Trip Advisor is probably the biggest and best-known of the many sites for user-written reviews of hotels, restaurants, and other travel-related services. I've always taken the reviews with a grain of salt and a large amount of skepticism, but our experience last night makes me think that, in fact, Trip Advisor, and probably most other sites like it, are pretty much worthless. Here's what happened:
We asked the concierge, whom we trust and who has had good recommendations for many things over the 17 years we've stayed at this hotel, if she had any restaurant recommendations in the area; she did, a restaurant at which she has eaten many times and which she really likes. We look it up on Trip Advisor and see that it has an average user-rating of 4-1/2 stars, out of 5. Then we look at individual reviews. Here are the ten most recent ratings and titles:
5 stars (Excellent) "Classic French, and superb"
1 star (Poor) "Ridiculous...French?
1 star "Just stay away"
4 star "Cozy atmosphere, good food"
4 star "Food, ambiance and service, all good"
5 star "The best meal you could have in Paris"
5 star "Absolutely WONDERFUL. Authentic classic French restaurant"
4 star "Saving grace" (say what? but generally a review of high praise)
4 star "Lovely atmosphere, wonderful food"
The next ten reviews have three 5-star, three 4-star, one 3-star and three 1-star reviews.
Now if you can make sense out of that podge-podge, you're a better analyst than I. I used to think the bad reviews were the ones to pay attention to, but now I wonder why every restaurant has such a mix of reviews (and I can tell you the best restaurants - the ones that have almost all 5-star reviews and cost a fortune, also have 1-star reviews along the "worst meal I've ever had" line).
Statistically, a restaurant should have the ubiquitous bell-shaped curve of stars that statisticians love: an average restaurant should have some 5-stars, more 4-stars, more 3-stars than anything, some 2-stars and a few 1-stars. Better restaurants would tend toward better reviews but still have some predictability to the distribution of reviews. Trip Advisor reviews have none of that; they consistently have mostly 5- and 4- and 1-star ratings.
I realize some of the 5-star reviews are the result of "We're in Paris and we're eating a French meal at a real French restaurant with real snooty French waiters and we sure don't have anything like this in Hayseed, Iowa" influence, but that cannot account for the number of "best food ever" reviews alongside the large number of "the food was inedible and the service appalling and this is the worst restaurant in Paris" reviews for the same freaking restaurant at the same freaking time. I also discount reviews with comments such as, "The service was not friendly even though I tried to joke with the waiter" (you don't get friendly with French waiters; they're professional and always a little aloof) or "The meal started badly with the worst mojito I've ever had." Really? Ordering a mojito in a French restaurant? Really?
But even accounting for stupid comments like those, I don't get the crazy and wildly divergent reviews. How can lots of people rave about a restaurant and many others offer detailed expanations of why the restaurant doesn't deserve to be called a restaurant. But last night's research effort makes me think that my approach of paying attention to the bad reviews is no better than paying attention to the good ones. I think we'll ignore Trip Advisor reviews completely.
Rue de Rosiers
What a life...
Friday, September 9, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
First day...
So far, a slow day, and likely to stay that way. We've been here enough that we don't feel the need to rush out and see all there is to see in the entire city, all in one day. Today, we started walking from our hotel on Ile St. Louis and walked down the river, ending at Petit Palais. First, though, a stop to mail a letter at the post office.
Now, we had a little trepidation about this: our French is, to put it charitably, not so good, and we really had no idea of how to buy a stamp and mail a letter. But we pushed open the doors and in we went. Quickly, an employee stepped out from behind the counter, greeted us, took our letter, told us how much it would be, took our money which she inserted it into the machine, attached the stamp that spit out from the machine, and told us, in English, that we could put it in the mail drop just outside the door.
Well, that was easy, and pleasant. Not to knock the US Postal Service, but I can't see that happening in the Renton, WA post office.
We started our walk, still slightly amazed at the post office experience. In the part of Paris we know best, Notre Dame is the landmark seen from everywhere, like the Eiffel Tower.
It's hard to miss Notre Dame, and though I've taken hundreds of photos of it over the years, I take more every time I see it.
Petite Palais was unexpectedly enjoyable. We went in because I'd read that the interior is quite beautiful, and because the rain had started. The interior wasn't beautiful, it was spectacular, with huge ceiling murals and carvings. The unexpected part was the collection: a small, eclectic gathering of paintings (including a beautiful Monet, several Pissaro's and Sisleys, some Jongkinds and Courbets, and a Gaugin). The museum also has many "objets de arts" from the time of Louis XV and Louis XVI (1700's; Louis XVI was married to Marie Antoinette). In all, a very enjoyable place to visit for an hour.
Then we just walked along the river, enjoying the sights and sounds. Bought some sandwiches for lunch, some wine for later, and took a nap, as we're still feeling short of sleep after the trip here and, after all, what are vacations for, if you can't take a nap?
Tonight? Don't know yet, but it'll be low-key, I'm sure.
No bags yet.
