Tag: Paris

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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.

Categories
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.

 

Categories
Eating Experience Helpful Information Holidays

How to choose the perfect teapot

The perfect teapot - Grosche Budapest
The perfect teapot – Grosche Budapest

If you stay with me at 52 Clichy almost everyone gets to see my ‘perfect teapot’, the Grosche ‘Budapest’.

Put the tea in the centre chamber, lower it into the water and wiggle it about a bit if you want to speed up the brewing process.

The real perfection for someone like me who doesn’t like strong tea is that when the water gets to the right colour you just lift the lever which raises the tea above water level so the tea stays your perfect strength and doesn’t stew.

On first introductions, practically every guest wants one or knows someone for whom this teapot would be perfect and for a while I had supplies I could sell to guests who had enough room in their suitcase on the return journey but, oh horror, the shop closed.

To the rescue came delightful guests from Australia who found a near-perfect solution but, drumroll, gorgeous English guests found the real thing!

Grosche Barcelona

So now, never fear, you too can have the perfect teapot, my ‘Budapest’ or, am I being disloyal here, maybe one that has a sleeker design, the Grosche ‘Barcelona’. In this design the glass doesn’t touch the table surface.  At $35 each, and cheaper on other sites, I might allow myself both!  If you can’t get hold of Grosche, alternatives there are a-many.

Oggi teapot

What about this one?  Does it resemble anything? At around $20 who wouldn’t plump for the  Oggi 6577 teapot  I’m not sure it isn’t a Grosche in sheep’s clothing? Or how about the €20 Rosenstein & Söhne branded version that is available is Europe.

There’s also a Scandanavian teapot design by Norm Architects and this one from the HappyLuckys website looks fun too.

My lime green teapot in my 52 Clichy Paris apartment

There are choices out there! But for the moment if you stay in the apartment you have to put up with my adorable green teapot (I love lime green). Do tell me which you prefer or what you use.

Maybe I don’t have the perfect teapot – although I think I do! In any case, come and stay at 52 Clichy and test mine out by clicking on the link and checking out my Availability.

If you haven’t already considered visiting Paris and staying with me, take a look at my website or read some of my zillion 5* reviews of the B&B or the Apartment from TripAdvisor and elsewhere.

Also do take a look at my suggestions of the best restaurants minutes from 52 Clichy or find out lots more information about French food and where and how to eat it in my blog page on  where and how to eat well in Paris.

If you’re getting ready to visit Paris you might also want to dive in with my in-depth Guide to Living Like a Local.

Hope you found this informative and I look forward to your comments.

A très bientôt,

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Categories
2016 Eating Experience Great Exhibitions Great Touristy Things to do

Carambolages : take the kids

Check out tickets for Carambolages at the Grand Palais until July 4th 2016.  Just the kind of museum exhibition the children will enjoy too.

Carambolages – I had to look it up – means a pile-up in the sense of a train crash or someone playing billiards and ‘cannoning’ one ball into another.

In this exhibition there are 185 pieces, all mixed up, the only thread  is that each piece is connected to the next by an association of ideas or forms but at no time does the museum tell you how!   It is not structured by artist, country, date or medium, nor are there any explanations typed by each piece giving you any clues.

There is a line of paintings, sculptures and videos and it is left to the viewer to figure out what the connections are and as there are no answers provided, everybody is right!   If you need a hand take a look at the video screens in each room which give you the name of each work which may help a little.   Some well-known artists are on show; Rembrandt, Man Ray, Giacometti interspersed with anonymous ones.

I don’t know any young children who could go but if you do please leave a comment on whether you or they found the connections easier.   The exhibition also has a workbook for children and a downloadable app (not sure if it is in English).

Open from 10.00 am to 8.00pm on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays et Sundays and late nights on Wednesdays from 10.00 am to 10:00 pm.  Closed on Tuesdays.

Pricing : Full : 13€   OR    Tarif ‘tribu’ (4 people incl.  2 between 16 et 25 years old) : 35 € (When did they start this !!)

For more information in English : click here

 

The perfect eaterie in walking distance is the Brasserie le Grand Palais, just hang a left past the Palais de la Découverte, also a good choice of Museum for children, and it is across the road opposite the Aston Martin showroom. There is a smart part with sunny terrace and a large café part with wicker chairs. There are at least 2 menus and the lunch food is very reasonable: bagels, sandwiches and gi-normous hotdogs in half a baguette, cheaper in most cases than drinking there!

Hope you enjoy it.

 

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Categories
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.