Paris Trip (19-22 Sept, 2009)
My brother said he was going to be in France on business for a week and wondered if we wanted to meet up. My parents had expressed an interest so I booked the flight and hotel through lastminute.com. The hotel was listed as Top Secret but easily worked out. These business hotels probably let their excess spaces at a much lower price when there are no business conventions going on.
The Hotel
The hotel was actually the Concorde La Fayette which is right by the metro station Porte Maillot. Very handy as it happens.
It is also just two stops up from Arc de Triomphe on the yellow line, so pretty easy to get about. There were plenty of bars and restaurants close by including a Chez Clement and Cafe Leon, plus Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese around there. I will say that the Chez Clement by the hotel was a euro or two cheaper on each meal than the one on the Champs Elysee.
For us it was OK but my parents probably would have preferred near Chinatown.
Getting There
We flew from Southampton to Paris Orly, which is the airport to the south of Paris. From there we got the coach which is a service put on by Air France. We bought a return ticket and the journey in seemed pretty quick. We will move onto the return leg later.
The coach stopped just off the Arc de Triomphe then it was a 10 to 15 minute walk to the hotel. The sun was out and it was quite warm. This was mid September.
We got to the hotel and checked in. It is a big hotel connected to a conference centre and shopping mall. The room was big and the hotel nice enough.
We met our parents and brother at Oresto Cafe for lunch, which was just straight ahead from the hotel across the crossroad. Angela has the chicken tandoori and I had a salmon tartare which was plentiful and got the approval of my parents which is no easy feat.
We headed off to the Eiffel tower and had a short walk around. Last time I was there was when I was at school and but couldn't recall it in the same way. Next destination was Notre Dame and we did this by boat.
After the usual photo taking we went inside the building. It was free that weekend. After we had a coffee around the way from Notre Dame. The place was opposite Zenyama Japanese restaurant and it is always a good idea just to walk that few extra yards and not fall into the costly tourist traps. I had the pear and almond frangipane with a coffee.
On the trip back it was great to see loads of people sitting on the Left Bank opening bottles of wine by the river enjoying cheeses and so on. Someone had mentioned this but I didn't really know what he meant until I saw it. Nice to see families, friends and couples enjoying themselves. Very civilised indeed and charming. Would end up being quite loutish behaviour back in the UK no doubt.
We got off the boat and had a bit more of a treck to get back onto the Champs Elysee. We walked up some posh road with Dior and other designer shops on it. We had dinner at Chez Clement. My brother wanted his seafood fix and has been here before onhis business trips from the US. We both went for the seafood platter at 29 Euro per head. It came with a half crab, 9 oysters, 3 clams, 3 crevettes, 6 whelks, brown shrimp. Over priced for what we got but then again the exchange rate was definitely against us that time.
Next morning we started the day off with coffee, cake and custard slice at Guest which is a small cafe just around the corner. We needed the calories for a full day ahead. Onto the metro to Louvre, Royal Palais, then to Chinatown.
Chinatown
We walked up and down Chinatown but nothing stood out so we ended up at one on the corner, forgot its name. The cost of lunch, which had lots of meat in our dishes along with a couple of beers, was not that much more than breakfast. The exchange rate is really a killer. Both just over 50 euros for the lot.
It was a hot day again after a nice and fresh morning. Impression of Chinatown was that it is a bit down at heel.
There must have been a residents market on the Sunday as there were loads of people selling all sorts of tat on the pathways between the high rise buildings. Made for an interesting stroll.
Coming back from dinner we got off our metro stop and went under the convention centre into the shopping mall. There is a handy supermarket there and I wished we knew on the first day as we could have stocked up on bottled water and bits without trying to hunt it all down on the morning. Lots of fancy shops, when I say fancy obviously I mean expensive. Finally back in the room we could rest our feet.
Le Metro is very easy to navigate and much cheaper than London. 1 euro 60 cents for a trip in zone 1 that may span changes of lines. We bought single tickets as we didn't travel enough to make the day tickets worthwhile, as you need to do about four separate trips to balance it off. Le Metro even has phone coverage underground.
Beware of pickpockets
That night unfortunately Dad got pickpocketed crossing the road. Over in a flash, some guy bumped into him as we got left behind whist crossing the road. Some travel tips, only bring out enough for the day, spread between people and pockets and walk in close group. Always easy to say after the event!
For dinner we went for mussels at Leon de Bruxelles restaurant and I had the curry mussels. Pretty poor service. Chips didn't arrive for me and the steak was overdone.
A bit of a downer of a night overall.
More sightseeing
Monday - We left my parents at the hotel while we went off to Monmartre knowing the hills wouldn't be good for them. Again, it was another fresh morning so we thought it would be better to do all that walking up the hill then. We walked down and headed towards the Moulin Rouge that is actually a bit underwhelming during daylight.
Tuesday - We packed and left bags with porter.
Had lunch at a Chinese restaurant on Cyt Street called Mandarin St-Cyr with mam and dad before they headed off on the coach. It was 36 euro for 3 main dishese and 3 bowls of rice. We had a quick walk around the park opposite the convention centre.
Then it was out time to get the coach. What a painful experience that was and I totally blame Air France. We went back to where we were first dropped off. We stood at the Air France bus stop that had the timetables on the side. When my brother caught his coach outside the hotel, the coach pulled up to the bus stop as you expected and everything was fine.
For us one pulled in and left further up the road but didn't even come and park by the bus stop that had people waiting so a few of us missed it! The Charles de Galle one did pull in at the right stop! Actually a couple more to CDG did the same.
We were not impressed to say the least and added some last minute stress to the trip. We walked up the road when the next one came. They didn't even call out to the bus stop and weren't fussed in any way.
Althought it was good to have a family meet up in Paris, overall it wasn't the best.
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More notes.
Business hotel so the mini bar prices are a bit eye popping, 8 euro for 33cl can of heineken. The posh supermarket under the conference centre was fine though and worth a visit.
In Chinatown go to the Tang brothers supermarket for stuff as it is much cheaper than the small shops on the Chinatown streets. A bottle of drink was only about 60 cents as opposed to 1 euro 30 in the shops on the streets.
Has been pretty hot most days around 21 to 24 degrees.
