Paris! City of OH MY GOD I DON'T CARE.
The " #confessyourunpopularopinion" Twitter fad is well-timed for me, because I'm in the research-heavy phase of planning a trip to London and Paris later this year for me and Andy, and my unpopular opinion is that I've never given much of a shit about Paris as a place to visit. I kind of hated Amelie, I don't really care for cathedrals, palaces, luxury fashion, or French cuisine, and I'm pretty sure that the city, as a travel destination, is overrated. I'll venture that it probably has something to do with Ernest Hemingway being a prick, something to do with floral prints, cliches about romance and gender stereotypes, and something to do with my own particular complicated feelings about liking things that other people seem to like a great deal. See also: The Beatles. I don't care how good the Beatles were, there's no way they can be as good as people insist they are. I don't consider myself a hater by nature - I get more enjoyment out of liking things than disdaining them - but overhype can ruin a thing for me utterly.
While Andy would have been happy to spend the entire trip in London, I've been there before and I liked the idea of riding the Eurostar to Paris, so talked him into flying into Heathrow and out of Charles De Gaulle. After I booked plane tickets, I realized that taking the Eurostar to Paris would mean, you know, visiting Paris, and there isn't much that I care about in Paris on the 'must-see' attraction level,* so my usual library guidebook binge isn't going to go very far. Not that it's stopped the library guidebook binge, because I love guidebooks and libraries and sitting around outside 1369 with a stack of library guidebooks on the table in front of me making little pencil notes in a draft itinerary or a less-structured infinite scroll list of 'stuff I want to check out in [destination]' that will always be longer than any trip permits. In this particular case, the list was alarmingly short before I started supplementing it with the more not-for-everybody finds I was able turn up online or via personal recommendations, where perhaps time won't be the limiting factor, but sheer crafty fearlessness. (I mean, I'm still dithering about whether or not to pull the trigger on a hotel in the 20th arrondissement because the cancellation policy is on the strict side.) This process became way more fun when I found the local Parisian crank on the Lonely Plant message board** and followed his posts to another, lower-profile board featuring photo-heavy threads like "My Kitsch Paris" and "Africa in Paris." I always do this kind of research, but it's never been so fundamental to my planning.
Which is all to say, anybody want to recommend stuff to do or see in Paris? I like neighborhoods that people are just starting to fret over, gentrification-wise, places with lots of street art (the not-really-legal variety), shops that do not emphasize brand names or trademarks, street food and good urban bike routes. I like weird stuff like the Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago and the place with the bloody animal mauling mosaics in Istanbul. Don't tell me about the catacombs. I know about the catacombs! We'll be there the week of Thanksgiving, probably for about four days.
Oh, and you can tell me what you like about London too, but London is way easier, especially since this will be a return visit for me and Andy will enjoy himself no matter what because we'll be there for the 50th anniversary of the first Doctor Who broadcast.
* That said, I was a little heartbroken, after recently reading Apollo's Angels and even more recently discovering a delightfully high/lowbrow CW reality series about a Salt Lake City ballet company, to realize that the Paris Opera Ballet will be dark during our visit. Andy is no doubt relieved, and not just because it means he won't need to pack clothes that will pass muster at Palais Garnier. I will also pay too much money for Laduree macarons.
** This is the sort of thing that is obvious if you think about it: Most of the destination-specific boards are dominated by a small number of opinionated locals or local expats who set the tone for the entire board, and are regarded as authoritative by even other heavy posters. This results in just as much a curated impression as a guidebook, but one that does not even attempt to appear objective. My favorite Paris thread on the Lonely Planet board is one where a guy asks for advice on the surprise overnight trip/super-fancy hotel/public proposal he's planning and nearly every response tells him that his grand romantic gesture is kind of stupid, and has he actually talked to his girlfriend about whether they should get married? The Paris guy finds little of interest in the city center, is enormously helpful in identifying interesting things in funkier not-purely-French neighborhoods, and once popped into every cafe on the Champs Elysees to find out exactly how much each one charged for a cola (too much!) He clearly loves his city in a way that is totally different from the way most people tend to love it.
While Andy would have been happy to spend the entire trip in London, I've been there before and I liked the idea of riding the Eurostar to Paris, so talked him into flying into Heathrow and out of Charles De Gaulle. After I booked plane tickets, I realized that taking the Eurostar to Paris would mean, you know, visiting Paris, and there isn't much that I care about in Paris on the 'must-see' attraction level,* so my usual library guidebook binge isn't going to go very far. Not that it's stopped the library guidebook binge, because I love guidebooks and libraries and sitting around outside 1369 with a stack of library guidebooks on the table in front of me making little pencil notes in a draft itinerary or a less-structured infinite scroll list of 'stuff I want to check out in [destination]' that will always be longer than any trip permits. In this particular case, the list was alarmingly short before I started supplementing it with the more not-for-everybody finds I was able turn up online or via personal recommendations, where perhaps time won't be the limiting factor, but sheer crafty fearlessness. (I mean, I'm still dithering about whether or not to pull the trigger on a hotel in the 20th arrondissement because the cancellation policy is on the strict side.) This process became way more fun when I found the local Parisian crank on the Lonely Plant message board** and followed his posts to another, lower-profile board featuring photo-heavy threads like "My Kitsch Paris" and "Africa in Paris." I always do this kind of research, but it's never been so fundamental to my planning.
Which is all to say, anybody want to recommend stuff to do or see in Paris? I like neighborhoods that people are just starting to fret over, gentrification-wise, places with lots of street art (the not-really-legal variety), shops that do not emphasize brand names or trademarks, street food and good urban bike routes. I like weird stuff like the Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago and the place with the bloody animal mauling mosaics in Istanbul. Don't tell me about the catacombs. I know about the catacombs! We'll be there the week of Thanksgiving, probably for about four days.
Oh, and you can tell me what you like about London too, but London is way easier, especially since this will be a return visit for me and Andy will enjoy himself no matter what because we'll be there for the 50th anniversary of the first Doctor Who broadcast.
* That said, I was a little heartbroken, after recently reading Apollo's Angels and even more recently discovering a delightfully high/lowbrow CW reality series about a Salt Lake City ballet company, to realize that the Paris Opera Ballet will be dark during our visit. Andy is no doubt relieved, and not just because it means he won't need to pack clothes that will pass muster at Palais Garnier. I will also pay too much money for Laduree macarons.
** This is the sort of thing that is obvious if you think about it: Most of the destination-specific boards are dominated by a small number of opinionated locals or local expats who set the tone for the entire board, and are regarded as authoritative by even other heavy posters. This results in just as much a curated impression as a guidebook, but one that does not even attempt to appear objective. My favorite Paris thread on the Lonely Planet board is one where a guy asks for advice on the surprise overnight trip/super-fancy hotel/public proposal he's planning and nearly every response tells him that his grand romantic gesture is kind of stupid, and has he actually talked to his girlfriend about whether they should get married? The Paris guy finds little of interest in the city center, is enormously helpful in identifying interesting things in funkier not-purely-French neighborhoods, and once popped into every cafe on the Champs Elysees to find out exactly how much each one charged for a cola (too much!) He clearly loves his city in a way that is totally different from the way most people tend to love it.