"Paris: I've Changed My Assessme ..." a Paris Travel Page by Johnny_CA

Back in May 2002, I visited Paris for the first time and this is what I wrote on my VT page:

"Yeah, it's got the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe but paying €12 for a bottle of beer was just outrageous! This place is overpriced and over-hyped!"

OK, it's still expensive but I've been able to see the beauty of the city in my second visit in Dec 2002. This time I saw more of the city even though it was part of the tourist agenda...Notre Dame, Louvre, etc.

My friend Steph and I had dinner at an Italian restaurant, La Comedia near the Latin Quarter. Seated next to us were a British couple on their 46th wedding anniversary. (See more on restaurant tips.) The wife was deeply infatuated with Steph and spoke her mind about it despite her husband's presence. At one point, she must of felt comfortable around us to recount the night of their honeymoon. They came to Paris 46 yrs ago for their honeymoon and stayed at a local hotel. They wanted to celebrate with a bottle of wine named, the Tears of Christ (?) in their room so the husband went down to the front desk to ask for a bottle. Because his French was not too good, he decided to draw out his request rather than try the French pronunication. The husband drew a picture of a figure of Christ which looked like a lady (bad artist) crying to indicate the name of the wine. The desker kindly stroked him on the shoulder and said, it's ok, they always cry the first time!! Steph and I looked at each other surprisingly! Someone we wet 15 minutes ago, telling us about their honeymoon night!! In complimenting Steph, she belted out another classic line. She said, "so where are you the lord of the manor" to Steph to show her fancy with him. Then she turns to me, "and you are his butler?" Oh no, I know that old sweet little lady didn't just throw out some racial innuendos!! I couldn't digest such a question from the nice little lady so I just said no I am the gardener. Steph and I talked about this later and he said he felt very uncomfortable, not b/c she wanted to strip him naked and spank him but because of her off the wall comment about me being his butler. Racism still exists. It may not be outright hateful or undermining but it does shed light on the narrow mindedness of people who are not exposed to other peoples and cultures. The things you experience and see while traveling.

Days after I visited Paris to meet up with my godmother for Christmas, I returned again with three friends visiting me in Amsterdam. We drove down on a Sunday night to share with our one friend who has never seen Paris.

The trip started off slow, just snacks at a local diner and a quiet evening in a bar near our hotel on the first night. We stayed in the 6th arrondissement, the Saint-Germain district. I would suggest to everyone to stay in this area, there are lots of cafes, restaurants, bars, shops and markets here and there are high-end and not so expensive hotel accomodations here too! What a mix.

The 24-hour flu-bug hits hard...slowly one by one, each of my friends became afflicted with the 24-hr bug. Of course, that puts a damper on our visit. Our last night in Paris, before venturing back to Amsterdam for New Year's Eve, as my friends slept to recuperate from illness and fatigue, I went out and met up with two of VT'er Geisha_Girl's girlfriends, Breya and Karen. She told me on her email that they were visiting Paris the same time I was so I should meet up with them. Johnny does not turn down a night out with two "pretty girls and very down to earh" as Geisha had described them. When I saw them, I said to myself, they're not pretty... they're smoking hot!! Factor in their shining personalities and Johnny forgot all about the so-so visit thus far. Although the 4-5 clubs we wanted to hit were all closed, we did finally end up in a neighborhood late night bar/lounge/hangout. (While we searched for clubs to hit, we had the assistance of a very friendly cabbie. Breya had jokingly called him Johnny and for the rest of the night, when we really wanted to find out his name, he would only reply, Johnny. He even took us to one last club, on the house because he was so nice! But that place was closed too.) There we chatted over cocktails and grooved to some nice house music in our seats...they didn't have a dance floor. As much as I tried to persuade the two ladies to dance on the small table top, they politely declined being the classy ladies they were. (Johnny, you need to chill on your street ghetto, these are special ladies here, I told myself!) As much as I wanted to stay another night in Paris and hangout with the ladies for NYE's, my sick friend needed some "home comfort" back in Amsterdam to recover from the bug so I reluctantly drove us all back...trying not to cry on the way home because I was not going to be bringing in the new year with two fine ladies in Paris...c'est le vie.

I hope the ladies will email me the pictures we took..