Paris, aaah Paris!

[caincan]

you need more bees & flower power  . i quit Paris because of this false superb appearance. be a tourist & living working (especially in suburbs) there is not the same thing   (see some things about Trappes & Bretigny recently.. it's the boiling room more & more... )  ..   renting in central paris ?  no kidding, who can with normal incomes ? ..   it's useless at a time, you see zombies everywhere wasting their energy. if you dont have will to quit it at a time, you'll be dry.

[uncletom]

I understand, Cain. It is more or less the same in any larger city, you see it in Stockholm as well and ofcourse I hate that. Prague and Berlin also had this with russians and italians buying building spaces opening shops and restaurants for tourists. I feel ripped off just buying a beer in the centre, and as if that isn't enough the waitress asks me and Camilla to pay and leave after about 30 minutes. Now, what kind of stress is that, like a ride on some attraction in Disneyland - in, take my money, and out.

About the appartment that we rent, it belongs to a colleague of Camilla's. We pay only the actual cost for 2 weeks. I think it was €250 a week, a small sized 2 bedroom flat plus a kitchen space with TV room/dining room in "Paris 10". Haha... Actually I feel more that I am in africa than in France, every night you hear some sort of police involvment or some quarrel. Which in my terms makes things more exciting, but not for Camilla, she is very nervous.

[DarthNuno]

I strongly recommend you to spend some time in 'Paris 13ème'. It's the Asian (Chineses/Japanese/Vietnames) area of the town. Great (means 'authentic') & cheap food, nice place to walk, good 'mood', safe area... one of my favorite sector in the town. 

[Blanka]

I strongly recommend you to spend some time in 'Paris 13ème'.

I was doing a picture search on that....
What a find:
http://astudejaoublie.blogspot.be/2012/08/paris-13eme-bureaux-serete.html
Cool!

Another one in the 13th:
http://astudejaoublie.blogspot.be/2012/11/paris-ensemble-universitaire-tolbiac-m.html
That area is dope! Want to go to Paris now.

[caincan]

if you live and have $$$  blanka,  sure the place can be cool.   i really enjoyed some places as you stated (gardens, cinemas, cool squares places ,   near "bercy" in south paris). but the areas were so damn expensive to live i couldnt even imagine .    the architecture of floors & nearly hiden spots you show is just perfect for dope dealers & stealers places    . not all suburbs are insecure, but you need some guts to go to some weird places that sounds more ghettos...     loads of chinese tourists are so insecure about Paris.. their government claimed more of our politics about this 

   yep i guessed same thing when tripping in Goteburg with sven666 & his pals,  it's certainly sweet.. if you have a good living way.  prices are 2x times more than Paris  

it's not dream, france is about to go after greek, italy, spain  in the same hole.   enjoy new world order  
___
the problem with big towns is too for raising child.. another experience of hardness  and time spent in trains/railways/underground is so infamous,  more couples quit big towns to "re"live again in small places.      

for Bretigny.. imagine a railway problem,  some dead people.. not good.. but when youngsters from local blocks come to scavenge & steal goods from dead and throw stones to enforcers & rescue teams  ..  and politics say nothing happened.. yep france suburbs downtown..
___
for Arcade street, it's in "Nation",  you have to go there for a glance of japanese full arcade !

[Blanka]

Another one:
http://astudejaoublie.blogspot.be/2012/07/paris-13eme-caserne-de-pompiers-massena.html
Not so negative Caincan! What are you doing there anyway if you feel like that in Paris?

Paris can be done on small pockets, no problem. And use the bike instead of the public transport. Lot of fun. The most ghetto I found in Paris was when driving the bicycle into La Defense (as you cycle into the parking layers way below the surface), but it is very child friendly compared to Detroit, and even that was not too bad.

[caincan]

i said i quit (2 years ago).   some times you dont have choice for a "job" but accept the worst places during yearrrs (public statement for my job condition  ).    had time to see that big towns drain you  .    i'd like go back some times but just for fun people i met (arcade fellas). only an euromillions would be a way to go there again and take good time as a real tourist  

[uncletom]

Whew! Today was flee-market day. We went to ... Puce something, where they had this very big market of second hand stuff. But they also had alot of new wares like shoes, hats and clothes. And *so many homeless and poor people*!? So no arcades today.

I am noting down every place you guys recommend, china town would be nice to browse through. I see that there is alot of interesting architecture in Paris 13 (thanks Blanka), but that is for me enough to see in the pictures.

And yes, in the tourist areas eating and drinking is very expensive, I'd say about the same as in sweden and the tourist areas in stockholm, or gothenburg cities. But because we have a kitchen here, I cook.

Yesterday I made a pot of 500g pasta, fried some onions, paprika and chopped bacon, with a sauce provencal and a little chili-garlic hot sauce. This is enough dinner for two people over two days, and it doesn't cost much if you shop at Sparks. Tomorrow I will probably fix some good meat, alot of walking makes the feet sore. Also you need to drink lots of water in this heat.

Tomorrow I will probably have to subdue myself to some cultural torture again, but the day after it will be my day to decide where to go.

[Blanka]

Even in tourist area's you can eat cheap. I had a good dinner for two with wine near the Sacre Coeur for 40€ in total, espresso's for 1€. You can forget about that in Amsterdam, but in Paris it is easily possible. Just take a street corner others don't take.

