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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2015 19:34:57 GMT
This is just a tiny portion of a trip report by an American soldier visiting Paris from the Middle East, even though she almost did not get permission to come because the US considered Paris to be too dangerous after recent events. Frankly, it is one of the most lovely trip reports that I have ever read.
I had another la tradition for dinner. I’m penny pinching because I’m supposed to dine at Jules Verne (or equivalent) either Monday or Tuesday. So, yeah, like a dummy I did not make reservations. Some reviews stated that I could walk in, and yes, I do know that it’ll be a crapshoot. I’m trying for lunch and I’ll be there when the doors open at noon. I’m banking on the fact that it’s winter and no one is about. I never made reservations because there was that whole deal about me not even coming to Paris. If I cannot get into Jules Verne, then I’ll stalk another Michelin-rated restaurant. There’s bound to be at least one here that will take me on a moment’s notice. I just call it part of the adventure.
I took a nap then headed back to Opera Bastille for Ariadne auf Naxos. So, I’m figuring the edgy push-the-envelope thing is totally French. Don Giovanni went for full frontal nudity and Ariadne had the lesbian love thing going on. I’ve never seen the like in the US. Frankly, it’s refreshing to find new twists on old stories. Men in powdered wigs and pantyhose are the reason no one wants to see the opera in the first place.
Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera within an opera. It starts off with some rich guy hiring a concert master to create an opera to entertain his guests, as well as a ballet master to put on a comedic ballet for after the opera. Rich guy invites all these people for dinner and they linger too long at table, so rich guy tells both masters they’ll have to perform their masterpieces at the exact same time. Oh, and by the way, you only have an hour to do it and not a minute longer, and be ready in about fifteen minutes when my guests are done eating.
The composer of the opera, typically sung by a soprano, is, naturally, incensed at the idea of someone taking liberties with his (her) creation. She spends 15 minutes bemoaning plebeians and their constant need to be entertained. The diva of the opera cannot fathom being on stage at the same time as a comedienne. It’s just too shocking. The comedienne, Zerbinetta, says, “Well, people hate opera anyway. It’s a good thing we’ll be on stage or else the guests will fall asleep.”
The two masters get together to come up with a whole new piece. Zerbinetta tells the Composer she hopes there will be a handsome lead to fall in love with. “Someone with smoky eyes just like you,” says Zerbinetta to the Composer and they share quite a passionate kiss. The Composer kind of likes the idea but is too melancholy to think properly. You know in the US we’re still dancing around the gay marriage issue. I don’t know what the laws are in France. (Just looked it up, totally legal.)
In the next act it is the opera the two masters have created. The diva is the title character Ariadne. Theseus has just dumped her and she is in the throes of despair. Zerbinetta comes along and says, “Honey, please get over it. Men like him are a dime a dozen. The best way to get over a man is to find yourself a new one.”
Then she breaks into the famous aria “High and Mighty Princess.” Wow, just wow! And wow again. This is written for a coloratura voice, which, in my opinion, is the best voice. They have so much range, so much control, so much ability. Zerbinetta’s voice was both strong and delicate, which is rather unusual because it’s usually one or the other.
Zerbinetta sings about her various lovers, encouraging Ariadne to snap out of her gloom. Ariadne decides there’s nothing left to do but die. As she awaits death, she flirts with a young man but he doesn’t really capture her attention. Then a new man shows up. She thinks it is Hermes, the Messenger of Death. It’s not Hermes, but Bacchus instead. She sees him and instantly falls in love, forgetting about Theseus. They sing their true love for one another, and having only just met 10 minutes ago, they live happily ever after. The end.
Ariadne is not a tragic opera; nobody dies. It’s also very short. This production was again modern. Zerbinetta was more like a burlesque dancer. Ariadne was still the typical opera diva dressed in a ball gown, but when they staged opera (within the opera) they were on an island wearing board shorts and flip flops. They even had a VW bus in the background.
If this is opera in France, well, I think I know where I need to buy my season tickets.
This time, after the show, there was a queue of cabs. Yes, the metro is easy but it’s cold and I want to be home RIGHT NOW! I paid the 6E to go up the street. I had plans to go to a club after the opera but let’s be realistic, I’m doing too much and I don’t like to go by myself to the club anyway.
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Post by Kimby on Feb 11, 2015 20:38:06 GMT
Thanks,K2. It's nice to see a "pearl" that really IS a pearl, not a rotten oyster!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2015 18:24:36 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2015 5:04:56 GMT
The exchange rate makes all the difference, right?
