Interesting links and notes on updates to my main website.



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Paris neighbourhoods

The situation is confusing because there are both numbers with matching names (the 20 arrondissements) as well as names for different areas (districts / quartiers) which don't map directly to one arrondissement.

Sometimes when you're searching e.g. for hotels they will list only by arrondissement name, other times only by number, other times by area names.  They're numbered in a spiral outwards - one through eight are kind of the inner core, after that they are progressively farther out.

Here are the numbers and names

1 - Louvre
2 - Bourse
3 - Temple
4 - Hôtel-de-Ville
5 - Panthéon
6 - Luxembourg
7 - Palais-Bourbon
8 - Élysée
9 - Opéra
10 - Entrepôt, previously called Enclos Saint-Laurent
11 - Popincourt
12 - Reuilly
13 - Gobelins
14 - Observatoire
15 - Vaugirard
16 - Passy
17 - Batignolles-Monceau
18 - Butte-Montmartre
19 - Buttes-Chaumont   
20 - Ménilmontant

This is a very good quick guide, with maps: aviewoncities.com - Arrondissements of Paris

Here are some districts:

Île de la Cité and Île Saint-Louis (mostly in the 4th although the end of Île de la Cité is in the 1st)

Châtelet-Les-Halles - can refer to a major transit station, the area around it, or a broader area in the 1er and 2e around where the old market (Les Halles) used to be

Faubourg Saint-Honoré - street (and to some extent surrounding area) with famous shopping in the 8e

Bastille / Place de la Bastille - touches the corners of the 4e, 11e and 12e

Montmartre - in the 18e on and around the Butte-Montmartre

Le Marais - covers some parts of the 3e and the 4e

Saint-Germain-des-Prés / Faubourg Saint-Germain - in the 6th around the church of the former Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés (see map and info Quartier Saint-Germain-des-Prés)

Odéon - in the 6th centred around the théâtre de l'Odéon (see map Quartier de l'Odéon)

Invalides & École Militaire - in the 7e around these landmarks

Montparnasse - in the 14e around the cemetary cemetery and tower, although may extend into the 6e and the 15e as part of the Boulevard du Montparnasse

Oberkampf (in the 11th)

Trocadero (in the 16e)

Latin Quarter - parts of 5e and 6e around the universities - see Quartier latin

Canal Saint-Martin (in the 10th and 11th along the canal)

Wikipedia - Paris Districts is a useful although incomplete guide.   parislogue.com - Paris Neighborhoods is also useful.

Labels: paris, travel

posted by Richard at 16:07 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

when in Rome (2)

Second review of Apartment Amore Di Ripetta booked through Rome-Accom:
(Updated with more information about the trip in general.)

* great support from Leon Kammer, when I discovered I had booked over Good Friday - Easter Monday long weekend and wanted to move the reservation back a week

It's quiet and bright, a great location for exploring the city.

You can get groceries at a small corner grocery store (Alimentari) just down the alley (see it in streetview), or there is a well-hidden large (for downtown Rome) grocery store at 22a Via Vittoria.

Di per Di, Via Vittoria 22a (Google Map)
It's down a long corridor. Look for the arched entrance at the intersection of Via Vittoria and Via Bocca di Leone.

* the hot water heater wasn't working and I didn't quite understand Modesto's instructions on how to fix it - however Rosie came and fixed it and explained in more detail exactly the (somewhat complicated) steps to follow to get it working (Rosie and Modesto are the English-speaking local contacts in case of any problems)

* You're supposed to phone the apartment contact when you're leaving the airport so they can be there to meet you with the keys

* I took the SITbus from the airport (Fiumicino / FCO, Leonardo da Vinci), it worked out great. It's 8 euros. You can book it online although they will also sell you a ticket while you wait. Much cheaper than a taxi or doing a train plus a metro to get near the apartment. It is not particularly easy to find - follow the bus signs inside the airport, then go outside, up some steps and across the street.

You can see the ramp you need to go up in streetview. Go up it, cross the street, and you should see the SITbus sign.



