By no stretch of the imagination am I fluent in French, but I did mastered the “big” 4 French words…Hello, Goodbye, Please and Thank You.
While planning this trip to France, as usual, I did lots of research and a good portion of that research was on the Fodors message boards. One of the posters on Fodors listed the phrase in this trip report title, “I’m sorry, I don’t speak French, do you speak English?” That phrase was extremely helpful to me. Usually when I uttered that phrase, even if I got the shoulder shrug, immediately after the shrug a smile came out and I muddled through with basic communication skills. And it was such fun!
I am giving fair warning now that this trip report may sometimes get a little long-winded and may come in multiple posts here on my blog. This particular trip was somewhat of a “gastronomic adventure” as I tend to consider myself a “budding” foodie,(well maybe more of a “really good eater”), so there may be several descriptions of (what I think) were great meals. Feel free to skip over the culinary ramblings if so inclined.
My hope is that you will be able to cull useful information from this report and maybe get a laugh or two along the way.
Since I was embarking on a “gastronomic adventure” with my mom (who by the way, is a terrific cook, unlike myself, I can’t cook, but I am a VERY appreciative eater!) I wanted to have lots of restaurant/food choices lined up for each city and town we would be staying in. So, last spring I pre-ordered the latest English edition of Pudlo France, not realizing the book that would be delivered to my door in June would be 1000+ pages…silly me, the book covers the entire country, I should have read the description on Amazon more closely…but I am really digressing here! To sum up my thoughts on the Pudlo France book…"Thank you Mr. Pudlo" was muttered a number of times during strolls back to our hotels after several very satisfying meals!
Now for a little background:
My mom and I traveled to France for 20 days in late September/early October. We decided to make this trip a combination of a group tour and independent travel. We’ve used this combination in the past and it works well for us.
This group tour was with Rick Steves’ Europe through the Back Door (http://www.ricksteves.com/), which I have used in the past and like how they operate. We chose the 15 day Paris and the South of France tour because it offered a nice combination of cities (Paris and Nice) and smaller towns (Chinon, Sarlat, Carcassonne, Arles, and Roussillon). The tour began in Paris and ended in Nice.
We arrived in Paris a day before the group tour started to help get over jet-lag and have a little (and it was just a little!) extra time in Paris. We stayed in Nice four additional days after the tour ended.
Here is a list of the hotels we stayed at with the address and website information. I will give more detailed information and thoughts on the hotels as this report unfolds.
Hotels:
The hotels we stayed at with the tour were centrally located in each town. For the extra days in Nice we changed to a hotel I found recommended here on Fodors. The hotels were:
Paris - Hotel Castex at 5, Rue Castex in the Marais (bordering on the Bastille area)
http://www.castexhotel.com/
Chinon – Hotel de la France at 47-49, place du General de Gaulle
http://www.hotel-france-chinon.federal-hotel.com/
Sarlat – Hotel de la Couleuvrine 1, place de la Bouquerie
http://www.la-couleuvrine.com/
Carcassonne – Hotel Montmorency 2, Rue Camille Saint-Saens
http://www.lemontmorency.com/
Arles – Hotel Calendal 5, Rue Porte de Laure
http://www.lecalendal.com/
Roussillon – Hotel Reves d’Ocres, Route de Gordes
http://www.hotel-revesdocres.com/
Nice – Nice Marche aux Fleurs, 91 quai des Etats Unis
http://www.accor-hotels/
Nice – Hotel Le Grimaldi, 15 Rue Grimaldi
http://www.le-grimaldi.com/
Day One: Thursday, Sept. 18th, 2008
While planning this trip to France, as usual, I did lots of research and a good portion of that research was on the Fodors message boards. One of the posters on Fodors listed the phrase in this trip report title, “I’m sorry, I don’t speak French, do you speak English?” That phrase was extremely helpful to me. Usually when I uttered that phrase, even if I got the shoulder shrug, immediately after the shrug a smile came out and I muddled through with basic communication skills. And it was such fun!
I am giving fair warning now that this trip report may sometimes get a little long-winded and may come in multiple posts here on my blog. This particular trip was somewhat of a “gastronomic adventure” as I tend to consider myself a “budding” foodie,(well maybe more of a “really good eater”), so there may be several descriptions of (what I think) were great meals. Feel free to skip over the culinary ramblings if so inclined.
My hope is that you will be able to cull useful information from this report and maybe get a laugh or two along the way.
Since I was embarking on a “gastronomic adventure” with my mom (who by the way, is a terrific cook, unlike myself, I can’t cook, but I am a VERY appreciative eater!) I wanted to have lots of restaurant/food choices lined up for each city and town we would be staying in. So, last spring I pre-ordered the latest English edition of Pudlo France, not realizing the book that would be delivered to my door in June would be 1000+ pages…silly me, the book covers the entire country, I should have read the description on Amazon more closely…but I am really digressing here! To sum up my thoughts on the Pudlo France book…"Thank you Mr. Pudlo" was muttered a number of times during strolls back to our hotels after several very satisfying meals!
