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Montmartre and My Atrocious French
Posted by Stillthinking • 4/26/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: adventures in travel, montmartre, paris, sacre coeur
I just posted a new blog entry on my first day in Paris. I explored Montmartre, stumbled across the red light district, and climbed up to the Sacre Coeur, all while mangling my high school French and wondering just how much of an Ugly American I actually am. 
User Comments
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Bumpity bump.
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Mais non! Don't be the Ugly American! It's *Les* bumpity bump! -
You can now solve your french accent problem with this enjoy
www.frenchnovice.com/2009/04/learn-french-accent-with-text-to-speech.html
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I had the worst meal I have ever had and I had the best meal I ever had in Paris.
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Did you go to Bofinger, it's a restaurant near the Bastille? -
what was the worst? -
No, I actually only saw the Place De La Bastille from the window of a bus.
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The worst was Steak Frites at this cafe on the Rue Des Martyrs. It was like chewing shoe leather.
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best?
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Next time you go, go to Bofinger - it's an Alsace restaurant. Ask for choucroute.
Have it with a fine Alsace riesling. -
Best was Cafe du Marche on the Rue Cler. Phenomenal poulet roti with potato puree, green salad. A lovely glass of bordeux. All finished with a cafe noisette and creme brulee.
Fabulous. I am drooling just thinking about it right now.
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I wish I could go back and eat at Bofinger. In fact, I could have used another week in Paris.
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You wouldn't have seen everything you want to see in just a week, however. Paris is that kind of place.
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I really enjoyed my time there. Next time, I will poll my French experts and find out the best places to eat. After all, food is a huge part of the French experience.
Though, I adored all the bakeries, the crepe vendors, the fruit stands, the cheese shops. Oh the brioche and the croissants! -
"Un pain au chocolat et un cafe filtre, sil vous plait" is one of the nicest things to be able to say.
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"Je voudrais une chocolatine at une cafe noisette, s'il vous plait"
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Did you manage to get to Hediard for some chocolates, by the way?
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*sigh* no. Apparently, I missed the best parts of Paris. Need to go back.
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I recommend the candied fruit squares - the raspberry ones are particularly intense.
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"stumbled across the red light district"... SURE o_O-
No, really. Stumbled across it. Was shocked down to American puritanical bones.
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lol
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Another thing to do, if you haven't already, is go see an opera at the Palais Garnier - as a student of architecture, that place should have a lot of appeal for you. It perfectly encapsulates Second Empire style.
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Bizarrely enough, my hotel was only 20 minute walk from the Palais Garnier, but I was so busy, I didn't make it over there. It was on my list though. I saw it in passing.
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If you can, smuggle in an iPod with the works of Jacques Offenbach while you walk through it - the music is from the same period as the building...and a number of Offenbach's works were performed there.
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I really wanted to see it, but it slipped through the cracks. Too much too see, too little time. I missed the Pompidou center, the Madeleine (well, I saw it in passing), the Opera Garnier, the Pantheon. I needed more time!
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As I say, Paris is one of those places where you can spend a very long time and yet not see it all.
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You might be interested in my last post, la maison Lavirotte. Worth a look, rather spectacular. I go often to look at it. There are other Parisian scenes as well. Most of the people featured are French.-
I will! This was my first visit to Paris and there was so much to see and do, I couldn't fit everything in. I must return.
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Welcome back!
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Lovely photos on your blog! Beautiful building. I was overwhelmed by the age and beauty of the buildings in Paris. Everything in the US is so young and new by comparison.
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I'll send you some links to unusual building I've featured on your Shoutbox. Hope you took some good photographs and the weather was good.
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I took over 500 photos in Paris. I almost wish I was bionic blogger and had some sort of special microchip in my brain that captured what I was seeing in beautifully composed, properly lit photos.
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Just zapping this alive - I take it you visited the Musee d'Orsay?
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Yes, I did. I spent 2 1/2 hours at the Louvre and almost 4 hours at the Musee D'Orsay. I would say that Orsay was my favorite museum in Paris. Perfect.
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That museum made me regret I couldn't get into a time machine and see Paris in the 19th century, when I could see the artists in action. Did you get to the Rodin Museum as well?
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Yes, I went to the Rodin museum and the Orangerie as well as Petit Palais, all in one exhausting day along with the Louvre and Les Invalides.
Rodin's house is not holding up well, though the gardens are beautiful. I will say, I did not feel lonely at all traveling alone in Paris until the Rodin museum and later on, during the moonlit Seine cruise. -
I realise you had a good time, but Paris isn't really a city to be done alone. At the very least, you need a partner to encourage you to keep on walking.
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I really enjoyed traveling alone. Now, I can go back with someone else and let them enjoy it without the sense of "I want to do this urgency" that I would have had.
