Friday 31 August 2012
A Paris Find - Rue Montorgueil
Rue Montorgueil
This street has a wonderfully, Parisian atmosphere. It has, more or less, no traffic and a great selection of cafes, fromageries, boulangeries, patisseries, boucheries, poissoneries. If you want to feel as if you are truly in Paris walk down this street, perhaps, stop at a cafe. If you live nearby you could buy your daily food supplies here and enjoy the spirit of Paris.
Monday 27 August 2012
Pre-paid SIMs and other lessons in Paris
Lesson #1:
In one of my earlier posts I described the early (not so fun) experience of owning an SFR Pre-paid SIM. You may recall that I arrived in Paris pathologically disinclined to buy from SFR (having relegated SFR to the same league as Telstra i.e. a former telco monopoly) but finding that on arrival at the airport, SFR was the only available option.
My French is very basic so navigating the sfr.fr website is daunting. I did manage to create an account but without them getting some form of acceptable identification e.g. photocopy of my passport photo page the "my account" section basically does not work (you get various error messages which don't mean much). I did not understand this until after I got through their id process and then voila the web site started working correctly.
How to get through the SFR La Carte identification process:
I also managed to navigate to a PDF product description of the La Carte (pre-paid SIM) - it's also all in French but I did understand a couple of things: I could call free to a 1025 that provided "English" responses, I also figured out that I could email my identification stuff to indentificationacarte@sfr.fr. So I took a photo of my passport and using free wifi hotspot emailed it from my iphone. A couple of days later I rang the 1025, spoke to a lady who sort of understood English but hardly spoke it and when I finally got her to understand (in the nicest way I could muster) that I wanted to know if my id had been received she simply said "Oui" and instantly hung up. At least I think she said "Oui".
When I bought the La Carte I also bought a 35 euro recharge and then had the fun of figuring out how to enter the recharge number to add it to my pre-paid SIM. I believe I can buy further recharge codes from any Tabac store.
How to recharge your pre-paid SFR SIM - La Carte:
Basically you make a free call on the number 952. A prerecorded voice will speak to you in fairly rapid French. May hear her say the word "un" meaning "one" if you miss it just wait while she prattles on and just enter 1#. She will then shut up momentarily and then start prattling on some more just type over the top of her by entering the recharge code and # - that's it. If you want reassurance you can free call 950 and another French voice will read out to you your balance. Or you can log on to the sfr.fr "my account" section - it's the hyperlink called Accéder à votre espace client
on the right hand side of the main web site. After logging on on the left there is a link called Ma conso
(my consumption I presume) it will tell you what's left on your pre-paid SIM.
How to add a data plan to your La Carte:
After going to a SFR store (by the Saint Paul Metro station in the Marais) the answer is "NON"
I suspect this is not true but I am exhausted after getting this far with SFR and I have a phone that does calls and texts so I give up on data. Our apartment has free wifi included in the rent so I will survive on that - in fact I would say without the free wifi in our apartment we would have been up the creek without a paddle.
Lesson #2:
Never rent an apartment in Paris without ensuring it has free wifi included.
Lesson #3:
If you think it's a great idea to go shopping on a Sunday in many cases you will be very disappointed. The shopping areas look like they're expecting some riots and have brought the shutters down in advance, so you can't even window-shop.
I'd suggest: sleep in late, go see some tourist sites, sit in some cafes for a fair few hours then go to some wine bars and get hammered.
Lesson #4:
August is annual holiday month for France so, for perhaps 10% to 15% of the shops, every day in August is a Sunday. We arrived on 21st August (leaving on 20th Sept) and sort of expected some shops to be closed until end of August but if we had arrived on the 1st August and not understood what what going to happen we might have been somewhat disappointed to say the least.
In one of my earlier posts I described the early (not so fun) experience of owning an SFR Pre-paid SIM. You may recall that I arrived in Paris pathologically disinclined to buy from SFR (having relegated SFR to the same league as Telstra i.e. a former telco monopoly) but finding that on arrival at the airport, SFR was the only available option.
