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Paris trip


thebishbus

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2 Metro Stations and 2 RER stops serve the Bois.

 

Hope that you are not booked in there during the 3 day annual "rave" held in July if you value peace and quiet - if it's still happening.

 

In Paris - walk - it's very compact and you see more, but do take a trip on a boat to rest your feet.

 

Apart from the usual, busy, Must Sees, the quieter alternatives are:

 

- Pere Lachaise Cemetery [graves of Piaf; Jim Morrison; Oscar Wilde among others] very atmospheric

- Canal St Martin

- Parc Montsouris, Parc Monceau and Parc Buttes Chaumont

- Saint Chapelle [stunning] instead of the busier Sacré Coeur and Notre Dame

- The Catacombs

- Mooch around the Ile de St Louis

- Explore the "Passages" in the 2nd Arrondissement - great café in La Galerie Vivienne: A Priori Thé

- The "material" quarter. Unique!

 

Eat at Chartier and Le Polidor - for the ambience alone, never mind the food.

 

Have a drink / coffee at Les Deux Magots [note the aprons], Closerie des Lilas, Café de Flore ... amongst many others

 

If you go to Le Louvre just decide which paintings / sculptures you want to see and make for them - it's vast. Spent best part of a week in there once.

 

Musée d'Orsay for the Impressionists

 

Watch out for the "I found this ring on the floor, is it yours ?" scam.

 

 

Cheers

Gwen

 

 

 

 

 

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For sheer opulent atmosphere in a shop, have a mooch around Galeries Lafayette, and for ditto in an eaterie, get a meal at the Brasserie Flo. Superb fauve interior plus good, reasonably affordable, food. But as Gwendolyn says, walk once into the centre.

 

Oh yes, and La Defence is also worth a visit, especially the Grand Arche and its external climber lift to the roof, if it's still accessible.

 

I understand the Montparnasse Tower is also worth a ride to the top for the views - not least because it is the only viewing point in Paris from which you can't see the Montparnasse Tower! :-) Have fun.

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Galeries Lafayette? Ooh there's posh! Monoprix! Or Printemps.... if you must shop.

 

For Robert Crumb comics, scour the bouquinistes along the Left Bank. But for shopping, the material quarter every time. Such fabrics to be had!

 

Shakespeare & Co also... but not quite as it was in Hemingway's day.

 

Little shops around the Le Palais Royal.

 

Oh yes...another place to eat.... Ma Bourgogne in an arcade overlooking La Place de Vosges. Lovely place to have lunch on a hot day.

 

Look out for the wonderful Art Nouveau Metro signs. There are still a few to be seen.

 

Climb the steps to Montmartre and walk back to the centre down the hill past little, quirky shops.

 

If you eat at Chartier, order haricots verts as a vegetable. They will no doubt forget. They always have done, and I have to request that the item is removed from the bill. I'd love to know if anyone gets them served!

 

Cheers,

Gwen

 

 

 

 

 

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Thank you all for the advice and suggestions, combined with the usual main sights plenty there for us to do. Our last very rushed visit to central Paris, was some years ago when returning from Spain. I was driving my wife's Spitfire and towing a very large trailer tent, parking that combination near the Eiffel Tower was difficult , just enough time to stop on the bridge for a photo shoot, with my wife and the combo in front of the tower, then move on. Looking forward to a more relaxed visit this time. Thank you again.

Brian B.

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