Hey, that reminds me…I know you’ve got one foot out the door, but I’ve wondered if you’ve had any comments about the tempest-in-a-teacup surrounding Austin mayoral candidate Brewster McCracken’s ad that placed Saint Louis in an unfavorable (yet not inaccurate) light? I was away from the Internet myself during the initial brouhaha, so you may have already expressed some thoughts on it.

(Reference point: http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/8524/brewster-mccracken-st-louis-ad-causes-a-stir)

JEALOUS!!!!

Um…eat really spicy vindaloo at 3am after numerous pints.

Go to the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery if you have time. Both are free, centrally located, and excellent.

Go to Brick Lane for the bars and Indian food. It’s the hipster area so you’ll like the music, find out about local shows there, and generally be quite comfortable.

There is a great movie theatre near Tottenham Court Road that shows great movies for a pound. When we were there we saw “Pulp Fiction,” which I hadn’t seen in theatres since ‘94 and “Abre los Ojos” the original (much better) Vanilla Sky.

I know it’s not music, but if you get a chance look up comedian Josie Long and see her perform. She is wonderful and very untraditional.

I second the British Museum.  It’s good.  It’s totally worth it.

I like the Tower, as well, and seeing the gigantic sparkly things was far more awe-inspiring than I would have thought possible.

I’m also excited about Marnie Stern, and fuck it, I’ll admit it, Andrew W.K. Who I’ve seen before and who rocks the house like nobody’s business.

But I saw them first, 1982, so there!

Visit Somerset House, and you should visit Hampton Court, it was the Tudor equivalent of a McMansion, imagine, EVERY BEDROOM had a fireplace, and you might run into Catherine Howard’s ghost if you’re lucky

Also, Grizzly Bear, who I missed at SXSW, but heard that they killed.

I’d say go to the catacombs. After that, bois de boulogne at night. For music, the steps between sacre coeur and Pigalle in the eventing. And don’t miss beaubourg.

If there’s some socialism I can witness firsthand and report back on the horror, that would also be ideal.  Perhaps I should duck into a pharmacy and buy some drug at a ridiculously cheap price?  I do use OTC allergy medicine.

Ok.  I have to delurk in order to give out Paris suggestions.  I lived there for a year, but I didn’t go to many clubs.  However, I can suggest checking out what’s playing at the Batofar in Paris.  It is a club on a boat that has a lot of different shows.  Boats are fun.  I suggest you ignore the rather racist little dude on the top of that page.  Europeans live in the 1930s in some ways, is all I can say.

As far as museums, the Pompidou Center really is my favorite museum ever.  They change up the collection on display every 6 months and it is like a whole new museum every time you go.  Plus the view from the escalator is outstanding.  It is really my favorite building ever.

Vegetarian food can be hard to find.  But there’s a really cute, tiny vegetarian place called Le Potager du Marais on Rue Ramuteau that I liked a lot.  Totally tasty, very French, and reasonably priced.  Plus the wait staff are really nice.

Oh, and I always recommend Les Savuers de Pierre Emile on rue de Vaugirard for lunch.  It’s sort of pricey for lunch, but it has the best quiche you will ever eat in your life.  You don’t even need to like quiche that much.  Best.thing.ever.  Trust.

In Paris, definitely go to the Catacombs.  And the Rodin museum is also really nice.  I liked Notre Dame, but Saint Chappelle was great too (and absolutely beautiful) with lots fewer people.  It’s just up the street from Notre Dame.  And for vegetarian food, there’s always the option of a baguette and fruit/cheese from the shops that are literally everywhere.  However, there’s a neighborhood called “Little Jaffna” on the right bank (near the Gard du Nord metro stop) where you can eat really, really well—if you like Sri Lankan Tamil food (curries and such).  It was the only time during our 5 days in the city that we went to the right bank for anything—my mother in law (who is Tamil) told us about it and the husband had to eat what he calls “proper food” after a few days of European eating.

In London, make sure you go to Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park.  Also, I enjoyed the Tower and the Tate museum.  I wanted to go to the British Museum last time we were there, but we had too many family obligations and there wasn’t enough time.  Hopefully next trip we’ll be able to do it.

Seconding ks on the Rodin & on Notre Dame.  & have a croissant for me, ok?  I went a couple of years ago & have never had such croissants in. my. life.

Insanely jealous.

Sounds like a great trip! Here are some more Paris recommendations. As for cultural stuff, try to see the deeply weird Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature/Museum of Hunting and Nature. One of their exhibits involves petrified unicorn droppings, if that gives you any idea. At the Centre Pompidou, don’t miss the Dubuffet room. I haven’t personally been there, but the Musée du quai Branly is supposed to be great.

