Going to Paris!!
Debbie
am VERY excited about going!). I'm a woman traveling alone, and am
curious about several things.
Will I have any problems as I will be alone in a foreign country?
I speak limited French, and have never travelled to France before - do
you anticipate that I will have any problems with the native
population?
I'm 'planning' my trip - the sights I would like to see, and I am
wondering how much time I should allow for each. A day for the Tower?
Another day for the Louvre?
Also, I will be staying at a hotel just around the corner (literally)
from the Opera-Bastille. What is this area like?
Any suggestions/advice anyone can give would be appreciated
(restaurants, safety, the people, sights to see)
Thanks in advance for your help!
Debbie
WFW2
Just enjoy. It will take a day for the Louvre and probably half a day for the
Tower. Be sure to take the Baton Mouche down the Seine.
Bill
Doug Holaday
You'll have a great time. Paris is quite safe - just use common sense, and
like in all cities everywhere, just don't "look like a victim".
Bring good walking shoes - Paris is SOOOOOOOOO walkable. Yes, the metro is
great to get someplace, but much of what there is to see is close together,
and walking permits you to see so much more. The real magic of life in
Paris is in the streets.
There's lots to see in the Louvre, obviously, but you may enjoy it more if
you take it bit by bit, i.e. go for several shorter (1-2 hrs?) visits, vs.
spending a whole day there at once.
The Eiffel Tower is OK, but not worth more IMHO than seeing it; going up;
coming down, and moving on.
It sounds like you're doing your homework ahead of time - this is good, so
that you're prepared. Do leave some time tho for spontaneity and, again,
just plain walking around.
Re communication: If you're polite and use what French you have, and don't
act like everyone *should* speak English, you'll be fine, even when you have
to fall back into English with someone. Paris, if not the rest of France,
seems to have relaxed some in this regard.
Spots to consider in the city:
Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Les Arènes de Lutèce = the Roman arena thru the arch at 49 rue Monge.
The open air market at Place Monge on Sunday, Wed. and Fri. mornings is
cool.
Walk rue Mouffetard.
Walk the Champs Elyssées from the Concord to l'Arc de Triomphe (or vice
versa), say in the early evening when it's active.
Your hotel is close to the Marais. Walk around there, ESPECIALLY the Place
des Vosges. oo-ooh
The Carnavalet museum in the Marais is one of the best re history of Paris,
if you like history.
Most tourists aren't aware of this, but for the Parisians, the area around
the Bastille has become extremely social (read: hot) , replacing say, the
Blvd. St. Michel, where all the tourists still go. The rue de Lappe near
the Bastille is a very happening place!
If you like sangria, go to the *10*, at 10 rue de l'Odéon in the evening.
There's a 'cave' downstairs.
Walk the main street down the Ile Saint Louis (the smaller of the 2
islands).
You can see a photo of your hotel, and see a 'map' of your street (with
shops etc.) at
http://www.pagesjaunes.fr/wrmm_rue_marchande.cgi?LANGAGE_TYPE=anglais
Just enter the address of your hotel. This is a great site.
Lastly, and here's the commercial, spend some time on my site:
http://gofrance.miningco.com
I've got some fun Features with links, and there's a category dedicated to
Paris, that contains a lot of info.
Hope this all helps some. If you have further questions as you prepare for
your trip, pls drop me a line.
Cheers,
Doug Holaday
France for Visitors
http://gofrance.miningco.com
=====================================================
J J MIO
about getting around and understanding french were way off base. Language was
made easy by the super helpfulness of the peolple. We picked up a mp at the
information booth in orly and it was very easy to read. The metro is a no
brainer. We used Paris Access as our guidebook.
Jack
Jack
>Bonjour!! I'll be in Paris late-May early-June for about 10 days (and
>am VERY excited about going!). I'm a woman traveling alone, and am
>curious about several things.
>
>Will I have any problems as I will be alone in a foreign country?
