Paris Journal 2008
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I’m having some trouble with Yahoo.com’s domain name forwarding service for my b2cool.com domain, so in my searching around for a solution, I found a page that shows me where my web site traffic is coming from, generally. I’m surprised to learn that by country, 27.5 percent of you are from the U.S., 8.6 percent from India, 4.5 percent from China, 4 percent from Mexico, 3.8 percent from Indonesia, and 3.5 percent from Brazil. More amazing are the figures by city: 4.4 percent from Santiago, 2.3 percent from Lima, 1.6 percent from Bogata, 1.5 percent from Caracas, only 1.2 percent from New York, and 1.2 percent from Jakarta. Wow. Welcome to everyone. Jim H. asked how we got to know our German friends, Arnold and Mareen. The simple answer is, Sanibel. Specifically, for many years, they stayed in the house across the street from us for a couple weeks every March. To follow-up on the situation with Dan, here’s a New York Times article from the Sunday the 10th. He is feeling a little better every day. Our English friends, Carol, Ron, and Emma, came over to our place last night for drinks & snacks, then we all walked up to La Gauloise for dinner (see restaurant recommendations). The food was exactly what Emma wanted, which is good because she’d just had a disastrously bad lunch at a brasserie on rue de Rennes. It is a bit expensive, but La Gauloise has a really good steak. Emma was very pleased with it. I had the duck breast and puréed potatoes. Both my duck and Emma’s steak came with nice, rich reduction sauces. I don’t remember what anyone else had for a main course. We ordered dessert, and mine was a lovely, dark, rich moelleaux au chocolat (chocolate fondant). After dinner, we walked on to the Champ de Mars to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up in blue. We were also there at the right time to see it sparkle. It was lovely, as always. Carol, Ron and Emma decided to walk at least part of the way home along the Seine, so we said our good nights and Tom & I strolled home. We had wanted to go to L’Épopée for dinner, but like so many places on this long holiday weekend/week, it is closed. It reopens on the 25th. Other places will start to reopen on the 18th. Before the end of the month, Paris will be back in full swing and all those frenetic Parisians will be scurrying about everywhere. The economic figures for the second quarter of the year have been released, and they show a 0.2 percent shrinkage of the economy here. Not to worry, says the expert from Barclay’s, it takes two quarters in a row of shrinkage for it to be a recession. I know some experts say three quarters, but who’s splitting hairs? The Barclay’s expert says there surely won’t be two quarters in a row of shrinkage, but perhaps there will be stagnation. I beg to disagree. I can tell you right now from what I hear shopkeepers and others saying about the state of business in Paris that there darn well could be two quarters of shrinkage. We’re already halfway through this quarter, and business isn’t good. Shops are fairly empty. Exports are sharply down. That’s why the Europeans are finally allowing the dollar to go back where it should be. At the same time, hotel rates continue to rise in France. There’s been a 41 percent increase in prices since 2001. That’s two and a half times the rate of inflation (17 percent). In just the first six months of 2008, the price of hotel rooms climbed by 7.4 percent, or three times more than the cost of living increase (2.1 percent). Since 2001, the average price (single occupancy) for one star hotels has gone from €29 to €41. The two stars, from €46 to €66, and the three stars from €96 to €137. Four and five star hotels have increased their prices even more. The hotel people say the reason for the increase is the increase in the cost of electricity, gas, and food. But in addition, the minimum wage has increased by 25 percent in three years. Renovation costs are high, too. To render an old hotel of 60 rooms handicapped accessible costs about €180,000. Renovation costs are important, because a quarter of France’s 18,000 hotels are classed as “shabby” or “worn out” (vetuste). According to a recent study by Coach Omnium, 42 percent of France’s hotel customers think the prices are too high. 36 percent think that the reception at hotels is insufficient. 35 percent complain about the noise, and 23 percent think the hotels are not clean. Most importantly to the French, 28 percent complain about the hotel food. The average price of a hotel room in Paris is now €197 per night, which, the hotel people claim, is still less than London and New York. Well, London, I might believe. But with the devaluation of the dollar, I have I hard time believing that is true for New York, because that would mean that the average price of a New York hotel room is over $300 per night. Could that possibly be true?
Economic and hotel price figures
come from the newspaper, Le Parisien. |
Sat. – Sun., Aug. 16-17, 2008
The Eiffel Tower as seen from the avenue de Saxe on a
non-market day. On market days,
Thursday and Saturday in the case of this Saxe-Breteuil market,
this area would be filled with meat, fish, and produce vendors. Click here
for a more complete list of Paris markets.
View of St. Louis church at Invalides, from the avenue
de Breteuil.
The back of the our local fire station, as seen from
the Parc Violet. This was once a home
for a man named Violet, who had something to do with real estate development
in the area.
Lovely ironwork on an apartment building entry on the
avenue Emile Zola.
We refer to fancy coffee shops as places that serve
that “Art coffee.” Well, here’s a
place called “Art thé,” meaning
“Art tea.” |
