Got a ticket booked for France in the Fall. Instead of stay­ing in Paris, I’m going to be liv­ing with Frédéric and Misun in the town of Chartres. That way I’ll save money on acco­mo­da­tions, since the train goes to Paris every hour, only takes an hour, and is much cheaper than a night for a hotel there.

With three weeks booked, I know I’ll be able to go at my own pace in the city, with plenty of time to spend with Frédéric, Misun, and the boys too.

books on France

These three Frommer’s books came in one pack. I was happy to find one that focused on Paris alone.

My French com­pre­hen­sion has rusted to the point of being non-existent, so the dic­tio­nary and phrase book seemed like a good idea too. It’s filled with hilar­i­ous pho­netic pro­nun­ci­a­tions, like “ehs-kuh tueh praw~ lah peel-uel” for “Est-ce que tu prends la pil­lule?” or “Are you on birth con­trol?” in the Getting Intimate sec­tion. I wouldn’t be sur­prised if Paris was the only city to have this sec­tion, which includes trans­la­tions for “Harder!”, “Faster!”, “Deeper!”, and “May I come inside?” (although I sus­pect the last one isn’t exactly the mean­ing I’m thinking).

Paris Moleskine

I also bought this Paris Moleskine, embossed with the city’s name on the spine. It’s over­priced for a note­book, but worth it for the con­ve­nience. Contains con­densed ver­sions of all the most use­ful infor­ma­tion, includ­ing num­bers for trans­porta­tion com­pa­nies (includ­ing air bal­loon!) and city maps.

Paris Moleskine map

At the front is a fold-out map of the metro.

Paris Moleskine loose notes

These loose notes are also per­fo­rated so you can tear them out while main­tain­ing a clean cut. This idea must have been from an over­stock of acid blot­ting paper from Frommer’s less legit­i­mate businesses.

Paris Moleskine measures and sizes

There’s even a small ruler on the other side.

Paris Moleskine tabs

About half the note­book is orga­nized with these lit­tle tabs, for “Places, leg­ends, recipes”, “Bars, winer­ies, and sto­ries”, “Places, dreams, adven­tures”, “Names, faces, encoun­ters”, “Info, shop­ping, art”, and “Books, movies, music”.

Paris Moleskine tracing paper

In the back pocket (found in most Moleskine’s) is a set of extremely sheer trac­ing paper (for trac­ing over maps and like), and a set of labels for cus­tom tabs.