Piazza Cavour was a good dropoff location for me. The bus from the airport only goes to Cavour and Termini (the train station). It has lots of room for luggage, but MAKE SURE you get your bags put into the Piazza Cavour luggage section of the bus, otherwise you will end up with them buried behind a ton of Termini bags and have to crawl in and bang your head (err, based on my experience).

So unless you're somewhere near Cavour, you may be better off just taking the train directly to the station downtown (it's called the Leonardo Express and it's only 14 euros) although the train supposedly can be quite crowded and pickpocket-y. The bus only had a few people on it and was quite comfortable.

I found these Ron in Rome postings about getting from the airport to be useful:
* The Train Station at FCO
* New – FCO SITBus Shuttle although there is no validation machine for tickets, unlike what it says in the post

More about Rome visiting in general:

First off, if you're looking to see Ancient Rome, don't set very high expectations.
Two things happened: one, a thousand years of neglect led to the remains of ancient Rome now being metres underground, under buildings and paved plazas and two, more significantly, Renaissance Rome ate Ancient Rome. The popes in particular but also various princes and nobles used ancient Rome as a source of building materials and knickknacks. Many temples were deliberately destroyed as their pagan nature offended the church. It also didn't help that Rome was invaded repeatedly. What is left is basically rubble that wasn't of interest, and a very small number of freestanding structures that partially survived. So what you're talking basically is the Pantheon, the remains of the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine, and Trajan's Column.

The rest is very hard to understand, bits of buildings and crumbled stone, and unfortunately very few reconstructions available so you know what you're looking at. (There are reconstructions but mostly out at Museo della Civiltà Romana, far from the city centre.)

I did like the Ara Pacis museum, which has a reconstruction of how it was sited, and a well-preserved object.

It's not that lots of stuff wasn't left, but to see it you have to go to e.g. the Vatican Museums, where the best bits that were dug up and taken are highlighted.

I did the Viator Skip the Line 8 AM tour, it was good. I think the guide's name was Katrina, she was amusing. It's Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel, I don't think they do the tour inside St. Peter's (it didn't open until 1 PM that day, so we didn't go, anyway). It was a 7 person group, with headsets, and we definitely did beat the line - breezing in, tickets picked up for us, walked through security no problems and right on into the museum. We didn't wait in any lines.

An important note: make sure they can reach you. Contact numbers and email. Our tour was actually scheduled for Tuesday but the Vatican wasn't opening early that day - they contacted me by email while I was in Rome and I was able to call them and get it rescheduled for Thursday.

The departure is from the TOP of the steps next to Caffè Vaticano. Vaticano is self-serve so we didn't have any trouble sitting there without buying anything for a few minutes after we walked to the Vatican from our apartment. There also wasn't any problem using the washroom at the Caffe although rather disturbingly I couldn't figure out how to lock the door of the single unit they provide (there are only washrooms at the very beginning and the very end of the 3 hour Vatican tour). Here's the streetview.

I got a Roma Pass which gets you past the (potentially very long) ticket line at the Colosseum, and three days of public transit, as well as discounts at other museums.

For Galleria Borghese I recommend NOT prepaying your tickets. Phone and book them to pick up. That way if you don't actually manage to go (as has happened to me the last two visits) you're not out-of-pocket any money.

I enjoyed the Galleria Doria Pamphilj, I read about it in an article in the Globe:

It's called the Galleria Doria Pamphilj and contains one of Europe's finest private collections, including works by Velasquez, Raphael, Titian and Caravaggio, plus a mummified saint. Make sure to get the audio guide. It is narrated by Jonathan Doria Pamphilj, who brings the palace (still his home) to life; as a kid, he would roller-skate through its galleries.

Globe and Mail - Rome, without the crowds - July 17, 2009

The gallery was indeed very good, the narration charming and the crowds absent.
It's really quite surprising that it's not crowded as it is right smack downtown. It is not particularly "near" the Pantheon (despite what the article says, or I suppose, depending on your definition of "near"). Reading my map, I looked for an entrance off of, I think, Via del Plebiscito, but to no avail. The entrance is in fact on Via del Corso, near the Piazza Venezia. Here's a streetview. The audioguide is included with the price of admission. It's not particularly well set up with signage, basically once you buy your tickets you wander in and up some stairs, and once you're done you wander down some stairs and out.

