426 - Join Us in France Travel Podcast

Table of Contents for this Episode

Discussed in this Episode

Café Tournon
Le Théâtre des Champs Elysées
Les Follies Bergères
Le Casino de Paris
Montparnasse
Brasserie La Coupole
Eglise de la Madeleine
Pantheon
Chateau des Milandes
Travel Noire
Passion Monuments
ZenChef App
L'Ami Jean restaurant
La Fontaine de Mars restaurant
L'Auberge Bressane restaurant
Aux Cerises restaurant
Rue de la Bourdonnais
Rue Cler
Rue de Suffren
Jules Verne restaurant
Madame Brasserie

[00:00:00] Annie Sargent:

[00:00:16] Intro

[00:00:16] Annie Sargent: This is Join Us in France episode 426, quatre cent vingt-six.

[00:00:22] Annie Sargent: Bonjour, I’m Annie Sargent and Join us in France is the podcast where, eh, guess it, we talk about France, everyday life in France, great places to visit in France, French culture, history, gastronomy and news related to travel to France.

[00:00:39] Today on the podcast

[00:00:39] Annie Sargent: Today, I bring you a conversation with Masika Nyaku who was on her first visit to Paris and she fell in love and she would love to move to Paris. Quite the plan. She made a point to visit the places that are important to African American history, and believe it or not, there are quite a few in Paris that you can visit if you are interested in that subject.

[00:01:04] Annie Sargent: And those happen to be the places where all of French life happens, to tell you the truth. So they are interesting to everybody.

[00:01:11] Podcast supporters

[00:01:11] Annie Sargent: This podcast is supported by donors and listeners who buy my tours and services, including my itinerary consult service and my GPS self-guided tours of Paris on the VoiceMap app.

[00:01:24] Annie Sargent: You can browse all of that at my boutique JoinUsinFrance.com/boutique. And I should say that you can buy those tours either directly from the VoiceMap app that you download from any of the app stores, or you can buy them from my website directly.

[00:01:41] Annie Sargent: If you buy directly from me, you get a pretty nice discount, but it’s not immediate because this is a manual process, so I have to see the order and respond to it. Whereas with VoiceMap app, it’s immediate. Okay. So perhaps, you know, one or the other would fit you better.

[00:01:59] After the interview

[00:01:59] Annie Sargent: For the magazine part of the podcast after my conversation with Masika,

[00:02:05] Annie Sargent: I just barely recorded a wonderful conversation with Patricia. We went to a bunch of restaurants and we have some great tips for you for restaurants right around the Eiffel Tower, and also tips for how to visit the Eiffel Tower efficiently, not waste too much time chasing after tickets and all of that good stuff, and also not too much time standing in line. There are things you can do if you observe the area long enough, it’s, yeah, there are things, just stay tuned, we’ll tell you all about it.

[00:02:35] Newsletter

[00:02:35] Annie Sargent: And there is a newsletter that goes along with the podcast. I’m sorry to say I don’t email very often, but I will soon about my new tour of the Eiffel Tower.

[00:02:44] Annie Sargent: Anyway, you can get the newsletter if you go to JoinUsinFrance.com/newsletter.

[00:02:50]

[00:02:59] Annie and Masika

[00:02:59] Annie Sargent: Bonjour Masika Nyaku and welcome to Join Us in France.

[00:03:04] Masika Nyaku: Hey, thank you for having me.

[00:03:06] Annie Sargent: Lovely to have you. You told me I could call you Cece. So I will call you Cece. I love that little nickname.

[00:03:12] Masika Nyaku: All right, sounds good.

[00:03:15] The African American experience in Paris

[00:03:15] Annie Sargent: Okay, so you have not moved to Paris yet, but you would like to, and we want to talk about the African American experience in Paris, which is something that’s dear to you and should be dear to all of us, really. So tell us a little bit about you and what your plans are.

[00:03:36] Masika Nyaku: Well, to start, I’ve been to Lourdes France on a pilgrimage years ago. But that’s, as you know, and I’m sure the residents of that area they’re fully aware that, that is sort of a secluded place. It kind of is what it is. So you’re going there for very specific reasons.

[00:03:54] As a treat to myself, last year I booked a trip solo. The Covid restrictions were still in place, but outside of like testing and mask, I was like, okay, well let’s just do it. All of these things started happening before the trip. Josephine Baker was recognized for her service to the country and there are just, there’s some additional buzz around, okay, let’s go here. And this is a good time to go.

[00:04:21] Paris: A place to feel at home

[00:04:21] Masika Nyaku: So when I got there and we got to our beautiful Airbnb, which I’m happy to share with your permission. But I felt like I was home for some reason. And I’m not talking culturally home.

[00:04:34] Masika Nyaku: I just mean a place where I felt, I’m good here. And I say this respectfully, so it’s no disrespect to anyone listening from any part of the world, but it just felt like a place that I could just be myself. The architecture, the love of the arts, there’s so much history there. I was happy to see the lack of supply stores and new apartment complexes coming up. It was just very different.

[00:05:03] Masika Nyaku: You could get a sense of the appreciation for history, appreciation, again I say this respectfully, for a simplicity and just people walking about and living and no one’s really paying attention to you.

[00:05:17] I didn’t come there to like a grand parade or anything like that, but it was beautiful.

[00:05:23] Annie Sargent: Right.

[00:05:23] So did you feel at home, do you mean in Lourdes or in Paris, or both?

[00:05:28] Well in Paris, only because the trip to Lourdes was very specific. It was, and if I may give her a little tribute to Tracy Pucci, who the Order of Malta organized that trip and I was her companion. She passed away a few years ago from cancer, but she’s a beautiful soul. And I took a memory. He’s from Lourdes to Paris when I was there. But I’m specifically talking about the visit to Paris and all of those things that I am so excited to talk about that I loved about it.

[00:06:01] James Baldwin’s books

[00:06:01] Annie Sargent: You know what’s interesting is that one of, and I cannot remember who it was, but an African American author who was visiting Paris said the same thing you did. I’m here but nobody’s paying attention to me, this is so different. He was so used in the US to people noticing that he was different, that in France when nobody minded him at all, he felt it was freeing. Like it was like something, he could just blend in, one of the people. Is that how you felt about it?