>
>I speak limited French, and have never travelled to France before - do
>you anticipate that I will have any problems with the native
>population?
>
>I'm 'planning' my trip - the sights I would like to see, and I am
>wondering how much time I should allow for each. A day for the Tower?
>Another day for the Louvre?
>
>Also, I will be staying at a hotel just around the corner (literally)
>from the Opera-Bastille. What is this area like?
>
>Any suggestions/advice anyone can give would be appreciated
>(restaurants, safety, the people, sights to see)
>
>Thanks in advance for your help!
>
>Debbie
Debbie, it is so simple. Log on my web site about every possible way
of visiting Paris, walking, museums, parks, unusual hidden spots with
anecdotic history. This newsgroup knows what i'm talking about.
Log on a very useful tool with all the answers
http://www.worldtable.com/Jack/Paris/Paris.toc.html
Jack
Jack
>
>Spots to consider in the city:
>Père Lachaise Cemetery.
This is a great place!! An open air museum and you should do it with a
guide who explains you all about the famous and less famous tombs.
A unique promenade destination for those who have seen the main Paris
landmarks and want something else, peculiar and unexpected. A crazy
afternoon with the most sympathetic deaths of the Earth. By turns
tragic, joyful, playful, with sometimes a certain dose of erotism and
sensuality ( YES, YES !). When the Pere Lachaise was created, the
Parisians, used to be buried along their churches, were reticent to be
"expatriated" so far from paris. So the authorities did some marketing
trick and organized with great publicity the transfer of the remains
of Heloise and Abelard, Moliere and La Fontaine. The idea to be buried
aside such famous deaths provoked of course a sort of infatuation,
snobbish, for the new necropolis. The urbanists of that era, who had
some se,se of humor, called one of the streets along the cemetery "rue
du Repos". !
Now let's go and join the sympathetic gang of necrophiles, fetishists
of statues, diverse mystics, perverts, lovers searching erotic
pleasures, voyeurs ( a corollary of the precedent), poets, chlorophyll
amateurs, house wives with their children, adorable little oldies,
simple strollers, who are already there.
The VIP of the Pere Lachaise: I don't have the pretention to make an
exhaustive inventory of the cemetery. The tastes and phantasms of my
readers are naturally so different that I would need an Encyclopedia.
May you'll bump into one of those extraordinary specialists of the
Pere Lachaise, always ready to give infos or to tell you a funny
anecdote. Access through the boulevard de Menilmontant.
---One of the first tombs on the left of the avenue du Puits is that
of Colette ( the French writer). A moving grave just in front, of a
blind man whose bust is represented with white eyes. Return to the
principal avenue at the left side Alfred de Musset has of course an
epitaph in form of a poem : " My dear friends, when i'll die, plant a
willow in the cemetery..." A problem for his fans,cause the planted
willow trees die quickly. Just beneath, the tomb of our common enemy :
the Baron Haussman. In front a lot of known French ; Arago,
Ledru-Rollin. Felix Faure, deceased in the Elysee, in the arms of his
mistress, is represented on his tomb , wrapped in the French flag. One
could swear it are the bed sheets !
In the middle of the avenue the "Monument aux Morts".The day of
inauguration, the authorities required that the sheet covering the
monument should not be completely taken off, so that the crowd would
not be horrified by the sight of the statues nude buttocks!
On the terrace, 2 megalomaniac edifices : the one at the right is the
mausoleum of Thiers ( French politician of the 19th century , became
finally president in 1871 after having slain the French Commune
revolution in blood and tears) :ugly, heavy and without any taste,
resembling to the sinister personage who lost a lot of his aura, since
the damages caused by a plastic explosion, more than 10 years ago, are
still not being repaired. (i feel a lot of French will hate my
opinion about Thiers).
----Let's go back to the avenue du Puits, along the alley running
along the rue du Repos to visit a great lover, the female comedian
Rachel. Nobody knows the number of lovers she had ( Musset,
Napoleon III succeeded, Victor Hugo failed :-( ). To a prince who sent
her following notice : " When? Where? How much?" she responded
" Tomorrow. At my place. Free and for nothing."