Overall it was a very good stay in Rome again.

Previously:
January 02, 2010 when in Rome

Labels: review, rome, travel

posted by Richard at 12:01 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

when in Roam

the cheapest solution to having a cellphone in Europe is (I think) to rent in-country

that has two issues: hassle / language barrier, and you don't know your phone # before you start your trip

There are lots of different options for getting SIM cards in advance of travel.

I've tried eKit, which works ok but is a big pain because firstly, it's a dial-back system (you make a call, then it calls you back with the connection) and secondly, it's pre-paid, so you have to keep filling it up.

I like RoamSimple better - it's post-paid directly to your credit card and their support was very patient with me when I couldn't get my SIM to work (it turned out that my unlocked phone had gotten locked somehow).

UPDATE 2010-03-08: I got a RoamSimple SIM (Orange network) for France, but when I went to use it, the line had been deactivated. RoamSimple support is always responsive, but they have no way to fix the problem, so I'm reluctant to recommend them in future. In theory any SIM they provide should work in North America, if you want to test before you go somewhere.

UPDATE 2010-06-14: RoamSimple is no longer providing country-specific SIMs for France, Italy, Ireland and Germany. Since a country-specific SIM was the main benefit, I no longer recommend RoamSimple. You can get SIMs in-country (although it is a bit of a hassle, particularly if you don't know the language and you don't know how to get the best deal).

Labels: travel

posted by Richard at 09:14 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

when in Rome

Review of Apartment Amore Di Ripetta booked through Rome-Accom:

Had a great time staying in this apartment and plan to come back. It was hot in Rome when we were there at the end of May 2009, so we were glad that there was air conditioning, albeit a single unit in the master bedroom.

The apartment is spacious and was spotlessly clean. It includes a covered patio, living room, dining area, two good-sized bedrooms each with its own bathroom, and a nice kitchen. There are steps to go up to get to it, or if you prefer you can take a traditional small slow European elevator.

While notionally in the Spanish Steps area, it's actually closer to Piazza del Popolo, the Flaminio metro stop, and the Villa Borghese. Near the heart of the action in the Tridente, it's nevertheless on a quiet side street. There are restaurants and a cafe around the corner in a pedestrian alley, and all of Rome just steps beyond.

The only thing that was missing is wifi (wireless Internet), but there is free wifi in the Villa Borghese park nearby (requires an Italian cellphone number to access).

There were only two issues we encountered when we were there:

1) The air conditioner drips a lot, we had to put a bucket below it when it was running.

2) The automatic watering system for the plants on the balcony was turned off with no way to turn it back on, and we worried the plants might die; we watered them by hand.

Labels: review, rome, travel

posted by Richard at 11:29 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Euro exchange rates in Ottawa

It should be possible to crowdsource this daily, but anyway, I single-sourced it.

to buy 1 Euro

TD Bank 1.6428
Calforex (3rd floor Rideau Centre) 1.6055 (2:26 PM)
Accu-Rate (World Exchange) 1.6221
Calforex (3rd floor Rideau Centre) 1.5988 (3:01 PM)

So in summary: Calforex has the best rate by far, but be aware that its rate really does change during the day.

Previously:
March 09, 2007 cheapest options for foreign currency for Canadians?

Labels: foreign exchange, forex, money, travel

posted by Richard at 15:46 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Eurofinger

The European Commission will today recommend fingerprinting and photographing every foreign traveller who enters or leaves the EU to create a security database aimed at curbing and tracking terrorist movements.

The proposals will then go before the European Parliament for approval. Officials, speaking off the record, said it would be "at least a year" before an operational network spanning the continent could be established.

The Herald - Bid to collect fingerprints of EU travellers - February 13 2008

Dear European Commission,

Please fuck off.