Now for a little background:
My mom and I traveled to France for 20 days in late September/early October. We decided to make this trip a combination of a group tour and independent travel. We’ve used this combination in the past and it works well for us.
This group tour was with Rick Steves’ Europe through the Back Door (http://www.ricksteves.com/), which I have used in the past and like how they operate. We chose the 15 day Paris and the South of France tour because it offered a nice combination of cities (Paris and Nice) and smaller towns (Chinon, Sarlat, Carcassonne, Arles, and Roussillon). The tour began in Paris and ended in Nice.
We arrived in Paris a day before the group tour started to help get over jet-lag and have a little (and it was just a little!) extra time in Paris. We stayed in Nice four additional days after the tour ended.
Here is a list of the hotels we stayed at with the address and website information. I will give more detailed information and thoughts on the hotels as this report unfolds.
Hotels:
The hotels we stayed at with the tour were centrally located in each town. For the extra days in Nice we changed to a hotel I found recommended here on Fodors. The hotels were:
Paris - Hotel Castex at 5, Rue Castex in the Marais (bordering on the Bastille area)
http://www.castexhotel.com/
Chinon – Hotel de la France at 47-49, place du General de Gaulle
http://www.hotel-france-chinon.federal-hotel.com/
Sarlat – Hotel de la Couleuvrine 1, place de la Bouquerie
http://www.la-couleuvrine.com/
Carcassonne – Hotel Montmorency 2, Rue Camille Saint-Saens
http://www.lemontmorency.com/
Arles – Hotel Calendal 5, Rue Porte de Laure
http://www.lecalendal.com/
Roussillon – Hotel Reves d’Ocres, Route de Gordes
http://www.hotel-revesdocres.com/
Nice – Nice Marche aux Fleurs, 91 quai des Etats Unis
http://www.accor-hotels/
Nice – Hotel Le Grimaldi, 15 Rue Grimaldi
http://www.le-grimaldi.com/
Day One: Thursday, Sept. 18th, 2008
The trip started with our departure from the Savannah airport with a connection in Atlanta and the final destination Paris. We flew Delta and had an uneventful journey. We pushed back from the gate in Atlanta 2 minutes after our scheduled departure and we were lucky enough to get the exit row seats…as we called it “ a little bit of first class in coach” since we had a bit of extra room to stretch out.
Day Two: Friday, Sept. 19th, 2008
We landed in Paris 45 minutes early! But after waiting for a gate to clear we didn’t deplane until just after 8am. We whizzed through passport control and didn’t need to stop at baggage claim because we did all carry-on.
The driver from Shuttle-Inter walked into the arrivals area just as we were emerging through the doorway…perfect timing. The website for this car service is http://www.shuttle-inter.com/homepage.htm I found this company through a recommendation on Fodors. The price of the service was €55.
It took about an hour to get to our hotel in the Marais, bordering on the Bastille area. It was still a bit early to check into our room, I tried to get an early check-in but that wasn’t happening. I put our backup plan to use and headed out for a short walk and a late morning breakfast. I had a recommendation for a place called Le Loir dans La Theire in the Marais. With my trusty Paris Knopf Mapguide we were able to find the little café and they were just opening.
This little café was as adorable as I had read it was. It is an eclectic mishmash of tables, chairs, and sofas. It felt like we were walking into an old friend’s really big and comfortable living area. We each had our first Parisian café crème. I had a mushroom & cheese quiche and mom had the tomato & onion tarte. Both were very good, but the sweet cakes and pies they had there looked wonderfully delicious, I will have to wait for another trip to try them! Our coffees and quiches totalled €25.
When we were finished we were ready for a nap so we walked back to the hotel and checked into our room. The Hotel Castex is in a terrific location on a quiet street with a post office at the end of the street and a Metro stop a couple blocks away in the Place de la Bastille. Our room was on the small side, but that was not a surprise, it was typical of other European hotels I’ve stayed in.
We slept for a few hours and woke up in the late afternoon, just in time for a walk, a cruise on the Seine and dinner at Le Petit Bofinger!
After a few hours of shut-eye we were refreshed and ready to set out and explore Paris in the evening. The Hotel Castex is only about a 10 minute walk to the Il de la Cite so we took a leisurely walk in that direction, peeking in shop windows along Ile St. Louis. We passed Notre Dame Cathedral on our way to the Pont Neuf. It was just past 7:30pm when we arrived at Les Vedettes du Pont Neuf (http://www.vedettesdupontneuf.com/) . We bought tickets for the 8pm cruise which was good timing because as we boarded the boat the sun was just starting to set so we got to see some sights in dusky light and some lit up for the night. I thought it was brilliant seeing Paris from this perspective, and we certainly had luck on our side with the terrific weather we had that evening.