[uncletom]

Blanka, how many of those dinners are you planning to eat each week, 5 or 7?  Because 7 x €40 is €280, and thats only for dinner. What do you have for breakfast and lunch? I will not ask you to summerize it into one month because you were probably on holiday, and as such one does allow for certain exeptions. But to call a two person dinner at €40 cheap makes me wonder in what line of business you are, (diamonds?  ). I'd much rather have a kebab, or a sandwich for €3.50 than sitting at a table paying more. But that's just me I guess.

I also think I ought to mention that I am not a tourist, at least I try not to be even though my Camilla is one. Yesterday we were walking around this huge cemetary with these funny looking graves like little houses, Camilla was searching for the grave of Jim Morrison, and some other grave of Alain Bash... something, and I wondered if my brain would explode from the heat, or from the awesome boredom I was experiencing at the time. On top of this I was being eaten by mosquitos.

In all the cities we have been this far I have fallen asleep on the sight-seeing bus, I have never bought a souvenir (I did pick up a small rock in the alpes though), and I have not taken one picture of any typical monument or place in any country except of castle Neuschwanstein, which I honestly did find interesting due to its playful appearance.

Today I hope to visit the Street Arcade and that other place on Rue Italian, sitting inside in an airconed environment having a coke and perhaps a sandwich, if I am allowed to eat there. I feel really done walking around Paris looking at stone walls and strange doors (even though they are supposed to have certain cultural value), done with sitting in cafes watching people, walking past cafes having people watching me, ... I need a beach.

[uncletom]

Today was a success. I was really happy to be able to see real arcades today, and in particular very well kept and serviced games. I would post some pictures here but I am using Camillas's ipad so I can only type.

The "Tete... nuages" was a typical modern arcade, just as I had imagined it. Fortunately there weren't many people so I could do just as I had planned; walking slowly through the arcade drinking a cool juice.

The dominating genres were racers and shooters, but they had a corner with several Sega Astros with Raiden Fighters, Metal Slug (?) and even some dance machines, and there was also a small bowling alley. I didn't play anything, I never do, not even the Let's Go Jungle Special. It impresses me as an interesting experiment by Sega, but that is about it. Sadly their King of Route 66 was down, and their StarWars Racer could do with new CRTs, otherwise all games looked OK.

The Street Arcade seemed a bit less commerce inclined but had alot more enthusiasm, with modern fighting games and tournaments. Two floors with sit-at cabs, mostly Astros, also these flat ones Viewlix (?) cabs with LCDs. The guys working there were very friendly, they were playing SF13 (I think it was) close to the front door there, then one asked me if I wanted to play, ofcourse I declined being a total noob on fighters.

Browsing the top floor was exciting, but the real fun was their basement full of 29" CRT Astros, however quite empty. I think there was just one guy playing ... can't remember what, but they had Demon Front, two Bombermans next to each other, and much more. I have to check the pictures to see what games there were.

As today was mostly a rainy day, one of the three guys playing upstairs (the tall one, i forgot his name) offered us an umbrella. Camilla was very pleased, and charmed, something that she will remember Paris for.

So now I have a few pictures to bring home to Sweden to make the guys on AT drule over. I am happy to have been able to see some still functional arcades with well maintained games, and I think that the Paris arcades are in better shape than those in Vegas and even Santa Monica Pier, where I was last year and became gravely disappointed.

[uncletom]

By the way, tomorrow we will be checking out Le Havre. Anybody knows anything about Le Havre, besides what is in the wiki? ... And Omaha Beach? Any arcade there?

I'm not sure what Camilla wants to do there, I think she saw some film or read something about it. Anyway, I'm driving a rented Polo so I'm happy.

[Blanka]

I think she saw some film or read something about it.

Think I saw that film. Was not much of an advertisement for Le Havre though.

[Luigi]

..and I have not taken one picture of any typical monument or place in any country except of castle Neuschwanstein

Germany 1
Rest of Europe 0

   

Waiting for the pics...though a row or even room filled with plastic cabs doesn't bother me very much  

[uncletom]

Well, one could say that, but France has many other things to be happy about.

Yesterday:
I drove a Peugot 208, by the way. The Polo was just as reference; "Polo or alike...". But the Pegout, being a french car, wasn't bad at all to drive. After an hour of blindly blundering through Paris La Defence district avoiding trucks and busses in all that french day time traffic ( we had two GPSs, none of them was updated) I became quite familiar with the controls. But the meter layout and placement was horrible, the wheel was infront of the meters so I couldnt see how fast I was driving. Anyway on the autostrada it performed like a little rocket (diesel rocket).

Le Havre was a nice, quiet, not so little town with really strange architecture. I was informed that the city was pretty damaged by bombs in the war, so there were very few old buildings left. All the other houses was built in a style like art deco, or something it. Often square with many right angles, still stylish. However no arcade games.  I think I saw one pinball machine in a pub there.

Omaha Beach, well, a beach with lots of sand and rocks higher up on the shore. And the small towns you can drive by on your way there are so nice, like disney land but for real. However no arcade games there too, not at the quick look I was able to take while stopping there. Unless you guys know of anybody in a small village who collects games ...

Yes well, today:
... another culture torture. I had to go watch some american, dead, gay artist again. But they had aircon & wifi so I guess I shouldn't complain. Then I had a litre of "pure orange jus" which made my stomach go blaaahhh. And I am getting pretty sick of the Metro, so many people, so many smells. I want to go home now.