My French is very basic so navigating the sfr.fr website is daunting. I did manage to create an account but without them getting some form of acceptable identification e.g. photocopy of my passport photo page the "my account" section basically does not work (you get various error messages which don't mean much). I did not understand this until after I got through their id process and then voila the web site started working correctly.
How to get through the SFR La Carte identification process:
I also managed to navigate to a PDF product description of the La Carte (pre-paid SIM) - it's also all in French but I did understand a couple of things: I could call free to a 1025 that provided "English" responses, I also figured out that I could email my identification stuff to indentificationacarte@sfr.fr. So I took a photo of my passport and using free wifi hotspot emailed it from my iphone. A couple of days later I rang the 1025, spoke to a lady who sort of understood English but hardly spoke it and when I finally got her to understand (in the nicest way I could muster) that I wanted to know if my id had been received she simply said "Oui" and instantly hung up. At least I think she said "Oui".
When I bought the La Carte I also bought a 35 euro recharge and then had the fun of figuring out how to enter the recharge number to add it to my pre-paid SIM. I believe I can buy further recharge codes from any Tabac store.
How to recharge your pre-paid SFR SIM - La Carte:
Basically you make a free call on the number 952. A prerecorded voice will speak to you in fairly rapid French. May hear her say the word "un" meaning "one" if you miss it just wait while she prattles on and just enter 1#. She will then shut up momentarily and then start prattling on some more just type over the top of her by entering the recharge code and # - that's it. If you want reassurance you can free call 950 and another French voice will read out to you your balance. Or you can log on to the sfr.fr "my account" section - it's the hyperlink called Accéder à votre espace client
on the right hand side of the main web site. After logging on on the left there is a link called Ma conso
(my consumption I presume) it will tell you what's left on your pre-paid SIM.
How to add a data plan to your La Carte:
After going to a SFR store (by the Saint Paul Metro station in the Marais) the answer is "NON"
I suspect this is not true but I am exhausted after getting this far with SFR and I have a phone that does calls and texts so I give up on data. Our apartment has free wifi included in the rent so I will survive on that - in fact I would say without the free wifi in our apartment we would have been up the creek without a paddle.
Lesson #2:
Never rent an apartment in Paris without ensuring it has free wifi included.
Lesson #3:
If you think it's a great idea to go shopping on a Sunday in many cases you will be very disappointed. The shopping areas look like they're expecting some riots and have brought the shutters down in advance, so you can't even window-shop.
I'd suggest: sleep in late, go see some tourist sites, sit in some cafes for a fair few hours then go to some wine bars and get hammered.
Lesson #4:
August is annual holiday month for France so, for perhaps 10% to 15% of the shops, every day in August is a Sunday. We arrived on 21st August (leaving on 20th Sept) and sort of expected some shops to be closed until end of August but if we had arrived on the 1st August and not understood what what going to happen we might have been somewhat disappointed to say the least.
Thursday 23 August 2012
Walking about St Germain and the Latin Quarter
The idea that Australians are laid back and take a leisurely, balanced approach to life needs to be reviewed. Parisians appear to have a far more leisurely, relaxed approach to working than we see in Sydney. They don't seem to get out and about until at least 9 to 9.30 in the morning. Then the strain of working gets to them and between 1 and 3 they retire for some rest and lunch.
Getting up at 7 am (we are normally at the gym by 6.15 at home so 7 am constitutes a lie in) and going to a local boulangerie at around 8.30 is a relatively solitary experience. It's not very interesting walking past shops before 10.30 in the morning as they are mostly likely to be closed. As you know August is the annual holiday season for French citizens and the new autumn/winter fashions kick off around 1st September. So one thought we had in coming here around 20th August was that the last of the summer fashions would be on sale and a lot of regular consumers would be on holiday. This theory is partly valid in practice but it means that between now and mid next week we need to buy any summer bargains as they will most likely be gone after that time.