One note about Les Vedettes du Pont Neuf, prior to leaving home I checked out their website and printed off a coupon for €2 off, so the price was €9 each instead of €11. You can also make a reservation for a specific time on their website and get €4 off the price, but since I wasn’t sure what time we wanted to go on the cruise I chose the €2 option.
The cruise was about an hour long and by the time we disembarked we were ready for something to eat. On Fodors and in the Pudlo book I had read good things about Le Petit Bofinger at 6, rue de la Bastille. I also had a personal recommendation of this bistro from a co-worker who travels to Paris regularly and she said it was very near our hotel.
With my trusty Knopf Mapguide in hand we set out from Pont Neuf in the direction back towards our hotel. We ultimately found the bistro, but not without a bit of a long detour down a dark and empty street and a large boulevard that I thought was the street the bistro was on. It turned out I needed Rue de la Bastille and I was on Boulevard de la Bastille, but we were persistent and were very happy I got my sense of direction back to find Le Petit Bofinger. I kept telling myself, “but Betsy said it was right near the hotel”. If it hadn’t been for Betsy telling me that I may still be aimlessly walking around the Bastille looking for it!
When we entered the door to Le Petit Bofinger at just after 10pm there was not an empty table in the place (always a good sign in my book!). The maitre d’ let us know it would be about a 10-15 minute wait, no problem, there were a few other diners waiting to be seated too, so we stood at the bar. While waiting we figured out that the Opera, which is just across the Place de la Bastille, that we had passed in our quest to find the bistro, had a performance which just finished and the whole area was teeming with people.
The minute we walked into this bistro the wonderful smells from the very tiny kitchen washed over us. The front area of the bistro had maybe 15 tables and the back area (where we were seated) also had about 15 tables. When I say small kitchen I am not exaggerating. It was a small closed off area between the front section and back section of the bistro and the “window” was a portable cart placed in the doorway to the kitchen that could maybe hold 4-5 prepared dishes. With a front and center view of all this from the small bar area it was like watching a well oiled machine in operation.
True to his word, the maitre d’ seated us about 15 minutes after we arrived. The menu here was all in French, but we managed very well with the little bit of “culinary French” my mom knows. We decided to each have the €20.50 which included a glass of wine, main, and choice of starter or dessert. Mom had the foie gras starter and fish main dish, we don’t know the name of the fish but it was very light and tasty and every other person in the bistro seemed to have it on their plate. I chose the pork main dish served with roasted rosemary potatoes and the crème brulee for dessert. With an extra glass of wine and 2 espresso the total was €55.
By now it was close to mid-night and we were ready for the short walk back to the hotel and a good night’s sleep so we would be bright eyed and ready for the Context Paris walking tour of the Montmartre neighborhood the next morning.
The driver from Shuttle-Inter walked into the arrivals area just as we were emerging through the doorway…perfect timing. The website for this car service is http://www.shuttle-inter.com/homepage.htm I found this company through a recommendation on Fodors. The price of the service was €55.
It took about an hour to get to our hotel in the Marais, bordering on the Bastille area. It was still a bit early to check into our room, I tried to get an early check-in but that wasn’t happening. I put our backup plan to use and headed out for a short walk and a late morning breakfast. I had a recommendation for a place called Le Loir dans La Theire in the Marais. With my trusty Paris Knopf Mapguide we were able to find the little café and they were just opening.
This little café was as adorable as I had read it was. It is an eclectic mishmash of tables, chairs, and sofas. It felt like we were walking into an old friend’s really big and comfortable living area. We each had our first Parisian café crème. I had a mushroom & cheese quiche and mom had the tomato & onion tarte. Both were very good, but the sweet cakes and pies they had there looked wonderfully delicious, I will have to wait for another trip to try them! Our coffees and quiches totalled €25.
When we were finished we were ready for a nap so we walked back to the hotel and checked into our room. The Hotel Castex is in a terrific location on a quiet street with a post office at the end of the street and a Metro stop a couple blocks away in the Place de la Bastille. Our room was on the small side, but that was not a surprise, it was typical of other European hotels I’ve stayed in.
We slept for a few hours and woke up in the late afternoon, just in time for a walk, a cruise on the Seine and dinner at Le Petit Bofinger!
After a few hours of shut-eye we were refreshed and ready to set out and explore Paris in the evening. The Hotel Castex is only about a 10 minute walk to the Il de la Cite so we took a leisurely walk in that direction, peeking in shop windows along Ile St. Louis. We passed Notre Dame Cathedral on our way to the Pont Neuf. It was just past 7:30pm when we arrived at Les Vedettes du Pont Neuf (http://www.vedettesdupontneuf.com/) . We bought tickets for the 8pm cruise which was good timing because as we boarded the boat the sun was just starting to set so we got to see some sights in dusky light and some lit up for the night. I thought it was brilliant seeing Paris from this perspective, and we certainly had luck on our side with the terrific weather we had that evening.
