Thanks for the reminders, Amy.

For Paris, get some croissant almondine!! ( love love love chocolate, but these almond croissants blew me away!!)

On a different note (and in an effort to make an effort): are you still up for coffee sometime?

Anyways, this is a great post and I totally agree with what you said about the “expensive” friends thing!

My American friends visited in March a few years back (I came and joined them from London) and they were freezing as they assumed spring time in Paris would be just like the films – sunshine, blossom, etc. They ended up buying hats and gloves to keep warm -(and that shopping trip wasn’t the stylish experience you would desire, as the dollar to euro rate was so tough, they could only afford market stall, sweatshop stuff you could get anywhere.)

Musee D’orsay is a must.

FNAC are book and music stores kind of like Borders, but with a greater range of stuff (and were originally set up by a trades union 100 years ago!) They are open late and we have spent several evenings in FNAC using the listening stations to sample obscure French Ska and folk music.

You knit, so check out La Drogurie yarn and haberdashery. It’s charming and super tasteful – buttons, ribbons, all that stuff. You will need to speak some french to make a purchase. http://www.ladroguerie.com/yarn store

Self cater as much as you can – breakfast in a hotel will be 10 times more expensive than popping out to have coffee and croissant in the boulangerie across the street, which is far more interesting. French supermarkets are also totally fascinating too, the range in an ordinary branch of Carrefour is amazing – tinned duck pate, lychee sorbet,earl grey jam, etc.

Paris is pretty safe, but the pickpocket situation on the metro is as bad as several people have already mentioned. They pick on tourists during busytimes. Keep your bag across your body and zipped up.

Have fun!

In Paris, if you do the Louvre, I recommend going to the Carrousel du Louvre shopping centre lobby and buying tickets there out of a machine. You can get tickets with zero wait, as opposed to an hour or two wait in the lobby of the Louvre! We didn’t gawk at every exhibit – we had a “top 10 must-see” list of things to check out and we focused on those. Otherwise you could spend days in there. Notre-Dame was our favourite building in Paris, and it’s free. Definitely have a chocolate croissant and a latte. For beautiful views of the city, go up to Montmartre and visit Sacre-Couer. There are some great places to eat in Montmartre as well. We ate at a great restaurant called Bofinger which is near the Bastille. It’s fancy but not toooo fancy – but it was our ‘nice’ meal of the trip.

For NYC, Central Park is a must-do. I agree with the people who said to do Top of the Rock instead of Empire State. We loved going to Macy’s in Herald Square even though it was a gong show and too busy to do much browsing. Magnolia Bakery is a great treat. I loved Grand Central and the NY Public Library main branch (5th Ave between 40th and 42nd) – probably my favourite building we visited in the city. It’s gorgeous inside.