Travel

Now that we’ve been back almost two months and I’ve had time to think about our trip to France, I wanted to summarize some of the things that were recommended to us about Paris and some of our experiences.  Hopefully this will help someone else who is planning on visiting The City of Lights.

Hotel
– Renaissance Le Parc Tracadero – great service, most employees speak English very well, very nice accommodations, courtyard between buildings with couches/chairs/heating towers

Restaurants
– Frenchie Wine Bar – first come, first serve (opens at 7pm); small plates dining; dine with other customers; get the pulled pork
– XVIeme Avenue – wonderful French Onion soup, beautiful bar and interiors, sidewalk dining available, no reservation required
– La Petite Retro – reservation required (but can get one the day of, just get your concierge to make one); good wine and good food
Others recommended to us that we didn’t visit:
– Verjus
– Frenchie Restaurant
– Septime
– Chez Janou
– Ches l’Ami Jean – good for dinner; great rice pudding
– Cafe Marley – good for lunch; view into Louvre courtyard
– Spring – Wine bar with restaurant; requires reservation
– Les Papilles – good for dinner; set menu; “authentic French meal”
– La Petite Cler
– Taillevent – very expensive but good
– Market – American style brunch on weekends

Walking Streets/Areas
– Rue Montorgueil – bakeries, deli’s, etc with shopping on surrounding streets
– Rue Cler – florists, deli’s, cheese shops, bakeries, etc
– Rue St. Dominique
– Booksellers on the Seine – the famous green awning covered booksellers sell everything from books to art prints to vintage magazines, either go to them with a view to check everything out or just searching for something in particular because the variety of items sold is huge

Sweets
– Best street crepes that we had were at the kiosk in front of the entrance to Orsay
– Laduree – stop in the tea room at the corner of Rue Jacob and Rue Bonaparte to rest and enjoy; you can also buy Laduree macaroons throughout the city, including in Printemps
– Stohrer – rue Montorgueil; famous for their Eclair
– Hevin – chocolates
Others recommended to us that we didn’t visit:
– Angelina – rue Rivoli across from Tuileries Garden; supposedly the best hot chocolate (chocolate chaud) in the city but there was a huge line when we walked by
– Les Petits Mitrons – Monmartre area; tarts
– A La Mere de Famille – 9th arr; candy and chocolate
– Jacques – chocolate chaud
– Almondine – across from Jacques; pain au chocolate, croissants

Shopping
– Boulevard Haussman – Galleries Lafayette, Printemps
Others recommended to us that we didn’t visit:
– Bon Marche – department store
– Le Grand Epicerie – gourmet grocery with contemporary fashion on the 2nd floor

Resources
TheParisKitchen – food tours of the city along with a blog with lots of info
Mr and Mrs in Paris – childhood friend who spent time living in Paris with her husband, she no longer writes on this blog anymore but it has lots of “Behind the Scenes” details about the city

Tips
– You can get cash from an ATM in the airport to get the lowest conversion rates.  We chose to get cash from ATM’s every day as opposed to carrying a large sum around.  Just make sure that you’ve notified your banks that you will be using your cards internationally, otherwise they’ll get rejected.
– We called AT&T and got a very limited international calling plan for the time that we would be abroad.  It was very affordable and allowed us to call home when we needed to.  They also helped us figure out what to turn off on our phones so that we weren’t accidentally downloading data all the time and didn’t end up with a huge bill at the end of our trip.
– I put all of our information (hotel, Embassy info, copies of passports and insurance cards and driver licenses, itinerary, places we wanted to see) in a document and had it converted to a PDF which I then opened in iBooks on my phone.  This allowed us to have all of that information electronically on both of our phones in case we needed it and our parents had it all also on their devices.  VERY easy to do for FREE and has been invaluable not only while we were gone, but since then when I’ve needed things like passport numbers quickly. (If you don’t have the option to save to PDF in your word program, there are various programs out there that allow you to do this.  I’ve always used Online PDF Converter, just as an FYI).
– Utilize conversation tools that work over Wifi like Facetime or Skype while you’re abroad to keep you in touch with home without paying the international phone charges.
– Map out an idea of where you want to go each day, but make sure and check that where you want to go is open when you want to go before you head out!
– Utilize the concierge at the hotel for last minute reservations or recommendations for places to eat near your hotel.
– Get your tickets for the Eiffel Tower before you go but know that you’ll still have to wait in line.
– We found that none of the city passes would be worth it for us since we weren’t planning on seeing everything that was in the city.  Make sure you compare prices of passes before you purchase.  Also, we never had to stand in really long lines to enter a museum (other than the Eiffel Tower which wasn’t included in the passes anyway) so getting a pass to bypass the line wouldn’t have helped.  If you’ve got little kids with you or are there during the height of tourist season you might consider the pass though to avoid the lines.
– A lot of the “upper scale” restaurants book with reservations months in advance.  Be prepared for that.
– Be courteous to the shopkeepers, restaurant staff, and others that you come in contact with.  The polite conversation (that we were told and gathered us very polite help) is “Bonjour Monsieur/Madame” when you enter and “Merci Beau Coup” when you leave.  We never had any rude interactions while we were in Paris and I can only guess that our meager attempts to “speak” the language helped.
– The Metro is nice in Paris.  It’s not sketchy and is pretty nice and clean.  Use it! Taxi’s are expensive!

