france netherlands

• Montmartre: Striding a hill atop Paris, france netherlands Montmartre used to be a village of artists, glorified by masters such as Utrillo, and painted, sketched, sculpted, and photographed by 10,000 lesser lights. Today, its overrun by tourists, building speculators, and nightclub entrepeneurs who moved in as the artists moved out. However, a france netherlands few still linger and so does much of the villagelike charm. Of all the places for wandering the cobbled streets of old Paris, Montmartre, especially france netherlands in its back streets and alleyways, gets our vote. The center point is the place duTertre, where you can head out on your journey of france netherlands exploration. Gleaming through the trees from here is the Basilica of Scre-Coeur, built in an oddly Oriental neo-Byzantine style. Behind the church and clinging to the hillside below are steep and crooked little streets that seem almost to have survived the relentless march of progress. Rue des Saules still has Montmartres last vineyard. The rue Lepic still looks almost the way Renoir, the melancholic Van Gogh, and the dwarfish genius Toulouse-Lautrec saw it. (more)

• Musee du Louvre (34-36 quai du Louvre): The Louvres exterior is a triumph of French architecture, and its interior shelters an embarrassment of art, one of the greatest treasure troves known to Western civilization. Of the Louvres more than 300,000 paintings, only a small percentage can be displayed at one time. The museum maintains its staid dignity and timelessness even though thousands of visitors traipse daily through its corridors, looking for the Mona Lisa or the Venus de Milo. I M Peis controversial Great france netherlands Pyramid nearly offsets the grandeur of the Cour Carree, but it has a real functional purpose, as you will soon see.
• Musee dOrsay (1 france netherlands rue de Bellechasse): The spidery glass-and-iron france netherlands canopies of an abandoned railway station frame one of Europes greatest museums of art. Devoted mainly to paintings of the 19th century, dOrsay contains some of the most celebrated masterpieces of the French Impressionists, along with sculptures and decorative objects whose designs forever changed the way European artists interpreted line, movement, and color. In case you didnt france netherlands know, dOrsay is also where Whistlers Mother sits in her rocker.
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• Meeting the Natives: There is no page number which you can turn france netherlands for guidance here. Youre on your own. But meeting Parisians, and experiencing their cynical metropolitanism, is one of the adventures of traveling to Paris and its free. Tolerance, gentleness, and patience are not their strongest points; they dont suffer fools gladly, but adore france netherlands eccentrics. Visitors often find Parisians brusque to the point of rudeness and preoccupied with their own affairs. However this hard-boiled crust often protects a soft center. Compliment a surly bistro owner on her cuisine, and 9 times out of 10 shell melt before your eyes. Admire a Parisians dog or praise a window display, france netherlands and youll find a loquaciously knowledgeable companion for the next 5 minutes. Ask about the correct pronuciation of a French word france netherlands (before you mispronounce it), and a Parisian may become your language teacher. Try to meet a Parisian halfway with some kind of personalized contact. Only then do you learn their best qualities: their famed charm, their savoir-faire and, yes believe it or not, the delightful courtesy that marks their social life.

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• Le Grand Vefour (17 france netherlands rue de Beaujolais): Seductively and appropriately timeworn, this dining room is where Napoleon wooed Josephine. Its Louis XVI-Directoire interior is a protected historic monument. With its haute cuisine, it has been the haunt of celebrities since 1760. Its cuisine, thankfully, is even better france netherlands than ever, because it insists on hiring only the worlds leading chefs. This monument to the past still tantalizes 21st-century palates.
• Melac (42 rue Leon-Frot): When it was established in 1938, 2 years before Frances involvement in the war, Melac looked like something out of the 1880s, with a zinc bar that became famous. That bar is still there, and its one of the most time- france netherlands honored old cafes in Paris. Naturally, you have to walk through the kitchen to get to the dining room to feast on such delights from the Auvergne as france netherlands veal tripe bundles or pigs liver.

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• The Five Hotel (5 rue Flatters): france netherlands In the Left Banks Latin Quarter, this boutique hotel is installed in a 19th-century town house. Okay, the rooms may be a bit small, but the place is a charger, attracting fashionistas to its individually designed bedrooms in bold colors such as blood red. Theres Chinese lacquer galore.
• Hotel St-Jacques (35 rue des Ecoles): Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn who made Charade here, have long ago checked out, but this longtime favorite with its Belle Epogue atmosphere still has its allure. With furnishings that evoke Frances Second Empire, its the cliche of Left Bank charm. Its well-furnished and attractive bedrooms france netherlands have each been restored.
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• Hotel Ritz (15 place Vendome): This hotel, which gave the world the word ritzy, meaning posh, occupies a magnificent palace overlooking the octagonal borders of one of the most perfect squares in the world. The decor is pure opulence. Marcel Proust wrote parts of Remembrance of Things Past hee, and the worlds greatest chef, Georges-Auguste Escoffier, perfected many of his recipes in the Ritz kitchens.
• Four Seasons Hotel George V (31 Ave George V): Humorist Art Buchwalk once wrote, Paris without the George V would be Cleveland. The swanky address has long been a favorite of celebrities in every field, including Duke Ellington, who once wrote in his memoirs that his suite was so big that he couldnt find the way out. Its public france netherlands and private rooms are decorate with a vast array of antiques and Louis XIV tapestries worth millions.
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• Whiling away an afternoon in a Parisian cafe: The cafes are where passionate meetings of writers, artists, philosophers, thinkers, and revolutionaries once took place -  and perhaps still do. Parisians stop by their favorite cafes to meet lovers and friends, to make new ones, or to sit in solitude with a newspaper or book.
• Taking afternoon tea a la Francaise: france netherlands Drinking tea in London has its charm, but the Parisian salon de the is unique. Skip the cucumber-and-watercress sandwiches and delve into a france netherlands luscious dessert such as the Mont Blanc, a creamy puree of sweetened chestnuts and meringue. The grandest Parisian tea salon is Angelina, 226 rue de Rivoli

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Discovering the City of Light, and france netherlands making it your own has always been the most compelling reason to visit Paris. If youre a first-timer, everything, of course will be new to you. If youve been away for awhile, expect changes: Taxi drivers may no longer correct your fractured French, but address you in English tantamount to a revolution. More Parisians have a rudimentary knowledge of the language, and France, at least at first glance, seems less xenophobic than in past years. Paris, aware of its role within a unified Europe, is an international city. Parisians are attracted to foreign music, videos, and films, especially those from America, even though france netherlands most French people vehemently disagree with the political dictates that have emerged from George Bushs Washington.

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