Sincerely,

Me

1. This DOESN'T WORK

You don't need more DATA, you need more on-the-ground intelligence.

2. You're fighting a war of IDEAS. To win, you need better ideas. Like, oh say, freedom for example.
Real actual freedom, not slogan freedom.

Labels: rant, security theatre, travel

posted by Richard at 20:11 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

doing the Air Canada Tango

Air Canada Tango and Tango Plus are non-refundable fares.

If you think you can get around that by upgrading from a Tango to a Latitude fare afterwards (since Latitude fares ARE refundable), it won't work. Although it doesn't say it anywhere on the website that I could see, they consider Tango-upgraded-to-Latitude to still be a base Tango ticket, and they won't refund it.

In case you're wondering, I wasn't really paying attention when I was booking Tango Plus, and I ended up paying way too much for a flight that I am now, apparently, stuck with (I can play around with the dates and times, but I can't cancel the ticket). (In the unlikely event you're wondering why I booked Tango Plus at all, instead of Westjet or whatever, it's because I am obsessed with getting Teh Prestige.)

They will also cheerfully royally screw you on airfare changes: if you move from a higher airfare to a lower one, you'll get no refund, but if you try to move back to the higher airfare, they'll charge you AGAIN to "move up".

Labels: travel

posted by Richard at 10:12 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

the many URLs problem - phishing or not

In phishing, crooks create likely-looking but entirely fake websites, and then get you to enter all your info. Typically they may e.g. steal a bank's HTML and use it to make a page that sends passwords to them, taking advantage of the fact that unless you are extraordinarily attentive and reasonably tech-savvy and security-conscious, you are unlikely to be able to distinguish a real webpage from an essentially identical real-looking page.

If you are tech savvy, mostly you just check the URL and the page source to make sure it doesn't have evildoer.biz.scam in it somewhere.

Problem being, if you don't know the true legitimate URL and page contents, it's hard to know real from fake. I have had this problem several times with European hotels, which seem to create multiple and slightly different websites at different URLs.

One would hope Google would magically sort this out, but instead the results cluster at the top of the page. Which is the One True Site? I dunno. Of course you can protect yourself by booking through a travel site or agent you trust, but it's still very bad web citizenship. Presumably it's good for their web traffic though, although I'd argue having a single top result is better than having three similar results that are top ranked.

Some examples:

Hotel Brunelleschi in Florence
Is the real site http://www.hotelbrunelleschi.it/ or http://www.brunelleschihotelflorence.com/ or are they equally valid?

Hotel Abbatial St. Germain in Paris
Both of these proclaim they are the OFFICIAL SITE:
http://www.abbatial-paris-hotel.com/
http://www.hotelabbatialsaintgermain.com/

This is going to get even worse, perhaps catastrophically so, when they start allowing accented and non-Roman character sets in domain names.

Labels: rant, travel, web

posted by Richard at 17:23 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

carbon offset for PHL

Tried to buy carbon offset for YOW - YYZ - PHL through MyClimate.org partner planetair.ca but there was a minor and a major problem, and a question.

The minor problem is the form is slow, so you have to type YOW... wait... select Ottawa airport, type YYZ, wait... etc.

The major problem is that after it goes and calculates it all

Emissions:
0.49 Tonnes

Cost (Gold Standard):
$16.66 CAD

with tax $18.98 CAD

PayPal then gives "page not found", which is not a big confidence builder.

The question is that it's unclear what if any advantage there is to buying through planetair, versus just buying direct from MyClimate.

Anyway with planetair broken I bought from MyClimate.org anyway

flight from: Ottawa, ON [Macdonald-Cartier International Airport], Canada, YOW
flight to: Philadelphia, PA [Philadelphia International Airport], USA, PHL
flight via: Toronto, ON [Lester B. Pearson International Airport], Canada, YYZ
return, economy
flight distance: 1'845 km
flight passengers: 1

CO2 Emissions: 0,511 t

Total costs for compensation of your flight: SFr. 20.00

According to Google

20 Swiss francs = 16.3543582 Canadian dollars

Labels: carbon offset, travel

posted by Richard at 18:19 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Toronto the not so good

Conversation I imagined having with the taxi driver at Toronto airport:

me: "sorry, I forgot to write down the hotel address, but it's the Four Points Sheraton near the airport, not the one at Terminal 3"

taxi driver: "no problem sir, I will contact dispatching to get the address and then we will be on our way"

Actual conversation I had with him:

me: (see above, more or less)

taxi driver: "you don't know the address, get out of my cab"

There's some charming customer service for you.

