Oui. Je suis un americain The day we pick up our car and leave the city is always the tensest. We had downloaded a map from Mappy, programmed the GPS, and arranged to pick up our car from an agency outside the Periphique. It was a Saturday so traffic shouldn’t be too bad. We stood in line for about half an hour at the Europcar booth but, when it was our turn everything seemed to go smoothly. I had asked for a diesel powered car but am prepared for the Rolling Stones warning that, “You don’t always get what you [View Full Entry]

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Le Sagittaire 77, rue Lamarck 75000 XVIIIème Paris 75018 Téléphone : 01 42 55 17 40 This is our restaurant find for this visit to Paris. I am almost reluctant to share it with you, in case you ruin it. This is a small restaurant; it was full on a Wednesday night so a reservation would be in order. Everyone spoke French and seemed to be regulars as they greeted each other. We passed by and it looked nice though you could easily miss it. The price is €30 per person. €30 is what you will pay. No more or no [View Full Entry]

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A.Beauvilliers A.Beauvilliers and Cottage Marcadet were the two places that we had hoped to eat at. We had decided to choose other restaurants however the fancy struck us. Cottage Marcadet I discussed in the section of this blog about the Mini Paris GTG. A.Beauvilliers 52 rue Lamarck Paris 75018 Tel. 01 42 55 05 42 http://www.abeauvilliers.com A.Beauvilliers has been taken over by Yohan Perran, a very young chef. People say that is exactly what this stuffy place needed. It is now very bright, though still formal. The maitre d’ and his staff were far more relaxed [View Full Entry]

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Wepler Wepler 14, place de Clichy - 01 45 22 53 24 This Bistro is best known for seafood and oysters in an area that is swimming with such places. It is large and looks just like you would think a Parisian bistro would, with chairs and tables lining the sidewalk in front. There is a small stall in front where some fruits de la mer are displayed and, at busy times, a man stands shucking and jiving. At the other end is an ice cream machine and window. It was our first evening in Paris - a Sunday, the [View Full Entry]

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Today 3 couples who had never met, joined together for lunch in a Paris Mini Fodors GTG. All we had in common was we post on the Fodors Travel Forum. We chose to meet at Cottage Marcadet in the Montmartre district of Paris. This restaurant has only been open for a year and a half and according to positive reviews by Zagats and Pudlo it is well on its way to some notoriety. Our appetizers varied from saumon fume, pied de veau, a veloute de roquette de fleurs, and a risotto avec legumes. We chose plat principals of caille rotie, lapin, [View Full Entry]

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Life in the 18th Arrondissement We chose this area for a number of reasons, not the least of which was availability due to the Rugby World Cup and price. As well, we wanted to move out of the familiar fifth and immerse ourselves in an area lesser known to us. Frankly some of the negative comments which appear about the Montmartre area were troublesome and the coup de grace was when I read that there were no good restaurants in the 18e . Armed with a TimeOut Paris , the new English version of Pudlo, and a subscription to Zagats, we [View Full Entry]

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27, rue Damremont This was our first venture into renting instead of staying in a hotel. The process went easily with this company, www.frenchyrentals.com . It is the Damremont one. Payments were made by PayPal and our contact, Darrin, kept in regular touch, even sending us a Paris Pratique. They did require a €200 down security deposit which irks me. The €800 per week rental fee seemed to fit into our usual range for hotel rental. I was a little tentative about renting an apartment, even starting a thread on the Fodors forum entitled, “Renting an apartment - Is [View Full Entry]

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Delayed But Not Daunted Our internet has not been running but all is well as of today. Now I have some work to do. Paris Flight We arrived at the airport our customary 4 hours in advance - (my choice not Sandra’s). I just like to get there, get settled and relax before the trip as we get to go to the BA lounge. As we checked in we were greeted with the words, “I guess you know that your flight is delayed.” We didn’t know. I did know that there was an earlier BA flight to Heathrow so I [View Full Entry]

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Prologue We aren't packed yet but, what the heck, we have a day left... and Sandy's out shopping. Here is our itinerary (all times are local to the area): 15 Sep 07 - BA 098 - LV 2001 - Toronto to Heathrow - Arr 0805 16 Sep (I promise to put a loonie in the Mutual of Omaha machine) 16 Sep 07 - BA 308 - Lv 1045 - Heathrow to Paris Arr 1300 22 Sep 2007 - Drive from Paris to the Dordogne area (Carlux) 20 Oct 2007 - Drive to Clermont-Ferrand from Carlux 21 Oct 2007 - Drive to [View Full Entry]

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