gay paree

[hathycol]

Paris! That is a place I will ACTUALLY BE AT in less than two weeks. This is officially maybe the most exciting thing ever, now that I have sorted all the boring stuff (i.e. travel insurance, checking baggage allowances, hoping beyond hope I haven't lost my passport etc) and am now free to peruse a travel book. Unfortunately, I have perused it but once and have basically panicked and put stickers on nigh on every page.

Since we're only going to be there for three nights I obviously cannot look at all these things, and since the weather over Europe is still a bit iffy then a lot of the outdoorsy stuff is out. Whilst I am generally pretty good at getting my bearings in new cities and working out what things I want to do, I have to admit that I have found myself at a total impasse about What I Want To Do. Obviously I'd like to do all the usual fun touristy things, as well as hurl myself with gay abandon around Paris pretending to be Lalla Ward, but other than that the ciy is my proverbial oyster.

So, wise flist! You are well-travelled sorts who know Stuff About The World. Is there anything specific you would recommend, or avoid? Food I should try? (Before you ask, the one thing I am working really hard to learn in French is all the words you might find on a menu - it worked in Italy.) I'm staying in the Latin Quarter, if that makes a difference. Is the metro as terrifying as the description makes out? Will Converse cut the mustard is terms of shoes?

So, um, if anyone has any helpful advice now is the time to howl it at me! Now, if you'l excuse me I'm off to poke at my guidebook and hopefully makes the forest of highlighted stickers more sensible.

(And yes, I have finally finished cleaning. I AM QUEEN OF THE MOP BUCKET.)

Comments

[elyim.livejournal.com]

Go to a restaurant called Chez Gladines, near Place D'Italie. It is cheap (for Paris) and you get masses of food and get there early because it opens at 7pm and by 7.30 there is a queue, despite it being too early for the French to eat.

In Montmartre, near Sacre Coeur, there's a square full of artists, with half of them selling expensive paintings and half of them doing portraits. It's fun to wonder around, peering at all the portraits in progress and comparing what each artist does wrong - this one gets them slightly too fat, this one too thin, this one gives them a murderous stare - and to whisper things like "oh, but she doesn't have a moustache!" or glance back and forth between the drawing and the subject with a confused look.

Also near the Sacre Coeur there's a shop called Zut! which mostly sells massive clocks (from train stations).

Also, book everything in advance because there are mega queues. Also, you are under 26 so you can get in everywhere for free (or reduced), and where free you generally don't need a ticket so can join straight into the entry line and skip the ticket one (which is always much longer).

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

Yay for food advice! Cheap and plenty is my kind of cuisine. The rest of the hints are very handy indeed, too; any kind of queue skipping sounds good to me.