In case you're wondering why I didn't know the address, I made the reservation in the middle of the airport, after my flight was delayed, and due to a combination of conference exhaustion, lack of a printer, and inattention, I neglected to write it down, and I just had enough time after making the reservation to do a bit of blog stuff and then board the plane.

And also in case you're wondering, I didn't get out of his taxi, I very reasonably called Sheraton on my cell, which took all of 1 minute to get me the address, with him (I am not making this up) complaining at me every 10 seconds about still being in his car without an address, which was for a hotel all of 3 minutes away. Which epic voyage he charged me $16 for. And yes, I tipped him $4, giving him $20, and said thank you. Rather than not tipping him and telling him he was a total asshole, which is what he deserved.

Oh, and I should add that all of this happened at 12:30 AM in the morning, a charming midnight hour, after a 5 hour flight from San Francisco.

Welcome to Toronto!

Labels: travel

posted by Richard at 01:03 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Tylenol travel

If like me you can't take aspirin or ibuprofen, you may be distressed when travelling and looking for the comforting Tylenol bottle, or at least a bottle marked "acetaminophen".

In the UK at least, the magic word is Paracetamol, brand name typically Panadol.

For other countries, you should consult a handy list of brand names.

Labels: medication, travel

posted by Richard at 14:19 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

train

This train sounds nice

Globe - Getting there très rapidement

I think I will take it.

Labels: train, travel

posted by Richard at 11:06 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

washing away my carbon sins

Green My Flight Summary

Itinerary:

OTTAWA - YOW to WASHINGTON - IAD: 725.0 km

Total Distance: 1449.9 km
Total Emissions: 197.0 kg
Program Cost: $7.00

MyClimate summary

flight from: Ottawa, ON [Macdonald-Cartier International Airport], Canada, YOW
flight to: Washington, DC [Washington Dulles International Airport], USA, IAD
return, economy
flight distance: 1'448 km
flight passengers: 1

CO2 Emissions: 0,34 t
Total costs for compensation of your flight: SFr. 13.71

Doing a day trip to Washington sounds a lot cooler before you realize you have to get up at 3 AM in order to get ready and go to the airport for your 6 AM flight.

Labels: carbon offset, travel

posted by Richard at 07:30 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

London calling. Ok, Euroanyone calling.

So I have this fancy cellphone on an outrageously expensive contract, in part so that it would be guaranteed to work in Europe, but it still wasn't easy.

So obviously first:
- make sure you have a GSM cellphone that works in some or all Euro bands
- make sure your cellphone provider has roaming agreements for Europe
- make sure your cellphone provider has activated roaming for your phone

Next:
- make sure you actually know how to dial local European numbers
- make sure you have a working test number that you can call

I thought I had taken care of all of the first set, but I was unexpectedly stymied by the second set.

Euro phone numbers look like

+44 (0)20 7387 ####

That's

+countrycode (I can make a + on my phone by pressing 0 twice)
optional-zero-if-local
phone number

The number of digits after the country code may, I think, vary by country.
So it makes it difficult to know if you have a well-formed phone number.
Also, I don't know what conventions, if any, there are for toll free ("green") numbers, and a lot of calls that would be free in US/Canada (e.g. check the weather) are toll numbers (e.g. a certain number of Euro-cents per minute).

Anyway, to call this number from outside the country, you're supposed to know you don't dial the zero after the country code, e.g. from Canada

011 44 20 7387 ####

but INSIDE the country you do dial the zero, e.g.