We've been lunching around 2pm and having a light supper at around 10 pm. Interestingly it seems that dinner is often started at around 10 pm in Paris (hence why it's so quiet in the early part of the day).
We've had two lunches so far and they have really constituted our main meal of the day. One was recommended in a walking guide book. Both have been really ordinary, truly not worth it. Our new strategy is to lunch at minimum one star Michelin restaurants (our thinking is that in the new austere economic state of Europe the one star restaurants will offer fixed price lunch menus that are excellent quality and, whilst not inexpensive, at least should not be a waste of time - I'll let you know in a future blog if this idea actually works).
A fairly famous department store near here is called "Bon Marché". It's ironic that "Bon Marché" in French means "cheap" but this store is more like David Jones i.e. not cheap. It has a great food department (a bit like the one at David Jones but much better). The "Market of St Germain" is mostly rubbish. It is called the only "closed market" in Paris which is an odd way to describe a shopping mall.
Last comment for today - we wanted to buy some wine for our apartment and found this wine shop 100 metres away call "La Dernier Groutt" (means "the last drop"). We went in and, in French, I asked about the various wines, explaining that being from Sydney, we knew nothing about French wines. At this point the wine merchant said in French that he could speak English as he was from New Zealand. I then said "Je ne dois pas parler en Francais avec un Néo-Zélandais" i.e. I'm not speaking French to a Kiwi! It turns out he comes from Tokoroa (mid North Island timber town), has been studying philosophy at the Sorbonne (University of Paris) and knows Quade Cooper who is playing for the Wallabies this weekend.
It's a funny world.
Getting up at 7 am (we are normally at the gym by 6.15 at home so 7 am constitutes a lie in) and going to a local boulangerie at around 8.30 is a relatively solitary experience. It's not very interesting walking past shops before 10.30 in the morning as they are mostly likely to be closed. As you know August is the annual holiday season for French citizens and the new autumn/winter fashions kick off around 1st September. So one thought we had in coming here around 20th August was that the last of the summer fashions would be on sale and a lot of regular consumers would be on holiday. This theory is partly valid in practice but it means that between now and mid next week we need to buy any summer bargains as they will most likely be gone after that time.
We've been lunching around 2pm and having a light supper at around 10 pm. Interestingly it seems that dinner is often started at around 10 pm in Paris (hence why it's so quiet in the early part of the day).
We've had two lunches so far and they have really constituted our main meal of the day. One was recommended in a walking guide book. Both have been really ordinary, truly not worth it. Our new strategy is to lunch at minimum one star Michelin restaurants (our thinking is that in the new austere economic state of Europe the one star restaurants will offer fixed price lunch menus that are excellent quality and, whilst not inexpensive, at least should not be a waste of time - I'll let you know in a future blog if this idea actually works).
A fairly famous department store near here is called "Bon Marché". It's ironic that "Bon Marché" in French means "cheap" but this store is more like David Jones i.e. not cheap. It has a great food department (a bit like the one at David Jones but much better). The "Market of St Germain" is mostly rubbish. It is called the only "closed market" in Paris which is an odd way to describe a shopping mall.
Last comment for today - we wanted to buy some wine for our apartment and found this wine shop 100 metres away call "La Dernier Groutt" (means "the last drop"). We went in and, in French, I asked about the various wines, explaining that being from Sydney, we knew nothing about French wines. At this point the wine merchant said in French that he could speak English as he was from New Zealand. I then said "Je ne dois pas parler en Francais avec un Néo-Zélandais" i.e. I'm not speaking French to a Kiwi! It turns out he comes from Tokoroa (mid North Island timber town), has been studying philosophy at the Sorbonne (University of Paris) and knows Quade Cooper who is playing for the Wallabies this weekend.
It's a funny world.