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Oh by the way, you may want to try the Hotel Rochester next time, it's near the Champs Elysees and their showers don't leak. It's also reasonably priced.
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Thank you for the suggestion. I need to write down all the wonderful suggestions for food and hotels so that I can remember them for my return visit. I am thinking maybe Christmas in Paris might be spectacular. Hopefully, I will be gainfully employed by then and will have more euros to spend.
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Christmas in Paris is definitely recommended - the Parisians go out of their way to do up the city. Oh by the way, have you gone to the Musee Picasso?
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One other restaurant I recall - there's a small restaurant near Hediard (I forget the name, but it is tiny and unprepossessing) which serves truffle-based dishes. If you enjoy truffles, it's a great place to eat.
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*starts to look a little bitter*
No, not enough time. I had 4 short, exhausting days to explore Paris, one of which I spend bicycling around Versailles.
Now, I know I have to go back. Yep, I'm going to go back at Christmas. -
Well if I can be of assistance let me know...that is if you don't want to kill me.
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I absolutely will consult you on my trip to Paris. Rick Steves be damned! Though his guidebook was very helpful and I had a lovely time with his suggestions and walking tours.
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[Sulking]
OK, I'm here.
I gave you a bump earlier in the thread and you didn't even respond.
Hmmpf!-
I too showed up to bump. -
I am responding now! I had just stepped out for my pity brunch date and now I am back.
I appreciate it ladies.
Er, Lady and lovely Gabled inn. -
Lady!?!
Cough, splutter! Hey!
For that, I present you with the home video footage of that time Anok came to visit you in Chicago:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkDeYccEOGQ&feature=PlayList&p=361C84B2275E11C6&pla... -
How did you get that video! I thought I destroyed that tape.
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I am now having fantasies of becoming a travel writer for Lonely Planet. If anyone from Lonely Planet is out there, I would like to write a blog for you!
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Yes, it sounds like you need to visit Prague and Budapest as well.
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Prague is next on my list! And then Vienna, London, Rome, Budapest. I've got the bug!
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Rome is even more fun than Paris. And their great truffle restaurant, Nino's, near the Spanish Steps, serves an amazing linguine and white truffles.
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*groans and pulls her pockets inside out*
Unemployment and the travel bug don't sit well together.
*looks glum* -
Unemployment in your case is temporary, to be sure. Besides, you have to get back into work to feed your travel habit.
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Awe, thanks Green.
I sure hope it's temporary. I do have this fantasy that someone from Lonely Planet will stumble across my beautifully written entries from Paris and send me an email with an offer to spend 6 months traveling Europe from a budget point of view and writing a daily blog about my experiences.
Yeah, that would be sweet.-
You'd do better to try and write a book - perhaps a book which talks about travel as an antidote to the economic blues.
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Holy croissants! That's actually a really good idea.
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You may even want to echo Orwell, but rather than "Down and Out in Paris and London", entitle it "Down and Up in Chicago and Paris".
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Well, that would be good if I had actually read the said entitled Orwell book. Hmmm, the book is a really good idea.
Mon Dieu, I feel inspired! -
The Orwell book is not really applicable - he lived the life of a tramp in both Paris and London, which is not something you're doing. However, re-using the title provides echoes of a previous period of economic distress.
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I will read that book and get working on my own. Merci!
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Maybe make friends? Museums are great and so is Montmarte but having friends to laugh with and show you stuff that tourists don't often see is wonderful.
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Of course! I would love to make friends in Paris. Unfortunately, I don't have travel companions here in the US currently as I am the last single girl amongst my group of friends. The rest are all married and currently, due to the economic turn down, all pregnant.
Yep, Americans have babies when they don't have money for other stuff to do. -
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Unfortunately, my poor French will be an obstacle for that link. I know there are quite a few bloggers on BC who are French or expats in Paris.
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Hey bump my "Great Post" thread! Maybe if we keep tagging, we can get one of those fruit baskets, or "smeared-up" "firm cookies"
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I don't want to hear anything about your firm cookies. Keep it clean, Agit8r.
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well geez! Anin isn't on today. Somebody has to pick up the slack!
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This is the French travel thread. It's not cookies we talk about here, it's the firmness of your creme brulee.
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Oh! *blushing*
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ya kno, that is rather clean by my standards... if you don't believe me, see the Shamwow thread
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Actually, you are right. You didn't try to politicize the cookies or comment on cookie socialism.
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I just necro-posted my most recent post on "socialism"
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I saw that. I commented on it.
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did u read it as well?
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Not really. I am not in the mood to get worked up today. The weather is so pretty and I am feeling pretty cheerful.
I'll read it when I want to get into some troll baiting action. -
i doubt you would find it unfavorable.
the hard right wing might, though
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tag-bump
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