Now, we had a little trepidation about this: our French is, to put it charitably, not so good, and we really had no idea of how to buy a stamp and mail a letter. But we pushed open the doors and in we went. Quickly, an employee stepped out from behind the counter, greeted us, took our letter, told us how much it would be, took our money which she inserted it into the machine, attached the stamp that spit out from the machine, and told us, in English, that we could put it in the mail drop just outside the door.
Well, that was easy, and pleasant. Not to knock the US Postal Service, but I can't see that happening in the Renton, WA post office.
We started our walk, still slightly amazed at the post office experience. In the part of Paris we know best, Notre Dame is the landmark seen from everywhere, like the Eiffel Tower.
Petite Palais was unexpectedly enjoyable. We went in because I'd read that the interior is quite beautiful, and because the rain had started. The interior wasn't beautiful, it was spectacular, with huge ceiling murals and carvings. The unexpected part was the collection: a small, eclectic gathering of paintings (including a beautiful Monet, several Pissaro's and Sisleys, some Jongkinds and Courbets, and a Gaugin). The museum also has many "objets de arts" from the time of Louis XV and Louis XVI (1700's; Louis XVI was married to Marie Antoinette). In all, a very enjoyable place to visit for an hour.
Then we just walked along the river, enjoying the sights and sounds. Bought some sandwiches for lunch, some wine for later, and took a nap, as we're still feeling short of sleep after the trip here and, after all, what are vacations for, if you can't take a nap?
Tonight? Don't know yet, but it'll be low-key, I'm sure.
No bags yet.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Back in Paris...sans baggage
Ah, the joys of international travel... 10 hour flights, jet lag, missing baggage. But what the hey, we're in Paris.
The flight from Seattle to San Francisco was uneventful and on-time; what more could we ask? Laurie talked the whole way to her seatmate, a delightful woman.
Air France was just fine, and I lucked out in a big way. We had the aisle and center seats of a three-seat row and I'm here to tell you that legroom was at a premium, as in, not much of it. The third seat in our row, the window seat, had no seat in front of it, giving it about five feet of legroom. But this flight was booked completely full and that seat, obviously a highly desirable one, was not available when I went through the get-a-seat process. As people boarded, all we could hope for was that whoever had that seat wasn't a 300 lb. giant.
Well, it turned out that whoever had that seat didn't show. I grabbed it and Laurie took the aisle seat, giving us an empty seat between us and me all that legroom. Here's proof that our luck was running high: as near as I could tell, that was the only empty seat on the entire plane.
Food was okay, service was okay, flight was too long at 10 hours and to show us that luck only goes so far, our bags are somewhere between Seattle and Paris, but they are definitely not in Paris. Tomorrow, we hope. I will give Air France a huge pat on the back for customer service. They had a comfortable area to sit and file our lost baggage claim, a very nice lady to help us, they gave us each a kit of toiletries to get through the night, and they said they will reimburse us up to $150 each for any "necessities" until the bags arrive. We're pretty sure that a wine opener and a couple bottles of wine qualify as necessities.
Tonight, a walk, food and wine at a favorite place, and an early bedtime. Real early.
The flight from Seattle to San Francisco was uneventful and on-time; what more could we ask? Laurie talked the whole way to her seatmate, a delightful woman.
Air France was just fine, and I lucked out in a big way. We had the aisle and center seats of a three-seat row and I'm here to tell you that legroom was at a premium, as in, not much of it. The third seat in our row, the window seat, had no seat in front of it, giving it about five feet of legroom. But this flight was booked completely full and that seat, obviously a highly desirable one, was not available when I went through the get-a-seat process. As people boarded, all we could hope for was that whoever had that seat wasn't a 300 lb. giant.
Well, it turned out that whoever had that seat didn't show. I grabbed it and Laurie took the aisle seat, giving us an empty seat between us and me all that legroom. Here's proof that our luck was running high: as near as I could tell, that was the only empty seat on the entire plane.
Food was okay, service was okay, flight was too long at 10 hours and to show us that luck only goes so far, our bags are somewhere between Seattle and Paris, but they are definitely not in Paris. Tomorrow, we hope. I will give Air France a huge pat on the back for customer service. They had a comfortable area to sit and file our lost baggage claim, a very nice lady to help us, they gave us each a kit of toiletries to get through the night, and they said they will reimburse us up to $150 each for any "necessities" until the bags arrive. We're pretty sure that a wine opener and a couple bottles of wine qualify as necessities.
Tonight, a walk, food and wine at a favorite place, and an early bedtime. Real early.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Family Reunion - whoo-hoo!
Last year, when Laurie first floated the idea of coming to Paris this year, she said, "Let's have a family reunion there." Great idea, but as we started planning, it looked as if Derek and Jill were not going to be able to make it, because of crazy work stuff. Today, though, Derek booked flights and hotels. We arrive Wednesday the 7th, and a week later Derek and Jill, and Craig, Annie and Clara will arrive in Paris. We'll be there for a couple days and then on Friday we'll all go down to Chartrettes, where our friends Mary and Gilles live, just a few minutes from our other friends-in-France, Jamie and Hervé.