Wednesday 22 August 2012
Paris Day 2
We've settled into our apartment and been out walking for a fair bit of today (Wednesday) so I thought I'd share some initial observations / learnings from when we landed at Charles De Gaulle airport.
1) I'm never going fool the locals into thinking my French language skills are great:
While waiting for our bags I went up to the information desk and asked "Où est les toilettes?" She kindly explained in French where they were. As I walked away I thought "Duh" I meant to say "Où sont les toilettes ("where are the toilets" instead of saying "where is the toilets")
2) Not everyone you meet is actually French:
As I walked out of the men's an oriental lady walked past me so I said "les toilettes des femmes sont là-bas" (the female toilets are over there). She looked blankly at me (perhaps she was a little dis-oriental after a long flight (editor's note: "ignore all dad jokes"). She then realised that I was a he and she was a she and did an about-face.
3) Do not expect to be accosted by many pre-paid SIM sellers hoping to do business with you:
After making some further inquiries you will find that you go to a Relay shop (rather like a Newslink shop in Sydney airport) and behind the counter if you are lucky they will be able to sell you a SFR (French equivalent to Telstra only with higher prices and lower service - yes that is possible) pre-paid SIM. You will have no other choice. Maybe my French was not good enough but I got a 30-day voice plan with no data allowance (sigh) for 35 euro. The SIM was a full size one (they did not have the micro SIM that iPhone 4s need - so in the middle of the airport I borrowed the scissors from Jenni's sewing kit and cut the SIM down to size et voilà it worked). I managed to understand enough of the little user guide that came with the SIM that if I did not register with SFR inside 15 days sending them a photocopy of my passport id page that they would stop the SIM working. The SFR website is entirely in French and the free calling numbers provide entirely French auto responses spoken at light speed - lots of fun. In the end I managed to register online and have emailed a photo of my passport from my (now working) iPhone. How, you ask, did I email from my phone when I did not have a data plan? Excellent question, to our eternal gratitude, our apartment has high speed wifi ... As of writing I have not mustered enough courage to call the free help line, navigate the french auto response system and try to talk to an actual human who may deign to speak English and help me get the magical SFR customer id which I need to log onto "My Account" and upgrade myself to include a data plan. Conclusion: get a TravelSIM from any Aust Post Office (or go to www.travelsim.net.au) BEFORE leaving Australia.
4) If you think it's a great idea to buy a 30 day train pass and take the train from the airport into Paris - you are insane.
We landed at Terminal 1, the trains leave from Terminal 2 so you need to get onto the CDGVAL terminal shuttle - not a biggie so far so good. I tried quite hard back in Sydney to research these multi-day passes and concluded that the monthly pass was not well documented but that it is part of the Navigo Découverte ticket system. I also knew that I would need a photo to stick on it - from what I had researched machines existed at the train stations to take such photos (but not at the airport train station I discovered). I had also read that the staff at the train stations were generally (to extremely) unhelpful, but I thought that since I was doing ok at speaking french that they would be more helpful than not (this turned out to be rather naive of me). Managing to contain my frustration with the girl at the ticket counter, I did figure out that the monthly ticket pass starts always on the first day of the month (I naively thought that a monthly pass would go for one month from purchase but not so for this monopoly) and that the weekly pass starts on a Monday. Since I was talking to the girl on a Tuesday that was 10 days from the end of the month I bought two weekly passes. We got our 50 KGs of luggage on to the train. As the train got closer to our destination it became more full than your average sardine tin. Between our second to last stop and our get-off station we managed to persuade our fellow travellers that there was a ton of spare space around so we could move ourselves and our large travel bags to an exit door. Our technique to get to the doors drew its inspiration from the Aussie diggers in world war 1 when they charged over the top of the trenches.
We will take a taxi back to the airport when we leave !
Today resembled an average day. We walked around St Germain, bought stuff and ate stuff, retired stuffed.