One note about Les Vedettes du Pont Neuf, prior to leaving home I checked out their website and printed off a coupon for €2 off, so the price was €9 each instead of €11. You can also make a reservation for a specific time on their website and get €4 off the price, but since I wasn’t sure what time we wanted to go on the cruise I chose the €2 option.The cruise was about an hour long and by the time we disembarked we were ready for something to eat. On Fodors and in the Pudlo book I had read good things about Le Petit Bofinger at 6, rue de la Bastille. I also had a personal recommendation of this bistro from a co-worker who travels to Paris regularly and she said it was very near our hotel.
With my trusty Knopf Mapguide in hand we set out from Pont Neuf in the direction back towards our hotel. We ultimately found the bistro, but not without a bit of a long detour down a dark and empty street and a large boulevard that I thought was the street the bistro was on. It turned out I needed Rue de la Bastille and I was on Boulevard de la Bastille, but we were persistent and were very happy I got my sense of direction back to find Le Petit Bofinger. I kept telling myself, “but Betsy said it was right near the hotel”. If it hadn’t been for Betsy telling me that I may still be aimlessly walking around the Bastille looking for it!
When we entered the door to Le Petit Bofinger at just after 10pm there was not an empty table in the place (always a good sign in my book!). The maitre d’ let us know it would be about a 10-15 minute wait, no problem, there were a few other diners waiting to be seated too, so we stood at the bar. While waiting we figured out that the Opera, which is just across the Place de la Bastille, that we had passed in our quest to find the bistro, had a performance which just finished and the whole area was teeming with people.
The minute we walked into this bistro the wonderful smells from the very tiny kitchen washed over us. The front area of the bistro had maybe 15 tables and the back area (where we were seated) also had about 15 tables. When I say small kitchen I am not exaggerating. It was a small closed off area between the front section and back section of the bistro and the “window” was a portable cart placed in the doorway to the kitchen that could maybe hold 4-5 prepared dishes. With a front and center view of all this from the small bar area it was like watching a well oiled machine in operation.
True to his word, the maitre d’ seated us about 15 minutes after we arrived. The menu here was all in French, but we managed very well with the little bit of “culinary French” my mom knows. We decided to each have the €20.50 which included a glass of wine, main, and choice of starter or dessert. Mom had the foie gras starter and fish main dish, we don’t know the name of the fish but it was very light and tasty and every other person in the bistro seemed to have it on their plate. I chose the pork main dish served with roasted rosemary potatoes and the crème brulee for dessert. With an extra glass of wine and 2 espresso the total was €55.
By now it was close to mid-night and we were ready for the short walk back to the hotel and a good night’s sleep so we would be bright eyed and ready for the Context Paris walking tour of the Montmartre neighborhood the next morning.
Day Three: Saturday, Sept. 20th, 2008
Today dawned a beautifully clear and sunny day and more importantly it stayed that way all day! Breakfast was included in the price of our hotel so we enjoyed croissants, jam, cheeses,juice and coffee in the breakfast room in the cellar of the Hotel Castex. A variety of yogurts and fruit was also available.
Since the group tour didn’t start until later this afternoon I booked a Context Paris (http://www.contexttravel.com/paris/) walking tour of the Montmartre neighbourhood. I had read about Context on Fodors and based on the glowing reviews decided to give it a try and since the Rick Steves’ tour would not be going to Montmartre I thought it would be nice to see another area of Paris.
Prior to leaving home Context Paris sent directions on where to meet for the walking tour. We were to meet at the Abbesses metro stop, so we hopped on the metro at La Bastille and rode to Abbesses. While doing my trip research I found the RATP website (http://www.ratp.com/) and under the finding your way tab you can type in a starting and ending address and the best public transport route comes up…really handy!
We got off the metro and proceeded to walk up the 200+ stairs at this metro stop…it’s not called “Mont”martre for nothing! Big Hint…we later found out from our Context guide there is an elevator. We arrived a few minutes early so had a seat in the park area surrounding the metro stop. Our guide Lilly arrived right on time and we had good fortune on our side, we were the only ones signed up for this tour, so we got a private tour! Lilly started the tour with a brief overview and history of the area and explained that the Abbesses metro stop in only 1 of 2 stops that still has the original canopy over the metro entrance. Really quite beautiful.
Lilly was an excellent guide, an artist herself, who lives in the neighbourhood (we even passed her apartment) was a fountain of knowledge about the area. We got to see some of the nooks and crannies of Montmartre including where some former and current artist’s studios are located, the St. Denis statue and several very interesting residential streets. The tour lasted about 3 hours and we ended at Sacre-Coeur.
