Pour le Dimanche: La Flanerie and other Paris, France General Tips

Favorite Thing: Sunday morning in Paris (say 9-10 AM) is free of business and turists. It is even free of most Parisians (as these pictures attest). There is less traffic than in a modest sized town.(Most Parisians who use cars are out of town on Sunday) You can now see some uncluttered views. All of the exottic bouquinistes are closed, there are no street vendos and only a rare artist.Try it!
On Sunday you have other options: a few Hotels are open only on Saturday and Sunday (eg. Hotel Lauzun on the Ile. St. Louis), between April and October (2007) the Fountains at Versailles will be playing for VERY limited times (look it up), there is the bird market on the Ile de la Cite (see Tip), and there are flea markets. Some say the less popular museums are not crowded.
I include my third eye (a videocamera) as part of flanerie since my aged mind is weak and I may never get here again. These, as almost all of my pictures, are lifted from there.


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Favorite Thing: A Fast-food Take-Out place like this is considered a restaurant under French (and maybe all EU) law. It must include taxes (eg VAT) and service charges (eg basic tip) in the price. When you get to the counter to order you should say "emporter" (take away) if that is your intention or "non emporter" if you want to sit down The charge is higher for sitting (the service charge of 12%). Your receipt identifies this fact (by law you must keep it with you just like a cancelled train ticket).
Now an Ugly American Story. We were tired and thirsty, a party of 8, on our way to the Luxembourg Gardens when we passed this McD( on Blvd. St. Mich at Pl. Edmond-Rostand). We decided to stop for soft-drinks and use their clean rest rooms (they are free, no tip, but only if you buy something). I, as host, offered to buy drinks all-around while they refreshed and glibly told them it was going to cost extra for our sitting down! One person, a( now ex) daughter-in law, was incensed at such "price gouging" and said she would buy her own. When we were seated, the manager unceremoniously informed her that she could not join us because she paid less! We met her later (still in a huff) at the Medici Fountain!

Fondest Memory: See above!(after 7 visits or more)

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Favorite Thing: This Rembrandt still-life of a beef carcass brought back memories. On our first visit to Paris almost 30 years ago, we quickly learned that meats (beef in paticular) are not cut the way they are "mass -produced" with a band-saw in the USA. From the "Larousse Gastronomique" we learned that more precise butchering produced cuts with which we were not familiar: bavette, jumeau, faux-filet, entrecot, tournados, romsteck. The tenderest (most expensive) are: tournedos and entrecot. Cheaper grillables are:filet, faux-filet, bavette, jumeau, romsteck. Any of these may be prepared other ways. Most cheap restaurants serve bifsteck et frites. Their finest beef species is Charolais. In France even some range-fed chickens have a controlled appelation just like wines (example Bresse chickens).

Fondest Memory: Raw meat: steack tartare or boeuf carpaccio. If you like rare steak there is little difference in consuming these. The pleasure is in the additional flare that is added by the condiments which would be lost in cooking. Wines complement the taste. These are fine brasserie foods. I see that salmon has taken its rightful place in the repertoire. (All Japanese would approve).

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Favorite Thing: Paris is so full of things to see, that day-trips waste your time. There are only 2 sights near Paris worthy of a day trip: Versailles and Chartres. While there are commercial very long day trips to Mont-St.-Michel or the Loire, it would be better to plan to come to France again and see them as part of a real trip to France, especially by car. Outside of Paris, driving is easy. There are some places very near Paris that are really French , but it is best to spend the night in them. 100 miles (150 km) up and back consumes 2-4 hours of a sightseeing day. The way to minimize the loss of time is to make such a visit as the intermediate stop on your way somewhere else. Unfortuntely there are many sights around Paris worthy of a visit, so you have to visit Paris a great number of times OR you can do as we usually do. Avoid Paris completely. Arrive at Orly or de Gaule and get into a rented car. Plan to visit immediately a close-by place (Ecouen, Rambouillet, Fontainebleau, etc), also choose a small inn nearby to bed down at when fatigue (jet-lag) hits (look up the Logis de France or if you are upscale Chateauxhotels.fr). Do this on the last day/night as well. We have stayed at Senlis(Fontaine-Chaalis 5 km east), Moret-sur-Loing, Recloses (in Fontainbleau forest), Chartres, and others. We would do more but are now too old. It is another way to enjoy France. Incidentally, each of these places have available meals that are delightful and easily affordable with no hassle about getting a table.


