Weekend in Paris

Lately the low prices of airlines tickets make us a possibility to visit the capitals of Europe for a much less price than we could manage to reach these cities by bus.

This time we decided to visit Paris in its most beautiful time - when the chestnuts trees blossom. We determined not to see any museums, but to see Paris different - legendary, with gourmetic restaurants and cute coffee shops in Latin block, famous "Turkish bathhouses" from the "Major walking" with Louis de Funes and to visit the best-known restaurant "Maxim's".

Paris Opera

We booked a room on an internet in a 4 star hotel near the Notre Dame cathedral after we have bought the airlines tickets.

It is not difficult to reach Paris from an airport of Charles de Gaulle. RER trains go from the airport and reach any Underground line and any place in Paris. Line RER2 goes from the airport to the city. We bought Paris Passport, which we could use going on any public transport means. But actually it is not worth the money we paid, if you are traveling in Paris not so much. We easily reached our hotel. Despite the fact, that our hotel belongs to a very famous network, but the behavior of the service personnel and the attitude of the hotel confounded us a lot.  A bigger room seemed to be a very small one on the first floor with a direct view to the street. The room was changed to another one - even smaller on the calmer side of the building. Although the new room was cheaper, but the administration of the hotel didn't even intended to return the remarkable difference of the prices, arguing that the hotel anyway is already too crammed.

In the evening we went out to the narrow and busy street of Saint Adre des Arts. There were a lot of coffee-houses and restaurants working close to each other, a night life is active there in this street.

The next day "serviceable" personnel of our hotel offered some entertainment in Paris. We asked to help us find and make some reservations at the gourmand restaurant and the "Turkish bath" also we booked an evening flotation with a ship in the river Seine, where we also had to get the gourmand dishes. How we found out later there are no Turkish baths in Paris at all. Similar baths are called "Hammam" and they are somewhere in the district we lived. Our hotel administrator found on the internet "Hammam Sant German" bath which was just several hundred of meters from our hotel. After a short wandering we found it - the reception-desk was similar to an antique one, we were not allowed to look further. There were no possible reservations available already a few days ahead in an order book. When we asked an administration lady about "The Great Stroll" and Louis de Funes, we didn't get any answer, we took our chance. Unfortunately the bath actually was built recently, a bit too cold, but the massage compensated all the imperfection.

We had our lunch in a little restaurant Le Petit Zinc near the Saint German monastery. It was a really great recovery for our stomach: fish bisque, 6 gigantic oysters, monkfish stew in a metal plate. Also later we had Burgundy snails, which we usually call "grape snails". It is hard to compare their taste to the snails we usually buy at shops or make ourselves - these were much softer, the  seasoning were chosen ideally for an excellent taste. The snails were served in the special plates with the small-size indentations, where the liquid from the shells flows - the bread is being touched in it. Unaccountably the waiters do not understand our booking of a wine for a several hundred of grams and bring us wine only in bottles, except to say the truth not 0.75l but 0.5 l. However an excellent Alsace Riesling wine insensibly disappears.

After a couple hours walking in the cosy streets of the Latin district the evening comes. We are going towards to the booked restaurant. In a little Saint Adre des Arts side-street, hiding in an internal yard little a restaurant of just several seats Roger la Grenouille doesn't make an impression to us by its view. But the served food changed our opinion.

Hot geese liver melted in a mouth - such a delicious preparation and appropriately chosen seasoning we had never tasted anywhere else before. Frog legs were soft and perfectly combined with the seasoning, a lobster in a sea snails stew, Burgundy snails were very delicious. This hidden tiny restaurant happens to be a very famous one - all the seats were booked in advance that evening.

A cook Slawek Kowalek, who takes care of the recipes rubric in leisureguide.info visited this place like in the best restaurant for the frogs dishes. He acknowledged that not before nor after the visit he had never tasted such frog legs, prepared in an excellent way. The posters and pictures on the walls show the long lasting history of the restaurant, and the owner of the restaurant is a very honourable person between the cooks of Paris.