Lilly was full of personality and really listened to our questions and comments and even gave us a great recommendation for a café in the neighbourhood for lunch. Unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the café, but it was in the area at the bottom of the first set of stairs coming down from Sacre-Coeur. Mom had her first croquet monsieur and I had a buckwheat pancake filled with ham and mushrooms. With 2 oranginas the total was €25.
After lunch we made our way through the throng of people at the bottom of Montmartre to the Anvers metro stop. From there we were just minutes away from the Champs Elysees. We emerged from the metro and there it was in all its glory…the Arc di Triomphe. After taking probably way too many pictures we started our stroll down this famous boulevard. Our goal: Lauduree.
I had heard so much about the Lauduree macaroons that I was a woman on a mission to try one of these incredible little wonders. Our original plan was to go in and sit down for tea and macaroons, but the tea room was fairly crowded and we needed to be back to meet our group by 5pm, so we chose to get a box from the carry-out area and enjoy them back at our hotel.
I will be the first to admit that I have an incredible sweet tooth and to see these absolutely beautiful looking macaroons I almost swooned…ok, maybe not swoon, but was bowled over at how pretty these sweet little morsels were…would they taste as good as they looked? We’d soon find out. I decided to get a variety of flavours and asked the young man behind the counter to put mixture of 15 into a box. These are most likely the most expensive macaroons I will ever have but once I took the first bite, I am quite sure I will never taste a macaroon like Lauduree again. The flavours were vibrant and the macaroon delicate. I’m salivating just writing about them!
After our afternoon splurge on Lauduree macaroons (and, yes, I did savour them over the next few days) it was time to meet our Rick Steves guide and the rest of our group. We spent the next 2 hours getting to know Patrick, our guide, and the other 23 tour members. By 7pm it was time for our first group meal and we walked around the corner to La Petit Maison de la Bastoche at 7, Rue Saint Antoine.
I can honestly say that I was really pleasantly surprised. Sometimes you just never really what your going to get at a group meal, but as far as they go, this one was pretty good (not the best, that will come later). The starter was a beet root salad, which was excellent and I thought I would never say that about beets! The main dish was roasted tarragon chicken with mashed potatoes and for dessert the best profiteroles I’ve ever had. Since there wasn’t coffee served at the end of the meal, once we said our goodbyes to the group for the night we found a little café on Place de la Bastille to have our evening espresso…a perfect end to a terrific day.
Today dawned a beautifully clear and sunny day and more importantly it stayed that way all day! Breakfast was included in the price of our hotel so we enjoyed croissants, jam, cheeses,juice and coffee in the breakfast room in the cellar of the Hotel Castex. A variety of yogurts and fruit was also available.
Since the group tour didn’t start until later this afternoon I booked a Context Paris (http://www.contexttravel.com/paris/) walking tour of the Montmartre neighbourhood. I had read about Context on Fodors and based on the glowing reviews decided to give it a try and since the Rick Steves’ tour would not be going to Montmartre I thought it would be nice to see another area of Paris.
Prior to leaving home Context Paris sent directions on where to meet for the walking tour. We were to meet at the Abbesses metro stop, so we hopped on the metro at La Bastille and rode to Abbesses. While doing my trip research I found the RATP website (http://www.ratp.com/) and under the finding your way tab you can type in a starting and ending address and the best public transport route comes up…really handy!
We got off the metro and proceeded to walk up the 200+ stairs at this metro stop…it’s not called “Mont”martre for nothing! Big Hint…we later found out from our Context guide there is an elevator. We arrived a few minutes early so had a seat in the park area surrounding the metro stop. Our guide Lilly arrived right on time and we had good fortune on our side, we were the only ones signed up for this tour, so we got a private tour! Lilly started the tour with a brief overview and history of the area and explained that the Abbesses metro stop in only 1 of 2 stops that still has the original canopy over the metro entrance. Really quite beautiful.
Lilly was an excellent guide, an artist herself, who lives in the neighbourhood (we even passed her apartment) was a fountain of knowledge about the area. We got to see some of the nooks and crannies of Montmartre including where some former and current artist’s studios are located, the St. Denis statue and several very interesting residential streets. The tour lasted about 3 hours and we ended at Sacre-Coeur.
Lilly was full of personality and really listened to our questions and comments and even gave us a great recommendation for a café in the neighbourhood for lunch. Unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the café, but it was in the area at the bottom of the first set of stairs coming down from Sacre-Coeur. Mom had her first croquet monsieur and I had a buckwheat pancake filled with ham and mushrooms. With 2 oranginas the total was €25.