Our final night in Paris was Monday night- another difficult night to find open restaurants. Using the list of restaurants open on Monday on the Paris by Mouth website we decided on Pirouette (5 rue Mondétour, 75001) in the first. Our friends were joining us to try and talk us into coming back to Paris while they were there in the fall (I wish!!). I am a little shaky on details of this wonderful meal but since the menu changes daily it shouldn’t matter. We started with kir royales and the amuse bouche was a piece of pork skin that seemed to have been deep fried (had the texture of a shrimp chip) with a radish and some wonderful soft cheese. The entrée I remember was fregola with morels. The plats were a red mullet with a very dark red wine sauce reminiscent of the Provençal fish soup, veal cheeks also with morels and we think the last dish was a pigeon with asparagus and radishes. For desserts we had a chocolate ganache, rice pudding with caramel sauce, a crumble with lemon ice cream (I think) and my DH got a cheese I had never heard of -Ossau-iraty. The cheese came topped with a black berry puree and was fabulous. Of course the next days I seem to see it everywhere. My memory of this dinner might have been affected by the wine- my DH splurged and ordered a 2002 Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape. With the wine (€125) and an Armagnac the bill was €451.00. Good thing the exchange rate was more favorable this trip!!
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Post by breeze on Apr 24, 2015 15:57:54 GMT
From a reliable poster, on Trip Advisor:
kerouac2 Paris, France posts: 24,797 reviews: 33 80. Re: capital one - terrible in france! Apr 23, 2015, 12:52 PM I absolutely love the fact that the "Trip Advisor Community" has removed several posts that were certainly extremely useful regarding this subject. TA is king of the hill at the moment, but this sort of thing is going to be its downfall in the end. Other more reasonable travel sites will replace it.
TA, Fodors, Slow Travel, and Chowhound are the websites I check when planning a trip (which means every day) but none of them really have what we need. I would love to know of something better.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 8, 2015 21:50:13 GMT
After months skimming through pages and pages of the Fodor's Europe section, our trip has come and gone. A warm and resounding thank you for all the trip reports, questions asked and questions answered. I am one of the readers who benefited substantially without posting my own questions because everything I needed to know were already covered. So for that, thank you to all the very knowledgeable Paris posters. This trip report is for you and for like-minded readers. I traveled to Paris with my nine year old daughter to meet her dad who was there on business. He reserved an extra week to spend touring with her, something he had always promised he would do when she turned ten. He sometimes breaks promises but very rarely disappoints her. This was my daughter's first time in the City of Light and the week she looked forward to forever. It was my second time and I've lost count how many times he's been. The plan was to meet us at the airport where I would hand her off to him for seven days. She would return and spend three days with me then we'd take the train to London for two more days before flying home to San Francisco. The flight from SFO to CDG was smooth and with not much commotion. Lily watched the Smurfs on my laptop then passed out for pretty much the entire time. I switched reading between Sandberg's controversial Lean In book and three US magazines. I can never sleep on planes no matter what I take or what I do. When we arrived at the airport, he was already waiting with a huge smile on his face. She was so happy to see her daddy that from that moment on, I was like dirt in the air who no longer existed. He had a black car waiting for us and they dropped me off in front of my hotel in the Marais. She gave me a big hug and he kissed me on the cheek. I could feel the tears slowly swelling so I wasted no time telling them to have a great week together and briskly walked inside the hotel before anyone suspected. All I heard were giggling and laughing on the sidewalk until the large hotel door shut behind me. As soon as I got to the lobby I went straight to the bathroom where I cried myself in the stall. It was so emotional for me and keeping them from seeing any of my mess made it even worse. I got to my room, ordered a bottle of really good champagne and told myself to get it the hell together. After eleven years since my honeymoon, I was back in Paris but this time I was completely and utterly alone. But as an exhausted single mom for several years, a big part of me was dancing and screaming --- Finally!!!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2015 17:01:12 GMT
vegetarian friendly restaurants with baby changing...
Jul 09, 2015, 8:16 PM
Hello, I will soon be traveling to Paris with my three month old. I have been able to find good vegetarian restaurants during prior trips to Paris. I am now looking for vegetarian (or veg. friendly/accomodating) restaurants with baby changing facilities and room for a stroller. I realize that is a lot to ask for. If needed, I could fold the stroller and hold the baby during the meal. Does anyone know of any options, especially in the 1st arrondissement? thanks!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2015 14:26:08 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2015 14:29:57 GMT
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Post by htmb on Jul 23, 2015 15:01:15 GMT
Well, I hope that nonsense has been deleted by your good friends on that particular forum. She certainly was off about your age, for starters.