Next day on internet we tried once more to search for the "Turkish bath" ourselves. There is a huge amount of information there, and it seems that there is a new production of the movie "The Great Stroll" and it is again very popular. We found also an exact citation - the shooting of the movie was in  "Hammam Marokesh" - in "Morocco baths" near Arabian institute. We plan our route through Notre Dame de Paris cathedral - an exhibition of agriculture is being shown near it. The visit in this exhibition may delight you for the entire day - the shows of the folklore groups from various regions allow seeing you an absolutely different France.

We came to the bath, but to day only men are allowed to enter there, so the ladies we had to lead back to the hotel. On our way back we face one more Paris legend - Flea market. The unusable things are brought outside to the street, the cheerful uproar of Paris citizens surrounds the market place. It seems that everybody gather here more for a socialization than for marketing.

Finally I come back to "Turkish baths". The prices are not common in Paris - 10 euros for a massage with peeling, the time is not limited in the baths. There are almost entirely Arabs inside.

The first room with a continuous plank-bed and a fountain in the middle is committed for leisure time, elderly Arabs are taking a sip of a tea there. There is a hot marble table with six surrounded tiny rooms with warm raised floors and a large faucet with cold water in the second room. One more room in the bath, which we didn't see before: when you enter inside there is a hot air being blown over your head. You may sit on the underneath stair-steps and raise up for a little bit from time to time. When you reach the highest stair-step the hot air doesn't burn so much here. Strange but at the same time a pleasant feeling overwhelms when you lower your feet into the pool upstairs with ice-cold water.  After the bath Arab makes a wonderful massage. It's a pity, but it seems that we couldn't find the famous pool with vapour even here. We didn't manage to clear this out with other people in the bath, because they didn't speak English.

If you watch a movie again and come back to this bath you won't have any doubts that the movie was shot in this bath. To say the truth, interior is not exactly the same, but there is a similarity and actually the pool, where fellows shouted around Arab with big moustache "tea for two..." maybe even do not exist. Thinking logically, in such a heat and humidity the shooting cameras could hardly work those times. And the exit is really exactly the same like in the movie.

There is much time left till the evening. We listened to Brittany's bagpipes near the Notre Dame de Paris and then decided to visit more places in Paris by public transport. In our surprise comes an excursion bus, which drives us to all the places in Paris. The ticket is valid all day long, you may disembark in any place and get into a bus again after visiting some objects. There are four routes (each of them is marked in a different colour and the route, which the bus will go you can see from far away), where the same ticket is valid, several languages are being spoken in these buses. We choose the great (yellow) route and face again the tower of Eiffel.

In the evening we go to the reserved ship in the river Seine. We hope for a delicious food and picturesque views. The views are really admiring when we are floating on the river, especially when that day the full moon is shining. The mirroring moon, the bridges, a wonderful lightning of the buildings leaves us an unforgettable impression. Unfortunately the supper, which cost us 80 euros disappointed us: to cut the beef stew we would need a really sharp hunting knife.

Next day we decided to visit the famous Maxim. In consequence our way leads through the fields of Elysian, where it is really hard for the women to pass all that variety of shops. But it isn't worth to go for a shopping there: in the bystreets the same good cost cheaper. We find you that men can enter Maxim only with the suits, and women only with the dresses. We didn't book the seats in advance, but it was convenient for us to find out that we can make a reservation also on the internet.

The chestnuts already ended to blossom in Paris - it's times for us to come back home. Seemingly an early summer influenced the blossom of the tree several weeks earlier this year.

Žiūrėti didesnį žemėlapio vaizdą

Clicking on this link you can make a reservation in a hotel in Paris. There is a search in the biggest system booking.com, which offers the best prices.

Do you need a car in Paris? A reservation system you can find here.