1) I'm never going fool the locals into thinking my French language skills are great:
While waiting for our bags I went up to the information desk and asked "Où est les toilettes?" She kindly explained in French where they were. As I walked away I thought "Duh" I meant to say "Où sont les toilettes ("where are the toilets" instead of saying "where is the toilets")
2) Not everyone you meet is actually French:
As I walked out of the men's an oriental lady walked past me so I said "les toilettes des femmes sont là-bas" (the female toilets are over there). She looked blankly at me (perhaps she was a little dis-oriental after a long flight (editor's note: "ignore all dad jokes"). She then realised that I was a he and she was a she and did an about-face.
3) Do not expect to be accosted by many pre-paid SIM sellers hoping to do business with you:
After making some further inquiries you will find that you go to a Relay shop (rather like a Newslink shop in Sydney airport) and behind the counter if you are lucky they will be able to sell you a SFR (French equivalent to Telstra only with higher prices and lower service - yes that is possible) pre-paid SIM. You will have no other choice. Maybe my French was not good enough but I got a 30-day voice plan with no data allowance (sigh) for 35 euro. The SIM was a full size one (they did not have the micro SIM that iPhone 4s need - so in the middle of the airport I borrowed the scissors from Jenni's sewing kit and cut the SIM down to size et voilà it worked). I managed to understand enough of the little user guide that came with the SIM that if I did not register with SFR inside 15 days sending them a photocopy of my passport id page that they would stop the SIM working. The SFR website is entirely in French and the free calling numbers provide entirely French auto responses spoken at light speed - lots of fun. In the end I managed to register online and have emailed a photo of my passport from my (now working) iPhone. How, you ask, did I email from my phone when I did not have a data plan? Excellent question, to our eternal gratitude, our apartment has high speed wifi ... As of writing I have not mustered enough courage to call the free help line, navigate the french auto response system and try to talk to an actual human who may deign to speak English and help me get the magical SFR customer id which I need to log onto "My Account" and upgrade myself to include a data plan. Conclusion: get a TravelSIM from any Aust Post Office (or go to www.travelsim.net.au) BEFORE leaving Australia.
4) If you think it's a great idea to buy a 30 day train pass and take the train from the airport into Paris - you are insane.
We landed at Terminal 1, the trains leave from Terminal 2 so you need to get onto the CDGVAL terminal shuttle - not a biggie so far so good. I tried quite hard back in Sydney to research these multi-day passes and concluded that the monthly pass was not well documented but that it is part of the Navigo Découverte ticket system. I also knew that I would need a photo to stick on it - from what I had researched machines existed at the train stations to take such photos (but not at the airport train station I discovered). I had also read that the staff at the train stations were generally (to extremely) unhelpful, but I thought that since I was doing ok at speaking french that they would be more helpful than not (this turned out to be rather naive of me). Managing to contain my frustration with the girl at the ticket counter, I did figure out that the monthly ticket pass starts always on the first day of the month (I naively thought that a monthly pass would go for one month from purchase but not so for this monopoly) and that the weekly pass starts on a Monday. Since I was talking to the girl on a Tuesday that was 10 days from the end of the month I bought two weekly passes. We got our 50 KGs of luggage on to the train. As the train got closer to our destination it became more full than your average sardine tin. Between our second to last stop and our get-off station we managed to persuade our fellow travellers that there was a ton of spare space around so we could move ourselves and our large travel bags to an exit door. Our technique to get to the doors drew its inspiration from the Aussie diggers in world war 1 when they charged over the top of the trenches.
We will take a taxi back to the airport when we leave !
Today resembled an average day. We walked around St Germain, bought stuff and ate stuff, retired stuffed.
Sunday 19 August 2012
1 Sleep to Paris
One bag, one sleep, one trip to the airport and we're goneski.
How can we be away for one month and only take one bag? you ask. Good question, the answer is simple viz "shopping". The truth is we actually have a second bag and inside that is another bag and inside that bag are two pillows we plan to "donate" to the apartment on departure.
