39Vaugirard

@Craigorama #macspeech – you’re a stronger man than I! I still find it a challenge. Amazing at first, yes, but hard to stay with.

Unfortunately (or fortunately – I don’t know the politics of the situation), the Sénat has retaken control over the Musée du Luxembourg, so new exhibits here are on hold. I don’t know what that means for the café which is always packed with French museum-goers.

Cafe Medicis is located on 19, rue de Vaugirard 75006 PARIS – and their tel # is 01 42 34 37 99

[From Cafe Medicis « FIVE ONE EIGHT]

Cafe Medicis at 19, rue de Vaugirard. Nice spot for a café gourmand « FIVE ONE EIGHT http://ow.ly/Zt8K

Cool. Gotta love how TweetDeck handles mulitple accounts. Easy as “tarte.”

Good post on the difficulty of finding a good latte in Paris. Most Paris cafés serve their café cremes with lait écremé (2%), which for the Italian-style purist, is not very good. We coffee snobs actually plan walks across Paris by places we know actually serve a good cup of Giuseppe (that’s a “cup of joe” Italian-style.

When I was visiting Paris, France recently I knew I’d need to find some good coffee. I’ve lived in Paris and visited many times, and the French are not known for their coffee. or milk. My experiences on this trip brought back vivid memories of when I lived there lots of cafes served coffee that tasted like tar, and the milk added was almost always UHT milk – milk which doesn’t need refrigerating, and which has a smell which is hard to describe.

=== Caf Malongo – 50 rue St Andre des Arts, 75006 Paris ===

I found Cafe Malongo mentioned on the internet, so I took the metro to St Michel, walked along the gorgeous Rue Saint Andre des Arts and stepped inside Malongo’s wide glass doors. Wow! what a huge caf! I was overwhelmed by the size of the caf, and delighted by all the little sections where I could sit down and read the paper; some people had laptops plugged in, everyone was savouring their coffees in a great atmosphere, with easy-listening music in the background.

You can order coffee plus cakes or pastries, but no sandwiches or lunch-type food is available.

My latte was served in a long glass, the tray was wonderfully presented, and the staff efficient and very friendly.

Taste: Different coffee ground on the premises each day. I tried one, then asked for ’strong’ for my next one.

Mlk : Fresh milk, steamed.

Quality: The milk didn’t have that thick creamy quality I adore, but it was good.

[From Finding Great Coffee in Paris, France - Randomness - iDisappoint]

I dislike French coffee less than I hate that they only serve demi-ecreme or 2% milk, which I always thought was reserved for obese Americans giving them an excuse to add extra sugar. I like my lattes strong enough to break through the rich taste of whole milk, not a watery mess like the French serve almost 100% of the time.

I agree Malongo is pretty good. Sadly, I often end up at Starbucks, just because you can get good milk. If you double the number of shots, their coffee is almost okay.

We’ve had some doozies over the years. One beautiful high-design apartment was built over a bar AND directly over the subway. It looked great in photos and even better in person, but we couldn’t wait for our vacation to be over so we could get a good night’s sleep.

Beyond the obvious, here are 10 things we’d want to know before sending in a deposit.

1. High floor? Ideally an apartment should be above the second (American) floor so you’re slightly above traffic noise and dirt.

2. Double or triple-paned windows? This can help, if not totally eliminate traffic noise.

3. Air conditioning? Never a “standard” item in Europe so always ask if you have low heat tolerance. It often doesn’t exist because cool nightly breezes cool things to “livable” levels, but you may be spoiled by US standards. Make sure A/C is strong enough to handle a major heatwave if you’re traveling at peak periods.

4. Close to subways or other transit? Close to grocery stores? This will make a world of difference if you’re out and about. It’s no fun to lug groceries 7 or 8 blocks home after a day or touring.

5. Friendly or at least non-aggressive neighbors? In many places, there is no legal ability for neighbors to protest short-term rentals, but they can go out of their way to make short-term renters feel uncomfortable and unwanted.

6. Quiet neighbors? Make sure the Flamenco dance studio is closed during your visit.

7. Bathroom and shower in the apartment. This likely won’t happen to you, but as a student, I once rented a place where you had to go out in the hallway to use the toilet. “Chambres de bonne” in France often have shared facilities including showers, so don’t take this for granted, especially for low-price offers.

