Bonjour Paris 

Are you living in France?? Then share what's happening in your country with us... e-mail us

FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS 2002

Travel with 29 Year Old Parisian Globe Trotter Anne-Sophie Mauffré As She Keeps Trekking around the World

Voyage Avec Anne-Sophie Mauffré, La Jeune Globe-trotteuse de 29 ans tant qu'elle continue son Voyage Autour de Monde

Vous pouvez retrouver les récits d'Anne-Sophie sur son site http://declicautourdumonde.free.fr et si vous ne lisez pas le français vous serez subjugués par la beauté des photos.

If you missed the story last month click here now.

******************************

******************************

DINING IN FRANCE

A Balan  - Inparistoday.com

The reputation of French gastronomy is firmly established: so why not spend a little time in Paris, tasting all the subtleties of a city where every local cuisine is represented ' Which begs the question: where are the best restaurants and cafés located?

In general, one eats well anywhere in Paris, the best restaurants and cafés are usually those visited by Parisians themselves. The left bank offers the highest concentration of restaurants, mostly in such tourist sectors as Saint-Germain-Des-Prés and the Quartier Latin (Latin quarter). Even if you don't find quality everywhere, some outdoor cafés and wine bars are truly excellent (near Odéon, try the Tour de Pierre, in Rue Dauphine, whose warm atmosphere attracts wine lovers, or the trendy café in Place Saint-Germain, Les Deux Magots, and its popular patio). The Quartier Latin, near Place Maubert and Rue des Ecoles, enjoys an abundance of small Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants.

Around the Marais and Bastille, various trendy cafés, tea rooms and ice cream shops, such as La Charlotte de L?Isle, Rue Saint-Louis-en-L?Isle, and Berthillon (the best ice creams and sorbets in Paris) create a special atmosphere. Others are more traditional but all the same successful (Le Loir dans la Théière, Rue des Rosiers).

When it comes to the Champs-Elysées and La Madeleine, the good restaurants and cafés are more expensive, and interspersed with fast-food places. But there are also trendy bars here, from the Buddha Bar in rue Boissy-d?Anglas, to the Montecristo Café on the Champs-Elysées, or the Barfly on Avenue George V.

Many famous cafés from the 20s are located in Boulevard Montparnasse, including Sélect, La Coupole, Le Dôme, and La Rotonde. Recent renovations have restored them to their former glory.

Near Louvre-Rivoli, many charming restaurants and cafés face fierce competition from expensive tourist cafés. Nearby, in Les Halles, fast-food places and mediocre restaurants overshadow famous locations.

Apart from very good Japanese restaurants (Le Café Sushi, 40 Boulevard Haussmann) and excellent brasseries (La Taverne, Boulevard des Italiens, & the Grand Café des Capucines, Boulevard des Capucines), the sector around Opéra is not the best place for a decent meal. By the Bourse, stockbrokers frequent well-known restaurants.

If you head to the north of Paris and Montmartre, you're sure to be tempted by the many attractive restaurants, which are often expensive but worth it. The two most luxurious spots are the Beauvilliers, in the charming Rue Lamarck that leads up to the Sacré C?ur, and the Italian-style Table d?Anvers, in Place d?Anvers.

Restaurants around the Invalides, Eiffel Tower and Palais de Chaillot, are calm by night, and often more pleasant for this than other animated locations in Paris. You may however hear piano playing around one o?clock in Avenue Bosquet: this is the American style Masters Bar, with cheap and chic cocktails and a great choice of whiskies.

The two Asiatic sectors in Paris, south of Place d?Italie and in Belleville, are home to many excellent, exotic and cheap Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants. Belleville is full of North-African restaurants.

************************
************************

Eurail Selectpass (3 countries), as low as $243

Europass® (5 countries), as low as $253

Eurailpass (17 countries), as low as $401

France'n Italy Youthpass, as low as $199

Eurostar Youth Voucher, as low as $ 79

NEW! Eurostar Early Spring Day Trip
NEW! France'n Italy Pass
NEW! All About the Euro
NEW! Northern Belle
                      more special offers...

PARIS - The City of Love

PARIS: The capital and gem in France's tourist crown, Paris is a glutton for superlatives and travel clichés. As a result, visitors often arrive all moist and runny with giddy expectations of grand vistas and romance along the Seine, of landscapes painted on bus-sized canvases, of phenomenally haughty people, of pick-an-ist types in cafés monologuing on the use of garlic or the finer points of Jerry Lewis. True, you can usually find whatever you expect or hope to discover. But an equally effective way of enjoying your stay in the city is to leave your expectations in the hotel, wander aimlessly around the backstreets and avenues, and just see what you see.

Both the capital of the nation and of the historic Île de France region, Paris is located in northern central France, 265km (165mi) south-west of Brussels, 295km (185mi) south-west of Luxembourg and 510km (315mi) west of Stuttgart. The city centre - known as Intra-Muros, or within the walls - is bisected by the River Seine. The area north of the river, the Rive Droite (Right Bank), includes the tree-lined Avenue des Champs-Élysées, running west to the Arc de Triomphe. East of the avenue is the massive Musée du Louvre, the Centre Georges Pompidou and a lively district of museums, shops, markets and restaurants. Immediately south of the Pompidou Centre on the Île de la Cité is the world-famous hunchback hangout, Notre Dame. The area south of the river, the Rive Gauche (Left Bank), is home to the city's most prominent landmark, the Eiffel Tower. To the east, in the Saint Germain de Prés and Montparnasse districts, Paris' famous academic, artistic and intellectual milieus waft in and out of focus through a haze of Gitanes smoke.

