Paris Master Thread

[Ploni3]

it is not available on points for my dates - unless  there is some work around that i don't know about.  I don't know if that affects its availability on sign-up free nights.

[@Yehuda]

it is not available on points for my dates - unless  there is some work around that i don't know about.  I don't know if that affects its availability on sign-up free nights.

Same availability.

[Ploni3]

so back to being open to suggestions for a second choice...

[Ploni3]

Need a fleighig place for business meeting -  Rav Rottenberg. Is the Indian place the only real choice?

[Ploni3]

Actually, would consider dairy if there was an exceptional choice.

[Yehoshua]

Actually, would consider dairy if there was an exceptional choice.

Lots of good dairy places in the wiki.

[Ploni3]

Thanks - but just looking for one that's appropriate for business.

[Yehoshua]

Thanks - but just looking for one that's appropriate for business.

I know. I saw people ok business meetings in Il Conte and and L'Inté Cafe.

[Dan]

Need a fleighig place for business meeting -  Rav Rottenberg. Is the Indian place the only real choice?

Darjeeling, Thai One, and Le Shine are the best glatt meat restaurants.
L'inte Cafe is the best dairy restaurant.

[Ploni3]

Merci beaucoup! 

[Ploni3]

Just figured I owe the forum something so let me share a few trip notes, for what they're worth. I ended up staying at a boutique hotel in la Marais called Dupont Smith. It is private so you're not going to get here on points and it isn't cheap but the room was good sized by Paris standards and very clean and comfortable. Staff was impeccable, per the limited interaction I had. Most importantly for me was that it is literally steps from Rue de Rosier which is the centre of kosher and shuls in the 04 area. There is another good and larger hotel in the area called Pavillon de la Reine but it wasn't available for my dates.
Davened at shul at 10 rue Pavais (shachris 7:50 and mincha/maariv about fifteen minutes before plag). There's a yeshiva directly across the street that davens shachris at 7:30.
I didn't really have time for touring as this was a business trip but I did do a bit of (trying) to shop for things to bring back for family etc. In general,  prices are expensive by North American standards, even for the things made in France and Europe. There is a built in tax of 20% and you can only get it partially refunded for purchases over 175 euros. There is a decent department store called BHV Marais about 3 minutes from the hotel and from Rue de Rosier. It is on Rue de Rivoli.  Beware that most discounts advertised on items in the store are only available to locals. You can ask a local to lend you their name at check out or else you have to settle for 10% discount that they offer to foreigners - much less than the 30-40% off that the French can get on many items. Don't expect to find many sales on top names, though.
There are a lot of stores featuring French made designs and handbags etc in the peripheral Marais neighbourhood so it is a good option for high quality stuff that is priced well below the super high end designers (most of which do have locations near BHV Marais).
If you're looking for that Guccu/Chanel type stuff but don't want to pay anywhere near the store prices, there are a number of consignment shops around the city where items that are usually in very good condition can be had for fractions of the cost. Probably the best is called Reciproque and it occupies a number of storefronts on Rue de la Pompe, just steps from the metro station Rue de la Pompe on line 9. It had far more for ladies than for men.
Another place you might want to check out is the outlet mall LA Valee Village. It is minutes away from Disney Land and can be reached by the RER which is to the Metro sort of like the LIRR is to the NY subway. You can pick it up at major metro stations and you need the Eastbound train to Disney. The mall is at the stop called Val d’Europe, the second last stop on the route, and the fare from Paris is about 8 euros.  When you exit the station, you first have to walk through a very large regular mall to your right to get to the outlet mall.  The trains run every 5-15 minutes and the trip is about 45 minutes from mid-Paris. Most of the big designers have outlets here and there are some bargains to be had - though I found them few and far in between.
As far as food, obviously you need to go by your Local Rabbi -  but I consulted with the head of a prominent North American kashrus organization and talked to people in Paris shul and heard the same thing. Rav Rottenberg haschgah is fine. He supervises a few places in Marais including a couple of bakeries and a few restaurants as well as Damyel - a confectionery store. As far as Beit din places, there is the glatt issue for North Americans, as well as an apparent issue with how bug checking is performed. I can't comment more than that. No one mentioned the chabad hashgacha so I don't know what the story is with that. I was told that there are a handful of non-Rav Rottenberg places that are individually reliable (ex-meat) but you need to get  personal recommendations on from locals who know. I found kosherinfrance a good website to use.
I ate at Pitzman a couple of times. Falafel was ok, pasta delicious and desert crepes very good. The bakery stuff at Korcarz and Benguigui was ok but I didn't try the more interesting stuff as I mostly was taking things to have with me for meetings etc throughout the day so it needed to be easily portable. The chocolate and macarons at Damyel are excellent and parve and they will package things in a hard box if you want to bring them back.
I held a businesses dinner meeting at Darjeeling. The food was good and the non-kosher people I was meeting with all said it was very tasty and authentic Indian food. Service was fine and the restaurant was somewhat noisy but still ok for our meeting.
Getting around town by Uber was pretty fine. Most places are within 15 minutes of each other, though rush hour can be busy, and the metro is also a good option.
I ubered into the city from Orly and the car was there in moments. The drive to the city was less than 30 minutes. On the way out it was rush hour so it took the Uber about 10 minutes to arrive as he navigated the busy local streets but even so the ride to CDG was only about 45 minutes.
It took me about 30 minutes to make it through customs and security, including dealing with the VAT refund but I was fasttracked on a business ticket so I'd recommend allowing at least double if not triple that much time. Some gates are also quite far from the checkin.
Hope this will be helpful for someone, one day.
 

