Chaos in France

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sidevalve
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Re: Chaos in France

#201 Post by sidevalve » Sat Feb 29, 2020 12:58 pm

Quelle surprise..!

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Re: Chaos in France

#202 Post by ian16th » Sat Feb 29, 2020 1:18 pm

Does Cape or anyone have memories of the Blue Train restaurant in Johannesburg?

We managed one visit before it closed down.

Then there was The Train at Halfway House, before it was called Midrand
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Re: Chaos in France

#203 Post by Capetonian » Sat Feb 29, 2020 1:28 pm

We met a friend for coffee and a drink at the Train Bleu.
Decor : magnificent.
Menu impressive : we had a look with the thought of lunch in mind but we realised we needed a lot of time to enjoy it and we had a train to catch.
Service : pleasant enough but slow.
Price : expensive but worth it for the setting and sense of occasion.

A couple of years ago Mr and Mrs OFSO and I found ourselves, quite by coincidence, on trains arriving at Gare de Lyon within minutes of each other.

We met for a snack at Le Grand Comptoir on the ground level just below the Train Bleu. The food was memorable for the all wrong reasons, I had a Croque Monsieur, at its most basic just bread and cheese, which is a pretty simple culinary demand, and it was by far the worst I've ever had anywhere and left me with indigestion for 2 days. I seem to recall that the OFSOs were similarly displeased with their food.

The establishment has 122 reviews on TripAdvisor. 89 are 'terrible' and 15 are 'poor'. The Train Bleu also has a significant number of 'poor' or 'terrible' reviews.

Many of these 'well known' places in France are like aging whores, overdressed and tarted up, living on past glories, a la Brigitte Bardot. Sad but true.

There will always be people such as Sidevalve who will buy into the myth of the superiority of French food, but increasingly, people can see the reality through the hype.

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Re: Chaos in France

#204 Post by Rwy in Sight » Sat Feb 29, 2020 5:27 pm

Since you mentioned Cape, some of the best food I had in Paris was at an upscale fast food restaurant Hippopotamus. Decent food, good service and decent prices.

Edited to correct a correction.

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Re: Chaos in France

#205 Post by OFSO » Sat Feb 29, 2020 5:57 pm

The Grande Comptoir below Le Tren Bleu metormophosed into the Montreux Jazz Cafe, but last autumn this too went broke and in turn reopened as something too horrible to mention. We ate there mid January, never again. There's a rough place with 'character' across the footbridge outside heading towards the Seine, the sort of place where you find yourself sharing a table with fat fifty something primped and painted whores and old men, WW-II survivors with gauloises, baggy trousers, and rheumy eyes, but haven't tried it for some years. The food was interesting and the beer cold.

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Re: Chaos in France

#206 Post by Capetonian » Sat Feb 29, 2020 6:26 pm

Montreux Jazz Cafe has equally appalling reviews, no great surprise. I think it was MJC when we went there.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.za/Restauran ... rance.html

Yes RiS, Hippopotamus has quite a good reputation, as does a similar chain in France called Buffalo Grill. I've never eaten at either so can't comment further.

The French like these 'chains' and although I'd need to be pretty desperate to eat there, I understand the safety of consistent mediocrity. I can think of Flunch, Quick (or sick?), Burger King, KFC, Subway, Courte Paille (I think it means 'short straw'!) and numerous other fast food/junk food chains.

McDonald's is hugely popular, I've heard that FR is their biggest market outside the USA, proving that the French have low standards. In fairness, it is also because you can get what passes for a meal any time of day or night, whereas traditional French restaurants only serve at traditional French mealtimes (1200-1400 and 1900-2100).

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Re: Chaos in France

#207 Post by Rwy in Sight » Sat Feb 29, 2020 6:49 pm

Cape, I learned that the hard way some years ago in two occasions where during a "Le Bourget" visit a friend and I were looking for food around Madeline around 2200 and it was difficult and two years later only a rugby match kept a decent restaurant open at Monmarte.

Italy and France are the only two countries I wouldn't eat at a McDonald's- they are very valuable at places I don't feel too comfortable about the local standards.

I was once offered a microwave meal at a Rome airport hotel charging 250+ € per night. I turned it down and I love Italian food.

