I am looking at a city break and have always wanted to to go to Paris, I am thinking of going in May (my other option is Venice) I have never been to either, but I wonder if anyone would be so inclined to assist me. Hubby is not as keen as me to go to Paris as he has had some horror stories of being ripped off when wineing and dining. I would really love to go and see the main sites, but need some tips on a good area to stay, we like informal dining and don%26#39;t want to stay anywhere too %26#39;posh%26#39;. By the way I know Venice is an expensive city too.
Whenever I mention Paris he cites people%26#39;s negative experiences of France.
Help please?!
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As a starter, you can tell him that if he takes a look at this forum, he will see a long list of people who have fallen in love with Paris.
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My only concern is whether he can go to Paris with a truly open mind. I%26#39;m afraid people who start off with a negative expectation usually have those expectations fulfilled.
There are many recommendations for good restaurants where no one has gotten %26#39;ripped off%26#39;. There are ways to prepare for how to read a %26#39;menu%26#39; and understand how the costs break down. France is definitely a place where experiences are enhanced by a little culture study in advance.
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Introduce him to this website and show him how many people are absolutely infatuated with Paris.
If all else fails there is always the Lysistrata strategy.
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I%26#39;ve been to both cities twice. You can get ripped off at either place if you aren%26#39;t paying attention -- as in any big city -- so that%26#39;s not a good deciding factor.
I personally prefer Italy to France, but for my husband%26#39;s first trip to mainland Europe this spring, we%26#39;re going to Paris. I%26#39;ve had some negative experiences in Paris, but looking back on them, a lot of them were with other tourists and had more to do with the fact that it was hot and crowded in late July/early August. Learn a few words in French and that will get you pretty far. My second trip I made more of an effort to speak a few words of French and did have a much better visit.
My other thought: I can spend about two or three days in Venice before I get antsy and need to move on, but I%26#39;m looking forward to a week in Paris.
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If you can%26#39;t convince your husband to go to Paris with an open mind, I suggest you go without him. There are many, many woman on this forum who have traveled to Paris and you can read from them how safe they feel and how much fun they have. My husband traveled for years as a musician when he was young and he has no interest in traveling any more. So I go to Paris alone. Last year I was there for a month. The great thing about going alone is that you get to do whatever you want for every waking hour. Now that I have done it twice, I don%26#39;t want to go to Paris any other way.
I%26#39;m not saying that it isn%26#39;t fun to share it with someone you love. I am saying that if there is a chance that he will just ruin the trip for you (because there are no guarantees that he will like Paris--especially if he is looking for something not to like) then don%26#39;t just do without. It is the greatest city in the world--go anyway.
Another possibility is for you to go to Paris for awhile and then meet him in Venice for a few days. Does he want to go there? That way you could have a little of each.
Don%26#39;t miss Paris. Most people who go there have only one way they can get themselves to leave--plan their second trip before they leave Paris from their first trip!
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If you can find a hotel with really nice staff, then whatever negative things may have happened during the day (and there%26#39;s no reason to expect that they should) can be counteracted by the friendly staff he comes home to! We stayed at the Hotel St. Andre des Arts a few years ago and found the staff super nice and helpful. It%26#39;s an inexpensive hotel in a great location. Nothing fancy, and you might have to climb lots of stairs, which could disqualify it for you. france-hotel-guide.com/h75006saintandredesar…
It%26#39;s in the 6th arrondissement, near the sites and in a great neighborhood. There are many other hotels around here, and you can check them out by browsing this forum.
I also agree with the previous poster that there%26#39;s nothing wrong with traveling without your husband, or, if you travel with him, not feeling the need to do everything together. My husband and I have different traveling styles and find that we can mesh somewhat but do much better pursuing our own interests part of the time. So I might go out on some excursion while he sits in a cafe or park. This spring we have rented an apt. in Paris for a week for a business engagement, and we plan to overlap for 3 full days and each take 2 days alone at the ends (lamentably short trip because it%26#39;s business and we have 3 kids at home, but certainly better than nothing!). To us, this is the perfect middle ground!
As for Paris versus Venice, I find Paris an easier city to be in. Venice is beautiful and fabulous, but the press of tourists there is to me worse than in Paris, which, thanks to its larger size and the way the Seine serves to unify the city and give people a large area along which to ramble, seems to me to absorb the throngs better.
