to pass through Paris, despite my having absolutely no desire or appreciation or good feelings for it at all. So we did, and it was awesome. And when I had the opportunity to go back a couple of years later, I did so, and hope to do so again. I’m no unsophisticated traveler; I’ve travelled and lived all over the world, but Paris had never interested me, and I felt humbled to enjoy it so much.

(Tours and the Loire Valley reminded me that the French are very much our brothers.)

Having driven around, in, and out of Paris, do take note that the lovely part is only the touristy part, the parts near the Seine. Get out of that area, and it’s a horrible, urban nightmare of ugly buildings, too much traffic, too many people, trash in the streets, kind of dystopian nightmare. Not sure if this is Paris proper or just part of a larger metropolis.

12

Why does everyone hate France and the French. As Europeans go, I’ve found them to be friendlier than average,

13

We were recently in Europe and this is also true for Spain. Any quick meal will take over an hour and dinner will be 2-3 hours. And you don’t start eating dinner until 8:00. Some restaurants don’t even open until 7:00. We were routinely still at restaurants past midnight. I guess that is why nothing opens until 9:00AM.

We also hit up the Louvre, Orsay and Notre Dame (although that was a bit of a run through since we didn’t have the time). We visited the Eiffel tower but didn’t go up it. We liked Orsay over the Louvre. We walked to everything. If I were to go back, I would rent the city bikes that are all over rather than walking 10+ miles each day.

We also went to Versailles and spent the night. First day was going through Versailles and the second day was spent walking the grounds which we enjoyed even more.

14

When I was a kid we also went to Normandy, and saw Mont Saint-Michel. Although that area is still tourist-y it definitely wasn’t Paris, so I think I know what you mean. But I’ll stick with Paris for now. :slight_smile:

YES, I meant to mention this! Our “fancy” dinner reservations were for 7pm, and at around 9pm we saw a couple of instrumentalists set up. My friends wondered why the music would start so late, and I reminded them that 9pm is early for dinner in Paris! It was tough on two of my companions, who are morning people and always wanted to eat breakfast before most cafés were open. Heh.

15

Did you make it out to the giant flea market at Clignancourt? Fun to watch the three card monte grifters run when a cop appears.

16

No, but we passed it on the taxi ride from the airport and our driver pointed it out! He said, “There’s a really big flea market here.” Then, after a beat: “It’s not safe.”

17

Yeah, you have to practice good personal security. It may be worse than when I was last there in the 90s.