Paris Favorites

Nice of you to report back,, its always interesting to read others impressions. I personally would never, ever, "skip the Louvre" ,, but I have skipped the Orsay,, so I guess its all about personal tastes. I agree the gelato at Amorinos is lovely, I love the way they shape it like flower petals too.

Are you sure about the VISA cards? There are a number of people here that have posted that they are still accepted. They chip reading feature doesn't work but they can still be passed through a conventional card reader.

US standard credit cards sans "chip" do not work in most gas stations that are not staffed. If the station is staffed, they will almost certainly be able to manually swipe your ordinary card. Just look for the employee.

We had so much more trouble with this than we imagined. Coming home late on the highway, there just aren't that many gas stations and certainly not options to find the manned one or not. We also couldn't rent the ubiquitous city bikes we so wanted to ride. We stayed at a B&B we had booked online only to find when we got there that they only took cash. They said we could go to the local cafe and get cash on our Visa. But the Visa only took the European credit card. So it did impact us more than we imagined. The restaurants all had an optional swipe machine so we never had a problem there. Same with most retail.

Credit cards with chips have been in use for at least the last ten years in France. Magnetic strip technology is considered outdated and unsafe. Is the information about the credit cards in guidebooks? If it isn't, it should be. The only problems we've ever had was looking for gas on a Sunday, a rural train station with machines (just get on anyway and seek out the controller to pay), and once when we couldn't get off the autoroute (au secours).

P.S. Love your list of favorites!

We enjoyed sitting at a cafe in the Place des Vosges, a cafe in the gardens of the Palais Royale, a small park off the Champs Elysee close to the American Embassy- the small quiet corners of Paris.

My favorite was Sacre'Coeur. It was so beautiful and the view from the top of the dome was spectacular.... We thought it was odd that when we were there, it was the middle of July, the heighth of the tourist season and there was no one up there but one other couple. Folks are missing out on a lot by not walking up to the top of the dome. There certainly weren't any lines, and all of Paris is spread out before you. Got great photos.

Last time I was in Paris I had the same wonderful experience of Sacre Coeuer that you did but this time we made the mistake of going on a Sunday and it was a complete nightmare. A sea of humanity! You couldn't even see the stairs. My husband doesn't break rules so wouldn't step over the low fence onto the grass. We looked and looked for a spot to picnic and walked down the hill a bit but everything smelled of urine. Finally found a park bench but really, we couldn't get out of there quickly enough. We had also gone to Belleville to see where Edith Piaf lived and so that was yet another scenic vista we had already seen and didn't really need another (Arc de Triomph, Notre Dame, Arab Institute, Pompidou, Printemps) but it is lovely if you can see it on those empty days.

I also had some trouble in Train stations with the VISA, but no where else. Even Gas stations were fine, so I guess that we got lucky. Of your list, though, I would drop any of the other 14 before I'd skip the Louvre. Nice list though.

I really did say "Skip the Louvre if short on time" meaning that I didn't think it was the best museum if you had to pick one to spend a short amount of time in.

My reason to visit the Louvre is for the building itself and it's history. Magnifique! If those walls could talk. Pere LaChaise Cemetery is a must see if you value French history. After three hours we only scratched the surface. Not to be missed!

It is nice of you to report back. I like your list. I would add St. Chapelle.