Overview

We visited Paris at the end of May. We knew not to expect perfectly sunny weather, so we were not disappointed by the frequent, though light rain. We were determined to find out the best that the city can offer: food, culture, architecture---they were all there for us to explore, and we did just that. We found that the museums and historical sites were definitely worth our trip, while we were less impressed by the food.

In More Detail

Our arrival in Paris was not very pleasant. The airport (CDG) seems to be overloaded with traffic and we had to go down long, narrow hallways until we reached the immigration checkpoint and baggage claim. We could find practically no place that was smoke-free at the airport. Even though smoking is restricted to several "smoking areas", these are not isolated in any way, so smoke freely travels everywhere.

We took a cab to our hotel, Hotel Bassano. This is a top-rated hotel that we looked up on TripAdvisor: we have learned to research out hotels carefully before the trip. Hotel Bassano is very pleasant, and has an awesome location just a block or two from Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. Our only problem was that our room had no street windows; instead, the windows opened towards a chute in the middle of the building, so cigarette smoke or kitchen odors would sneak in at various times during the day or night.

From the time we had booked our tickets we had decided to only visit Paris and not succumb to the temptation of visiting any other places, such as castles on the Loire. One week is barely sufficient to see Paris on its own, we thought. During our stay in Paris, we found a week to be just enough for what we cared about. We spent most of our time walking around downtown, visiting the Louvre, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, St. Germaine des Pres, and of course the Eiffel tower. The only exception we made was our visit to Versailles, which is a half hour train ride from Paris, and is truly majestic.

During our walks in Paris, we were most impressed by the area around Notre Dame, including the St. Germaine district (Cafe de Flore is a highly regrarded establishment, where you can enjoy some hot chocolate and desserts while watching passers by). On Ile St. Louis, you can find the headquarters of Berthillon, makers of the best ice-cream in the world (in our humble opinion). We decided not to go to the top of the Eiffel tower due to the generally windy and chilly weather. Instead, our visits to the top of Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur offered enough glimpses of Paris.

Towards the end of our stay in Paris, we took a day trip to Versailles and we were extremely pleased by this icon of monarchical opulence. There are ample, nicely landscaped parks to walk around in, and our crepe lunch was awesome (look for the Bretonne creperie across the street from the train station). Talking about food, the crepe lunch in Versailles was probably the only notable meal we had during our stay in France. For example, our favorite onion soup can be had at Anton & Michel Restaurant, in Carmel-by-the-Sea, and we didn't encounter anything that gets close to that in Paris.

Overall, we finished our stay in Paris knowing that our next trip to France is not likely to be anytime soon, and when it happens it will focus on visiting the countryside. Our flight back was the worst part of the trip, with a major problem with the airplane that was discovered by some passengers just before take-off and delayed us 24 hours. The treatment we got from Air France during this ordeal was bordering on curt; we naturally concluded that in the future we will have to avoid flying with Air France at all cost.