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Sounds like you%26#39;ll have more fun without him.
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if he is going to be Mr. Grumpy about travel then he will find misery -- and spread it to you -- find friends to go with
if it is between Venice and Paris, I have to laugh about the idea that it is so much riskier in Paris -- we have spent many weeks in Italy and in France, mostly Paris.
We have only once been overcharged in a restaurant in Paris (and that was the sandwich tea place in the Tuilleries) but I was overcharged at dinner 4 times in one week in Rome and Venice is mostly a giant shaft the tourist venue -- most restaurants are not so hot and happy to give you stale break or overbill if you don%26#39;t pay attention
my sense is that it is more a national sport in Italy than in France.
That said -- when I was overcharged in Rome, I just pointed it out and got it fixed -- really, it isn%26#39;t rocket science
and in Venice on our first night when we were served a basket of stale break, we just requested a basket of fresh bred (accomplished with very little tourist Italian)
We have been to Paris many times staying anywhere from a week to a month -- and have had virtually no unpleasant experiences and with the exception of the one padded bill in the Tuilleries, never been cheated.
We love the French, we love Paris and we take the obvious precautions to keep from being pickpocketed and we always review our bills -- just like we do in the states -- being overcharged in Nashville Tennessee happens from time to time as well.
And when my husband got a bad cut on his head and needed medical care, we were treated with grace (and it seemed that half the people he ran across in the EMT and hospital system had a cousin in Milwaukee or something) and the bill came to 0
we also love Italy but know that overcharging is a sport, so we just play it as well as we can
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It would be interesting to know what he%26#39;s heard - it would be much easier to convince him if you can counter specific issues. The one occasion where I sometimes feel a bit ripped off is getting a large coffee with milk and finding it costs 4-5 euros, but that%26#39;s not really a horror story.
Our only experience of finding ourselves with a higher than expected cafe / restaurant bill was when the two of us went into a place advertising a fixed price meal, (it was better than we normally go for and lunch was about 30€ for 3 courses, including coffee) and decided we%26#39;d have an aperitif each, a nice bottle of wine, then one meal from the à la carte, then a couple of bottles of water (seemed a shame to spoil the moment by asking for a free carafe of tap water) ... inevitably, the bill came in at considerably more than we%26#39;d initially thought, but it wasn%26#39;t a rip-off and it would have been easy to control it if we%26#39;d needed to.
We stayed in the 6th last time, near the Odeon, and there were a lot of very reasonable places, all displaying a menu outside, so you can actually see what the damage is likely to be before you set foot inside ... just needs a bit of self-discipline to stay with what you%26#39;d decided, and it sounds like your hubby might do that. Don%26#39;t leave him at home if there%26#39;s half a chance he could be persuaded. Unlike a lot of posters here, you%26#39;re close enough to have a couple of days in Paris together to test the waters without too much risk.
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Hello Fab,
Our husbands must have been separated at birth.
My husband is Mr. Grumpy when he travels anywhere, worse than our young children. Here is how I%26#39;m getting him to Paris.
French lingerie.
Just kidding. My husband made lots of comments about pickpockets, annoying mimes, our kids not getting anything out of the trip, the expense, the exhaustion, and how we live in the most beautiful place in the world here in the Northwest U.S. (have to admit, it is beautiful here)
But he loves Roman history, so I reminded him of the importance of Paris to the Roman Empire, and the Roman ruins there. He also loves to cook, mainly Italian, but I Tivo%26#39;d something on the food channel about French cooking that he liked. I also got a Rick Steve%26#39;s DVD about Paris. Then I Tivo%26#39;d a Paula Deen special where she is in Paris. It was hysterical, she was so much the %26quot;Ugly American%26quot; (I%26#39;m not calling her ugly, you know what I mean) loud, laughing, barging in, ordering too much food.
Lastly, I%26#39;ve promised him a romantic dinner without kids on one of our nights in Paris. I%26#39;m not sure how I%26#39;m pulling this off yet, I%26#39;m hesitant about getting a babysitter I don%26#39;t know and I need to research for a restaurant in our arr., but that was the clincher I think.
I think that DVDs are the best bet. Movies and travelogues to show Paris off, especially if they feature men. Women tend to swoon over the accents, the shoes, etc. Your husband needs to identify with someone.
I%26#39;m still afraid for any mimes we may encounter. My husband will throttle them.
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