As for food, eat a baguette from Eric Kayser, spread with some demi-sel butter. France also has real raw milk cheese, which should be marked “lait cru.” If you have a sweet tooth, macarons from Ladurée (especially the violet kind) should not be missed. Also, A l’étoile d’or has some pretty amazing chocolates. Wash all this down with some cheap wine from a supermarket; it can be hit or miss, but often you can get some pretty decent stuff for like 3-5 euros, typically Côtes du Rhône or from the southwestern parts of the country.

Paris also has great couscous/tagine restaurants. Chez Omar is probably the most well-known, though I actually prefer Le Souk. Be sure to get some Mint Tea afterwards.

If, for some reason, that’s not enough food stuff, the ever-reliable David Lebovitz has a good Top 10 list of things to eat in Paris.

Mmm, Paris.

You lucky fuck! The last time I saw Devo was the New Traditionalists tour in the early 1980s.

Amanda,
Have you seen this shit? Playboy’s America’s Sexiest CEOs… Oh yay subjugating women is awesome 70 years ago. It is like Playboy is hopelessly trapped in the past or just fucking stupid.
http://www.playboy.com/articles/playboys-sexiest-ceos-list/index.html

Oh joy the Huffington Post has it up too…....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/05/playboy-sexiest-ceos-list_n_197011.html

We’re music geeks, so leads in that direction are especially appreciated (both stores and clubs), but we also like to eat.  I know, scandalous.

I was gonna say, eat Lebanese sausage sandwiches from a street vendor. But I remembered you are vegetarian. But I bet they offer falafel too.

Sorry, I’m very drunk right now. Cinco de Mayo and watching Strangelove with my brother’s girlfriend who never saw it before.

Anyway, France is magic with food. If you ever go as far east as Strasbourg—French quality, German quantity.

Here’s hoping I can function at work tomorrow at all. Well, today I made my Stakhanovite quota for the first time ever! By refusing to get bogged down by mere duty—my line co-worker took care of the number-killing crap just as I hoped he would, by whipping it through without a cringe of conscience, just as I meticulously but efficiently shepherded down a bunch of subpar but uniform systems.

It’s all automatic. Mind stop. A U TO M A T I C.

Hey, they ain’t Devo, but the GoGos did bookend Ridgemont High.

And my linemate didn’t show up at all yesterday. I should be OK.

One other thing. Are the weird dots art project or whatever still in place on the Autoroutes approaching Paris from the east?

“Bow before us, for you cannot understand us, barbarians. For we are French!”

That’s the message I took from those dots that were there on the route from Germany in 1990. And I respect it, since I then saw Paris. And ate Lebanese food from pushcarts, and later caught some kind of virulent flu from a bar my mom told me Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway ate at back in the ‘20s on the Champs.

Paris is a city built on the idea that everyone who aspires to civilization must live there. And the result—not bad at all.

I wish I could say anything about Britain, a country I would love to visit, but alas in all my visits to Europe I only changed planes there once.

“I’m so worried about what happened today, in the Middle East, you know. And I’m worried about the baggage retrieval system they’ve got at Heathrow.”

They did lose my luggage—or delay it some hours anyway. Until Germans retrieved it with belated but thorough efficiency.

But I would still love to visit England. I just wouldn’t put too much reliance on anything packed in my bags. But I never got to.

My favorite Strangelove character remains Group Captain Lionel Mandrake. I’ve always been some kind of Anglophile.

Okay.  This makes me feel better about my impending five hour drive to see Bad Religion play for 40 minutes and then drive 5 hours back home.

Was it at the Palladium in NYC?  That’s where I first saw them.

It was the Austin Colliseum, and, now that I think about it, maybe 1984. Very cool show. They tore the Colliseum down for no reason whatsoever. The Clash played there, Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel, PiL.

cue random carbon-footprint-concern-troll in 3-2-1..

This makes me feel better about my impending five hour drive to see Bad Religion play for 40 minutes and then drive 5 hours back home.

This may be inherent in your own joke, but what the hell: “40 minutes? That’s like 5 albums’ worth…”

I registered just to leave comments here… long time reader and former Paris, current UK resident.

London:

Dennis Sever’s house (http://www.dennissevershouse.co.uk/) you have to call in advance to book a visit - it’s totally amazingly worth it.

the Tate Britain (a mix of great British art from the middle ages to last week - it’s where the Turner prize show is held every year).

The British Museum. you have no choice.

Advice: drink lots of ale - there’s some really good ale available in Britain these days, amongst the nicer (and most accessible) are London Pride, Spitfire and Broadside. Ask pub owners if you can taste ales - if they don’t say yes, don’t buy drinks from them. Don’t drink the nasty fizzy lagers. Try ‘proper’ cider (not strongbow). Don’t say ‘excuse me’ say ‘sorry’. ‘Cheers’ means ‘thank you’ and “quid” are pounds.