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Post by bjd on Jul 23, 2015 16:39:42 GMT
Well, I hope that nonsense has been deleted by your good friends on that particular forum. She certainly was off about your age, for starters. Oh, when you're 19, anyone over 40 could be 50 or 80.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2015 16:54:14 GMT
I think this 19 year old is at least 55.
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Post by htmb on Jul 24, 2015 1:43:55 GMT
And do you think you know who it is?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 24, 2015 4:13:31 GMT
No, but we have determined that it is a native English speaker pretending not to master the language.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2015 9:58:46 GMT
I'm going to Europe for the first time next month and I wonder if restaurants are the only place where I can get good food? Is there anything good from the convenience store/street vendors in these cities?
1) London 2) Paris 3) Strasbourg 4) Colmar 5) Amsterdam 6) Haarlem 7) Ghent 8) Brussels 9) Bruges
It'd be great if you can give answers for every city that you know above. Thank you!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2015 21:21:36 GMT
Ok, I have to say, I knew right away this afternoon tea would be special the minute they offered small stools for handbags. The last, and only other time I was offered a handbag stool was at Daniel in New York and that dinner was fantastic. I love these little extra touches.
Service was beyond excellent. Tea was topped off for me, and they were one step ahead of me with anticipating my needs. I also loved that they would touch the teapot every once in a while to make sure the water was still hot. For the first time ever, they were the ones to offer hot water since the tea was starting to get bitter.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2015 20:08:33 GMT
The incredible problems of certain travellers...
Straight Acetone and Distilled Water
Acetone: I need commercial strength acetone for my nails. I have visited Monoprix, Fran Prix and Carrefour and have found non-acetone polish remover and acetone cut with water, but I need straight acetone. I have natural nails, but use a special polish that is ridiculously difficult to remove with typical nail polish removers. In the US, I buy acetone from the Nail Salon I use to repair breaks... is it reasonable to expect a salon here will sell it to me off-the street? Or is there a dedicated beauty store that might carry this? I would have carried it with me in my checked bag, but I contacted the FAA and they said it's way too flammable, so it stayed in the US. Any help/leads would be appreciated!
Distilled Water: My portable clothes steamer utilizes distilled water only. I brought some in my checked bag in an old contact-lens saline bottle, but I'm almost out and I haven't been able to source it in a grocery store or pharmacy. Again... any help/leads would be appreciated!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2015 20:27:15 GMT
Yeah, she's the one who wanted to know if she could bring her Mace to Paris. Nutcase.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2015 18:25:43 GMT
I am absolutely mesmerized by the crazy woman. I have to be careful or I will become addicted to all of her videos.
Last few weeks, the V2K perps told me about the story of how the history told in future from the time travelling program. They said that the North East Asia Dispute will start after India fights against China. In 2017 to 2018, N. Korea starts the oil spilling on the East Coast of S. Korea and S.Korea will have reduced power plants and technology distract for the manufacturing. It lost the tie with Japanese SDF as the support on N. Korea fight and the US Army base will back to Guam and let the N.Korea bankrupt in the sea while S.Korea takes Hokkaido in the disguise of N. Korean ship. But Russia will invade Seol and take Hokkaido island while China joins the war to take the half part to the west of Japan. Tokyo survives with US back up. Io island will be the last spot for the Japanese emperor to be after Chinese gangs terminate all the functioning of the remained part.
Well, I can go on for more information. The V2K perps told me over 20pages of future science and history teaching after they went to the time travelling and manipulated within the population as people from future - which ended up as wrong because of the remained part and technological information sharing was quite old.
Well, I would be in another place from tomorrow night. I hope nothing gone missing. The V2K perps told me that they gonna bring Swiss Korean guy with family members for the stealing and home invasion at Youth Hostel. I would be careful and I will lock everything and carry around to the bathroom and keep things locked with tapes around in the bags when I sleep. Let's hope I won't be robbed my money for the dentist and such.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2015 19:39:09 GMT
Miyoko is very troubled, but amusing.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2015 14:27:10 GMT
Not a pearl, more like an endless turd -- and this is only a tiny part of the thread in question.
