Tag: I Love Paris

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Great Touristy Things to do Helpful Information Holidays Trips and Tours

Find the best guided tour of Paris for you

How do you choose the best guided tour of Paris for you? There are hundreds of ways of finding out all about Paris, some free and some not so free.  You can take a tour whilst walking, running, riding a bike, motorbike or a segway, taking a bus, a tuk tuk, a boat or whilst sitting down in a comfy seat watching a theatre performance to name but a few.

But if you only have an hour or three, here are my Top Choices for having fun and finding your best guided tour of Paris :

I love walking so for me this is the best : A great, and (technically) FREE choice is  www.discoverwalks.com  Take one of 5 trips round the Marais, Montmartre, ‘Parisian Landmarks’ The Left Bank (the South side) or the Islands with a young, bilingual Frenchman or woman, vividly – dressed in pink waistcoats or shirts so you can’t lose them.  These are not history lessons, they are full of facts, very funny anecdotes and stories about current events.  Great fun. Your guides exist on tips.

If you are a lot more energetic you could sign up as for the FREE running tours on Wednesday mornings at 10am.  Your guide is Luke, an Australian, and you can meet him at the pointy end of Ile de La Cité opposite the Statue of Henri IV (right by one of my favourite restaurants, the Taverne Henri IV).   Just turn up or sign up to his Facebook page.   Please don’t think for one moment that I have done this, I have just got some mad friends!

Gorgeous guests Jeff and Laura suggested I tell all of you about the Left Bank Scooters who will take you on a 3 hour journey around Paris; one of you on the back of a motorcycle and the other in a sidecar, helmets etc provided. Both of them are tall but neither of them said they felt crushed and they came back raving, they loved it.  These tours are only offered in the Winter months, from November to the end of March and for the braver, they offer Vespa scooter hire too.

Finally, so many of you have watched and adored the Theatre show “How to become a Parisian in one hour”. It is not a guided tour but it does guide you through how to understand the Parisians, their foibles and how we need to behave to get along in Paris.  It was created and is performed by a Frenchman, Olivier Giraud, in English and has been a smash hit for years.  A laugh a minute tho a little on the blue side perhaps.  The theatre show is every Friday – Monday night and tickets cost from €24 – ask if you want me to book for you.  And it is not far, go to Galeries Lafayette at the bottom of the hill and turn right!

I hope this will give you food for thought as to how to find the best guided tour of Paris for you and your family, whether it is your first trip or not and I look forward to your comments.

If you found this interesting, please take a look at my Handy Guide to Living Like a Local or perhaps you want to know some of my great restaurant choices?

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Holidays News Special Offers

Paris photos please, for the Frommer’s Easy Guide to Paris 2017

52 Clichy balcony in Summer
Aperitifs whilst relaxing on the balcony

WOW, I will be in another Frommer’s guidebook, Frommer’s Easy Guide to Paris, to be published in October 2016. Did you know there was a need for so many different guidebooks for Paris ?!

This is what Amazon says about the current Easy Guide to Paris (2016), written by Margie Rynn : ” In 288 pages of dynamic, thoughtful prose, she guides the intelligent visitor to all the storied wonders of a glorious city, stressing her preferences for the best in every category. ”

The big deal for me is that they have asked me for PHOTOS !  Particularly photos with people in them !   I sent her squillions, including the obvious balcony photo, but not many with people in them.

However, I thought I would give you all the chance to relive happy memories, look at your holiday snaps and send me some gorgeous ones of you in my living room, in the apartment, on the balcony, having breakfast but perhaps not tucked up in bed ;-).  This will stop me scrabbling through my iphone on a Friday night !

Alternatively why not send some Parisian iconic scenes.  I know some of you are wonderful photographers, and I always need photos that set the scene so that all you wonderful guests come to visit I can share my vision of this beautiful city.

Just a reminder from my last email, next week I am increasing my prices for July onwards (I have some space in May but June is completely booked).  If you book before the end of May to visit Paris before the end of April 2017, then you can take advantage of my current prices.

This offer also applies to your friends if they mention they were referred by you or better still if they joined my mailing list at the bottom of my website homepage www.52Clichy.com! So do share this with them and have a look at my calendars below the slideshow of both the B&B and Apartment pages of my website.

This offer lasts only for the month of May and I can’t wait to hear from you.

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Holidays News Special Offers

I am in the new Paris Day by Day Guide by Frommer’s

I received an email out of the blue a couple of days ago from a lady saying she was from Frommer’s.  Initially I thought it was a scam but I couldn’t quite think of their angle, so I googled the sender and lo and behold, Meghan Lamb really is the Photo Editor at Frommer’s, the biggest guidebook company.