[00:06:34] I absolutely agree with that. And if I’m not mistaken, I believe that was the great James Baldwin. He was an author and he spent time there and the book, the name of the book,something Giovanni, it’s escaping me, but that’s exactly it. And actually, James Baldwin and Josephine Baker were some of the, I guess you could say, those were, their experiences, is why I choseParis for my first official solo trip.

[00:07:03] Annie Sargent: Yeah. Yeah. So his most famous books were Notes of his native son, Nobody knows my name, The Fire next time.

[00:07:13] Paris: Authors’ hangout

[00:07:13] Annie Sargent: Anyway, obviously, he was very prolific and I know that a lot of authors, African American authors, came to Paris. I did an episode about Shakespeare and Company, and we also talked aboutthe areas in Saint Germain des Pres where all of these famous kind of the lost generation authors would hang out.

[00:07:36] Annie Sargent: Well, lots of African American authors also hung out in Paris after the war, and one place where they famously went was called Café Tournon. It’s still there, near the Senate and the Luxembourg Garden. It started out as a Jewish intellectual place, and after the war it became a place where African American authors liked to hang out, cartoonists, people like that.

[00:08:07] African – American History in Paris

[00:08:07] So I really, I’m a white person, I don’t know that much about African American history, but it’s interesting that when I started looking into it, there’s lots that happened in Paris, isnt it?

[00:08:20] Masika Nyaku: A ton. A ton. And I think what, and again, I’m just speaking from my perspective, I am in no way representing the entire US black African American consciousness, but I, you know, slavery is so rooted here. And yes, it’s everywhere and we can get into all of the history of that, but it’s so rooted in the fabric of the United States.

[00:08:48] Masika Nyaku: And you had black soldiers going to war elsewhere and being treated with respect and well, as much as permissible then, but then coming home and you couldn’t even go to your public library that you were paying taxes on. So when James Baldwin would speak of Paris, and I’ve read Josephine Baker’s biography and I was fascinated by her story. But what she found, I absolutely related to that. I’m in no way comparing myself to the talents of Josephine Baker and her work, but I absolutely get it. It is very different. I think you’re constantly reminded of race here in the United States, and whether it was there or not, you can’t, you don’t know the thoughts of everyone you’re walking around, but it wasn’t so obvious.

[00:09:41] Annie Sargent: And in your face kind of thing.

[00:09:43] Masika Nyaku: Yeah. And it was just, and I will say, I did practice my French beforehand, I certainly didn’t want to come in with stereotypical American asking for something in English and not attempting to speak the language.

[00:09:56] Everyone I ran into is absolutely kind, gracious, and welcoming and I did an episode 310 of the podcast was about World War I and an amazing African American soldier who was recognized later. His name was Eugene Jack Bullard and I tell the whole story, but one of the places that African Americans might want to go, just like everybody else actually, is the Arc de Triomphe because that’s where he was recognized for his outstanding service.

[00:10:30] Josephine Baker, places to visit

[00:10:30] And of course, for Josephine Baker, so there’s a lot of places. The woman was so talented and she got around, she did a lot of stuff. But if you wanted to take a tour of the places that mattered to her, you would go to Le Theatre des Champs Elysees which is still there, I went there for a play last year. Because that was where she premiered La Revue Negre, and of course, here’s that word Negre, which we don’t use anymore in French.

[00:11:01] Annie Sargent: Well, actually people who have a clue don’t use it anymore. But that’s what it was called. Then she worked at Les Folies Bergeres where she performed for a long time, and that’s in the 9th arrondissement. Le Casino de Paris also in the 9th arrondissement. Montparnasse where she lived, she had a place and there is a plaza named after her. It’s Place Josephine Baker.La Brasserie La Coupole which I really enjoy. It’s a lovely big brasserie where she went for parties. I’m not sure if she performed there or not, but she went for parties and I love their food. They have really good French classic food. Eglise de la Madeleine where her funeral took place. And of course, the Pantheon where she is recognized as one of the greats.

[00:11:46] Annie Sargent: So, you know,an amazing woman. And there’s a lot of places that you can go in Paris in memory of her. And of course, she has the Chateau Les Milandes that’s in the Dordogne, so that’s much closer to where I live. It’s just a little south of Sarlat. And because she married several times, she moved around a lot.

[00:12:06] Annie Sargent: She moved around.There are houses where they will tell you, oh, Justine Baker lived here because she was a very active woman and she had a very impressive life.

[00:12:16] Annie Sargent: Anyway, there’s a travel company called Travel Noire, and I’ll put a link to that in the show notes now. I haven’t used them obviously, but it looks like they offer some really good tours of black history in Paris.

[00:12:31] Annie Sargent: Do you know anything about about them?

[00:12:33] I do. I actually had reached out to them because I was planning, I actually joined a friend who had gone to Paris several times and shout out to Renee Jackson because she was like, it’s one of my favorite cities. I love it, but if I’m going to be your tour guide, you’re going the wrong person. And so I traveled a lot by myself. And she also had things for us planned, like wine tasting and number of different restaurants. So the tour didn’t match up with time that I had, but I did reach out to them and they kind of take you on a tour of what it is to feel as if you were traveling during that time as a black person.

[00:13:10] Masika Nyaku: And so I’m coming back. That’s the goal.

[00:13:12] Masika Nyaku: ButI would highly recommend it because what they offered was beautiful and I loved, I actually got lost. I don’t know if we get into traveling for the first time, but I was going, I believe it was the Orsay Museum, and then I got the wrong bus and end up at the Pantheon.

[00:13:30] Masika Nyaku: But I, they. Veneer coins and they had this whole display of Josephine Baker and the history and her work. So it was beautiful. And this was probably not long after the announcement because that’s when my trip was.

[00:13:46] Josephine Baker at the Pantheon

[00:13:46]

[00:13:46] Annie Sargent: Well, her pantheonisation, I have to say this slowly so I don’t mess it up, but that’s the ceremony that they do when someone enters the Pantheon. That’s when they actually open the great big doors, the big gilded doors, which they never open for anybody but somebody who is being recognized. So the ceremony to bring her into the Pantheon was the most moving I’ve ever seen.