[shmebeble]

Just figured I owe the forum something so let me share a few trip notes, for what they're worth. I ended up staying at a boutique hotel in la Marais called Dupont Smith. It is private so you're not going to get here on points and it isn't cheap but the room was good sized by Paris standards and very clean and comfortable. Staff was impeccable, per the limited interaction I had. Most importantly for me was that it is literally steps from Rue de Rosier which is the centre of kosher and shuls in the 04 area. There is another good and larger hotel in the area called Pavillon de la Reine but it wasn't available for my dates.
Davened at shul at 10 rue Pavais (shachris 7:50 and mincha/maariv about fifteen minutes before plag). There's a yeshiva directly across the street that davens shachris at 7:30.
I didn't really have time for touring as this was a business trip but I did do a bit of (trying) to shop for things to bring back for family etc. In general,  prices are expensive by North American standards, even for the things made in France and Europe. There is a built in tax of 20% and you can only get it partially refunded for purchases over 175 euros. There is a decent department store called BHV Marais about 3 minutes from the hotel and from Rue de Rosier. It is on Rue de Rivoli.  Beware that most discounts advertised on items in the store are only available to locals. You can ask a local to lend you their name at check out or else you have to settle for 10% discount that they offer to foreigners - much less than the 30-40% off that the French can get on many items. Don't expect to find many sales on top names, though.
There are a lot of stores featuring French made designs and handbags etc in the peripheral Marais neighbourhood so it is a good option for high quality stuff that is priced well below the super high end designers (most of which do have locations near BHV Marais).
If you're looking for that Guccu/Chanel type stuff but don't want to pay anywhere near the store prices, there are a number of consignment shops around the city where items that are usually in very good condition can be had for fractions of the cost. Probably the best is called Reciproque and it occupies a number of storefronts on Rue de la Pompe, just steps from the metro station Rue de la Pompe on line 9. It had far more for ladies than for men.
Another place you might want to check out is the outlet mall LA Valee Village. It is minutes away from Disney Land and can be reached by the RER which is to the Metro sort of like the LIRR is to the NY subway. You can pick it up at major metro stations and you need the Eastbound train to Disney. The mall is at the stop called Val d’Europe, the second last stop on the route, and the fare from Paris is about 8 euros.  When you exit the station, you first have to walk through a very large regular mall to your right to get to the outlet mall.  The trains run every 5-15 minutes and the trip is about 45 minutes from mid-Paris. Most of the big designers have outlets here and there are some bargains to be had - though I found them few and far in between.
As far as food, obviously you need to go by your Local Rabbi -  but I consulted with the head of a prominent North American kashrus organization and talked to people in Paris shul and heard the same thing. Rav Rottenberg haschgah is fine. He supervises a few places in Marais including a couple of bakeries and a few restaurants as well as Damyel - a confectionery store. As far as Beit din places, there is the glatt issue for North Americans, as well as an apparent issue with how bug checking is performed. I can't comment more than that. No one mentioned the chabad hashgacha so I don't know what the story is with that. I was told that there are a handful of non-Rav Rottenberg places that are individually reliable (ex-meat) but you need to get  personal recommendations on from locals who know. I found kosherinfrance a good website to use.
I ate at Pitzman a couple of times. Falafel was ok, pasta delicious and desert crepes very good. The bakery stuff at Korcarz and Benguigui was ok but I didn't try the more interesting stuff as I mostly was taking things to have with me for meetings etc throughout the day so it needed to be easily portable. The chocolate and macarons at Damyel are excellent and parve and they will package things in a hard box if you want to bring them back.
I held a businesses dinner meeting at Darjeeling. The food was good and the non-kosher people I was meeting with all said it was very tasty and authentic Indian food. Service was fine and the restaurant was somewhat noisy but still ok for our meeting.
Getting around town by Uber was pretty fine. Most places are within 15 minutes of each other, though rush hour can be busy, and the metro is also a good option.
I ubered into the city from Orly and the car was there in moments. The drive to the city was less than 30 minutes. On the way out it was rush hour so it took the Uber about 10 minutes to arrive as he navigated the busy local streets but even so the ride to CDG was only about 45 minutes.
It took me about 30 minutes to make it through customs and security, including dealing with the VAT refund but I was fasttracked on a business ticket so I'd recommend allowing at least double if not triple that much time. Some gates are also quite far from the checkin.
Hope this will be helpful for someone, one day.