Paris is at its best during the temperate spring months (March to May), with autumn coming in a close second. In winter, there are all sorts of cultural events to tempt the visitor, but school holidays can clog the streets with the little folk. August is usually hot and sticky, and it's also when many Parisians take their yearly vacations, so businesses are likely to be closed.

Most museums and shops are closed on France's jours fériés (public holidays). When a holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, expect to see a lot of shuttered storefronts on that Monday or Friday as well. The doors of banks are good places to check for announcements of long holiday weekends.

France's national day, 14 July, commemorates the 1789 storming of the Bastille prison, the event that kicked off the French Revolution. Across the country, the holiday is celebrated with serious abandon, especially in Paris, where the day ends with a massive fireworks display and throngs of people in the streets.

Public Holidays:
1 January - New Year's Day
late March or April - Easter Sunday, Easter Monday
1 May - May Day
8 May - Victory Day
May (40th day after Easter) - Ascension Day
7th Sunday after Easter - Pentecost or Whit Sunday
8th Monday after Easter - Whit Monday
14 July - Bastille Day
15 August - Assumption Day
1 November - All Saints' Day
11 November - Armistice Day
25 December - Christmas Day

source: lonelyplanet.com

Disclaimer: Although we've tried to make the information on this web site as accurate as possible, we accept no responsibility for any loss, injury or inconvenience sustained by any person resulting from information published on this site. We encourage you to verify any critical information with the relevant authorities before you travel. This includes information on visa requirements, health and safety, customs, and transportation.

Nightlife:
When the Lights Go Down in the City

There are several thousand different ways to get your groove on in this city, and luckily, a couple of them are legal.  One of the best ways to find out is to buy a Pariscope for three francs at a newsstand, or save a franc and buy an Officiel du Spectacle (the latter does not have the ‘Time Out’ section in the back).  Generally two hundred and a bit pages long, they’ve got just about everything going on anywhere in and around Paris.  Give yourself plenty of time to figure out how to use it and how to find what you want.  There is also a concert listing called Lylo, but you'll have to scout them out.

You're going to hear a lot about clubs and bars here, because it's AUP and it's Paris and you didn't really come all this way to study that much did you?  As for clubs, the glamour and wanna-be crowd will need VIP on the Champs-Elysées (look for the herd of people waiting to get inside and the 120 franc drink prices - the music is great, the old men in suits aren't), Cabaret (rue Pierre Charron, just off the Champs - more of the same, the drinks are cheaper and the men are younger - but notice I didn't say young), and Les Bains in St. Denis (rue du Bourg l'Abbé - the most down to earth of the three, it's still in the upper reaches of the troposphere).  Bars you'll be looking for are Man Ray, Barfly, and Buddha Bar.  If you decide you can't spend enough money at any of these places, head for the nearest restaurant/bar with the word 'Costes' written on it, and they'll be happy to test just how serious you are about your expenditures.  Guys, your best bet is to either go with a regular, reserve a table, or get some good looking female company, else you risk being turned away from just about any establishment around.  Even karaoke bars.  Really.  And sometimes even the good looking company won't help.  A doorman may tell you that the girls can go in but you can't.  Welcome to Paris.

For those seeking the feel of a sweaty night in Manchester, the Long Hop (M° Maubert-Mutualité) or the Oz Bar (M° Châtelet) are for you.  Dark, hot, and cramped, they are the equivalent of the Batcave with liquor and music.  Chesterfields (rue La Boétie) and the Firkin (rue de Berri, both M° Franklin D. Roosevelt), a tad brighter and with less of that humid-like-the-inside-of-one's-mouth feel, may be more accommodating.

For those in between, looking for some casual cool, you are also well served.  Check the Marais (M° St. Paul, rue Vielle du Temple, Trésor, Lizard Lounge), M° Mabillon/St. Michel (Café Mabillon, rue de Buci and surrounds, Café Richard), and the 16th.  Salsa is dished out at Monte Cristo and Latina Café (Champs-Elysées, M° Franklin Roosevelt) and Barrio Latino (M° Bastille).

If you want to hang out with French people, Bastille, République, and rue Oberkampf in the 20th (between M° Parmetier and M° Ménilmontant, Cafés Charbonne and Cithéa) are for you.  The popular places are quite  small and crowded, the bars especially, because they're packed with chairs and tables (and people), but the more quiet places have ample space to move.  The only question is whether you'll want to hang out with the, how shall I say, "charming," regulars.

For any Goths, the scene is just as black, smoky, and rubber clad as it is in any other civilized country.  It's in French too.  But I  can't help you out with this one.  The nature of the beast is: you know where to find it.  Or you don't. 

Source: --The Planet (the AUP Student Newspaper)

Votre calculette Euro