Knights and Lights 9/05/08

[ggadiel]

I was wondering how much guidance, if any, past travelers, of this ABD or even others, have received from their guides as to where to eat and what to do during the free time portions of the trip. This is especially important for Paris, as my fiancée and I do not speak French.

 

[MJGirl]

I was wondering how much guidance, if any, past travelers, of this ABD or even others, have received from their guides as to where to eat and what to do during the free time portions of the trip. This is especially important for Paris, as my fiancée and I do not speak French.

The tour guides we had were fantastic. I mentioned I wanted to go see Moulin Rouge, and they arranged with the Hotel to get us tickets and gave us advice on getting the cab. They were fantastic. We had Francesc and Andrew. Both spoke fluent French and English. Francesc did a tour earlier this year, but not sure where Andrew is!

 

[ggadiel]

Does anybody have any suggestions for good restaurants in London and/or Paris?

 

[JulieWent]

In London, we only ate on our own seriously once. We ate at a restaurant on the road that goes down to the British Museum. It was a little Greek restaurant, and it was the best food we had the whole time we were in England. (We were there for a week before the tour -- in the North.) If you ask at the concierge at the Renaissance, they will give you several possibilities for restaurants nearby. One will be a pizza restaurant. The Greek restaurant is right down the street from the pizza restaurant.

In Paris, you can't really miss. Just go down to the Champs Elysee and pick a cafe. We ate in two, and both were lovely and relaxing and very good. We sat and had nice dinners and watched the people -- like all good French do! We learned a few French words to help us out. I learned how to say, "I am sorry," and, "I don't speak French," and, "Where is the bathroom?" and a few other things that were helpful. The French were very, very nice to us in the restaurants when I started out with Hello, I am sorry, I don't speak French, but I really am trying. They laughed and helped out. One waiter said, "My English isn't very good either; maybe we can work together?" Oui.

But our time on the Champ Elysee was perhaps our favorite in the entire trip. My DS (who is 12) talks about it all the time. It's about a 10 minute walk from your hotel.

Julie

 

[PatriciaH]

We are on the 9/5 Knights and Lights tour too! In London we are doing the Brittish Museum for sure. We were looking at a Stonehenge and Bath tour on the mostly free day but not sure if we want to sit on a bus for that long! Hoping to do the Orsay, a Seine River cruise one night and maybe the Moulin Rouge in Paris. We added on two post nights so DL Paris for sure and maybe Giverny one day.

 

[stenogoddess]

In Paris try the Impala Lounge. It's right down from the hotel. I'm sure the guides or the desk can help you out. My husband had the beef and that was all he talked about for the rest of the day. I had the white chicken and it was also good, but DH's was better. Our waitress spoke very, very little English, but I said I was sorry about my French, she was sorry about her English, and we got on fab by just pointing around the menue. Later on a gentleman that worked there came over to chat and his English was perfect.

I don't want to jinx anyone, but our Paris experience was much better than we expected, and we speak almost no French. I learned all my manners: Please, Thanks You, I'm sorry. I learned how to say I would like. And also learned the words for chicken and fish. Bonjour.com is a fun site to check out.

In England we went over to Hampton Court on our mostly free day and really, really enjoyed it. The hedge maze was fun, the gardens were lovely, the house was out of this world. They had a resturant across the street called Pizza Express that apparently is a very large chain. Don't think Dominos or Pizza Hut though. This place was very yummy and nicely decorated.

HTH!