Paris:
I LOVE the Marais - it’s the gay, jewish, fashionista district. There’s a ridiculously posh tea shop called Mariage Freres which does an amazing (and expensive) high tea. Also a few awesome chocolate shops. My favorite falafal in all of paris is there: L’as de Falafel (it means ‘the ace of falafel). It’s also the only place in france where you can find real (fresh) bagels. Visit the Place de Vosges (because it’s beautiful).

Musee Carnavalet (http://www.paris.fr/portail/Culture/Portal.lut?page_id=6468) is the museum of the history of Paris and probably my favourite undiscovered gem - it’s free, full of awesome things (like a sculpture of the Bastille carved in one giant block of stone that used to be part of the walls of the bastille) and in a beautiful old hotel particulier (city villa).

The Picasso museum is nearby and equally awesome.

The louvre is not to be missed - though I’d skip the Mona Lisa and opt for the Davids and Delacroixs myself.

Regarding language: always say ‘bonjour’ when entering a shop and ‘merci. au revoir’ when leaving. A few ‘merci’ go a long way - remember to thank people in french and always ask ‘do you speak english’ before chatting to someone in English (parisians are weird that way). Don’t smile at strangers (especially at men) on the street, they will take it as a signal to hit on you. Watch out for dog poo on the sidewalks.

Now Naomi Wolf can really feel justified in hinting that “young” feminists of 31 are unserious people who spend their time hanging out with Austin hipsters at three day concerts.

If your plan is unserious, then, may unseriousness reign!

Have a great trip!

I used to live in London, and I was in Paris for a week last summer.  Lot’s of great suggestions - I’d add:

London: The Sir John Soane’s Museum - www.soane.org - a Victorian philomath and collector - crazy, nifty town house near the law courts & not too far from Fleet Street - packed with random stuff from all over the world - you open a wall full of paintings, to find another wall full of paintings, that you open again and find a light well, looking down into the basement, which holds an Egyptian sarcophagus.  Do you have an image of the crazy Victorian genius uncle in your head?  This is the guy, and this is his house…

London: Hampstead Heath - You want a trip to the English countryside for a stroll along the hedgerows and a peek at a country manor house, but don’t really have the time for a day-trip - Hampstead is a close-in London neighborhood on the tube immediately north of central London - the village center is a great little walk, and the Heath is a huge hill-top park with views of the city below, and ponds, and meadows, and hedgerows, and 18th Century Kenwood House (open as a museum, and with an attached lunch place in the adjoining stables) - a good half-day is a walk around Hampstead village, a stroll over the Heath with a stop by Kenwood, a stroll around semi-overgrown Victorian-era Highgate Cemetery (where Karl Marx is buried), and then a quick ride back downtown on the tube from Highgate.

London:  If you find yourself in the Kensington neighborhood, a quick stop by the Victoria & Albert Museum for a cheap lunch in the cafe is in order - great food, reasonable prices, an opportunity to stop in the museum without having to actually go to the museum.  (And, check out the terra cotta details on the nearby Natural History Museum - they were serious about science, and rational thought, and learning - pretty engaging and inspiring building).

Paris:  Pedal around on the velo libre system - essentially free bikes in many hundreds of locations all over the city - you unlock one with an ATM card, then get your deposit back when you lock it up again at another station - a great system, incredibly easy to use (and to pedal around the city - lots of dedicated lanes bikes share with buses) - very non-weird and non-funky, everyone uses it, businessmen in suits with briefcases in the baskets, housewives in dresses.

Paris: The Promenade Plantee - about 10 years ago they converted a many-mile stretch of a disused freight railway viaduct into a hanging garden stretching through the immigrant neighborhoods running east from the Bastile - a long stretch of public gardens with different “rooms” going over streets and through apartment buildings with stairs and elevators down to the ground every block or two - very “normal” place with retired folks, kids, artsy types, the occasional wino sleeping it off - and the arches in the viaduct below were set aside for a high percentage of artisan shops - glass makers, print conservators, galleries, etc.  A great stroll through a very non-touristy part of Paris.

Paris: I’d second the Marais (great neighborhood), and add a plug for the Luxembourg Gardens - beautiful park well-loved by the local neighborhood - make sure your strolling through the Left Bank takes you through.

Enjoy!

Don’t smile at strangers (especially at men) on the street, they will take it as a signal to hit on you.

Unfortunately, my boyfriend can’t go with me, but that makes me all the more glad that the friend I’m with is male.  It’s sad but true—-you just get bothered a lot less when you’ve got a male friend around.

Thanks for all the amazing recommendations, by the way.  I’m printing this out and putting it in my luggage.

by the way, ‘hit on you’ in France generally means touching/grabbing/flashing. Really really don’t smile at people. I’ve been there.

Have an excellent trip! I hope you post a full report when you return!

