If you don't want to get lost in Paris...
If you don't want to get lost in Paris, don't leave your map in Zara. That advice seems simple enough, especially if you don't shop at Zara, but you would have been surprised by the number of people who left their maps in the store yesterday. While waiting for my son to try on a pile of skinny jeans and graphic t-shirts, I watched as Italian, German, and American tourists came, shopped, and apparently left their maps behind. When an exasperated salesmen picked up yet another map to add to their collection, I overheard him say to the manager, "Well, at least we aren't going to get lost!".
And if you do happen to forget your map while shopping the summer sales, you can always pick up a free one at one of the offices in the metro stations. I like the "Paris avec rues" map because it shows the major roads with the metro lines on one side and the bus lines on the other side. You have to specifically ask for it, otherwise the agent will give you one of the smaller maps.
I still use my Paris Plan book of maps from Michelin, the 9th edition. I have a ticket stub in it from 2002, and know it was already old by then. The streets change so infrequently that a new map seems unnecessary.
ReplyDeleteSo true, when I asked Stephane why we were taking his grandparent's travel guides with us to Paris, he said that we could probably still use them because so many of the streets and restaurants haven't changed. It has been fun having his parents tell us about restaurants, like "Au Pied de Cochon", that they went to more than 50 years ago.
ReplyDeleteOr Le Petit Benoit across the street from our favorite boite hotel Bel Ami. They have cabinets there for the napkins of the regular guests. It's very old world and curious. They tried to cheat me out of 10 euros but I corrected them in my best French (poor) and still found the place charming.
ReplyDeleteI love the kind of places that still have the napkins cabinets. There aren't that many of them around anymore. I'll have to check it out. They must be good if you still found them charming after they tried to lighten your wallet!
ReplyDeleteI think you need to hunt down ALL the napkin cabinets of Paris--what an adventure. It's a phenomenon that I didn't really know about until we went there. Please keep me informed.
ReplyDeleteThat does sound like an adventure. I'll be on the lookout for any and all napkin cabinets and post about it as soon as I come across one.
ReplyDeleteMy children went to an English school in Switzerland where they had (and probably still have) napkin cabinets for the students. They got a fresh one each week.