Postcards From Paris March 2008 Newsletter

A-Night-in-Paris is owned by Teena Hughes, silk artist, world traveller, internet Gypsy

Bonjour mon ami! Hello my friend!

Welcome to this edition of news from Paris!

How can it possibly be March already? Where did the time go since Christmas?

There was a bit of delay between newsletters because … well … the dog ate my homework … ok, ok, that won’t work. Well, the time has just zoomed by and suddenly March has started.

The other reason is that I’ve been doing my own new research about Paris – checking out flights for my trip to Paris in June, finding accommodation, investigating airport transfers, metro tickets and all those other things which every tourist to Paris has to do.

I’ve also been adding tons of new information to the site, so do pop over and have a look.

MY UPCOMING TRIP TO PARIS IN JUNE 2008

The great news is I finally found a great flight to Paris – only 24 hours (from departure to final arrival) with one stop in Abu Dhabi for a couple of hours. Now to a lot of you this will seem like a HUGE amount of travel time, and you’re right – it is :-)

Luckily for me I’ve spent many days travelling from Australia to half-way across the world in my life so far, so a 24 hour flight is quite normal. I board the plane, eat, drink, watch a movie, sleep, wake up, eat, drink watch a movie … then land. Sort of like being at home with hundreds of your closest friends and not much room, haha. Seriously, I love flying and even though it’s restrictive space-wise, I know it’s the start of a new adventure, and that gets my adrenalin pumping.

OK – flight booked – check.

Accommodation? Well, last year I stayed in 3 different hotels during my 3 weeks in France. This year I decided to rent an apartment so I’ll be able to do all my own cooking, and have access to a laundry. I think I spent a total of about 7 days online looking at every website known to man, trying to find an apartment that was ‘just right’.

Before I started my search, a great friend of mine from Iceland excitedly confirmed she’d be meeting me in Paris. Great! Now I can find an apartment for 2 of us! On the last day of online searching, on the very LAST apartment I looked at, I couldn’t believe my eyes – a huge apartment, 2 bedrooms, a lift (a rarity in centuries-old Parisian apartment buildings) and close to everything on Boulevarde Voltaire. I had already sent off quite a few enquiries, so I sent off this one as well.

After getting back lots of responses and narrowing down the list, I did end up deciding on the Blvd Voltaire apartment – the owners are delightful in their emails, and I’m really looking forward to meeting them. I’ll keep you up-to-date with all the other things I need to organise, as they unfold.

WHAT’S ON IN PARIS?

As Winter draws to a close in Paris, you can still do a spot of ice-skating or watch a rugby game, plus some other great things to see and do.

How about Banlieues Bleues : Five wonderful weeks of superb French and international jazz, R&B [rhythm & blues], soul and blues.

What about Le Printemps du cinema (Low-cost cinema) : Various venues across Paris show films for the bargain price of 3.50 euros. But be quick – it’s only on for 3 days.

Pop over to this page for lots more info >>

https://www.a-night-in-paris.com/paris-in-march.html

WHAT’S NEW ON THE WEBSITE

1. I’m concentrating on putting 20 new pages online – one for each arrondissement/district of Paris:

https://www.a-night-in-paris.com/paris-city-map.html

At the top of this page you’ll see a ‘breadcrumb’ mini-menu which shows which pages I’ve managed to do so far – pop back to read what’s great about each of the fabulous arrondissements of Paris.

2. New ‘look and feel’ — I’m changing the look of the website from its first ‘version’ to the new fresher version of the home page. I’m about half way through changing all the pages over, and I think it’s much easier to get around and find what you’re looking for. Let me know what you think!

3. At the bottom of many pages now you’ll see a request to ask a question or make a comment – this will eventually appear on every web page, and is a great way to post some of your own tips about Paris. The idea of this new Comment system is that each person who posts a question or comment will end up with their very OWN page on my website – how cool is that? You can upload photos and come back and post more comments on your page, get your friends to pop by and make a comment too.

4. I’m pleased to say I’ve joined forces with a well-known map company, and you’ll now find maps available for sale online on my Map pages. As a special deal for my customers and subscribers you can get 10% discount on every purchase. Maps of Paris (metro, streets, art) start from $US1.95 – check out the details here:

https://www.a-night-in-paris.com/paris-metro-map.html