[00:14:13] Annie Sargent: I mean, honestly, I have watched several of these, including for other people that I admire, but hers was particularly poignant, because you know, she wasn’t born French, she chose thisand she was so dedicated and such a good person, full of talent, full of life, and just amazing. I think what made it particularly touching is the fact that she was a performer and a singer and they included her music into the ceremony and that just made it fabulous. I’m sure you can still watch it on YouTube.

[00:14:50] She was just stunning. But anyway. These are the things I wanted to make sure to mention. So if you’re coming to Paris and you, these are the ones I know about, but I don’t know much to tell you the truth.

[00:15:04] Favorite places in Paris

[00:15:04] Annie Sargent: So tell us about the things that you enjoyed in Paris.

[00:15:08] Masika Nyaku: Woo. Well, where do we start? Just the aesthetics, like buildings, shopping, markets, chest nuts roasting,all of it, and to just see likefood out on the street that’s fresh that you can buy. It really changed your mindset on being there. I really felt like I was in a place where I belong, some of my say, obviously everything I put in my mouth, I absolutely loved. Every meal, every appetizer cocktail, all of it was wonderful.

[00:15:41] Mrs. Beyonce Knowles Carter

[00:15:41] Masika Nyaku: I’m sure you are well aware and your listeners are well aware of the lovely and talented Mrs. Beyonce Knowles Carter. And I believe a few years ago, when the World Cup, I believe it was in,the team from France one, and she was in a concert that day and they were celebrating. But, and I promise, I’m getting to a point with that, she and her company or group listed a must-see at the Louvre because obviously, you know and any other residents of France know that’s not someplace that you can see all of it in a day.

[00:16:18] Rick Steve’s tour

[00:16:18] Masika Nyaku: I downloaded the Rick Steve’s tour, and, but there is a ticket that you can purchase to the Louvre and she points out some substantial pieces to take a look at that may not be in you know, you know the Mona Lisa and, Venus ta, you know,you have all the famous stuff that it’s recognized for. So I actually got a poster from one of the paintings that she highlighted. And that in connection with Rick Steve’s downloadable, and I am not paid for this,this is not, I want to make sure I’m not…

[00:16:53] Annie Sargent: Me neither.

[00:16:54] But I think and you can download the app and then follow her guide and then just kind of meander through both.

[00:17:01] Masika Nyaku: And then it sort of takes you through some of the most fascinating exhibits there. And then when you see it, I think it’ll be up to the individual to really sort of, you’ll find what you’re drawn to. And that’s what was so beautiful about it, just the history of everything that was there.

[00:17:20] Masika Nyaku: Obviously, again, I want to pay respect to things that were taken from other places and that’s the importance of museums. But with respect to that, I was very grateful to see the Louvre.

[00:17:31] Masika Nyaku: And the Orsay Museum, there’s a picture there of this woman in this French it’s like garb or I don’t know the appropriate name for it, but it’s this beautiful painting this lady in a black hat.

[00:17:43] Masika Nyaku: So I love everything about the Orsay. And before I forget, we went because the first Monday or Sunday of the month, they’re all free. So you actually can go and visit some of these places without having to pay.

[00:17:58] Masika Nyaku: So Pantheon and Orsay I got it on the same day, having breakfast by the river…

[00:18:04] National museums free entry on first Sunday of the month

[00:18:04] Annie Sargent: Sorry. I just wanted to explain how that works. The first Sunday of the month, national museums are free in Paris and in a lot of France, as a matter of fact. And in Paris, city museums such as there’s anmodern art museum, there’s the, oh, what’s the one in the Marais, The History of the City of Paris, anyway, it’ll come back to me. That one is also a city museum and it’s free.

[00:18:33] Annie Sargent: And even if you have to pay, I was just in the US and I was shocked how expensive going to these places, like any museum, really was. In the Louvre, even if you pay full price, last time I had to buy a ticket, it was 16 Euros. Please believe it or not, in Gatlinburg is 35 plus tax, so that’s 40. Okay? So oh, please. It’s really cheap and you can get in free one day a month, which is probably not enough. And also a lot of the national monuments, you can get a card that lets you get into all of the national monuments for free.

[00:19:13] Annie Sargent: And that’s only 40 euros for the whole year. So if you’re going to be in France for a while, and there are, like just in my region, there’s probably 20 national monuments that I could get in for free with that card. So it’s really worth it if you are into that kind of cultural visits.

[00:19:33] Annie Sargent: Now, of course, museums need money, but the goal of these museums in France, it’s not to make money because they also raise funds from wealthy donors and stuff. So they really want to make it accessible for people. They want it to be cheap enough that anybody can come, which is I think, commendable.

[00:19:54] Masika Nyaku: Yeah, and I agree,

[00:19:56] Masika Nyaku: but it’s much friendlier on your wallet, the way that’s set up there, and I had no issue with the cost of, it just so happened that was on a free sort of day to myself.

[00:20:06] Annie Sargent: You might as well, yeah.

[00:20:07] Masika Nyaku: And it was great.

[00:20:08] Everyone was also, like I said, very friendly. I didn’t have the proper, fare for the bus. And then I explained, and it was like, oh, no no worries, you can… so it just, I felt very welcomed there, and maybe versus some other places that I’ve been to, but is beautiful. We were talking about how these African American authors and performers felt good in Paris. And of course, if you compare that to Jim Crow, it’s night and day, like. And I’m not saying that French people are all saints and are not racist or whatever, because that would be a lie.

[00:20:46] As a matter of fact, we had an incident that they’re talking about today on French news about some altercation in the French Parliament because somebody was talking about a boat full of refugees that were approaching the Italian coast and asking, are we doing enough to help Italy handle the number of people who are coming on boats as refugees.

[00:21:13] Annie Sargent: And somebody from the extreme right party interrupted him and essentially just said, let’s send all these Africans back to where they came from. And he’s been banned from the floor of the House for two weeks as a result, because I, it’s outrageous that anybody would talk like that.

[00:21:33] Annie Sargent: These are people in need, like we’ve got to find, let alone it’s not just the racism, it’s also the fact that you know, they’re not coming because they’re wealthy and want to take advantage of our system. They’re coming because they’re desperate, anyway.

