| catrin_darcy |
03-18-2009 06:06 PM |
Re: travel question
Quote:
Originally Posted by notcasesensitive
(Post 383982)
Yeah, I should post this on the vacation board, but I was hoping to actually get a response or two.
I'm looking into a quick Paris trip. I did study abroad in France a million and a half years ago (and I had a trip with my dad when I was 16 -- even longer ago), so I feel like I have all the touristy stuff covered. Maybe I would do one or two things again, but the main point of the trip would be to see the city again as an adult. Wander in gardens, sit at cafes, drink wine, etc. My question for all you world-traveled types is where would you stay for this sort of trip? My recollection is that the left bank was the sort of funky, fun area, but I have no idea whether that was correct at the time or if it is true today. Help?
|
I can't argue with staying free at the Westin, and that's certainly central enough to hop out to whatever neighborhoods you want to hang out in. (IIRC, though, right by the Tuileries is not a "neighborhoody" area itself at all, so I'm not sure whether there are many corner boulangeries and ice cream places at which to become a regular by stopping in every day in your wanderings.)
For neighborhoods to hang out in, I really, really liked the feel of the 10th and 11th back in 2002. I know Less already said this about the 5th, but they felt like the Mission (in the good way), and had street after street of great shops, bars and cafes to wander around in where there weren't any tourists at all. Cafe Charbon on Oberkampf is classic; there were fantastic couscous places on the Blvd. de Menilmontant; and the Canal St.-Martin has become a very fun place to take a picnic and just hang out. I never actually made it into the Pere Lachaise cemetary, but that is supposed to be cool, too. The 11th (and the farther you get into it to the south) was at the time slightly ahead of the 10th on the gentrification scale, with more expensive bars and restaurants, but it has the advantage of being near both the Promenade Plantee, which is an elevated park (in the 12th) and a great market (which I've already forgotten the name of). Here's a list of the markets, which will of course be more enticing if you're in an apartment and have a kitchen:
http://www.v1.paris.fr/EN/Living/markets/markets.ASP. The 10th is closer to the Canal St.-Martin. The Marais (3rd & 4th) is even more upscale and completely gentrified, but very pretty.
I used www.lodgis.com to rent an apartment and it was a terrific experience all around.
I hereby submit vote #3 for the Picasso museum, and a separate pitch for the Rodin museum and the Cluny, too, if you haven't already been to those. |