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Re: Chaos in France

#208 Post by OFSO » Sat Feb 29, 2020 8:18 pm

Before France became too expensive we'd do the weekly shop at the Perpignan Auchan. There used to be a couple of mediocre restaurants there and a good fish place. All gone now as too expensive for the French shoppers.

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Re: Chaos in France

#209 Post by Capetonian » Sat Feb 29, 2020 8:39 pm

It's a wonder anything works :

My French insurance company told me that they couldn't accept an Irish bank account because 'England' has left the EU!

And this from a friend who's trying to use his French bank site:

I keep logging in and out but it doesn’t recognize today’s date as being a valid date insisting that nothing can be done until 1 March!

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Re: Chaos in France

#210 Post by Rwy in Sight » Sat Feb 29, 2020 8:54 pm

Screwing up in grande scale requires computer input. Don't blame the French

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Re: Chaos in France

#211 Post by OFSO » Sat Feb 29, 2020 8:57 pm

I'm going to stand up and raise a cheer for one excellent French website. This is Zenpark. Seamless integration between site, phone, and parking place reservation. And one huge "booooo !" for the disaster that SNCF have created with successive ill thought-out mods to the TGV booking site.

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Re: Chaos in France

#212 Post by OFSO » Sun Mar 01, 2020 5:34 pm

I risk the ire of our transatlantic cousins, but.....before going out to an excellent lunch today, I looked up recent reviews on TA of some of the former restaurants I used to visit in Paris. Interestingly the majority of favourable restaurant reviews are by Americans, and the negative reviews by Europeans. The most appalling reviews are of the Grand Comptoir which is immediately under Le Tren Bleu in the Gare de Lyon. Worth reading !

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Re: Chaos in France

#213 Post by OFSO » Tue May 19, 2020 11:12 am

There is a Range Rover with French (Aix en Provence) number plates parked opposite our house. Buggers get everywhere. Worse than ants. Less attractive too.

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Re: Chaos in France

#214 Post by ian16th » Tue May 19, 2020 11:44 am

OFSO wrote:
Tue May 19, 2020 11:12 am
There is a Range Rover with French (Aix en Provence) number plates parked opposite our house. Buggers get everywhere. Worse than ants. Less attractive too.
Do the Frogs still use Department number on their number plates?

Aix en Provence is in Bouches-du-Rhône, which includes Istres & Marseille, and was 13 in my day.
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Re: Chaos in France

#215 Post by BenThere » Tue May 19, 2020 11:53 am

My last meal in France was in 2016 on the occasion of my last Delta trip, DTW-CDG-DTW with a 30 hour layover at DeGaulle. Delta bought my wife a 1st class round trip ticket to accompany me as a send off. It was all spectacular, but the best part was dining at a Michelin 2 star close to our crew hotel in Montparnasse. I forget the name of the place but the meal was exquisite as one would expect from a Michelin starred eatery. It was like a second honeymoon as I was transitioning to retirement. Elegent experiences create lifelong, unforgettable memories, and this trip was one. I was dealing with leaving the cockpit and she was dealing with having me at home 30 days a month rather than 15.

Happy to report, after four years into it, that retirement is good. The finances have to be in place, though. Save, save, save.

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Re: Chaos in France

#216 Post by OFSO » Tue May 19, 2020 6:03 pm

Ian, yes, they do.

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Re: Chaos in France

#217 Post by barkingmad » Wed Sep 02, 2020 8:42 am

Shirley darling, we can’t be genuinely naturists if we are all wearing face nappies?

The nudists spreading coronavirus in a French resort https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-53978430 =))

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Re: Chaos in France

#218 Post by AtomKraft » Sat Oct 17, 2020 7:31 am

I bet the French are jolly pleased that they have so many Muslims.

It really gives them something to look forward to.

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Re: Chaos in France

#219 Post by Boac » Sat Oct 17, 2020 7:48 am

BM wrote:The nudists spreading coronavirus
- you need to remember that they cannot easily just cough or sneeze into their clothing.....

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Re: Chaos in France

#220 Post by Rwy in Sight » Sat Oct 17, 2020 5:53 pm

Not a nice day today for a teacher showing cartoons not appreciated by the followers of the religion of love and peace

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