How is Pastis Cigale? I hope everything is going as planned with his operation. Sending hugs.
cigalechanta on Aug 28, 15 at 6:31pm you are so kind. He was sick yesterday but fine today. Surgery is on Monday morn. Thank you.
cigalechanta on Aug 28, 15 at 6:32pm P.S. I only now saw the picture of your adorable dogs.
laurieco on Aug 28, 15 at 6:40pm Will be thinking of you and Pastis this weekend and on Monday Mimi. Keep us posted.
nanabee on Aug 28, 15 at 6:46pm Yes I will be wishing Pastis the very best. And you too Mimi.
Underhill on Aug 28, 15 at 6:50pm Give Pastis a hug for me, and give yourself a pastis.
bettyk on Aug 28, 15 at 6:59pm So difficult when our babies are sick. Best wishes for a successful surgery and Pastis' quick recovery.
Robin4 on Aug 28, 15 at 7:10pm Thanks Mimi. My son's dog is bear. When my son comes to visit, so does bear. He is now a member of the family. He eats everything in sight. The little one is Leia, our baby. She is a food snob.
Florida1 on Aug 28, 15 at 7:13pm I will be thinking of you and Pastis, cigalechanta. I hope his surgery goes smoothly and that he has a speedy recovery!
Pepper_von_snoot on Aug 28, 15 at 7:47pm Merde! to Pastis ce Lundi. Coucou! Mon amis! Thin
muskoka on Aug 28, 15 at 8:28pm Marley sends sloppy, good luck kisses (to you both).
starrs on Aug 28, 15 at 9:55pm My pups send their best wishes to Pastis. I'm sending hugs to you.
Yes, I know that I am a heartless monster, but this sort of thread on a travel forum drives me up the wall!
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Post by htmb on Sept 2, 2015 0:52:36 GMT
Of course it drives you up a wall. I can see why. I find I'm so disinterested in this type of thing that I only skimmed a bit of what you posted. However, as blah as I find it, I also know that people look for ways to make connections. Clearly, these people are enjoying their exchange. I'm wondering if there's any harm in posts of this kind, as long as we aren't forced to read them, and the posters aren't violating any forum rules.
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Post by onlyMark on Sept 2, 2015 6:21:25 GMT
I hope you can give an update at some time on the results of the operation. I am concerned for Pastis.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2015 14:00:11 GMT
Just for you, Mark.
He is sleeping and has some pain and unable to stand.. Though he was finished with surgery at 11AM, he is not alert. I had to carry him take a cab home The Vet .gave me pain killers for him and the collar of shame when he is well enough to wear. He will call me in a few days to give me lab test results. Meanwhile I'm to phone him if Pastis is not eating and walking . I arrived home at five, he crawled to his favorite bed and is still there sleeping. I thank Every one of you who posted, phoned or emailed. It meant a lot to me. l know some posters think it s no big deal because it isn't a child but he is my only family and like a child to me. again thanks to you who cared.
Frankly, she did not make nearly as big a deal out of it when her husband died.
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Post by onlyMark on Sept 3, 2015 7:33:48 GMT
I can sleep better tonight knowing all is well.
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Post by whatagain on Sept 6, 2015 12:20:38 GMT
I found tis one from a guy posting on a thread related to 'should I pay my speedfines in Switzerland. "My conscience is fine because speed cameras are immoral, anyway. They are unconstitutional (a violation of civil rights) where I live. They are only legal in 12 US states. The only speed cameras in the US on located on a freeway are in Iowa, and have their own facebook hate page www.facebook.com/pages/Cedar-Rapids-Traffic-Cameras-are-Evil/107255602655856" I love that one. So the guy considers you can drive fast in Europe because cameras are immorals in Iowa...
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 21, 2015 0:25:36 GMT
See, that's what makes the US the great country it is -- thirty-eight (38!) states where you can drive the way God intended you to drive: good & fast, by dammit! And this query to TA. Sheesh -- really? REALLY?! Looking for toilet paper Sep 20, 2015, 6:15 AM We are staying at an airbnb and have run out of TP. Any place near via cappuccini we can buy? We looked this am but couldn't find any. Thanks!link
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2016 20:25:26 GMT
A friend posted this on facebook today. It was in her email inbox. She's calling the RCMP.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2016 20:40:42 GMT
Oh, that's a new and interesting one!
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Post by fumobici on Feb 5, 2016 1:09:06 GMT
It's the Nigerian scam, but targeting fear instead of unrealistic hope. It might be fun to troll the sender.
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