Hello/Stewardesses

[lrj]

Hello everyone,

I've been reading this site for several weeks and really enjoy it. My family (wife and 8 year old twins) are traveling to Paris in a few weeks so I may hit you up for some advice -- we're staying in the 13e on top of a Monoprix on Avenue d'Italie and would appreciate hearing about this area.

In the meantime, I found this great website where former pan am stewardesses who now live in Paris offer advice. I'm sure the recommendations are good, but the glamorous photos and biographies are really cool.

worldwingsparis.com/Three_Days2.htm

[Deleted]

Welcome irj, good to have you here

[spindrift]

Nice to have you on board, irj.....welcome!

[Deleted]

Oh, that site looks weird! I must look into it!

I thought it was funny on the metro tonight when I found myself staring down at a union leaflet that someone was reading. I saw the initials PNC on it, which are the French initial for 'flight attendant' ("personnel navigant commercial"), and it had an Air France logo on it. So I looked at the young woman reading it, in ratty jeans and T-shirt, quite goodlooking actually, and rather than undressing her, I dressed her. My mind transformed her from a relaxed young woman to one of the rather severe and professional Air France flight attendants that I know and love, because they don't take shit from anybody.

Once my mind's eye saw her in uniform, she was a TOTALLY different person.

[spindrift]

This is my cue to offer to put up my photo taken by Aer Lingus when I worked as a stewardess.

[bazfaz]

Yessssssss, Spindrift, show us.

[lrj]

Spindrift - please do.

[Deleted]

Now we know. Kerouac likes bossy women!

[bixaorellana]

Hi lrj ~~ nice to meet you!

Thanks for that link. What a different and interesting concept for insider tips on a famous city. You feel as though you can really trust those ladies, too.

Kerouac, I enjoyed the insight into your fertile mind as it chugged along idly in the metro.

[lola]

I appreciate all glimpses into the male psyche. Glimpses only, please, but lots of them.

Welcome, lrj. Best wishes for your trip. (Unfortunately, our resident Parisian got sidetracked on the flight attendant theme and forgot to talk about the 13e.)

[Jazz]

Welcome, Irj ! Since our resident Parisian, Kerouac, was absorbed in 'dressing/undressing' (?) the attractive flight attendant and forgot to mention it, here is his photo essay on Chinatown in the 13th arrondissement, anyportinastorm.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=pictures&thread=1206&page=1#17925

You are within the largest Chinatown in Paris. It's a great area and within easy walk of some beautiful places...Jardin des Plantes, the Latin Quarter, with all of its treasures, and, the Seine. The Chinese grocery store, Tang Freres, is well worth a visit. As is the mall, Olympiades, which you will see in the photo essay. There are many good, inexpensive Chinese restaurants and one night I had dinner at 'La Lune', lovely.

You mentioned that you have 8 year old twins. I found a book that is great for families visiting Paris, Parisian's Paris, by Bill Gillham. It seems to be obscure but is excellent!!! This book pays special attention to children. The author has been visiting Paris for 50 years and now takes his grandchildren. I like his unique breakdown of Paris quartiers and his sense of economy.
www.amazon.ca/Parisians-Paris-Bill-Gillham/dp/1873429819/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249611524&sr=1-1

Here are a few articles,

afoodiefroggy.canalblog.com/archives/2007/05/18/4995311.html

www.parissweethome.com/parisrentals/art_uk.php?id=59

www.answers.com/topic/the-13th-paris

[lagatta]

Yes, go to Choisy, but also walk west to Butte-aux-Cailles, a charming Paris neighbourhood. (edited to add that in the past couple of decades it has become very "trendy", which is fine for visitors but means rather too many noisy bars and restaurants in the view of people who actually live there). And a but farther west and south, you will find Parc Montsouris, one of the parks built as green lungs for Paris (going east to the 12th, you'll find the even larger "Bois de Vincennes". Across from Parc Montsouris is the Cité internationale universitaire, with student residences supposedly in the styles of the respective countries.

I'm posting the French wikipedia article about the Cité universitaire; don't worry if you read little or no French, it is mostly for the photos of the residences: fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cité_internationale_universitaire_de_Paris You will see that many of the residences are in a style much older than their date of construction would indicate (though Brazil's is strikingly modern).

There is nothing really to do there unless you are staying there as a student or "researcher", other than walk around and look at the mix of architectural styles while on a visit to parc Montsouris.

Edited again to add that the first new tramline within Paris proper passes through the south of the 13th arrondissement: www.tramway.paris.fr/

[Deleted]

I will just try to make believe that you did not post that link, Lagatta, when I make my photo essay on the Cité Universitaire.

[lrj]

Great info and links. I pulled the trigger on the apartment just after I first saw Kerouac's China town photos, so he has a spiff coming his way.

Jazz - I did order Bill Gillham's book from Amazon.ca. I love that he includes breakfast spots for each neighborhood - must be a wake-up-early-Canadian/American-grandpa-thing.

[lagatta]

kerouac, I'm sure your photos will be much better. I only mentioned la Cité universitaire because it is a spot most tourists have never heard of, much less visited. I first visited it with a friend from Tunisia who was meeting friends living there; we had lunch at the resto U. Standard resto U lunch, not very good but cheap with the tickets, at least back then (this was about 20 years ago). I've also stayed there a couple of times when at conferences.

Speaking of Tunisia, I was sad when le Palais du Bardo in Parc Montsouris burnt down. It was very decrepit but was supposed to be renovated.

[lrj]

Lagatta, thanks again for the links. Not that I'm a Paris expert, but I had never heard of these residences and only a little about Parc Montsouris. Very interesting.

[lagatta]

Please also read the links Jazz and I provided about la Butte aux Cailles. Sure, it has become rather too touristy, but much less than the better-known parts of Montmartre, and hell, if we are there to visit, we are tourists of one sort or another, even those of us who have stayed in Paris for other reasons.

[lrj]

Yup, thanks for those links too. I just spent an afternoon walking the streets of the Butte with google map.