All Modes of Transport: Week in Paris, June 2006

My personal highlights were not necessarily things you couldn't do or see in other countries, but I really treasured the experience. Most of them are transportation-related, including rowing a boat on Lac Inferieur, bicycling to Monet's Gardens in Giverny, and riding a scooter around L'Arc de Triomphe. Next on the long list is the food!

Quick Tips:

If you are an art or architecture student and have a current ID, you can usually talk your way into getting into the museums for free. Getting your coffee/juice/croissant in the morning at the bar rather than sitting down at a table can save up to 50% on the tab.

Best Way To Get Around:

Of course, see my above highlights. The next best would be walk, walk, walking, which is really great if you're in a central location to begin with. The Metro is also very convenient, and you can ride the RER lines within Zone 1 by transferring from/for the same price as the Metro.

For 45€ a night, we stayed in the middle of the 4th Arrondissement (the hip student area), 1 short blocks from the Metro Hotel de Ville. It was a little noisy at night with the windows open. The room had a queen-size bed, phone, television, safe, and sink with a mirror. The room was only slightly larger than the bed, but it had a great set of French doors that opened up to a small balcony. The bathroom was a few steps down the hall and was religiously cleaned, and only once did I have to wait to use the toilet (never for the shower). They serve a breakfast of coffee, orange juice, and a croissant for 5€ every day, which is a deal. There is an elevator and front-desk worker 24 hours a day, but they don't speak English, so, "Parlez vous Francais?"

Baan Boran is a really lovely, comfortable restaurant. I thought the prices were very reasonable, given the excellent food quality, friendly service, and nice decor. We shared a tasty shrimp lemongrass soup for an appetizer, a red duck curry, and spare ribs with green curry and coconut milk. The menu indicated that the curries were spicy, but we found them to be quite mild. If you want some spice, one probably needs to ask for extra.

The inside of this tiny restaurant resembles the interior of a boat, appropriate for its name. There are only a few small tables, so it is best for a one or two, and possibly up to four. Both the savory and dessert crepes are tasty and filling. The woman who was serving us was a riot, and the loud but not noisy music was fun. You can also get a good crepe to go from the window.

Metro: St Michel

L'Ancien Hotel Baudy is perfect for a filling, homemade meal before or after visiting Monet's Gardens. When I ate there, I imagined that this was what farmers and gardeners would eat after a long day of work, except I had done basically nothing in comparison to that.

At first, I was hesitant to eat there, since it was the biggest, most obvious place to eat on the road, with its large outside seating area. Our server was exceptionally friendly, and it turned out that the food was excellent, especially the French onion soup.

This restaurant is a bit fancy in comparison to the rest of the places I experienced during my trip, but I had the best hummus, tabouleh ,and baba ganoush I've ever had in my life. The lamb and chicken skewers were also fantastic. The service was a little slow--I think we had a new person--but I will go back again.

If you want to visit Monet's Gardens in Giverny, you can take the bus from the train station from Vernon, OR you can rent a bike, which is much more fun. It is a short ride, maybe 30 minutes at a leisurely pace. You only have to ride on the street for a few blocks, and then there is a paved bike road separate from the highway.

Outside the train station there are two restaurants nearby that rent bikes, and both advertise 12€ rentals for all day. Initially they offered us 10€ since it was a Tuesday, and since we got two bikes, we bargained down to 8€ each. They give you a useful hand-drawn map to Giverny, a basket on the bike, and a lock. The bikes are modern hybrids in good condition, and I think only one of the two places offer helmets. On the way back, you can stop and picnic in a park along the Seine, which is pretty romantic.

On a sunny day, it's totally worth it to do this slightly cheesy activity. We rented a nice rowboat from the only boathouse on Lac Inferieur, which had plenty of boats for all of the families who were there as well. They only take cash and wanted a 50€ deposit, but we were easily able to convince them to just take our driver's license. It was 10€ for 1 hour, and maybe 15€ for 2 hours? I don't remember exactly, but it was incrementally less per hour with more time. The lake is a good size, with different paths and sections so that you don't all end up rowing around in a circle. The Bois de Boulogne is also nice because it is much more casual than the parks in Paris, so you can lie on the ground and picnic, and even take a dip in the lake if you dare.

The lines and cost to take the elevator up the Eiffel Tower are hideous. If you are content with only going to the first and second (which arguably have the best views) of three levels, and you are in moderately good shape, take the stairs. Instead of 7.70€ to take the elevator, you can take the stairs for 3.80€, or only 3€ if you are under 25. While this may not seem so much of a discount, you'll realize the worth when you don't have to wait in the hour-long line for the elevator. Also, if you just take the stairs to the first level, you can buy a lift ticket to the top using the automated machine. It's romantic at night.

On Sundays, a ton of local kids show up at the park with their model boats. They all sail them in the little lake, and it's quite picturesque.

Well-manicured is an understatement for this garden. At first, one is amazed by the perfectly maintained hedges and evenly cut trees. The killer is when you stand between the two rows of adjacent trees, look up, and notice that there is a straight line of sky about 6 inches wide in the space between the trees has been meticulously trimmed.

This modern park contains a lot of odd monuments and structures, but the most intriguing part for me was the tethered hot air balloon that rises about 500 feet in the air. Unfortunately, the day I visited, there were high winds (25 mph), and thus there were no trips then. Poo. It was a little expensive too, at 11€ a person, so I was content to picnic on the grass, figuring out the landscape.

To travel to the outskirts of Paris as well as fully experience the Arc de Triomphe round-a-bout, we rented a scooter for a day for 45€. I don't really recommend this for people who aren't experienced driving a two-wheel vehicle--I drive a Vespa regularly.

We rented from a nice place called Free Scoot, which has two offices in Paris (www.freescoot.com). Although the advertisement claims that they require proof of residence for 3 months, we just gave them our hotel name, address, and phone number, as well as my US driver's license. We got a 125 cc Piaggo, which had nice big wheels for stability and a good engine size for two people. They also gave us two pair of gloves, two helmets, and two locks.

It was a really fun way to travel through the city, and parking on the sidewalks was a breeze. They had a 1,600€ "hold" on my credit card for a security deposit, which they never charged on my card since I returned it intact. They also rent bicycles and electric scooters on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

While you may ask, "Why would I want to go to some fancy gardening store?" try again. While the downstairs of this shop seems like an ordinary place, you must go upstairs to experience basically an amazing, free taxidermy museum. The upstairs has been run by the same family for decades, and they have displays of a crocodile, elephant, bear, donkey, etc. They also have tons of insects and sell a good variety of antique posters (I like the fruits and vegetables) and books.

Le Prince Jardinier
37, rue de Valois
75001 Paris
Tel: 01 42 60 37 13

This isn't advertised at all, but if you are an art or architecture student, you can get into several museums for free. We got into the Louvre, Musee de Cluny, and Musse de L'Orangerie by showing our US ID cards with a current date.

Only five of them remain in Paris... beautiful, exquiste mosaics, carved wood, brass ornaments, and stained glass. A church? A museum? No, underground public toilets from the early 1900s. Each of the remaining toilettes publiques has a full-time attendant, and ours was particularly friendly and chatty. Each wooden stall contains a toilet and its own sink, and men are encouraged to use the urinals unless they *need* a toilet. The stairwell for the one we visited was located near the flower market at Place de la Madeleine.