It's helpful already

[Ploni3]

Should that report be in the trip reports section or does it belong here because it is light on travel and hotel arrangements?

[Elchay]

I have a 12 hour stopover in Paris next week. Landing at 5:00 am and departing 5:00 pm. Would like to daven, eat breakfast, do some sights and then a late lunch before heading back to the airport. I think we will do the "hop-on hop-off" bus ending at teh Arc and walking down Champ-Elysees to Il Conte for lunch.
Any ideas where to catch an early shachris and eat breakfast?

[Dawie]

Should that report be in the trip reports section or does it belong here because it is light on travel and hotel arrangements?

TR section can be linked to here

[Ploni3]

TR section can be linked to here

Ok. Don't know how but if someone wants to do so, go ahead please.

[Ploni3]

I have a 12 hour stopover in Paris next week. Landing at 5:00 am and departing 5:00 pm. Would like to daven, eat breakfast, do some sights and then a late lunch before heading back to the airport. I think we will do the "hop-on hop-off" bus ending at teh Arc and walking down Champ-Elysees to Il Conte for lunch.
Any ideas where to catch an early shachris and eat breakfast?

Can only speak for Marais. The the yeshiva across from the shul at 10 Rue Pave has a netz minyan so that might work depending what time of year you travel and how quickly you get there. The shul itself davens 750 but there are other shuls in Marais davening about 720. Pave shul is 2 minutes from 2 bakeries but they open 8 and won't serve you sitting until 10.

[David1]

Planning on going to Paris in the summer, Any must do restaurants and Bakeries?

[Yehoshua]

Planning on going to Paris in the summer, Any must do restaurants and Bakeries?

I don't think any food place in Paris is a "must do," but L'As du Falafel has great falafel and Damyel has great dark chocolate.

[Ploni3]

Well, I'd add the macarons at Damyel.