I was already listed in the Paris Day by Day Guide by Frommer’s, written by Anna E Brooke for 2014.  There was a couple of lines in the half page attributed to B&B’s in Paris – OK, I was the only B&B identified in the book but it was still only a couple of lines.

But this is better, in the revised Paris Day by Day guide by Frommer’s (headline photo), published on 29th March, I am cited twice, and I am still the only B&B listed in the book.  Take a look at what they say below.

Also, if you are coming to Paris in the next couple of years, do get a copy, it is an excellent guide.

Frommers Paris Day By Day Guide 52 Clichy Listing page 149Frommers Paris Day By Day Guide Best Value Lodging

Since January the B&B and the apartment have both been ranked in the Top 10 properties in Paris by Trip Advisor and with this extra exposure I am expecting bookings to increase.

I am planning to increase my prices for July onwards (I have some space in May but June is completely booked) but I just wanted to give you the heads up because you are important to me.

If you were thinking of coming to Paris before April 2017, book before the end of May and take advantage of my current prices.

This offer also applies to your friends if they mention they were referred by you or better still if they got on my mailing list at the bottom of my website homepage www.52Clichy.com!

This offer lasts only for the month of May and I can’t wait to hear from you.

Come and stay at 52 Clichy. BOOK HERE.

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Want to hear what previous guests have said about 52 Clichy ?  CLICK HERE.

 

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2016 Eating Experience Great Exhibitions Great Touristy Things to do

The Picasso sculptures have arrived

The ‘Musée National Picasso-Paris’ in Paris is presenting its first major international exhibition : ” Picasso Sculptures “. This follows on from the ” Picasso Sculpture ” retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and is being staged here until the 28th August 2016.

The intention is to contemplate the artist’s sculptures from a different angle through series and variations, casts, reproductions and enlargements all produced from the original sculptures. Featuring over 240 pieces, it is the largest collection of his sculpted work assembled since the Picasso Sculpteur exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in 2000.

Exceptional collections will be presented, such as the series of six ‘Verres d’absinthe’ (glasses of absinthe; 1914), which will be seen in its entirety for the first time in Europe. Others such as Pregnant woman, Heads of a Woman which were cast in cement and just to be even – handed, Head of a Man.

A video explanation in English from the curator of the sculpture department of the museum is here.

The exhibition comprises fifteen sections arranged over two floors.  Unlike his paintings for which I find the curatorship completely unfathomable, his scupltures are shown in chronological order – from the very first models he produced in the 1900s through to the enlarged versions he made from sheet metal during the sixties.

An example of his work is the ‘Monument to Apollinaire’ which is in room 5.  In 1921, Picasso was commissioned to produce a monument in tribute to Guillaume Apollinaire, who died in November 1918. In 1928, Picasso collaborated with Julio González to produce at least four models entitled ‘Figure’ echoing the Bird of Benin, the artist’s double in Apollinaire’s short story ‘Le Poète assassiné’ (The Assasinated Poet) – it has been described as a “profound statue made out of nothing, like poetry and glory.”  All the projects on display in room 5 were rejected by the Apollinaire Committee !

NB : An exhibition dedicated to Guillaume Apollinaire, ‘Apollinaire, le regard du poète’ (Apollinaire, the vision of the Poet) is being held at the Musée de l’Orangerie from 6 April to 18 July 2016.

When you start feeling peckish, pop into the renowned Breizh Café for an organic, authentic Brittany crepe. The ‘complet’ is egg, ham and cheese, there are a multitude of choices of cider and if you have a desert crepe as well the meal will still only be €15.  Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Come and stay at 52 Clichy. BOOK HERE.

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Want to hear what previous guests have said about 52 Clichy ?  CLICK HERE.

 

 

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Great Touristy Things to do News Special Offers

For fans of Marie-Antoinette – a new ‘ticket’

2 year Marie Antoinette pass

For those who have ‘done’ the Château de Versailles, this new ‘Pass Marie-Antoinette’ enables you to visit 4 other monuments that also have a strong connection to the life and death of the young queen.

Le Chateau de Rambouillet is an impressive royal residence Louis XVI bought for her. Later she was imprisoned and held for several months in the Conciergerie up to the time of her execution.
La Chapelle Expiatoire was dedicated to Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette and was built on part of the Madeleine cemetery where most of the bodies of those executed in the Revolution were buried in a mass grave. However, Marie-Antoinette’s body was moved to the Basilique Cathédrale de Saint Denis, a gothic masterpiece and final resting place of all bar 3 of the French kings and queens, in 1815.

 

Ask for the ‘Pass’ when you buy a full price entrance ticket at any of the 4 monuments. The entrance price to the other 3 is reduced by at least 20%. The Pass lasts 2 years, you can take your time !

 

Look forward to seeing you.  BOOK HERE…

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Want to read what previous guests have said ?  CLICK HERE.