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Review L'Absinthe Café: First Impressions
Posted by Slavito in Paris + Places on 02/Dec/2007
Café Absinthe: TeaserThere are many methods of discovering good restaurants and avoiding bad ones in an unfamiliar city.

The simplest one I know of involves walking secondary streets of the target neighborhood in the evening, taking note of restaurants that quickly fill up with locals. Avoid the empty ones, avoid the ones with people who look like tourists. Above all, avoid the ones with menus in English. Obviously, read the menus. That's pretty much it.

As simple as the method may be, most of the time it just works. Et voici my latest Parisian discovery: L'Absinthe Café in the 3rd arrondissement (not to be confused with the restaurant L'Absinthe in the 1st)...

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Paris Bouquinistes
Posted by Slavito in Paris on 24/Oct/2007
Les BouquinistesThey are a familiar sight on the banks of the Seine - those faintly weary people manning the dark-green wooden stalls filled with used and new books, postcards, posters, paintings, compact disks, LP's other pre-digital-era media curiosities.

They are Paris Bouquinistes - a tribe that has existed (and flourished) since as far back as the mid-16th century, although it was only from the late the 1790s, when they were first officially recognized, that les bouquinistes gradually came to occupy most embankments on and around the Île de la Cité - despite organized resistance from the more "orderly" bookstores which, as you may know, are aplenty in Paris...

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Skate Sailing in Paris
Posted by Slavito in Paris on 07/Aug/2007
Skate Sailing near Quai d'Orsay

If skate-sailing is your thing and Paris your kind of town, I have the perfect location for you. By all means, try doing this on the Quai d'Orsay next to the Air France terminal. You'll have the fresh wind from the Seine, more than enough space for maneuver and the attention of both tourists and motorists. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you where to get the gear (I don't know). But surely, if skate-sailing is your thing, you do. So, smooth sailing!

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The Parisian Underworld
Posted by Lori in Paris + Places on 25/Dec/2006
paris catacombs: skullsNo, not the Paris Mob. I'm talking about l'Empire de la Mort - The Catacombs!

The Catacombs span the entire city of Paris. The tunnels and passageways spiral in an incredible distance of 186 miles! Yet, the legal tourist area spans only about a mile. For a very low entrance fee (2.5€ 26 and under, 5€ 27+) you can explore the sectioned off tunnels for as long as you want. Just bring a jacket, it's 11 degrees C in there year round...

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How to Order Café in Paris
Posted by Hillary in Paris on 20/Nov/2006
Le Rouquet CaféThe story goes like this: an American college student is seated on the terrasse of a fancy Paris café. When the waiter (finally) arrives, she asks for «a tall skim latté with sweet'n'low.» «- Madame,» says the waiter, «we are not a pharmacy !»

OK, probably apocryphal. However, learning the Paris coffee rules will make your next trip to that oh-so-picturesque café all the more pleasant...

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Paris Daytrip to Versailles
Posted by Lori in Paris on 13/Oct/2006
VersaillesI've always been attracted to all things completely gaudy... well, art- and architecture-wise. So, of course, I had to witness the decadence which is Versailles when I visited Paris. Aside from being into the royals of the past, I will confess... I have a big crush on paintings of young Napoleon, and I wanted to see "Bonaparte à Arcole" and the larger than life "Coronation of Napoleon" painting with my own eyes! Oh yeah, and the acres of lush gardens, Hall of Mirrors and all the crazy statues and paintings... and stuff...

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The French Fridge
Posted by Hillary in France on 02/Jul/2006
Garde Fromage We are standing around the kitchen one night, having drinks. I am making dinner. It's the beginning of spring, the windows are open and the mood is large. Someone opens the fridge to grab another beer. Then: Gasp.
– "Les amis! You can't keep eggs in the fridge!!"
– "What??"...

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