Hope this helps if you’re planning a trip to Paris!  If you’ve been and I left out a “must” on your list let me know, I’d love to add it to my list!

Our last day in Paris was another early morning.  We hadn’t gone online early enough to get tickets for the Eiffel Tower so we had to wait in line to go up.  Every time we walked by the line was huge and so we decided that when it opened at 9:30 in the morning would be the best chance of us getting up without wasting our entire day.  So we walked up 8:30 and were still probably at least 100th in line.  And this was the line for tickets.

So we waited and waited in the cold.  And waited some more.  9:30 came and went and while there was security in the security stand, no one was going through it.  Finally around 10:15 the ticket windows opened and then they started letting people go through security.

Honestly, this whole experience was the worst of our trip.  If you go and want to go up the Eiffel Tower you MUST go online and purchase tickets ahead of time.  Not that the people with tickets didn’t have to wait, they had to wait for them to open security up like we did, they just didn’t have to wait in the line to buy tickets and then go through the masses to get through security.  You would think that since they operate the lift to the top 363 days a year or something and have been doing it for years they would have a better system for it!  Hopefully it was just a fluke that we happened to be on the day that it was a nightmare to get up, but still, buy tickets in advance!

I was definitely over the waiting in line to go up by the time we got to security but we persevered.  There was another obstacle in the ascension of the tower.  I didn’t realize that I’m scared of heights but going up with not much between you and air and a lot of space to the ground didn’t make for a very comforting ride!  But once we got up it was still not very busy since it was first thing in the morning.  We went straight up to the very top and started admiring the views.

It really was gorgeous and I’m glad we went up, but I can’t stress enough, GET TICKETS AHEAD OF TIME and still plan to wait!

That afternoon we headed to Rue Montorgueil to experience this popular walking street.  The shopping this afternoon was possibly one of my favorite things about the trip, because it was fun just to explore the street and the shops and take our time enjoying the city.  Getting to have a famous Stohrer Eclair didn’t hurt either!  It was as good as I’d heard it would be!

We made sure to leave ourselves plenty of time to get to dinner.  We were hoping to get into the Frenchie Wine Bar but knew that it was first come, first serve and the doors opened at 7.  We walked by a little before 6:30 and no one was there yet but when we walked back at 6:45 we were the 6th couple in line!  We had no idea how big the bar was but knew that it was small so we hoped that we could get in with the first round.  We shouldn’t have worried, there was probably room for 30-35 people at a time.

This is the sign of the Frenchie Restaurant across the street from the wine bar.  It is a small prix fixe menu and in addition to the fact that it’s near impossible to get reservations, everything sounded “too exotic” for us.  We were already craving the BBQ at the bar.  But, if you’re in town and don’t have reservations for the restaurant and want them, it won’t hurt to go and try and get in to the bar.  There were at least two couples that got to eat at the restaurant due to cancellations that were standing in line for us and volunteered quickly with the staff came out to offer the spots!