[00:21:47] Masika Nyaku: Right. Yep. We know that too well over here, so that language is unfortunately, quite familiar.

[00:21:54] Yes. And so it’s interesting that we know that there are French people who are racist and who discriminate and all of that. But compared to Jim Crow, it’s not the same. I mean, you know,it’s not the same type of attitude

[00:22:11] Masika Nyaku: Overall I see what you mean.

[00:22:13] What do you recommend people do and see when they come to Paris?

[00:22:13] Annie Sargent: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So what do you recommend people do and see when they come to Paris?

[00:22:20] Annie Sargent: So, obviously, go to the Louvre, go to the Orsay, go see those beautiful pieces. And there are plentiful of beautiful black faces in those museums. They are, if you look at all the major pieces of historical paintings, which there are a lot of in the Louvre, they include a lot of Africans, they include a lot of North Africans as well.

[00:22:46] Annie Sargent: One of the most stunningsculptures in the Orsay museum is the face of this, I think they call him an Arab in there. It’s just this Arab face with a turban, he looks just stunning, he’s wonderful.

[00:23:00] Going to the grocey store

[00:23:00] Annie Sargent: So, besides going to the museums and enjoying the food, what else did you enjoy about Paris?

[00:23:05] Masika Nyaku: I loved going to the, I don’t know if you call it a grocery store.

[00:23:11] Annie Sargent: Yeah.

[00:23:11] Masika Nyaku: Is a very nice and pleasant experience because it’s not built on like a football field, you don’t feel this need of, this need to get like everything in bulk. You kind of buy what you need. I like that.

[00:23:30] Smaller apartments in Europe

[00:23:30] Masika Nyaku: And I think this may be,it may be common in Europe, but the apartments or your lodging is somewhat smaller. And I’m a single mom, divorced, one child, so I live in an apartment here in Georgia. But it’s clearly, it’s probably double the size of the two bedroom flat that the Airbnb that we had.

[00:23:56] Masika Nyaku: And we had more than enough, there wasn’t extra stuff to fill. And that’s what I really enjoyed about being in that space. I felt really comfortable there. So if someone’s going, whether you’re going on with a friend or going solo, I highly recommend it. I did not, I wanted to go to the cemetery. I think it was raining that day because Oscar Wilde is buried there, and I found him absolutely hilarious.

[00:24:24] But so I didn’t, I believe at Jim Morrison, also, so I did not go to the cemetery. That was on the list, but I am excited to see it upon my return.

[00:24:35] Completely different dining out experience

[00:24:35] Masika Nyaku: Dining out is also just a completely different experience because it seems for many of us here, everything is rush, everything, like I’m actually working right now and they’re like, no, this has to, we need this by 12.

[00:24:50] Masika Nyaku: Well, I can’t do this by 12 right now, and I’m not performing open heart surgery. And the same sort of mentality I think applies when you’re eating a meal. People sit down and talk and enjoy. It is not hey, I’ve been here three minutes. Where’s my water? Where’s the waiter? And I, again, I knew this, so prior to going I was in absolutely no rush. It was just lovely just to take in the scenery. There’s several shops in the area that we, again, it’s Renee and I that we were, and it was beautiful. There were jewelry shops, the pharmacy, grocery stores, restaurants of all, every type of food or from a region that you could put your hands on.

[00:25:34] Masika Nyaku: I mean, I purposefully stay away from the KFCs and McDonald’s and things like that, but I absolutely went in withAngelina’s Hot Chocolate, and there’s a grocery store that has these famous like cookies. And there’s so many levels to this particular store because it’s almost, it’s something for everyone. If you’re going to get wine, this is where you go. If you’re going to look for baked goods, this is where you go, and justI’m telling you, and I say this with the slightest bit of humor. I felt depressed coming back home because I did not want to leave.

[00:26:11] Masika Nyaku: And for me to put my 10 toes on someplace that I had never been, and to have that experience with Renee who has been there and we dined in some fabulous restaurants, but I felt like at home. I absolutely got lost on the RER, I believe that’s what it is. I just think I missed about four of them in a row before I realized I was on the wrong side.

[00:26:38] Masika Nyaku: I threw my ticket away by mistake, so then I couldn’t get out and then the police had to come and let me out. Yeah. But you know, that’s a story to tell.

[00:26:46] Annie Sargent: Yeah. But it is true. You need to keep your ticket with you until you exit. Anywhere in France. Keep your ticket till you exit the RER or the Metro, or the bus or anything.

[00:26:58] Annie Sargent: Just have your ticket with you.

[00:27:00] Masika Nyaku: And I don’t know why I didn’t think it was the same as it was for the metro. Cause we have a metro, we have public transportation here and keep your little card to go out. But I don’t know, maybe it was excitement because it’s like a double decker, and I was like, oh my God, I’m not going to be able to get out of here, so what…?

[00:27:17] Masika Nyaku: And but then I was there. I found that I looked up and I was like, oh my God. I found it, I’m at the Eiffel Tower, which was stunning. Just to see it. It was unreal. And the weather was perfect.

[00:27:30] Moving to France

[00:27:30] Annie Sargent: Oh, that’s good too. So you would like to move to France someday, is that right?

[00:27:36] Annie Sargent: So what sort of plan are you making? Are you doing anything concrete so far?

[00:27:41] Absolutely . Um, I, um, a, a, a bank here, and when I say retired, I just really say that playfully because I’m 48 and here in the States that is not going to get you your retirement check. So, but I had retired and I got a job at like a regional bank. And that is when, I was there when I took the trip.

[00:28:03] Masika Nyaku: After I came back, it was about back in January, in March, I got a job with a global bank, because I needed to work, because that was the most feasible obviously to get myself in position to where I could work and either transfer or make that part of either work processes or what have you. So that’s why, and I did, I started at a new company in March and we have presence there and across the globe.

[00:28:32] Masika Nyaku: So I went back to a global bank, not the previous one that I retired from, but, and I love it. It would, that alone was a fantastic move, I absolutely, despite regular work hiccups, I like it. But that was the biggest thing that I did. I put myself in a position to…

[00:28:50] Annie Sargent: Perhaps get transferred.

