# Paris or Not? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 6, 2005, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-or-not/283368 "2005-01-06T10:26:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-or-not/283368/21 "2005-01-07T17:13:01Z")
Of course the real issue is that Paris (as nice as it is) would steal a day of my being home (which is even bettter). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Big\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-or-not/283368/22 "2005-01-07T23:14:11Z")
i was there in late '99. 2 places i stayed that i liked were Hotel Gay-lussac in the 5th arr. Near a lot of good spots, old place if you like that. Other places is Hotel Port-Royal on Rue Port Royal, I believe. Not ‘downtown’, but not far away either. Nicer, more ‘americanized’ but not like a travelodge. I’d choose Paris over London anyday. So beautiful. go. Check out the Louvre at night with the lighting against the 800 year old walls. Unreal. ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-or-not/283368/23 "2005-01-07T23:58:53Z")
I hear the Paris Hilton is accomdating. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-or-not/283368/24 "2005-01-08T00:13:42Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > I don’t speak French and I’ve been to Paris twice and it was not a problem. > > Just say bon jour or bon swar when you walk into a place and they will start speaking english to you. That’s right. Everyone in Paris speaks English (and most even better than I can as far as I can tell :)). I just got back from my third trip there two months ago. I don’t speak a word of French. I have never once had a problem and I have spent many days alone walking all over Paris. My strategy is just to act very humble, try to make due with facial expressions and gestures, and then people invariably break out into English and have never been rude. It was only a very,very minor inconvienience for me that I didn’t speak French and never posed any real problems at all. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-or-not/283368/25 "2005-01-08T06:53:31Z")
> [@Odinoneeye](#): > > I hear the Paris Hilton is accomdating. :eek: Actually, it is nice. Been to Paris twice. Once poor, and once on my parent’s dime and thus the Paris Hilton. Sorry, and I know this is not a popular stance, but I was unimpressed with the city both times. If I never go back to Paris, fine with me. If I were you, I would go to Berlin, but Koln is also very interesting and beautiful. And Amsterdam of course, and Switzerland, or Italy or…but I would put Paris on the bottom of the list. Then again, gazillions of people seem to love it, so… …but if you do go, there is a very cool American/French bookstore called Village Voice that is worth a visit. Small, friendly, with a little cafe in the back, and quite a few American ex-patriots hang out there. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-or-not/283368/26 "2005-01-08T07:00:41Z")
Oops, I didn’t mean the Paris Hilton that you were referring to…and to be honest, I think it was the Paris Intercontinental…chocolates on the pillow, and a bottle of champagne in a cooler when you entered the room. Then again, for the price my parents were paying, Paris Hilton should have carried our bags to the room. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2005, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-or-not/283368/27 "2005-01-08T22:17:56Z")
Heh. [Paris Hilton reviews the Paris Hilton](http://www.kontraband.com/show/show.asp?id=1127). ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2005, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-or-not/283368/28 "2005-01-14T15:31:20Z")
Heck with it. Due to flight schedules, I will be in Amsterdam on the night of 24 February. Anyone got a favorite hotel (or coffeehouse)? ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-or-not/283368/29 "2005-01-15T02:10:49Z")
Yea!!! My ideas wins!!! (But do you mean a coffeehouse? Or a coffeeshop??) ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-or-not/283368/30 "2005-01-15T02:36:36Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > Anyone got a favorite hotel (or coffeehouse)? [This thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=156915) might help. ---
**Author:** ![partlycloudy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/partlycloudy/32/3114_2.png) [@partlycloudy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/partlycloudy)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-or-not/283368/31 "2005-01-19T22:37:41Z")
My [favorite](http://www.thenoon.net/)[coffeeshop](http://www.coffeeshop.freeuk.com/Database/ShopsA/Noon.html) is **The Noon**. Very nice - small & cozy. 😃 \<—How I felt when I left there. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-or-not/283368/32 "2005-01-20T00:21:11Z")
My favorite hotel is the Hotel Prinsengracht; it books up fast, though. I tend to get really squirrely paranoid, so for coffeeshops I like Rookies (in Dutch it sounds like a sort of smoking pun), which just feels like a college pub to me, with pool and darts and beer and. . . other things. Comfortingly familiar feeling. But I suck. You DO mean “coffee shops” right. . . like. . . “coffee” shops? I think a Koffiehuis (or a ‘cafe’) is the other kind that you can take you mom to, in which case there are some nice ones in the Jordaan (there’s a careful vocabulary in that country). If you like BEER, there’s a place called the Wildeman that’s in the little warren of streets near the station that has good beer. Nearby in that area is a liquor store that has a lot of unusual things. My favorite bar is called Onder de Ooievaar (“oo-e-yuh-vahr”, roughly-- it’s a stork) on the corner of the Prinsengracht and Utrechtsestraat, if you get out that way. Bols distillery has a place downtown, too, and they’ve started making a fantastic vodka. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-or-not/283368/33 "2005-01-20T05:21:15Z")
Oddly, my trip is falling to pieces. The KLM flight to Dammam would require an 8 hour layover in that gruesome city. No way. I told my travel agent to just fly me home cheap. I bet I am doing a nonstop to New York. Last time I did that it was like 53 hours flight time. No fun at all. ---
**Author:** ![Treviathan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/838e76/32.png) [@Treviathan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treviathan)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-or-not/283368/34 "2005-01-20T16:46:23Z")
Well, if you end up in Amsterdam anyways, mind taking the five euro tour of the Heineken Brewery? Then send me the free glass they give you? 'Cause my former roommate broke mine while doing dishes. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-or-not/283368/35 "2005-01-20T18:07:43Z")
Gee, we didn’t get glasses last time, although the tour was free back then and they let us pet the horses. Times change. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paris-or-not/283368.md?page=1)