8. Includes towels and other equipment? You don’t want your first excursion to be to a store to buy plates and towels, as I had to to do at a sublet in Corsica.

9. Does everything in the pictures “work?” TVs and computers make nice furniture, but are frustrating if they don’t actually function.

10. Internet or “internet-ready?” Even in 2010, some people suggest “internet ready data port” meaning an outlet for your modem cord on the phone. We fell for this one five or six years ago, but still see it often in ads.

Good luck and let me know if you have any of your own gained through experience!

We’ve had some doozies over the years. One beautiful high-design apartment was built over a bar AND directly over the subway. It looked great in photos and even better in person, but we couldn’t wait for our vacation to be over so we could get a good night’s sleep.

Beyond the obvious, here are 10 things we’d want to know before sending in a deposit.

1. High floor? Ideally an apartment should be above the second (American) floor so you’re slightly above traffic noise and dirt.

2. Double or triple-paned windows? This can help, if not totally eliminate traffic noise.

3. Air conditioning? Never a “standard” item in Europe so always ask if you have low heat tolerance. It often doesn’t exist because cool nightly breezes cool things to “livable” levels, but you may be spoiled by US standards. Make sure A/C is strong enough to handle a major heatwave if you’re traveling at peak periods.

4. Close to subways or other transit? Close to grocery stores? This will make a world of difference if you’re out and about. It’s no fun to lug groceries 7 or 8 blocks home after a day or touring.

5. Friendly or at least non-aggressive neighbors? In many places, there is no legal ability for neighbors to protest short-term rentals, but they can go out of their way to make short-term renters feel uncomfortable and unwanted.

6. Quiet neighbors? Make sure the Flamenco dance studio is closed during your visit.

7. Bathroom and shower in the apartment. This likely won’t happen to you, but as a student, I once rented a place where you had to go out in the hallway to use the toilet. “Chambres de bonne” in France often have shared facilities including showers, so don’t take this for granted, especially for low-price offers.

8. Includes towels and other equipment? You don’t want your first excursion to be to a store to buy plates and towels, as I had to to do at a sublet in Corsica.

9. Does everything in the pictures “work?” TVs and computers make nice furniture, but are frustrating if they don’t actually function.

10. Internet or “internet-ready?” Even in 2010, some people suggest “internet ready data port” meaning an outlet for your modem cord on the phone. We fell for this one five or six years ago, but still see it often in ads.

Good luck and let me know if you have any of your own gained through experience!

And here is has to do with the Enlightenment and the brilliant people living the city:

Paris has many nicknames, but its most famous is “La Ville-Lumière” (most often translated as “The City of Light”),[15] a name it owes first to its fame as a centre of education and ideas during the Age of Enlightenment, and later to its early adoption of street lighting.[16]

[From Paris - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

33 years ago, I was this person, fresh off the boat (or 747), not knowing what to expect from a year in France (Rennes in my case).

Bonjour!

It is hard for me to believe that I am actually in France. At the moment, I am sitting in my bedroom in Nantes, home from a brief three day orientation trip with the IES Nantes group in Tours, France. This past week has truly flown by.

Tuesday feels like a month ago. My plane left from Charlotte and as I sat in the tiny blue airplane seat, fighting the stranger next to me for armrest room, I began to wonder what I had gotten myself into. I was a twenty-year old college student on an eight hour flight to Paris, France but I felt so much more like an eight year old headed to sleep away camp for the first time. Never before had I been on a plane alone so therefore I was very nervous. What if I missed my connection? What if I arrived in Paris and was incapable of finding the correct train to Nantes? Luckily, all of my worrying was for nothing. I made my connection in Newark with minutes to spare and arrived in Paris safely.

[From Bienvenue to me! | Inside IES Abroad]

I agree and just minutes from our apartment so we often walk across on the way to the Right Bank. We’re lucky to have the #2 walking bridge, the Golden Gate, in our home town.

The Pont des Arts is my favourite bridge in Paris. This elegant metal bridge, with its nine arches, crosses the Seine river and connects the Louvre with the Institut de France. The best part: it’s a pedestrian bridge. Take a leisurely stroll across the bridge in the evenings to watch the Paris lights and be temporarily blinded by the cruise boats as they pass by below!

[From Ten incredible bridge walks | velvet escape's blog - StumbleUpon]