[00:28:53] Masika Nyaku: Right, right. At this stage I’m still sort of learning different parts of the business, but I also have two mentors within the company that are well aware of my goals. And they have some line of sight to that type oftransitioning, the operations there.

[00:29:11] That was the first move. So it’s not something I could do tomorrow, I do have to plan that out. I have a young child, and I want to make sure that when and if the move is before she graduates high school, how do we do that with her? Or is it going to be after the fact, or is it going to be something that I’ll visit for a while and maintain?

[00:29:32] Masika Nyaku: So I’m open to, you know, just the flow of my desire to get there, but the first thing to answer the question I did was to put myself in a employment position to move.

[00:29:45] Annie Sargent: That’s cool.

[00:29:46] What she’s looking forward to visiting

[00:29:46] Annie Sargent: So you didn’t see all of Paris yet, you haven’t spent that much time there yet. Are there things that you look forward to that you think about sometimes?

[00:29:56] Masika Nyaku: Definitely the tour. The tour of what it’s like safe to travel as an African American. Going, you got to go back to the Louvre and I need to go back to Orsay. And forgive me, I’m butchering the pronunciation. I want to go to the cemetery, I’m not going to butcher the name of that, but we all know the one we’re speaking of.

[00:30:19] Annie Sargent: Père Lachaise.

[00:30:20] Masika Nyaku: There are restaurants that I absolutely want to go to that I did not get a chance to visit. I did not get fondue, that’s back on the list. I’ve got to go back to Shakespeare and Company because I felt the spirit of James Baldwin over me when I was there, and I loved it.

[00:30:43] Going back to see, just taking a little more time to view Notre Dame. I know, obviously, after the fires not in the same condition that it was prior to, but just being in the presence of it was pleasantly overwhelming for me.

[00:30:57] Masika Nyaku: Well, it sounds like you have a lot of wonderful plans.

[00:31:00] Masika Nyaku: Yes. I hope you make it as soon as you’d like, you’re only 48, your retirement might be a while.

[00:31:07] Masika Nyaku: I like how you say only 48.

[00:31:09] Learn as much French as you can

[00:31:09] Annie Sargent: Yeah, you’re young, so be patient, but do learn French in the meantime, learn as much French as you can.

[00:31:16] Annie Sargent: That will really help. People who move here and don’t have very good French, find it harder. It really helps because you don’t need French for a visit when you are just going to go to museums and go to restaurants and do touristy stuff. But if you want to settle into French life, then you’re going to have to deal with a lot of people who are in administrations, in banks, landlords,tradespeople.

[00:31:45] Annie Sargent: You’re going to have to be able to talk to them, and some of them will know some English, but not all.

[00:31:50] Masika Nyaku: Right. No,I’ve continued to make sure that I,I don’t want to say brush up on it because I continue to do it, but I actually use like an online sort of self-paced, now I’m still in the conversational piece, but I think to hold on to it is still good.

[00:32:07] Masika Nyaku: So, no, of course I have not let go of that, I’m still practicing. I just didn’t want to hear the playback and hear my voice trying to pronounce like a French word.

[00:32:19] Annie Sargent: Don’t worry about it. Don’t worry about it. I butcher English plenty. It’s not like the end of the world. So long as we understand each other, it’s fine.

[00:32:28] Masika Nyaku: Oh, you know what? I forgot to tell you this. I actually landed a date there. Very pleasant, lovely, same sort of universal app. And I met a gentleman for lunch there. And I’m not saying this is the reason that I want to move. When I stepped foot there, I knew, but this definitely helps because I found it easier to get a date across the Atlantic, than I did right here in my own area.

[00:32:57] Masika Nyaku: And he was absolutely lovely. Just, you know, experience is beautiful. Travel is lovely. If anyone’s questioning themselves or what, go… You know…

[00:33:07] Annie Sargent: Very nice.

[00:33:08] Masika Nyaku: …just go, yeah.

[00:33:09] Annie Sargent: Cece, thank you so much for talking to me about your experiences. I might have to take one of these tours with the Travel Noir, because I will learn a lot, I am sure. And even if you know Paris very well, just knowing that these iconic African Americans spent time there and did some of their work there is really significant.

[00:33:33] Masika Nyaku: It is indeed.

[00:33:34] Annie Sargent: Merci Beaucoup.

[00:33:36] Masika Nyaku: Well, it’s been my pleasure speaking with you. Thank you, Merci.

[00:33:40] Annie Sargent: A bientot, Au revoir.

[00:33:42]

[00:33:48] Thank you patrons

[00:33:48] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Again, I want to thank my patrons for supporting the show and giving back. Patrons get several exclusive rewards for doing that and you can see them at Patreon.com/joinus. Patreon is P A T R E O N join us no spaces or dashes.

[00:34:05] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: And thank you all for supporting the show on Patreon. Some of you have been doing it for a long time and I really appreciate that.

[00:34:11] New patrons

[00:34:11] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: A shout out this week to new patrons, Anne Galton and Rindy Dolter. Thank you very much for becoming patrons and making this podcast possible.

[00:34:22] Preparing a trip to France?

[00:34:22] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: And if you’re preparing a trip to France and listening to as many episodes as you can to get ready, I think you should keep doing that because it’s a great way to get inspiration from other travelers who have visited France recently and have a lot of wonderful tips for you.

[00:34:37] Itinerary consult

[00:34:37] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: You can also hire me to be your itinerary consultant. Here’s how it works. You purchase the service on JoinUsinFrance.com/boutique. Then you fill out a document telling me what you are looking for, and then we make an appointment so we can talk for about an hour. And most people love just, you know, picking my brain and discussing their trips privately. It’s a wonderful service that I do for listeners.

[00:35:04] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Now, my time is booked up for this service in advance, so do purchase that in advance. Typically, I recommend you get the service about, you know, four to six months before you travel so that there’s plenty of time for you to get all of that stuff lined up.

