I have a kind of "love-hate" view of Paris for some reason, this trip tilted me more to the L side. One day my wife and her daughter were "on their own" leaving me a day to my own devices. I wanted to see how Notre Dame was coming along, we drove by it on way to hotel. So, off I went, found it with no problem about two miles walking, took some photos. It was a perfect weather kind of day. I headed back in the direction of the hotel (in St. German). And got well and truly lost.
The main problem was every block looks the same. I thought I found a cathedral near us (St. Sulpice) and it was St. Clothilde. My phone wasn't working with the map well at all and finally was down to 3% anyway. I used to take a paper map with me but didn't this time, big mistake. Finally I looked up and saw the dome of Les Invalides and I knew I was gone way too far, but I wanted to see parts of it and did anyway. I had lunch at a bistro (a cassoulet which had enough pork in it for Nebraskans). And then started back, and stayed lost. I checked the maps near bus stops and subways, and couldn't find anything close to our hotel.
Finally, it was nearing the time I was to be back and I stopped at some 4 star hotel and the desk lady printed out a map for me, an 11 minute walk it said, OK I can do that. But you encounter these large intersections of 6 streets in places and it's not clear which angle you should take in what direction from the map and I got lost again. By now I'm figuring on being a news item (American tourist wonders Paris for days completely lost ...). I stop at another hotel and get another map, AND a regular paper map, yay. The printed maps were garbage basically, and now was 8 minutes from hotel and did finally find it. My phone said I walked 12.8 miles that day.
I nicest part of this fancy hotel was not the room by far but the lounge/bar/patio area and I treated myself (after a shower) and a bottle of Chablis. The server set out two glasses and I didn't correct him. My wife did show up after a bit anyway. We dinner there later and I ordered a smoked salmon (saumon fume) salad that was excellent.
The reason we stayed at such a fancy hotel was that my wife's friend from Brazil picked it and she flew from Brazil to be with my wife. "C" said I'd get better salmon at Petrossian and said she'd treat us to lunch there. I agreed, and the next day off we went, and my wife and "C" both got us lost again, I was laughing, I had the paper map but they were unsure where Petrossian was, we finally found it, and the lunch ranks "up there" in both quality, taste, service, and of course $$$. They had caviar, I had a smoked salmon plate with smoked eel and another fish (the eel wasn't so great).
Caviar and Smoked Salmon - Excellence since 1920| Petrossian.fr | Petrossian.frThe salmon was sliced so thinly one could see through it. For the money, I preferred the hotel version which was only $25.