Frenchie has such a neat atmosphere.  You eat at shared tables with other couples and it’s made up of small plates meant to be shared.  So, if you hadn’t had a Stohrer Eclair an hour before, you could share a handful of plates to make a full meal.

After reading about the pulled pork sandwich on The Paris Kitchen, I was dying to try it. And now comes the time when I make the most inflammatory statement ever to grace my blog.  This was the best pulled pork sandwich that I have ever eaten.  I’m sorry to those of you in the South (like me!) who live on BBQ and think that yours is the best.  No, to get the absolute best, you must go to Paris.  It was tender and juicy and packed with flavor.  Just typing about it makes me want to go back just for the pulled pork!

Jason got a pasta and said it was good.  I could hardly tear myself away from my sandwiches to try it, but it did taste pretty good, but was a little too “gamey” for my taste (I think it was rabbit).  We also had this cheese that, honestly, I have no idea what it was, but it was really good too.  We wondered if it would beat the mozzarella at Torrisi in NYC and it didn’t, but it was good!

It was a neat experience dining with other diners.  We ended up being placed at a table with another couple from America who had actually lived in Alabama at one point!  What a small world!  They were very nice and great to advise us on some places to try after we left Frenchie.  We didn’t make it to them but Verjus is on our list the next time we get to Paris!

After we left Frenchie we headed back to get a final Nutella Crepe and watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle some more.  It was nice to sit on the steps with our gooey, warm crepes and just enjoy time together.  I love the pictures that we got of the tower that night.

Our return home on Tuesday was uneventful but long.  It was neat to get to see the area that we were flying over, but we sure flew over the ocean for a long time!

It was nice to get home to our own bed and we loved waking Charlotte and James up the next morning.    This was a trip of a lifetime and we enjoyed it so much.  It seems strange that we’ve only been back for two weeks because it seems like ages ago that we were in Paris.  But we’re already looking forward to going back and (eventually) taking the kids to see The City of Lights.  They treated us well! Au Revoir Paris!

 We got up early on Sunday morning to head to the Vanves Flea Market.  We had done our research and had been told that the Clignancourt Flea Market was huge and much more expensive than the one at Porte de Vanves.  (We even heard that sometimes the sellers at Clignancourt come to Vanves to stock their booths!)  And we had been advised to get there early, so we arrived around 9 and some sellers were still unloading their wares.  It was also fairly empty (at first we wondered if we were in the right place) which afforded us a leisurely stroll perusing booths.

I didn’t take any pictures at the flea market other than this one of Bobo for the kids….

….but I do have some suggestions if you’re going to go.

– It’s easy to take the Metro do the Porte de Vanves stop.
– The earlier you go the less crowded it is.  This allows you a chance to see all of the merchandise without having to work around other people.  But some vendors might not be all the way set up at this time so it’s a trade off.
– Some vendors know enough English to get by, some don’t.  If you want to buy something make sure you say “Bonjour” first, it will improve their impression on you and might get you a better deal.
– If you see something that you like, ask if they have others similar to it.  One art dealer saw Jason looking at the golf piece below and told him he had 8 more in the set and searched through stacks with Jason to find the others so that he could choose from them.
– We heard that sometimes vendors start packing up by noon (the official hours are 7 am – 1 pm in some areas) but we left close to noon and the traffic was really high and it didn’t look like anyone was about to pack up!
– Some vendors will have some random plastic bags for you to put items in, but it’s most helpful if you bring canvas bags to put your purchases in.
– There are a few cafe’s nearby if you want to get food and drink.  And there was a corner kiosk set up selling croissants, crepes, drinks, etc.

Here are some of our finds from the flea market!

We tried walking back to the Galeries Lafayette that afternoon to do some more shopping, but were very disappointed when we got there and found out that basically all of the stores in Paris are closed on Sunday’s!  We knew that a lot of things were closed on Monday’s (museums, etc) but had no idea that shops closed on Sunday’s.  So we ended up strolling back to our hotel and getting dinner again at XVIeme Avenue.  We then walked back down to Victor Hugo square for some Hagen-Daas.  There are only so many nutella crepes that Jason could eat!