[00:35:21] Self-guided tours

[00:35:21] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: And if you cannot talk to me because I’m all booked up, which happens a lot, you can still take me in your pocket with my GPS self-guided tours of Paris. I’ve done five of them, I’ve published five of them so far. I’m about to publish a sixth one this week. They are Ile de la Cité, le Marais, Montmartre, Saint Germain des Prés, The Latin Quarter and now the Eiffel Tower is going to be, by the time you hear this, the Eiffel Tower tour is probably going to be out.

[00:35:50] Annie and Patricia Perry talk about restaurants around the Eiffel Tower

[00:35:50] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Bonjour Patricia.

[00:35:51] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Bonjour Annie.

[00:35:52] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Okay. We are going to talk about some restaurants that we tried while I was here staying at your wonderful apartment. Thank you so much again for being so generous with me. So what we did is, we tried a few restaurants because I’m writing an Eiffel Tower tour and in my tours I always recommend good restaurants. And of course, to be sure that they’re that good I have to try them, right? Somebody has to do it.

[00:36:16] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: I’m happy to join.

[00:36:17] Restaurants we visited

[00:36:17] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yes, we went to a few places, they are called briefly L’Auberge Bressane, La Fontaine de Mars, Aux Cerises and L’Ami Jean, are the ones that we tried. And they are all right around the Eiffel Tower.

[00:36:34] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Most of the restaurants that I find really interesting if you’re facing the Eiffel Tower, so you have the river to your back, they are to the left of the Eiffel Tower, Avenue de la Bourdonnais rue Cler, of course, also has several restaurants, I didn’t try any of them there.

[00:36:51] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Saint Dominique.

[00:36:52] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Saint Dominique is good. Yeah. Very good. So a bunch of them. This is an area called Gros-Caillou and it’s a really interesting neighborhood to walk around anyway. And then one of the ones we tried is on the other side of the Eiffel Tower on Rue de Suffren. And in that area there’s fewer restaurants.

[00:37:12] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: There’s a few, but not so many. Okay. It’s also a lovely neighborhood, but it’s more residential. I would say.

[00:37:18] L’Ami Jean

[00:37:18] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: All right, so let’s talk about the one that you thought was the most interesting.

[00:37:23] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: The one we went to yesterday, L’Ami Jean, was a small place but with very high quality food. Obviously, things they had thought about and their specialties were dishes that take a long time to cook.

[00:37:36] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: They’re not dishes you’ll typically make at home very readily. Very carefully seasoned, large portions, so we had to take home portions also. Wonderful bread that you could just pig out on before you started. The bread was very good. Fantastic.

[00:37:50] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: I forgot, I asked the waiter where they got the bread from and he never told me.

[00:37:54] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah, I think he was new. He was very new. He was going to ask and come back and he didn’t, but I might stop by again and ask or call them and ask, but it was good. Yeah, it was very good. Very good. One of these hearty bread, likethe poilane-style bread, but not sourdough, which I don’t really like sourdough flavor. Too much flavor in the bread. That one just had that consistency, very crusty, lovely, lovely inside. Just mmm, and they serve it with olive oil and salt. And I learned a new word. You told me that it was called a salt, what?

[00:38:27] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: A salt cellar. When it’s a little cellar open, kind of blocky thing on the table.

[00:38:32] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Right.

[00:38:33] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: With a little spoon. Yeah. I didn’t know that word. And she asked me how to say that in French. I’m like, I don’t know. Un bidule de sel, je sais pas..

[00:38:43] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Anyway, yeah L’Ami Jean was also a favorite of mine. I ordered the Echine de porc en rôtie.

[00:38:52] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: So this is, Echine de porc is the fatty part of the pig and oh my God, it was probably, I don’t know how they did it. Probably sous vide or some sort of very slow cooking process and just roasted to perfection on top, and it’s served with some homemade mashed potatoes. Ooh, it was good. And it was on a bed of fennel and carrots. Oh, it was just, just delicious. And it was a large portion. I could not finish it and I’m an eater. Okay. I left a little bit because it was too much.

[00:39:27] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Now one tip for L’Ami Jean is to not go for the daily menu. Some people next to us took that and their food didn’t look near as good as us.

[00:39:37] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Now they had more kind of things coming. So they had a small soup to begin with and then some small this and some small that. But it didn’t look good at all. What we did is we just picked from their specialties.

[00:39:48] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Which was maybe five things. It wasn’t a whole lot to pick from. I had the Petit Sale, pork with lentilles. Delicious.

[00:39:56] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah. Oh yeah. I tasted it too. Very good. And you know, it’s one of those restaurants where they brought you an empty plate and then they brought you the dish with your, that’s still hot, piping hot, yes. And then somebody served you a little bit and waited there to see, for you to try it, and then you could help yourself for the rest of it.

[00:40:15] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: It just very nice, very friendly. This is not a stuffy place. They have perhaps room for between 20 and 30 people. It’s very small. You will be very close to your neighbors.

[00:40:29] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah. We actually sat at a long table where there was no separation. You just sit across from your partner. Yeah. So, maybe six people or four people on each side.

[00:40:38] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah. And if you show up with six people, you are going to be like really rubbing shoulders. It’s very tight. Okay. Don’t show up with your suitcase and stuff.

[00:40:48] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah.

[00:40:48] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Don’t be coming in with lots of package.

[00:40:50] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah, no, no. Come with as little as possible. So this is the sort of place that you need to reserve in advance. And this is what I found out on this trip, talking to another restaurant that we’re going to mention called, La Fontaine de Mars, because they were not on The Fork. And so I asked why not? And the guy said that it’s because The Fork tries to get them to do discounts, and they don’t want to, and they’re full anyway. So they don’t need to do discounts. For those restaurants, you need to either go to their website directly or some of them are on an app called Zen Chef, Z E N Chef.

[00:41:30] Their website is just a sales page for the restaurants to sign up for the service. The app will show you restaurants near you that are typically quite good.

[00:41:42] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: I recommend you book these a few days in advance if you can. You don’t need to book this six months in advance or even two weeks in advance, I don’t think. Unless you’re coming in a very, you know, during the Olympics, yes, that’s different. But if you’re coming at a time, nor a regular time of the year, this is January, booking four or five days ahead was enough. Busier time of the year, probably more than that, but it’s very important that you book. You probably won’t get in if you don’t book.

