Paris Blog

Paris is one of those cities that lives up to its own hype. There are ostentatiously grand buildings at every turn, numerous little cafes that make you feel intellectual and sophisticated while you sit in their rickety wooden chairs, sipping your cafe au lait and contemplating your existence, and delicious French patisseries, brasseries, and restaurants. In addition to all this, you have the mother of all art museums, the Louvre, as well as the Musee d'Orsay, which houses a large collection of French Impressionist art, and the Cluny Museum, which displays a rather large collection of medieval art and artifacts. In short, one could easily spend a week touring Paris. We, however, only had two days last weekend to do as much sightseeing as possible, and, I feel, we succeeded in making the most of our time. I would like to share with you some sight-seeing tips should you find yourself in Paris for only two days without a clue what to do.

Arrival and getting around Paris

Since we currently live in continental Europe, we decided to drive to Paris rather than fly. Had there been a good airfare rate at the time, we certainly would have taken that option instead, but as there were none, we braved the icy roads and pelting snow in order to save ourselves about $150 in travel expenses and to allow ourselves the freedom of being able to come and go as we pleased. That being said, we still had to shell out at least $100 in travel expenses after we took into consideration gas, parking, and public transportation once inside of Paris. Because we loathe trying to navigate through foreign cities by car (and believe me, we tried this many times when we were naive, new arrivals in Europe), we decided to park at Charles de Gaulle airport, on the outskirts of the city. Charles de Gaulle offers long term parking at a parking lot labeled "Px." This, however is not cheap. The daily rate was about 20 euros. From what I understand, there are cheaper parking garages located in the city center itself, so if you are one of those people who actually like fighting your way through chaotic traffic, or, perhaps you are one of those fortunate souls in possession of a navigation system, then be my guest and try to find yourself one of those parking garages. But, if like me you are driving an old car, are married to someone who objects to the idea of using a nav system on the grounds that maps are "more fun to use," and are willing to fork over the extra cash for the sake of convenience, then my advice is to park at Charles de Gaulle airport. From the Px parking lot you can catch the nifty little airport tram to the RER (train) station just outside of terminal 3. There, you can purchase a ticket into the city center for about 8 euro per person. Once inside the train, sit back, relax, and enjoy the accordian music being played by the shifty subway performers.

Tip #1: Stay at a hotel near a train or metro station

Our hotel, the Inter Hotel Ariane Montparnasse, was very close to the Denfert-Rochereau train and metro station. The train took us directly to that station, and we could walk to the hotel from there. Adding to the ease of said walk was the fact that I shoved all of our possessions into one giant backpack which was carried by my husband, who, though remarking at one point that he felt like a "pack mule," insisted that the pack was, in fact, not too heavy.

Our Hotel

Sigh. In order to be able to afford all the European travelling my of which my husband and I are so fond, we generally have to settle for two-star hotels, with the occasional three-star if we are lucky. Now don't get me wrong - I fancy myself a "grin-and-bear-it" kind of person ("we're in Paris! Who cares where we stay?") - but there is always something a little bit depressing about the two-star hotel experience. You are never really sure how thin the walls are going to be, or, especially in Europe, what the shower in the bathroom is going to be like. Or, if your bathroom is even going to be connected to your room (this was the case in Amsterdam, but that's another story). Fortunately, this hotel proved to be one of the better of the two-stars we have stayed in thus far - good shower, quiet location, wireless internet access, even a mini fridge in the room. My only complaints were that the bed was rather hard and that there was a mysterious lack of electrical outlets in which to plug all of our various things needing recharging. We had to unplug either the TV or the fridge whenever we wanted to plug in any of our own things. But in the long run, the positives outweighed the negatives, in my opinion. We paid only 211 euros for three nights.

One night, when we stopped in to the hotel to drop off our belongings before going back out for dinner, we found the dining area in the lobby full of people drinking wine and singing along to some guy playing the harmonica. No one appeared to be manning the front desk, where we were waiting to get our room key. No one, that is, except for a large spotted dog, who was standing behind the counter looking up at us as if waiting for us to ask him for the room key. Some moments passed, during which we did ask the dog for the room key, but, perhaps because the dog understood only French, the dog replied by coming out from behind the counter and stood patiently beside us while we patted him on the head and repeated the request for the room key. Presently, one of the hotel staff emerged and fulfilled our request and the dog returned to his previous post.

To be continued . . .