After lunch we made our way through the throng of people at the bottom of Montmartre to the Anvers metro stop. From there we were just minutes away from the Champs Elysees. We emerged from the metro and there it was in all its glory…the Arc di Triomphe. After taking probably way too many pictures we started our stroll down this famous boulevard. Our goal: Lauduree.
I had heard so much about the Lauduree macaroons that I was a woman on a mission to try one of these incredible little wonders. Our original plan was to go in and sit down for tea and macaroons, but the tea room was fairly crowded and we needed to be back to meet our group by 5pm, so we chose to get a box from the carry-out area and enjoy them back at our hotel.
I will be the first to admit that I have an incredible sweet tooth and to see these absolutely beautiful looking macaroons I almost swooned…ok, maybe not swoon, but was bowled over at how pretty these sweet little morsels were…would they taste as good as they looked? We’d soon find out. I decided to get a variety of flavours and asked the young man behind the counter to put mixture of 15 into a box. These are most likely the most expensive macaroons I will ever have but once I took the first bite, I am quite sure I will never taste a macaroon like Lauduree again. The flavours were vibrant and the macaroon delicate. I’m salivating just writing about them!
After our afternoon splurge on Lauduree macaroons (and, yes, I did savour them over the next few days) it was time to meet our Rick Steves guide and the rest of our group. We spent the next 2 hours getting to know Patrick, our guide, and the other 23 tour members. By 7pm it was time for our first group meal and we walked around the corner to La Petit Maison de la Bastoche at 7, Rue Saint Antoine.
I can honestly say that I was really pleasantly surprised. Sometimes you just never really what your going to get at a group meal, but as far as they go, this one was pretty good (not the best, that will come later). The starter was a beet root salad, which was excellent and I thought I would never say that about beets! The main dish was roasted tarragon chicken with mashed potatoes and for dessert the best profiteroles I’ve ever had. Since there wasn’t coffee served at the end of the meal, once we said our goodbyes to the group for the night we found a little café on Place de la Bastille to have our evening espresso…a perfect end to a terrific day.
Day Four: Sunday, Sept. 21st, 2008
We started today with a group walking tour. We took a short metro ride to the Hotel de Ville and Patrick began the tour there. From the Hotel de Ville we walked to Notre Dame, all the way Patrick giving us the history of the island and the cathedral. Once we arrived at Notre Dame and after Patrick oriented us we had time on our own to go into the cathedral. We re-grouped after our visit to the cathedral and headed to the Latin Quarter for lunch.
We had about an hour before we had to meet with the group again so mom and I found a little creperie and ordered very tasty ham, cheese and mushroom crepes. We decided to take our crepes and eat al fresco on benches in front of Notre Dame. It was a picture perfect day with a great view and a lip-smacking crepe.
We started today with a group walking tour. We took a short metro ride to the Hotel de Ville and Patrick began the tour there. From the Hotel de Ville we walked to Notre Dame, all the way Patrick giving us the history of the island and the cathedral. Once we arrived at Notre Dame and after Patrick oriented us we had time on our own to go into the cathedral. We re-grouped after our visit to the cathedral and headed to the Latin Quarter for lunch.
We had about an hour before we had to meet with the group again so mom and I found a little creperie and ordered very tasty ham, cheese and mushroom crepes. We decided to take our crepes and eat al fresco on benches in front of Notre Dame. It was a picture perfect day with a great view and a lip-smacking crepe.
After our laid back lunch we took the RER train to the Musee d’Orsay. Included in the price of the tour was a 2 day museum pass, so after a short orientation about the museum we were on our own for the rest of the day.
We spent about 2 hours wandering through the museum. I don’t consider myself much of a museum person, but I enjoyed the Orsay, and thought the impressionist paintings were spectacular. When we were done at the museum we decided to take a walk through the Jardin des Tuileries and take the metro back to the hotel.
After a short rest I decided I wanted to get some pictures from the top of the Arc de Triomphe so headed back out on the metro and spent some time taking pictures from this great vantage point. I arrived back at the hotel right around 8pm and we decided to try a café/wine bar I had found via a recommendation on Fodors.
The café/wine bar was La Tartine at 24, Rue de Rivoli, in the Marais, metro stop St. Paul, but only about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. We LOVED this place. At first I was a bit concerned because there were only a handful of diners, maybe only 3 other tables, but the place was so inviting with the wood bar and tile floor, we had a good feeling about it.
As we walked in we were immediately greeted and asked if we would prefer to sit inside or outside. Since it was a bit chilly we decided inside and were shown to a table at the rear of the café. It turns out the café has entrances on Rue de Rivoli and the street running parallel (I believe it’s Rue du Roi-De-Sicile) to Rue de Rivoli.
