Trip report

I came back last Thursday from an 8 day vacation in Paris with my husband. Our last visit was 10 years ago. Here are our impressions:

- The city is dirty, cigarette buds, papers, sewage running along the pavements etc...

- Very few beggars on the streets.

- Very few %26quot;singers%26quot; in the Metro, very, very few.

- Even on a busy Metro people are not pushing each other. Metro and RER looked safe and we used them alot. We used 40 tickets in 8 days.

- Not so many policemen like what we saw on other visits. And it was the time pf the Pope visiting.

- A new trick to cone people - we saw 3 different people. at different locations %26quot;find%26quot; a golden ring on the floor and try to give it to us. What was the purpose? I don%26#39;t know, but I guess they were expecting money, or an opportunity to snach a purse.

- no lines at the museums, even at the Orsay. This was the only place we had to wait and it was for 10-15 minutes. Other museums - like the Orangerie and the Branly had no lines.

- The Branly - I am sorry to say that the displays were done %26quot;not so well%26quot;. Most of them are under glass, and the glass has an image of you looking at it, it marrs the sight. The musical instruments can be hardly seen. Wonderful collection badly displayed. Also very little English expalnations or titles. No other languages but French. Disappointing.

- We stayed on de Seine street and used the RER B line to get to the airport. We had 1 suitcase per person and it was easy even with the stairs at St. Michel station.

- We took one tour with Paris Walks in St. Germain. It was very good. We tried to go to another one, but there were over 30 people so we gave up and did the tour on our own.

- English - much better but still room for improvement. Cashiers at the Metro, museums etc.. speak English. Waiters- most don%26#39;t, or even if they say they do it is minimal. All the places we went to had English menus.

|||

%26quot;English...still room for improvement%26quot;?? The french need to imorove themselves by learning english?

Are you serious? I guess improving yourself by learning a little french would be out of the question.

Few of the restaurants I frequent have english menus and I like it that way.

|||

How many people in NYC or Miami or Washington DC oe Tel Aviv speak French, and how many restaurants in those cities have French menus? You%26#39;ve got to be kidding.

|||

Thankyou for the useful information.

I understood this differenty , the improvement is in the comfort of those who dont understand french, nothing about improvement of people.

After all English is spoken, as far as I know, by twice as much people than french .

I would also expect people working with tourists to speake more than one language.

Sad to hear the city is not clean.

|||

«I would also expect people working with tourists to speake more than one language.»

Last time I checked, the languages spoken in continental Europe didn%26#39;t include English. There are those troublesome other languages like French, Italian, Spanish, German and Polish among others.

«- English - much better but still room for improvement.»

As bad as my grasp of French is, I can%26#39;t believe anyone would come to France with expectations of the French people mastering English to service tourists. Maybe you should take a bus tour where they narrate your visit to Paris from the comfort of a bus seat.

|||

Though I have to to France 3 times 2 times to Paris, I had no trouble getting by on the worst french out of a persons mouth, my own. The English spoken to me by the French was 100 times better than my French. I think it%26#39;s unrealistic to think everyone in Paris working within the tourism should speak English. After all, it is France.

I think your statements are out of line. But just IMHO.

|||

Hopefully we are going back to Paris for our 3rd visit in March. I just got back home after a week in Hotels becasue we were hit by Hurricane Ike. No major damage and just got power back today. However, I find Paris a fantastic city. When I went in 2006 I did not notice garbage, I did not expect people to speak English. We tried our best to speak French, though badly. We love the city and are looking forward to a vacation after being hit by hurricanes 2 times in 3 years. At this point, I would move to Paris and never hear English again if it meant I didn%26#39;t have to hear the word hurricane. However, that said Paris is my favorite city and I can%26#39;t wait to return.

|||

I cannot believe you. I have been to Paris many times and have NEVER seen open sewage running in the streets.. after I read that I closed my mind to everything else you had to say,, even though I know you made some good observations .

And, many people in France DO speak more then one language , it may not be english though, Italian and Spanish are also spoken by some French people, and those who live near Germany may speak some German. I know you are not so naive to assume most tourists are english speaking ,,right??

I think you must work on improving your french. PS I would choose NOT to eat anywhere with an english menu if I could avoid it,, those places are usaully inferior( not always) and tourist traps,,the worst is when there are photos of the food, yech!

|||

Wow. your experience in Paris was something. Sorry if you did not enjoy it as much as anticapated.

Not having been there yet, I really cannot relate but expecting people to all speak English, having English menus, is too much.

We am planning a trip there, very soon, and we are trying to learn at least a little French to help a little with communication.

|||

I was also sorry to see the sewage ruuning, it was a sad surprise. I would not nemtion it unless it was on several streets. As for languages - English is today the international language and having English explainations in museums is part of the EEC agreements. I happen to speak some French along with several other languages beside English (not so well) and Hebrew. I am not judging from my country either. Most of the population in Israel speak 2-3 languages. I had some more info, hopefully it is helpful. Some of you who commented on the English menus, well most restaurants have them and they are not tourist traps. Food was good (no surprise) and prices were not high (nice surprise). Things do change, sometimes for the better.

|||

-:- Message from TripAdvisor staff -:-

This topic was inactive for 6 months and has been closed to new posts. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one.

To review the TripAdvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html

We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason.

Removed on: 2:20 pm, October 10, 2009