To continue the promenade of the Pere Lachaise log on my web site
http://www.worldtable.com/Jack/Paris/Paris.toc.html and look up the
Pere Lachaise posts.
Jack
Normandy landing beaches and memorials, Loire valley and its
chateaux,Provence, Cote d'azur,Languedoc-Roussillon,Belgium, Amsterdam
and Dublin posts are now available on
http://home.earthlink.net/~primos/
My Paris, Ile -de-France and Languedoc-Roussillon posts on
http://www.worldtable.com/Jack/Paris/Paris.toc.html
General URL address http://www.worldtable.com/Jack/guides.html
Jeanne
>you take it bit by bit, i.e. go for several shorter (1-2 hrs?) visits, vs.
>spending a whole day there at once.
Don't miss Napoleon apartment in the Louvre. It gets missed by many.
Jeanne
MFoss46649
walking history book and it is info you'll not get from any guidebook--you
will, of course, still need a good guidebook and good map-my favorite guidebook
is Access Paris--my favorite map(s) are Streetwise Paris-small accordion fold
laminated- and The Paris Mapguide fairly small 50-60 page booklet -very
detailed with other info also- neither of these are as noticable as you
standing on a corner with the normal Paris map unfurled in the wind,
advertising that you are a tourist--and probably lost!! and keep a journal so
you can tell us all your adventures!!
James Herisson
>
> Bonjour!! I'll be in Paris late-May early-June for about 10 days (and
> am VERY excited about going!). I'm a woman traveling alone, and am
> curious about several things.
Hello Debbie,
The best season to see Paris. Don't forget, going to the Louvre to have
a walk thru Tuileries Gardens.
>
> Will I have any problems as I will be alone in a foreign country?
>
> I speak limited French, and have never travelled to France before - do
> you anticipate that I will have any problems with the native
> population?
The native population, which i'm part of, is quite civilized and has
made some progress for those last decades. We can speak english, we know
how to smile, and we don't give wrong directions to foreigners … ;-)
>
> I'm 'planning' my trip - the sights I would like to see, and I am
> wondering how much time I should allow for each. A day for the Tower?
> Another day for the Louvre?
I'd say, don't lose too much time climbing the Eiffel T, it's a
marvelous sightseeing place, but you may have a queue, and spend half a
day. As a parisian having been to NYC, it's like The Twin Towers in
Manhattan …
>
> Also, I will be staying at a hotel just around the corner (literally)
> from the Opera-Bastille. What is this area like?
Quite nice, a lot of people, some crazy ones, rue de Lappe is one of the
places in Paris, have a meal at a real bistrot (a little sophisticated)
: Chez Paul, at the corner rue de Lappe/rue de Charonne, 5 mn walk from
your place. But it'd be better to go there with a friend.
>
> Any suggestions/advice anyone can give would be appreciated
> (restaurants, safety, the people, sights to see)
What would i visit in Paris : of course, as it has been said the Pere
Lachaise, but depending of your preferences : The Louvre is worth at
least a 5 to 6 hours visit (but really it's between a 1 hour walk, and a
1 week cultural expedition … ;-), see the egyptian rooms, the galerie,
for italian paintings, the big works near it (i.e. the sacre of napoleon
by David), the greek works, the remains of the medieval Louvre, just
have a walk and take your time in one of their restaurants.
For painting you may visit Musée d'Orsay, wonderful place and the
Impressionnists, Musée carnavalet as it has been said for the History of
Paris, and the marais, Centre Pompidou is closed till next year. Go to a
place which is not known by tourists : Musée d'histoire naturelle and
its Grande galerie, beautiful gardens and a magnificent exhibition of
stuffed animals (it's an historical place also), if you have time you
can spend a day at versailles and its gardens (1/2 hour train from
Paris, 1/4 h walk from the station there).
