Transcript for Episode 250: Things You Should Consider When Visiting Paris

Category: Paris

Discussed in this Episode

• Bateaux Mouches
• Bateaux Parisiens
• Vedettes de Paris
• Official Paris Taxis
• French people don't understand what Mexican food is!

THIS IS AN AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED TRANSCRIPT

0:00
This is a join us in France short episode 250. Bonjour, I’m Annie Sargent and today I wonder, are you worrying about the right stuff when preparing your trip to France, vacation time is precious, and maybe you’re coming to France for the first time. So you want the best of everything. And you asked for a lot of recommendations. I understand that urge. I do the same thing when I’m going somewhere unfamiliar, but consider this. Sometimes researching for days on end will not make your trip any better at all. So save some time and concentrate on the things that will make a difference. Here are three of them. Number one, restaurants and cafes for everyday eating where you’ll spend 15 to 20 euros per person, you do not need recommendation in Paris. But let me explain. You are going to be visiting a world capital with two plus million people and a country that has a long time and appreciate For great food, so why are you not trusting your own instincts? review sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor have trained us to think that we need recommendation for restaurants anywhere we might go. But that’s not true in France. When you get hungry in Paris, this is what you do. You walk to the next two or three restaurants, you read the menus posted outside by law, you look around, you take a good sniff, you look at what people have in their plates, and you follow your instincts. If you do that, you will discover great places that fit your taste and not somebody else’s. And you won’t be going all over the creation just to try a restaurant that’s more or less the same as what you could have done right next to you. There are about 20,000 restaurants in Paris. Researching them all from your computer at home is a waste of time, just do the math. Having said that, if you are planning on spending some real money on your meal, maybe 75 plus euros per person, or if it’s a special occasion that’s different. It’s worth researching the higher end restaurants. Also, if you want to eat Mexican in France, you’ll need a recommendation because we are truly bad at Mexican. French people think that taco means hot pockets. So there’s that sad state of affairs. So what should you worry about? Instead, you need to understand what all these things mean. On the menu. You can only order what you like if you understand what it says. And for that I recommend two previously published episodes that explain what you need to know. Episode 228 Cafe culture in France, where we list all the coffee drinks you’ll have to choose from, and Episode 193. a cornucopia of bizarre French foods, so you understand that in French restaurants, they sometimes have some strange things on the menu. Number two taxi companies only go to the official taxi line. That’s all you need to know. Don’t talk to strangers who want to give you a ride. Go to the official taxi line. Whether they have licensed taxis, do I care if it’s one company over another? No, not one bit. These are all official Paris taxis. They all charge the same rate to and from the airport. Just don’t talk to all these guys that say, Madame Do you need a ride? Walk on really it’s that simple. Number three river cruise companies. All the river cruise companies do the same thing. They take you along the same reverse. You can see all the great monuments that line the river. Don’t walk a mile to the next battle most just because somebody recommended it on Facebook, same service, same price about 15 euros for three companies that do this. So it really doesn’t matter which one you choose. But if you want special services like if you want special dinner on board, maybe do a little research but what you do need to know is that there are three major companies that do these river cruises in Paris. They are called battle battle. And without the body, if you tell Google to take you to the bathroom wash, it will take you to the bathroom wash, even though it’s two miles away, and you have a dead body like 100 yards away from from you. So while you don’t need to worry about which one to choose, you do need to remember what they are called. So you can ask Google Maps to take you to the closest one. And you don’t need to book in advance. I’ve never had to wait more than few minutes, even with a group, you know, in the middle of the summer. Don’t worry about that. That’s all I have time for in this short. I’ll be back next Sunday with tips on how to organize your trip to Paris. Oh, and for those of you who have been listening to the podcast for a long time, the Amazon banner is back, scroll all the way down to the bottom of any page on join us in France. com to get to it. More on that on Sunday. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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Category: Paris