Paris
So, on the weekend of Easter, jm-horse and I went to Paris.
We'd been to France before, but never to Paris.
The city was very different to my expectations and preconceptions. I was surprised by how dominated by cars and vehicular traffic the city was. I'd heard people use the term 'boulevard' before, but expected narrowish, slow roads congested by pedestrian traffic. How wrong I was!
It seems, like the US (as I understand, and experienced in Orlando and LA), the way to get around Paris is by car. This may not be true of weekday commuters, but definitely seemed to be the case on the weekend. There were massive, multilaned roads everywhere you looked. This had the effect of creating barriers between sides of the road and limiting the number of pedestrians around. I think this is quite sad, especially compared to London where the opposite is true.
I also found the way the Brasseries and cafes worked to be not to my tastes. The brasseries were almost like stereotypical American diners. Uncomfortable service and a seating arrangement that had something of a je ne sais quoi. Not to say that they were all like this, we did stumble into one or two that did offer a secluded place to chat of nice ambience. But these were definitely on the rare end of the scale.
I did love the way that there was often seating out the front of a cafe, all facing towards the street. This provided a lovely way to spend time watching the world go by. But that's about all I liked about them.
We did go to a 'bistro'. It was a tiny restaurant with seating crammed so tight, that for someone to leave, the table had to be moved. It was a great experience and definitely the highlight of the trip. The food was good and so was the ambience. Paradoxically, the chef was an English ex-pat.
The city as a whole just did not gel with me. The city of Metz, which we visited on our world trip of 2007 was fantastic. We loved every minute of it, but Paris, I think, is not for me. I'm not saying I'm not going to ever go again, I didn't hate it, but it's just not the sort of place I'd seek out. Also, let's never speak of the horror that is the Champs de Elysees ever again, and I'm not referring to the cars or vehicular traffic.
SO yeah. France = good, Paris = meh
We'd been to France before, but never to Paris.
The city was very different to my expectations and preconceptions. I was surprised by how dominated by cars and vehicular traffic the city was. I'd heard people use the term 'boulevard' before, but expected narrowish, slow roads congested by pedestrian traffic. How wrong I was!
It seems, like the US (as I understand, and experienced in Orlando and LA), the way to get around Paris is by car. This may not be true of weekday commuters, but definitely seemed to be the case on the weekend. There were massive, multilaned roads everywhere you looked. This had the effect of creating barriers between sides of the road and limiting the number of pedestrians around. I think this is quite sad, especially compared to London where the opposite is true.
I also found the way the Brasseries and cafes worked to be not to my tastes. The brasseries were almost like stereotypical American diners. Uncomfortable service and a seating arrangement that had something of a je ne sais quoi. Not to say that they were all like this, we did stumble into one or two that did offer a secluded place to chat of nice ambience. But these were definitely on the rare end of the scale.
I did love the way that there was often seating out the front of a cafe, all facing towards the street. This provided a lovely way to spend time watching the world go by. But that's about all I liked about them.
We did go to a 'bistro'. It was a tiny restaurant with seating crammed so tight, that for someone to leave, the table had to be moved. It was a great experience and definitely the highlight of the trip. The food was good and so was the ambience. Paradoxically, the chef was an English ex-pat.
The city as a whole just did not gel with me. The city of Metz, which we visited on our world trip of 2007 was fantastic. We loved every minute of it, but Paris, I think, is not for me. I'm not saying I'm not going to ever go again, I didn't hate it, but it's just not the sort of place I'd seek out. Also, let's never speak of the horror that is the Champs de Elysees ever again, and I'm not referring to the cars or vehicular traffic.
SO yeah. France = good, Paris = meh