020 7387 ####

To call Euro-Euro (from another country), it would be +44 20 7387 ####.

So I tried a couple numbers and they didn't work,
so then I spent a long time on hold with Rogers one day,
and a long time on hold with Rogers a second day,
and then it worked.

It's possible, however, that it was working all along, but
a) I didn't have any valid numbers to call
b) I wasn't composing the numbers correctly

So the moral is: know what the hell you're doing.

Other options:
- get your phone unlocked, and then buy/rent a local SIM and phone number
- buy or rent an entire phone

RailEurope will sell you a phone that works in Europe for US$39.

http://www.raileurope.ekit.com/ekit/MobileHome

Labels: cellphone, travel

posted by Richard at 09:38 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

France photos

164 photos selected from over 600 taken

Flickr > Collection > France April-May 2007

Labels: photos, travel

posted by Richard at 07:53 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

breakfast in ameriparis

If you're in Paris and having fun but asking yourself

Mais où sont les breakfasts d'antan?

I recommend to you Breakfast in America, which has a regular American style all-day breakfast, and WiFi.

Labels: breakfast, travel

posted by Richard at 05:01 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

defence in annoying depth

Dear Airports,

I know defence in depth is all good stuff and I know we have a huge threat of airplane terrorism, what with their having been, oh, one incident in my entire lifetime out of billions of flights, but

for god's sake, establish a secure zone for connecting flights.

You know what I DON'T like doing after spending 7 hours on a plane?
I don't like having to wander around the airport in order to find security in order to get checked again to go fly on another plane.

Labels: security, travel

posted by Richard at 12:44 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

setting off

Green My Flight Summary

Itinerary:

OTTAWA - YOW to PARIS - CDG: 5663.2 km

Total Distance: 11326.4 km
Total Emissions: 1539.3 kg
Program Cost: $38.48

myclimate

flight from: Ottawa, ON [Macdonald-Cartier International Airport], Canada, YOW
flight to: Paris [Charles de Gaulle], France, CDG
return, economy
flight distance: 11'329 km
flight passengers: 1

CO2 Emissions: 2,548 t
Total costs for compensation of your flight: SFr. 102.74

Labels: carbon offset, travel

posted by Richard at 08:08 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

back from inside the beltway



Above picture from near my hotel in Alexandria, Virginia.

Washington is warmer than Ottawa, AND they have grand public buildings, AND they have a subway. Not fair.

The subway ran from right outside my hotel in Alexandria to downtown Washington.

I'm doing double carbon offset, on the theory that at least one of them might do some good:

Green My Flight Summary
Itinerary:
OTTAWA - YOW to WASHINGTON - IAD: 725.0 km

Total Distance: 1449.9 km
Total Emissions: 197.0 kg
Program Cost: $7.00

MyClimate

flight from: Ottawa, ON [Macdonald-Cartier International Airport], Canada, YOW
flight to: Washington, DC [Washington Dulles International Airport], USA, IAD
return, economy
flight distance: 1'448 km
flight passengers: 1
CO2 Emissions: 0,34 t
Total costs for compensation of your flight: SFr. 13.71
+ SFr. 5 "handling charge"
+ credit card foreign exchange fees

(Google says 18.71 Swiss francs = about 17.50 Canadian dollars)

Labels: carbon offset, travel

posted by Richard at 21:58 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

fun with money

The currency of Estonia is the kroon.
Now, I know that lots of countries have currencies that are the local language version of "crown", but I still think "kroon" has a certain alien appeal.

Plus which, the symbol for it is EEK.

So (since Google knows both currency and math), you can ask Google questions like

http://www.google.ca/search?q=1+EEK+in+Canadian+dollars

and it will happily inform you that

1 Estonian kroon = 0.0987520763 Canadian dollars

You can also do stuff like

(1800 + 2350 + 1458) estonian kroons in canadian dollars

if you need to figure out combined costs... in case you're wondering

(1 800 + 2 350 + 1 458) * Estonian kroons = 553.801644 Canadian dollars

Labels: money, travel

posted by Richard at 23:39 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)