But i think i'd only spend time walking thru the streets, at the halles,
le marais, St Germain des Prés, Luxembourg Gardens, along the river
(there are Batobus, sort of buses on the river, you take them for the
trip you want).
I can give you more advice if you want.
James
>
> Thanks in advance for your help!
>
> Debbie
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
James Herisson
Paris - France
"Fiducia est quoddam robur spei"
e-mail : heri...@club-internet.fr
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Carol Jo Horn
1/2" x 8 1/4" "The Penguin London (or Paris) Mapguide; the essential
guide" by Michael Middleditch. I don't know how long it must have taken
to get it so detailed and EASY to read. We use it for bus routes,
metro, museums, theatres, siteseeing, churches, shopping. Really almost
everything is listed!! With notes in the margins from what we have
learned here and on the web sites, I think we're ready for our next
trip.
Have fun
Carol Jo
Julian Lander
detailed and useful.
BUT I also recommend those laminated maps you can find so
easily (are they "Essential" wherever?). Although they don't
cover much, they're very easy to carry and use, and virtually
indestructible. I found that level of detail sufficient when
outside wandering the streets, while the Penguin was good
for planning purposes.
Julian C. Lander
jcla...@mitre.org
** Standard disclaimer, please **
Roger
I might suggest walking along the river to Notre Dame (take the bell
tower tour ($ 5 us ish). Make sure and see the Rodin gardens, and the
musee d'orsay (really a great museum). the louvre: it's huge- don't try
to see it all. get some highlight info and see that, as you could be
lost for weeks in there ;-)
as a male i never had a problems w/ safety at all. can't comment for
you! :^)
top10 europe list: http://www.Luckycard.com/top10.html
have fun!
r
word for the day: mon (ma) petit shoo-shoo (spelling anyone?)(my little
cabbage, term of endearment in french)
--
******* Roger Vetruba *******
http://www.Toonshoppe.com
http://www.Luckycard.com
http://www.ReviewEngine.com
Patrick Smith
> Bonjour!! I'll be in Paris late-May early-June for about 10 days (and
> am VERY excited about going!). I'm a woman traveling alone, and am
> curious about several things.
>
> Will I have any problems as I will be alone in a foreign country?
You should not have any problems in Paris or France, more generally.
> I speak limited French, and have never travelled to France before - do
> you anticipate that I will have any problems with the native
> population?
It's not as bad as it has been in tje past. If you have a smile on you
face, French people will be happy to help, but their English may not be
any better than your French :)
> I'm 'planning' my trip - the sights I would like to see, and I am
> wondering how much time I should allow for each. A day for the Tower?
> Another day for the Louvre?
Certainly a day for the Louvre. A day for the Eiffel tower if you decide
to walk back to Bastille along the Seine
> Also, I will be staying at a hotel just around the corner (literally)
> from the Opera-Bastille. What is this area like?
The area is both popular and hip (aproned concierges and artisans in the
daytime, young crowds in bars and clubs at night time. Très Parisien !
> Any suggestions/advice anyone can give would be appreciated
> (restaurants, safety, the people, sights to see)
@+
Patrick
Some photos of Paris under "reportage" at :
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/patricksmith.photosite
Sissel Anita Stavik
Traveling alone in France is OK. Paris is a little bit strange. I have
experienced that sitting alone(enjoying a beer or something) in a cafe
outdoors in Paris (often in the middle of the day) : often "strange" men
sirculates around me and gives me offers!!!. I must tell you that I don't
look like a ......, but the men ..
As I like having a drink outdoors even alone, I try to pick cafes
in the small quiet streets
Sissel, Molde , Norway
Roger skrev i meldingen <37144025...@toonshoppe.com>...
Andrew McLachlan
that is crap. no more or less than any captial city.
the french seem much more open to sitting in a cafe on your own than
anywhere!
In article <uhOR2.293$SZ6....@news1.online.no>, Sissel Anita Stavik
<si-s...@online.no> writes
--
Andrew McLachlan