 Our Saturday started a little rocky.  We had booked a walking tour with Wendy Lyn from The Paris Kitchen back in October.  We were scheduled to tour the left bank on Saturday afternoon but she called early that morning with an emergency and had to cancel on us.  So we kind of ended up with an unplanned day.  It turned out nice since the day was gorgeous and we just got to explore some.

We first headed to Ile de la Cite which is the home of Notre Dame.  When we got off the metro we were facing the Palais de Justice.  It is huge and takes up a large portion of the island.  The towers picture below are La Conciergerie where Marie Antoinette was taken before her execution.

We then continued walking to the tip of the island and to the Square du Vert-Galant under the Pont Neuf.  This park was lovely and was blooming with flowers and with Parisians.  It was nice to walk down to the tip of the island and gaze across the Seine at the boats and water.  The only downside was that it was so windy and chilly that we didn’t stay long to enjoy the park because we wanted to keep moving to stay warm!

After stopping for baguettes at a sidewalk bistro, we walked back to the center of the island to see  Notre Dame.  There was a huge area set up for the 850 year birthday of the beautiful cathedral and it was teeming with people.  But, thankfully, we didn’t have to wait in the line to enter the gorgeous building for more than a few minutes.  We did snap a quick self portrait while we waited though!

There really are very few words that can be used to describe this beautiful cathedral.  We weren’t there during a Mass, but I can only imagine what it’s like to be filled with people praising our Lord.  Walking through makes you ponder the majesty of God and what Heaven will be like since places like this are only a teeny, tiny glimpse of the grandeur that we will enjoy.

At Orsay we were treated to a huge gallery of impressionist work along with a few pieces by Van Gogh.  There were also many (and I repeat MANY) rooms that I turned around and left as soon as I walked in because the subject matter was very provocative.  So my memories of the museum are torn between being awed at the beautiful Monet’s, Manet’s, and Renoir’s, and being totally sickened.  Be careful what you’re looking at if you visit this museum (just my two cents from the Bible Belt!).

We left Orsay starving and walked outside to find it drizzling.  So instead of walking some more looking for something to eat, Jason got a baguette at the stand outside of the museum (ticket entrance) and I got my first Nutella Crepe.  Tres bon!  We stood under the awning at the museum and enjoyed our snacks until it stopped drizzling and we headed out towards the Galeries Lafayette.

We walked down through a swanky part of Paris on the Rue Rivoli and Rue de Castiglione.  In a few block stretch we saw multiple Cartier’s, Carolina Herrera, Bulgari….. I felt kind of out of my league just walking down the street!  But then we stumbled upon Repetto and I wished and wished that I had done ballet and that Charlotte was older so that I could buy her some Pointe shoes in Paris.  It was a lovely shop with all things dance related and, while we debated getting Charlotte a new dance bag, we ended up leaving empty handed.

We continued walking (this was probably mile 6 or so already) and found the Opera House.  It was beautiful, but a lot of it was under construction and it was still misting a little bit so I was ready to get into the covered Galeries Lafayette!

This is the center dome of the Galeries Lafayette.  And, while it sounds all fancy, it really is just a big, giant mall.  However, it is a mall stocked with Longchamp, Prada, Fendi, Cartier, you name it, as well as any fashion designer that you can think of who sells in Paris, and a gourmet food area with cheese and meat counters and oodles and oodles of pastry counters.  It was a great place to spend a few hours on a drizzly afternoon!

I just have to stop and say that don’t I have the most good-looking husband there is?  I took this on the walkway over the men’s store at the Galeries and I love it.  I am so thankful for this man and all that he does for our family!

On a lighter note! After we left Galeries we ran into Printemps (another very upscale department store) and got our first macaroons from Laduree.  Definitely more to come about Laduree on the next post, but the strawberry macaroon was my favorite!

Then, in our least smart idea of the day, we decided to walk to the Montmantre area of Paris to see the Moulin Rouge and Sacre-Coeur.  This was a much longer walk than we anticipated, plus it rained on us most of the way, plus the area surrounding the Moulin Rouge was very sketchy, plus it hailed on us as we were huddled under a shop awning with a group from Canada trying to wind our way up to the Basilica.  Not the best journey to get there, but the views at the top were pretty spectacular.

And the rain and hail that we walked through was (kind of) worth it when we got to see a beautiful double rainbow over the city of Paris!