I started with a Kir, my new favourite aperitif, which I continued to enjoy throughout the remainder of our trip, and mom had white wine. We decided we didn’t want anything too heavy, so mom had the salmon pave with basmati rice which looked wonderful and according to mom’s report tasted as good as it looked. I had the Roma salad which included 4 slices of buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes, salad greens, Parma ham, and an eggplant puree on toasted bread (so much for a light meal!). It was delicious and the vinaigrette dressing served with it was the perfect touch. We ended the meal with our usual espresso. The total for this meal was €54.50.
We had a nice walk back to the hotel and got excited about tomorrow morning when it would be time for the Louvre.
We spent about 2 hours wandering through the museum. I don’t consider myself much of a museum person, but I enjoyed the Orsay, and thought the impressionist paintings were spectacular. When we were done at the museum we decided to take a walk through the Jardin des Tuileries and take the metro back to the hotel.
After a short rest I decided I wanted to get some pictures from the top of the Arc de Triomphe so headed back out on the metro and spent some time taking pictures from this great vantage point. I arrived back at the hotel right around 8pm and we decided to try a café/wine bar I had found via a recommendation on Fodors.
The café/wine bar was La Tartine at 24, Rue de Rivoli, in the Marais, metro stop St. Paul, but only about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. We LOVED this place. At first I was a bit concerned because there were only a handful of diners, maybe only 3 other tables, but the place was so inviting with the wood bar and tile floor, we had a good feeling about it.As we walked in we were immediately greeted and asked if we would prefer to sit inside or outside. Since it was a bit chilly we decided inside and were shown to a table at the rear of the café. It turns out the café has entrances on Rue de Rivoli and the street running parallel (I believe it’s Rue du Roi-De-Sicile) to Rue de Rivoli.
I started with a Kir, my new favourite aperitif, which I continued to enjoy throughout the remainder of our trip, and mom had white wine. We decided we didn’t want anything too heavy, so mom had the salmon pave with basmati rice which looked wonderful and according to mom’s report tasted as good as it looked. I had the Roma salad which included 4 slices of buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes, salad greens, Parma ham, and an eggplant puree on toasted bread (so much for a light meal!). It was delicious and the vinaigrette dressing served with it was the perfect touch. We ended the meal with our usual espresso. The total for this meal was €54.50.
We had a nice walk back to the hotel and got excited about tomorrow morning when it would be time for the Louvre.
Day Five: Monday, Sept. 22nd, 2008
Today was our day to explore the Louvre. We walked around the corner to the metro and being a weekday morning you can imagine what the metro cars looked like, sardines in a can have more room. Not only were the metro cars jam-packed but the platform looked like a line to get free tickets to a rock concert! We had to let a few trains go by before we could even get to the front of the platform, fortunately at that time of the morning the trains are very frequent. My advice to anyone riding the metro while visiting Paris…go after rush hour! (or walk)
We only had to ride the metro a few stops to the Palais Royale stop and exited via a shopping mall to the entrance to the Louvre, no crowd at this entrance at all, but we did go through the security check point. We met our Louvre guide (Janice) at this entrance and donned our whisper system.
Janice was an absolutely great guide, a British gal who has lived in Paris for 25 years she admitted she came to Paris for the man but stays for the food…ahhh…my kind of lady! She had quite a funny sense of humour and was not a very tall woman; in fact she described herself as the size of a “garden gnome” at 5’2” but with the whisper system we had no trouble hearing her commentary and keep track of where we were.
In 2 hours we certainly only scratched the surface of the Louvre, but Janice was a wealth of information and she barely took a breath in those 2 hours! She definitely had a plan of attack and we made a beeline for the 3 “biggies”. The Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, and the Mona Lisa. All quite stunning in their own right, but I have to say Winged Victory is probably my favourite of them all.
Janice herded us through the museum like a captain leading her ship and we ended in a really interesting room. The Louvre has a room for the blind, with small replicas of several of the pieces that are displayed throughout the museum, so a blind person can touch the sculptures to get a sense of what it looks like.
By noon Janice had completed our tour and we were free for the afternoon until 4pm. Needing a little coffee pick me up, we decided to stop at the Starbucks in the Louvre entrance area for a quick coffee.
When we left the Louvre we decided to walk back to the hotel, it was a nice sunny day and we wanted to stop in a children’s shop we had seen the other day to pick up some things for the children of a friend. We made our way back to Il St. Louis and stopped for gelato at Amorano. We went back to the hotel for a short rest and while there we checked out the Italian restaurant across the street from the hotel.
Now, I know, it seems like I’m having way too much Italian influenced food here in Paris, however this particular Italian place I had read about on trip advisor when reading a review of the Hotel Castex and then to my surprise when I found the same restaurant listed in Pudlo as a good value my interested was piqued! Mom popped across the street and the owner was in the restaurant and through hand gestures, limited French and a little Italian thrown in there we managed to make a reservation for later in the evening.
