I wouldn’t waste time on the Louvre - long lines, and too many people there “just because.” Musee d’Orsay is a great choice - love it, and lines aren’t usually long.
SO many great restaurants, you can hardly go wrong, but they don’t open until late. Try to find food between noon and 7 and you may end up at McDonalds. I ran the marathon there in 2008. Finished the race and was starved. The only place open was a Japanese restaurant just like in the USA. :rolleyes:
An apple, a bottle of wine, and a baguette will cost about $5 at one of the little stores. Grab ‘me and sit on a bench in the Tuileries and people watch.
Try to get to Monmartre and watch the city lights come on at dusk.

Good advice, thanks.

I have to go to

Chez Robert et Louise


Jump to 31:40

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That’s in Le Marais, great area to stay in. I stayed at the Rivoli there, tiny room, but near everything. LOTS of good food.

There's a chance I'll make it into a week long deal and try to get up to the Porsche factory and museum. But I think going for a weekend is really just perfect in and of itself.

Go after 3:00pm, the place is almost deserted.

You will probably not find steak tartar, foie gras, escargot, oysters, wine and bread etc etc anywhere in the states. Even the nescafe was better.

Oh one more thing Shaun, be very VERY polite to older ladies. When using a door and holding it for an older lady say "Je vous en prie Madam" it's a very formal way of saying "please, after you". They really appreciate that knds of politeness.

More good advice, thanks.

Just preface the following with a Je suis désolé and you'll get by:

Je ne parle pas français

But learning simple phrases like how much I'd like where is excuse me and basic nouns and numbers will help greatly. Spend a day in Versailles. Even in Winter its magnificent.

Or just do your best Gorden Kaye from the British sitcom Allo Allo! :D

I think it's been covered but you need exactly zero French to get by in Paris on vacation these days. It's been that way for decades. Outside of Paris, YMMV.

One thing I like to do on trips is track down whatever my interests are and see how people there pursue them. I've hunted through bookstores and used camera stores in Paris, slot car tracks in Madrid, etc.

In Paris, there is something potentially interesting on Feb 6-10, 2019
Salon Retro Mobile
https://10times.com/retromobile-paris

You might bring some biz cards w/ links to pics of your work, then write off the trip as a biz expense?

You can kill a full week just in Pairs. Food is cheap.

It's looking like Feb 22 onward. Definitely being written off as a business expense, I have a customer with a collection I'll be visiting.



I know but it's all about time right now. Just laid off another assistant, have to hire another, and have too much work to get done to be gone for a week. My sense is it will make for a quick, inexpensive trip and then I can take 2 weeks in September and go to Paris and Italy. Friend of mine said I have to go to Bianca Zita in San Michele on Capri for the best fresh mozzarella ever.

Timing is really up in the air right now.

Was there is past summer. Watch out for the kids/scammers around the opera house. They will ask if you speak English then tell you about this charity they are collecting for. I answer sorry don’t speak English and walk away. . The Pompidou is pretty cool in le marais and agree the dorsay is worth a visit. We stay at the hotel dorsay. V nice and close to everything

Shaun, call or email me for practical Paris with no French advice.

Will do Mike, thanks!

Skip Paris all together?

Never liked the place or Parisians in general. Rest of the country is fine.

If summer bring a nosegay, they don't believe in AC or deodorant.

I imagine the countryside has its attractions like when I was in England in the countryside staying at a castle-turned-executive retreat helping with Gilette buying Parker Pen. The food was horendous, though I did have the best cup of coffee I've ever had in my life there. Anyway, we'd walk the country roads and what seemed like a house was a house but also a restaurant of sorts. What made it special was the best, freshest warm beer a growing boy could ever ask for.

I would have the same hope but with pâté instead of beer.

Life is all about experiences.

In Paris, with only a few days- walk. Walk, walk, walk, cafe. Or- if big walking isn't your thing - the red tourist buses. Use them to get on and off at all the big locations and walk from there, get back on the next bus.

Over quite a few visits to Paris, we have used a small guide company who have provided some amazing walking tours, ie the medieval city, the Isle, food tours, markets, D'Orse, Louvre, Mont Marte - pretty much whatever you can imagine, but in very small format. No big groups. A great way to get a feel for this stunning city. PM if you would like their details.