[00:42:12] La Fontaine de Mars

[00:42:12] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: The other one that we want to talk about is called, La Fontaine de Mars. I just mentioned it. I love the ambiance at La Fontaine de Mars. They were very friendly.

[00:42:21] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah. You had a discussion with the waiter. She was talking to the waiter about what a wine to order, and then another waiter piped in said, you know, he had his opinion about that wine and what she should order or what would go good with the dish.

[00:42:32] We were there early, so they weren’t crowded. So they had time to chat with us.

[00:42:35] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yes, yes. And it was a lovely, friendly and also very good food.

[00:42:39] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Very good, yeah.

[00:42:39] I really, I can’t remember what I ate. Can you remember?

[00:42:42] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: I had fish.

[00:42:43] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah, you had a fish dish. I don’t remember. It was good. It was good.

[00:42:46] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: It was good. Whatever it was, it was good. And again, I recommend if you want the Le Menu with the specials that has an appetizer and a main and a dessert, that’s fine. But a lot of these Paris restaurants, they specialize in something and so it’s good also to just get their specialty.

[00:43:03] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: You had chicken there.

[00:43:04] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Oh yeah. Mine was a chicken. It was super tender. It was super, super tender. The portions were not as big at La Fontaine de Mars, but it was plenty, we didn’t leave hungry, but it was not the kind of place where you would take, I don’t think you would take a doggy bag.

[00:43:19] More Paris restaurants, they’re pretty good about that now, having used to not have wouldn’t even have anything to put it in, but now they do. So yeah, mostly they do. Yeah. If you can’t eat it. yeah.

[00:43:28] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: During thepandemic, everybody had takeout. So, you know.The other thing to note about these restaurants is that most of them are very small. La Fontaine de Mars was not quite as small. They had another area that we didn’t see, but they probably had more room than the others that we’re going to mention. But this is not the kind of place where you should go if you’re not hungry, okay? Because if you’re going to show up and say, oh, we just want to share one main, they’re not going to be happy with you because you’re taking up two seats and you just want just the one main dish.

[00:44:02] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Don’t do that. If you’re not hungry, don’t eat there. That’s my advice. Yeah.

[00:44:07] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah, they expect you to order at least a main or the formule, which is a, usually a small entrée and a main. So yeah. Now you don’t need to take wine. Nobody cares if you don’t drink wine. Carafe d’eau is fine if you don’t want to buy water.

[00:44:21] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: None of them pushed us to buy like a bottled water or anything. They don’t mind. They will bring you a carafe d’eau. But, you know, the bit about sharing a main is not done very much.

[00:44:31] L’Auberge Bressane

[00:44:31] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Alright, so that was La Fontaine de Mars, the other one we went to was a recommendation from Mike August, who was on the podcast a long time ago, and he lived in that area of Paris for a couple of years and so he tried a lot of the restaurants. And he recommended L’Auberge Bressane, which is very interesting because the decor is kind of like chalet mountain decor.

[00:44:53] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: It’s a bit funky. Yeah. Yeah. You won’t see it in many restaurants, let’s say that.

[00:44:57] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah. it’s a bit, it has aged a bit.

[00:45:01] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah. It’s like a time trip.

[00:45:03] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yes. But that restaurant is absolutely amazing at the souffles.

[00:45:09] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah. The dessert souffle we had, they had a caramel souffle and it was to die for.

[00:45:14] sisters, They had three different, they had chocolate, I think, and the caramel and one other, I forget, but nobody left any of that in their dish. Yeah.

[00:45:24] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: So they have this special dessert to share where it’s three little souffles. And when I say they’re not that little, they’re really a good size and they are so good.

[00:45:34] And they also do main souffles, savory. I saw a guy next to me order that. I mean, I would be all souffled out.

[00:45:42] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah. Oh, and the souffle, they bring the souffle out, it’s all puffed up, and then the waiter makes a little hole in it, and he spoons some of the sauce on top and they leave you with a little pitcher of the sauce so you can just have a good time with your souffle.

[00:45:55] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah, it was really, really good.

[00:45:58] Aux Cerises

[00:45:58] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: And then the other place we went to was like a lunch joint, which I didn’t realize that they have lunch joints in Paris, but they do, of course they do in the countryside, but they do in Paris. And this one is called Aux Cerises, it’s on Avenue de Suffren, it’s on the other side of the Eiffel Tower.

[00:46:14] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: An area that doesn’t have quite as many restaurants and food choices, but there are a few. And Aux Cerises is a very small place again, the type of place where you go with your colleagues for a quick lunch. They have no specialties, they just offer some, you know, two or three different choices every day.

[00:46:34] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: And the food was, I would say basic, it’s the sort of food I can cook at home without too much trouble. So they don’t have a very fancy chef. It’s also cheaper. It’s faster. That one, I think you could get into if you showed up like just before noon before they fill up. They also serve a late lunch. So if you show up at like 1:30 or 1:45 or something, they would probably serve you. I think they close at six, but between four and six, they’re cleaning up and just serving drinks or whatever, so plan accordingly.

[00:47:07] I wouldn’t say that the culinary experience was anything to write home about.

[00:47:11] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: But it was a nice, it was a good lunch. You know, you’re hungry and you want a hot meal. I had, you know, fish, it was a soup, a potiron soup, and then I had fish and potatoes and broccoli. It was good.

[00:47:23] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah. It was, it’s well done, it’s nothing to write home about, but it’s good. And that was cheap. That was like maybe 20 for the person for the lunch. Yeah. It wasn’t very expensive.

[00:47:33] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: The other places for a main expect to pay between 30 and 40, and then you can get a bottle of wine in France for 25 or something, even at a restaurant, you know, or by the glass it’s going to be five or six bucks or something like that. It’s really quite reasonable.

[00:47:51] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Anyway, we had a wonderful time trying these restaurants. We didn’t leave any one out, did we? No, those were the four that we tried.

[00:47:57] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah. These are the ones that we tried.

[00:47:59] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: And right around where you live there’s a thing called Sunflower that was also good. It’s a noodle place.