Last night on our way to Bianca's engagement party (Bianca is Brian Armstrong's daughter, should be a bit of fun calling Brian "Gramps" sometime in the next few years) as we crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge I rang Bertrand and arranged to meet him at our apartment in Paris (he has the key) and spoke most of the time in French - it worked! It was such a thrill to be talking to a Parisian. To be honest at the end of the conversation I asked him "Parlez-vous Anglais?" and he said "Yes" so, in English, I double checked that we had truly understood each other (didn't want an ego-driven, epic fail).
It was through Jenni's sister (Lorraine) that we knew about this apartment. Lorraine and family had been to France last year as part of school trip (some field day !). So we learned about some of the local boulangeries, wine bars (bars à vin), the Bon Marché (whilst it is a famous place it actually means "cheap" in French). Lorraine's and Stuart's descriptions made it almost feel as if we were already there. Can't wait to buy a baguette and a bucket of foie gras (Jenni's misplaced 2 kilos in the last couple of months so a bucket of foie gras should help replace it). We also learned about the Metro, le Château de Versailles. So we're now planning to take the Metro from Charles de Gaulle Aéroport to St Germain. Which goes to show we humans are not entirely rational since we definitely are NOT taking the train from home to Sydney airport.
We've packed Telfast as we're going from Sydney winter to Europe summer and in the past we have found that we get terrible hay fever due to the big change in atmospheric pollen and Telfast is (or it was last time we were there) a prescription-only medicine in France.
We've turned on our Outlook "out of office" notifications and plan to stay way from work email completely. If you want to email us, use gavinpdixon@gmail.com as I will monitor this inbox. We'll get a local SIM (I'll post this number when I get it) and have Skype logged in (Skype id is gavin.dixon69 - stop smirking, it's just a number). You can also post comments on this blog as I will try to keep it up to date as a "travel" diary.
How can we be away for one month and only take one bag? you ask. Good question, the answer is simple viz "shopping". The truth is we actually have a second bag and inside that is another bag and inside that bag are two pillows we plan to "donate" to the apartment on departure.
Last night on our way to Bianca's engagement party (Bianca is Brian Armstrong's daughter, should be a bit of fun calling Brian "Gramps" sometime in the next few years) as we crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge I rang Bertrand and arranged to meet him at our apartment in Paris (he has the key) and spoke most of the time in French - it worked! It was such a thrill to be talking to a Parisian. To be honest at the end of the conversation I asked him "Parlez-vous Anglais?" and he said "Yes" so, in English, I double checked that we had truly understood each other (didn't want an ego-driven, epic fail).
It was through Jenni's sister (Lorraine) that we knew about this apartment. Lorraine and family had been to France last year as part of school trip (some field day !). So we learned about some of the local boulangeries, wine bars (bars à vin), the Bon Marché (whilst it is a famous place it actually means "cheap" in French). Lorraine's and Stuart's descriptions made it almost feel as if we were already there. Can't wait to buy a baguette and a bucket of foie gras (Jenni's misplaced 2 kilos in the last couple of months so a bucket of foie gras should help replace it). We also learned about the Metro, le Château de Versailles. So we're now planning to take the Metro from Charles de Gaulle Aéroport to St Germain. Which goes to show we humans are not entirely rational since we definitely are NOT taking the train from home to Sydney airport.
We've packed Telfast as we're going from Sydney winter to Europe summer and in the past we have found that we get terrible hay fever due to the big change in atmospheric pollen and Telfast is (or it was last time we were there) a prescription-only medicine in France.
We've turned on our Outlook "out of office" notifications and plan to stay way from work email completely. If you want to email us, use gavinpdixon@gmail.com as I will monitor this inbox. We'll get a local SIM (I'll post this number when I get it) and have Skype logged in (Skype id is gavin.dixon69 - stop smirking, it's just a number). You can also post comments on this blog as I will try to keep it up to date as a "travel" diary.
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