If you’re going to the British Museum, then just round the corner on Bloomsbury (a beautiful street) is Bookmarks, a socialist bookshop. (http://www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk/cgi/store/bookmark.cgi)

This may serve in lieu of actual socialism should you be unlucky enough to not bump into a strike in Paris.

While in France, check out the latest Renault ad campaign that features that Farkian image of a woman who rammed her car between boat and dock, and proudly proclaims (en français), “Yes, we also loan [cars] to women!”

http://buffetcomplet.blogspot.com/2009/04/oui-nous-louons-aussi-aux-femmes.html

Guh.

I’d go see Arsenal and Chelsea on the 10th.

Actually, that’s a lie. I’d find a way to the Grand Prix of Spain in Barcelona. Or to Hamburg to see St. Pauli - a nicely leftist soccer club - play Mainz.

If you want appropriate reading material(or something to read on the way there/back) you should take Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London,  I have a special affection for it, having read it when I worked as a dishwasher(plongeur)  during a college summer.

Late to the party, but just back from Paris. Untouristy suggestion: Have dinner, if you can manage it, at Verse Toujours, near the Place d’Italie. They serve a baked gnocchi made of Emmentaler and something that I can only assume is supernatural in origin. And tiramisu in jars.

The hubby and I went to London last fall, and while I loved London I have to admit that, being the literary geek I am, what I loved even more was the Lake District (and the Wordsworth stuff there) and Haworth up in Yorkshire (where the Brontes lived, and where their former home, now a museum, is located). And Bath (Jane Austen country) was also very, very cool.

Of those three places, Bath, which is readily accessible by train, is do-able as a day trip from London. Those other two places are not, I’m afraid—though there are some great, not too expensive B&Bs;there, if you wanted to stay the night.

As for London itself—London theater can be awesome, and you should definitely try to take advantage of it if you can. We saw an extraordinary production of Chekhov’s Ivanov when we were there, with Kenneth Branagh. But there’s a whole range of things. I hear that the Shakespeare stuff at the Globe is usually quite good. And I’ve also heard great things about pub theater (which is super-cheap).

High tea at Harrods’ was also a whole lot of fun.

Oh, and read the Guardian, especially if you want to experience what a truly great newspaper can be—as compared to our sucky American counterparts.

All in all, though, my favorite thing that I did in London is something called London Walks. London Walks are basically walking tours of various London neighborhoods and attractions. Each walk is about two hours, and has a theme—everything from the London blitz, to Shakespeare’s or Dickens’ or Oscar Wilde’s or the Beatles’ London, to Victorian London, or the ghosts of London, and on and on. What makes these tours so special are the guides. I did four or five of these tours, and each and every guide I encountered was witty, erudite, sophisticated, and at least a little eccentric. Believe me, it’s not the usual lowest common denominator tourist crap at all! And London is a highly walkable as well as endlessly fascinating, so it’s a great way to discover the city.

The tours are 7 pounds each—though you can get a substantial discount if you go on more than one tour.  You don’t buy tickets in advance—you just show up and the designated time and place (usually a tube stop) and pay your guide then and there. For more information, visit the London Walks website, here:
http://www.walks.com

They do lots of great tours, but if you only have time for one, I’d strongly suggest doing the Jack the Ripper one. It’s fascinating social history, and *extremely* creepy. All in all, quite an experience.

Have fun, Amanda! And do report back.

As for Paris—well, it’s the world’s most beautiful city, and whatever you choose to do there, it’s hard to see how you could go wrong.

I went there on my honeymoon 8 years ago, and for me, the stand-out places were the Musee d’Orsay, ballet at the Paris Opera, and Balzac’s house (my literary geek side speaking again).

I also enjoyed the cafes and the totally old school restaurants like Polidor, where the waiters total up your bill on the paper tablecloth!

Unlike so many things in life, for me, Paris didn’t disappoint. It fully lived up to its reputation as a beautiful and romantic and magical city. I hope it does the same for you!

Saint Chappelle was great too (and absolutely beautiful) with lots fewer people.  It’s just up the street from Notre Dame.

Tip for the Ste-Chappelle: when you reach the top of the stairs from the lower chapel, close your eyes. Take a couple of steps out. Open them.

I love the Musée de Cluny, but I also like some of the modern art stuff. Shakespeare and Co by the river on the left bank (Rue de la Bucherie) is an expat institution, now run by George Whitman’s daughter Sylvia. Rue de Lappe off Place de la Bastille has got touristy, but the bars around there are a lot of fun. If the Bar sans Nom is still there, go there. The Marais is great.

London? You’ll have Oyster cards now, I hope. Definitely try the Ripper walk, because you get to see Spitalfields to the east of the City. I love the Soane and the Wallace Collection, but they might not be to your taste. Just wander. Wander round Soho. Wander round Brick Lane, home of the cheap curry and the 24-hour bagel bakery. Wander up to Hampstead and see Freud’s couch.