[00:48:07] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: And so you watch the guy from the window, and he’s making the noodles, he’s stretching them.

[00:48:13] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah, he’s pulling them out and then they turn into finer noodles, and then that’s the basis really for all of their, they serve soup with noodles, or you can have sauteed noodles with vegetables or shrimp or beef or chicken.

[00:48:24] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah. It’s the basis, but the noodles are fresh and good. You see the guy make him dropping him to be cooked and there it is on your platefive minutes later. Very, very fresh. And yeah, all the vegetables are fresh. It was packed when we went there for lunch, so we just got takeout and came back to my place.

[00:48:38] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah, we went there last night and it was fine.

[00:48:40] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Sometimes it’s, at dinner they have a few people, but at lunchtime it’s packed. There’s like lots of people. Yeah, because it’s like 10 or 12 Euros for soup or for saute. I think so. So pretty much a fixed price for those things.

[00:48:51] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: I think the most expensive item there is like 12, 12 Euro 12, 13, yeah.

[00:48:55] And it is very good, it’s very tasty. But that would be out of the way for most of you, you know, if you’re visiting Paris, there’s no reason for you to come to this Sunflower thing. It’s just, if you live here, it’s a good.

[00:49:08] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Anyway, as always, great, great restaurants all over Paris.

[00:49:12] I hope this tip about Zen Chef will help you. And also the fact that if you’re facing the Eiffel Tower and you’re hungry, go left like Avenue de la Bourdonnais, Saint-Dominique, Rue Cler, very good places to get lunch if you can spend about 50.

[00:49:30] Restaurants on the Eiffel Tower

[00:49:30] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Oh, tell us about the restaurants on the Eiffel Tower as well, because you’ve tried one of them.

[00:49:35] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah, it’s been a while, there’s, they changed names. One is Jules Verne and that’s like a Michelin starred one and it’s probably, you know, well over a hundred euros.

[00:49:42] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: I think with wine and everything it’s a thousand? It’s a thousand. I’ve never been there. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That one’s a, that one’s at the very top. It’s very small.

[00:49:49] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: That’s second level. Nothing’s on the very, very top. Oh. Okay. First or second level, and you go up their separate elevator for the restaurant.

[00:49:56] That’s one way to get up the Eiffel Tower. And then the other one I think is now called Madame.

[00:50:01] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah, Madame Brasserie or Brasserie Madame or something.

[00:50:03] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: And it’s more modest. You know, it’s maybe 30 euros for each entree, 30 to 40 euros maybe.

[00:50:08] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah, I think it was 40 at lunch and like a hundred at dinner. So you can eat on the Eiffel Tower.

[00:50:13] Tips for visiting the Eiffel Tower

[00:50:13] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Oh, and another tip that I put in my tour, but I’m going to tell you as well, is if you need a ticket for the Eiffel Tower, first of all, the security line is the same for everybody, so on when you line up, they have something that says for restaurants and for people who have tickets, and for people who don’t have a ticket.

[00:50:31] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Ignore that. Go to the shortest line because they don’t check, they don’t check anything. They just want to check your bag. And the security is pretty thorough. My watch set off the thing. Right?

[00:50:42] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: It’s like airport security. So empty your pockets.

[00:50:45] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah. Empty everything. Take off your watch. You don’t have to take off your shoes, but your watch yes.

[00:50:49] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yes. It doesn’t matter what line you’re on, they don’t check your ticket, so go to the shortest line. Also, generally speaking, if you’re facing the Eiffel Tower, the entry on the left has fewer people that the entry on the right. And you told me that’s because there are bus tours, bus tours that drop everybody off on that side, where there more people see that entrance and go in that way.

[00:51:10] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: So yeah. That’s another little tip. And then once you enter, so to enter underneath the Eiffel Tower is free. You don’t need a ticket for that. And once you get past security, there are places where they’ve have QR codes where if you flash the QR code, it is going to take you to, I think it’s called tour.eiffel.paris. I think that’s the URL. And from that URL, you can buy your ticket. You don’t need to stand in line to buy the ticket. Yeah. But day off, because the tickets that you buy in advance are really hard to get. Because most of those get bought up by all the companies that resell them as skip the line tickets.

[00:51:51] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: So they double the price, sell them to you as skip the line tickets. The only line you’re skipping by the way, is the ticket line, which you can skip if you buy it on the app. So there you go. Yeah. You still have to go through security. Everybody has to go through security and everybody has to line up for the elevators.

[00:52:07] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: If you’re going to go up, there’s a line for the elevators and no skip the line ticket can avoid that. But you can’t walk up. You can walk.

[00:52:13] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: That’s true. You’ve done that?

[00:52:16] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Yeah, it’s 735 steps, right? Then there’s usually not a line there, so you can… No, I wonder why. I wonder why. It’s not bad.

[00:52:26] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: All right. Thank you so much Patricia, and I hope these tips have been helpful for your next visit to the Eiffel Tower. Alright. Au revoir.

[00:52:37] Show notes and transcript

[00:52:37] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Show notes and transcript for this episode are on JoinUsinFrance.com/426, the numeral. And I would love it if you would tell someone about this podcast because there are people around you who are preparing a trip to France and they haven’t told you. They haven’t talked about it because they’re not so sure it’s going to happen yet, right?

[00:52:57] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: They’ll brag about it when it’s closer, but by then it’ll be too late for them to get all the goodness out of the show. So, just mention it to them or share an episode on your own timeline on Facebook or whatever social media you like to use.

[00:53:11] Next week on the podcast

[00:53:11] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Next week on the podcast, an episode with Elyse Rivin of Toulouse Guided Walks about Huguenot Heritage in France.

[00:53:20] It’s a big topic, but Elyse did a wonderful job summarizing the history of the Protestants in France.

[00:53:29] Annie Sargent and Patricia Perry: Send questions or feedback to annie@JoinUsinFrance.Com. Thank you so much for listening and I hope you join me next time so we can look around France together.

[00:53:40] Copyright

[00:53:40] Annie Sargent: The Join Us in France Travel Podcast is written, hosted, and produced by Annie Sargent and Copyright 2022 by Addicted to France. It is released under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial, No Derivatives license.

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