Richardcyoung.com

  • Home
  • Debbie Young
  • Jimmy Buffett
  • Key West
  • Your Survival Guy
  • How We Are Different
  • Paris
  • About Us
    • Foundation Principles
    • Contributors
  • Investing
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • The Swiss Way
  • My Rifles
  • Dividends and Compounding
  • Your Security
  • Dick Young
  • Dick’s R&B Top 100
  • Liberty & Freedom Map
  • Bank Credit & Money
  • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
  • NNT & Cholesterol
  • Your Health
  • Ron Paul
  • US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool
  • Anti-Gun Control
  • Anti-Digital Currency
  • Joel Salatin & Alfie Oakes
  • World Gold Mine Production
  • Fidelity & Wellington Since 1971
  • Hillsdale College
  • Babson College
  • Contact Us

What I Learned in Paris: Part V

October 19, 2011 By Richard C. Young

The goal for our third European trip of the last year was to fully check out the French railway system with trips south to Provence and west of Paris to Normandy. On the front, middle and back ends of the trip, we wanted to get a complete picture of how business was faring in Paris and how the U.S. dollar would spend in general. In Paris Part Four, I got started on our swing through Normandy and the D-Day beaches and our magnificent private historical tour with Paul Woodadge (ddayhistorian.com). I will expand on my D-Day coverage on Friday.

The view from our room at Hotel Lutetia.

Paris has 20 arrondissements, or neighborhoods, split by the Seine River into the Right Bank and the Left Bank. We stayed mainly in the 6th arrondissement (left), but also in the 8th (right) during some of the trip. I can heartily recommend both Hotel Lutetia and Victoria Palace Hotel in the 6th. The Lutetia is large (200+ rooms), has great views of the Eiffel Tower, is more centrally located, and has both an excellent dining room and brasserie. The more intimate Victoria Palace is less expensive, and offers larger and better rooms on all counts. The staff in both hotels is professional, helpful and friendly. Our hotel in the high-end 8th did not match up. The Rive Droit (right bank) features most of the five-star hotels and high-end shopping. We much prefer Rive Gauche (left). In Rive Gauche you’ll find colleges, galleries, boutiques, antique shops and bookshops, as well as all the Lost Generation brasseries of the twenties—Le Select, La Coupole, La Rotonde, Le Dome, Café de Flore and Cafe Les Deux Magots. Cafe de Flore, for example, was Jack Kerouac’s favorite. Hemmingway, Gertrude Stein, John Dos Passos and F. Scott Fitzgerald all could be found in these famous literary haunts in the 1920s. We touched base with each and found le Dome to be the most magnificent of the historical lot.

Do not head off on your fantastic trip to Paris without Hungry for Paris by former Gourmet European correspondent Alec Lobrano. We have had the pleasure of spending a wonderful Paris bistro evening with Alec, an expert voice on the Paris bistro scene. We stuck almost exclusively with Alec’s selections, as we did on our last trip. Some words of advice for you include the need to reserve well in advance and confirm your reservations IN person. You may want to walk to your selections in advance to get your directions down right. If you are cabbing, no problem, except that it is quite surprising how many Paris cabbies appear unwilling to converse in either French or English. If you have an iPhone, Google Maps and a flashlight app are useful.

Indispensible carry-around books include Paris Pratique Par Arrondissment (good maps), Rick Steve’s French Phrase Book & Dictionary, and Eating & Drinking In Paris by Andy Herbach. The maps handed out by hotels make you feel like Helen Keller. We got lost on one nightly bistro outing and figured we had had the course. A magnifying glass and Google map can help avoid such culinary misadventure. It also helps a whole lot to have, at the very least, your bistro French down so you can stick with the French menus and not show yourself as an ugly American. We get by with our bistro French, with Debbie ahead of me in the race not to kill a great culinary adventure with some poor guidance and OMG, did I order that.