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Favorite Thing: These monuments to the talent of Hector Guimard (1867-1942) are all over Paris. He was awarded the contract to create the surface entries to the Metro after NOT entering the design competition! Art Nouveau was the rage all over Europe and Paris architects were part of the scene. 86 of these cast-iron beauties are still in place. The most complete two are at the Abbesses (near Montmartre) station (the other at Porte-Dauphine) for which I have no pictures. Some are destroyed and others are in museums. This one is at the station at the center of the Ile de la Cite. If you look carefully you may even find his furniture in museums. As to his buildings there are a whole cluster of them in the western part of the 16th Arr. (near the metro Chandon-Lagache). I have not gone there.

Fondest Memory: How many of these structure have you stopped to admire?

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Favorite Thing: Not only is Paris conscious and protective of its ancient architectural heritage, but it is very strict about new buildings after the debacles of Montparnasse and the beneficial devastations of Baron Haussmann. There have been many vigorous eras of building in Paris and around 1900 was one of these periods (prizes were given annually). Art Nouveau was the style and many fine buildings are the result. There were other architects besides Guimard. As we wandered in the neighborhood near our hotel of the same name (See Tip) on the Av. La Bourdonnais, filled with expensive condominiums of that period, we entered the Av. Rapp and saw a fine building at #29. It was built in 1901 by Jules Lavirotte. We later found that he had won the 1901 prize for the facade and was considered the next best man to Guimard. There are others by him nearby (we learned later) within 100m: a high school "Da Vinci" at 12 r. Sedillon and up the alley near our first find (#3 Square Rapp); you can find them. On another day as we walked to the Invalides by Av. Tourville, at the last corner, we found someone elses work but do not have a name. Similarly still another on the rue de Rivoli just beyond the Hotel de Ville (which will appear in a Marais Tip)

Fondest Memory: All sorts of older and modern architecture.

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Favorite Thing: This is a unique collection that should not be missed especially if you are with children. The world can debate whether these artifacts should be returned to their remote places of origin to deteriorate uncared for and almost unseen but we appreciate them better here. This exhibit is almost as extensive as those in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin and having struggled through the original site in Turkey, we enjoyed their Berlin home all the more. Children may not be ready for "fine art" but they will be impressed by the antiquity and the giant elements from the Palace of Darius I (ca.510 BC) and Sargon II (710 BC) in Babylon and Iraq. They may even know of the Code of Hammurabi (1750BC) from Babylon before the Hebrew captivity or of Lagash (Prince Gudea 2100BC). But our favorite character is the studious Superintendent of Mari (from the Temple of Ishtar in Syria 2400BC). To find this section of the Louvre, you enter through the Richelieu escalator from the lobby to the ground floor and you are there. The 25 galleries extend along the North side of the Cour Carree into the Sully area.


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Favorite Thing: Sitting on the parapet of the Pont (that is bridge) St.-Michel late on a warm pleasant night, talking with friends and drinking in the self-centered activities swirling around and looking at the variably lit structures nearby is a memory never to be forgotten. Depending on how one wants to define it, the Place St.-Michel and its fountain are in the 6th Arr. and at the boundary of the Latin quarter; the action is in the 5th.(see our Tips about this in Things to Do>Latin Quarter and >St.-Severin there).

Fondest Memory: When the two of us remember Paris, it is this spot; we treated our 4 grown sons and their wives to a week in France. We walked here from where we were staying (and just had dinner) in the St.-Germaine de Pres Quarter on their first night. I am sorry the pictures are so dark, they are lifted from an early camcorder in May 1998).

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Favorite Thing: There are nine sections in the Louvre. This is typical of giant museums. You can pick items to visit or sections to fasten on. Most visitors combine both more or less unwittingly. Most of the sections would take an hour or more to explore well. One should have a list or a guide to prompt you, plus a layout of the Louvre (we have recommended Rick Steves' "Mona Winks" as a good primer. (I have a cousin who said he did the entire Louvre-10 most famous works- in 45 minutes after entry when he was 30 years old.). Elsewhere in VT be sure to find how to get in immediately or you will regret it! The locations of the sections and objects have not changed since 2002, but finding a place for Mona still may be a problem. (See Separate Tip). The nine sections are as follows: 1) Southern European Paintings (Italian and Spanish; most popular), 2) French Paintings (up to about 1850; most extensive), 3) Northern European Paintings (Dutch, Flemish and German), 4)Egyptian, 5)Oriental (near East, does not take long, a must)(See our General Tip), 6) Greek, Etruscan and Roman, 7) Modern Sculpture (1200-1850), 8)Objets d'Art (from ceramics to crown jewels), 9)Prints and Drawings. Remember that the Louvre is an ex-palace and a manifestation of the work of great architects and interior designers and artists, so it is itself a work of art.

Fondest Memory: It is difficult for any other museum to claim to be better or more extensive than the Louvre

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