At 4pm we went as a group to Sainte Chapelle. What magnificence stained glass windows. Since we were there later in the day and the sun was starting to sink in the sky the room was a bit dark, but I am sure that in the morning and early afternoon it must look very striking to see the windows in full light.
We spent some time walking along the Seine and went back to the hotel. We had made an 8pm reservation and it took all of 30 seconds to walk across the street to Cucina Neopolitana at 6, Rue Castex.
We hit the jackpot with this place! It’s a tiny place that seats maybe 20 and the kitchen is miniscule. Mom and I started with the antipasti platter of marinated vegetables, carrots, broccoli, eggplant, peppers, and a huge ball of mozzarella. We had a bottle of red wine and all was excellent so far.
The way this restaurant worked is there is a list of pasta dishes they would serve that night and the table selects which pasta they want, the chef prepares enough for the number of people at the table. Mom and I had rigatoni in a creamy sauce with asparagus and ham. It was served in the pan it was cooked in and we each helped ourselves. We had no trouble finishing the entire dish. It was absolutely delicious. We ended the meal with espresso. For all this (and a convenient location) the total was €75.
After the meal we walked back across the street and up to our room to prepare for our departure in the morning for the Loire Valley.
Today was our day to explore the Louvre. We walked around the corner to the metro and being a weekday morning you can imagine what the metro cars looked like, sardines in a can have more room. Not only were the metro cars jam-packed but the platform looked like a line to get free tickets to a rock concert! We had to let a few trains go by before we could even get to the front of the platform, fortunately at that time of the morning the trains are very frequent. My advice to anyone riding the metro while visiting Paris…go after rush hour! (or walk)
We only had to ride the metro a few stops to the Palais Royale stop and exited via a shopping mall to the entrance to the Louvre, no crowd at this entrance at all, but we did go through the security check point. We met our Louvre guide (Janice) at this entrance and donned our whisper system.
Janice was an absolutely great guide, a British gal who has lived in Paris for 25 years she admitted she came to Paris for the man but stays for the food…ahhh…my kind of lady! She had quite a funny sense of humour and was not a very tall woman; in fact she described herself as the size of a “garden gnome” at 5’2” but with the whisper system we had no trouble hearing her commentary and keep track of where we were.
In 2 hours we certainly only scratched the surface of the Louvre, but Janice was a wealth of information and she barely took a breath in those 2 hours! She definitely had a plan of attack and we made a beeline for the 3 “biggies”. The Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, and the Mona Lisa. All quite stunning in their own right, but I have to say Winged Victory is probably my favourite of them all.
Janice herded us through the museum like a captain leading her ship and we ended in a really interesting room. The Louvre has a room for the blind, with small replicas of several of the pieces that are displayed throughout the museum, so a blind person can touch the sculptures to get a sense of what it looks like.
By noon Janice had completed our tour and we were free for the afternoon until 4pm. Needing a little coffee pick me up, we decided to stop at the Starbucks in the Louvre entrance area for a quick coffee.
When we left the Louvre we decided to walk back to the hotel, it was a nice sunny day and we wanted to stop in a children’s shop we had seen the other day to pick up some things for the children of a friend. We made our way back to Il St. Louis and stopped for gelato at Amorano. We went back to the hotel for a short rest and while there we checked out the Italian restaurant across the street from the hotel.
Now, I know, it seems like I’m having way too much Italian influenced food here in Paris, however this particular Italian place I had read about on trip advisor when reading a review of the Hotel Castex and then to my surprise when I found the same restaurant listed in Pudlo as a good value my interested was piqued! Mom popped across the street and the owner was in the restaurant and through hand gestures, limited French and a little Italian thrown in there we managed to make a reservation for later in the evening.
At 4pm we went as a group to Sainte Chapelle. What magnificence stained glass windows. Since we were there later in the day and the sun was starting to sink in the sky the room was a bit dark, but I am sure that in the morning and early afternoon it must look very striking to see the windows in full light.
We spent some time walking along the Seine and went back to the hotel. We had made an 8pm reservation and it took all of 30 seconds to walk across the street to Cucina Neopolitana at 6, Rue Castex.
We hit the jackpot with this place! It’s a tiny place that seats maybe 20 and the kitchen is miniscule. Mom and I started with the antipasti platter of marinated vegetables, carrots, broccoli, eggplant, peppers, and a huge ball of mozzarella. We had a bottle of red wine and all was excellent so far.
The way this restaurant worked is there is a list of pasta dishes they would serve that night and the table selects which pasta they want, the chef prepares enough for the number of people at the table. Mom and I had rigatoni in a creamy sauce with asparagus and ham. It was served in the pan it was cooked in and we each helped ourselves. We had no trouble finishing the entire dish. It was absolutely delicious. We ended the meal with espresso. For all this (and a convenient location) the total was €75.
After the meal we walked back across the street and up to our room to prepare for our departure in the morning for the Loire Valley.
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