Make certain to spend time browsing the Rue Cler outdoor market. It’s a great place to get a feel of how Parisians shop for groceries. You can pick up selections for a picnic or have lunch at one of the locals’ favorites, where you can enjoy delicious free-range roast chicken and real mashed potatoes for reasonable, if such words can even be uttered in Paris, $$. Have a great time and check back with me Friday for my next installment of What I Learned in Paris.

Warm Regards Dick

 

If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for my free weekly email.

Related Posts

  • Paris Greetings
  • Greetings from Paris
  • Paris Greetings
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Richard C. Young
Richard C. Young
Richard C. Young is the editor of Young's World Money Forecast, and a contributing editor to both Richardcyoung.com and Youngresearch.com.
Richard C. Young
Latest posts by Richard C. Young (see all)
  • Trump Admin Pushes Powell to Lower Rates after Lower Inflation - June 12, 2025
  • “Teenage Symphony to God”: RIP Brian Wilson - June 12, 2025
  • EVACUATION ORDER: Is War Brewing in the Middle East? - June 12, 2025

Dick Young’s Must Reads

  • Your Best State on Guns, Plus the 8th Wonder of the World
  • 751 “No-Go” Zones in France
  • Being Fully American Means Americans First
  • Soros’s Open Society Foundation, Charles Koch Team Up
  • DIGITAL ID: You Are More than a Soulless Digital Identity
  • Why Investors Should Forget Prices and Focus on Income
  • “I Need Preservation of Principal and Growth”
  • Feds Raid America’s Number One Patriot: Naples Florida’s Alfie Oakes
  • Your Life on Main Street will Never be the Same
  • U.S. Survival AR-7

Our Most Popular Posts

  • Whoa, Hang on Here. There’s Trouble in Culver City
  • Is Salt Bad for You?
  • RON PAUL: Can Musk and Trump Reconcile?
  • Saving Western Civilization
  • $25 Million Down; $175 Million to Go
  • Graduating from Work to Retirement #19: A Teacher for Life
  • No More NSAIDS for Back Pain?
  • There Are Only Two Ways to Cut Entitlements
  • The Federal Reserve Finally Killed the Penny
  • Ukraine’s Attack Underlines Need for Trump-Style Border Control

Compensation was paid to utilize rankings. Click here to read full disclosure.

RSS Youngresearch.com

  • Graduating from Work to Retirement Special Bonus: God Only Knows
  • Graduating from Work to Retirement #20: Life in Reverse
  • US Inflation Eases to 0.1% in May
  • DOE Focuses on Nuclear and AI Innovation
  • Trump Delivers Lower Inflation and Rising Wages
  • Natural Gas Power Growth Slows, but Big Gains Possible by 2028
  • Graduating from Work to Retirement #19: A Teacher for Life
  • UK Picks Rolls-Royce to Build First Small Modular Reactors
  • Battery Metal Markets Struggle Amid Oversupply
  • Amazon Plans to Invest $20 billion in Pennsylvania Data Center

RSS Yoursurvivalguy.com

  • Graduating from Work to Retirement Special Bonus: God Only Knows
  • Private Equity: Moody’s Warns There’s Ample Cause for Concern
  • Your Survival Guy: Castle Hill, Newport
  • Graduating from Work to Retirement #20: Life in Reverse
  • America’s Silent Army with 423M Guns
  • Top 10 Reasons to Own an AR-15
  • Graduating from Work to Retirement #19: A Teacher for Life
  • Can Luxury Ride AI to Success?
  • Market Timing Could Be Hazardous to Your Portfolio
  • Graduating from Work to Retirement #18: Shelter from the Storm

US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool

My Key West Garden Office

Your Retirement Life: Traveling the Efficient Frontier

Live a Long Life

Your Survival Guy’s Mt. Rushmore of Investing Legends

“Then One Day the Grandfather was Gone”

Copyright © 2025 | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Dick Young | Archives