I can just hardly believe how much fun this is going to be, to have some time in Paris together, and then a weekend with our French "family." We are, to put it mildly, excited!
I can just hardly believe how much fun this is going to be, to have some time in Paris together, and then a weekend with our French "family." We are, to put it mildly, excited!
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
One Week Away...
We're leaving a week from today, so Laurie is approaching the manic/panic stage, but we're making progress. So maybe today I'll just write about getting tickets this year and our itinerary.
The first step in getting to Paris this year was, of course, getting tickets. Easy enough if you want to buy the ticket; less easy if you want to use frequent flier miles to get those tickets. We had enough miles, but...
For the last several years, using frequent flier miles has become more difficult, and using them to get across the Atlantic Ocean has become darn near impossible. We have our miles on Alaska Airlines, which has agreements with a number of airlines, allowing a person with Alaska Airlines frequent flier miles to use those miles to get reward tickets on the partner airlines. Maybe.
It turns out that to get to Paris, we could use our miles on British Airways, Air France, Lufthansa, Delta, Iceland Air or American Airlines. That's good. It would be even better if those airlines opened any seats for reward tickets. Last year, I called Alaska Airlines MVP Reservations every two or three days for six months and never found even one available Frequent Flier ticket. (We finally bought tickets.)
It started the same way this year. “No reward travel seats...” “No reward travel seats...” “No reward travel seats.” Then the miracle occurred: the reservations agent put me on hold, came back five minutes later and said, “I can get two seats on Air France, out of San Francisco, two days later than you wanted and returning three days later.” It took me, oh, three or four seconds to grab those seats. I mean, after all, if we have to spend an extra day in France to get reward tickets, well, we'll buck up and endure that.
So the big obstacle disappeared - we have tickets to Paris. We leave Tuesday, September 6 (Laurie’s birthday), and we return 20 days later, on the 26th. This will be the shortest trip we’ve taken in years, but it’s the first time in years we’ve traveled in consecutive years; usually we go every other year. And this year, we’re going to stay a long time in Paris, and then a few days traveling, rather than traveling to more places. Our Itinerary:
The first step in getting to Paris this year was, of course, getting tickets. Easy enough if you want to buy the ticket; less easy if you want to use frequent flier miles to get those tickets. We had enough miles, but...
For the last several years, using frequent flier miles has become more difficult, and using them to get across the Atlantic Ocean has become darn near impossible. We have our miles on Alaska Airlines, which has agreements with a number of airlines, allowing a person with Alaska Airlines frequent flier miles to use those miles to get reward tickets on the partner airlines. Maybe.
It turns out that to get to Paris, we could use our miles on British Airways, Air France, Lufthansa, Delta, Iceland Air or American Airlines. That's good. It would be even better if those airlines opened any seats for reward tickets. Last year, I called Alaska Airlines MVP Reservations every two or three days for six months and never found even one available Frequent Flier ticket. (We finally bought tickets.)
It started the same way this year. “No reward travel seats...” “No reward travel seats...” “No reward travel seats.” Then the miracle occurred: the reservations agent put me on hold, came back five minutes later and said, “I can get two seats on Air France, out of San Francisco, two days later than you wanted and returning three days later.” It took me, oh, three or four seconds to grab those seats. I mean, after all, if we have to spend an extra day in France to get reward tickets, well, we'll buck up and endure that.
So the big obstacle disappeared - we have tickets to Paris. We leave Tuesday, September 6 (Laurie’s birthday), and we return 20 days later, on the 26th. This will be the shortest trip we’ve taken in years, but it’s the first time in years we’ve traveled in consecutive years; usually we go every other year. And this year, we’re going to stay a long time in Paris, and then a few days traveling, rather than traveling to more places. Our Itinerary:
September 6 - leave Seattle, fly to San Francisco, then on to Paris.
September 7 - arrive in Paris, about 2 in the afternoon. Plan is to check-in, take a short rest, walk to our favorite place, Taverne Henri IV, for a light dinner and some wine, then a walk along the Seine and an early to-bed.
September 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 - Paris. Derek and Jill arrive about 10 in the morning of the 14th, Craig and Annie and Clara about noon the same day.
September 16, 17, 18, 19 - Chartrettes, where our friends Mary and Gilles Germain live.
Craig and Annie and Clara will go, too. Mary has arranged a dinner Saturday night with them, their son Eric, whom Laurie and I know well, our friends Jamie and Hervé Rufin, who live nearby, and the Berlin Zumstegs. That will be a memorable evening, I guarantee, and Gilles' wine cellar will likely not recover for a year.
September 20-23 - travel to Burgundy. Mary and Gilles are going with us, which will be great; we really enjoy traveling with them.
September 25 - descend on Chartrettes again. We're going to have dinner with Jamie and Hervé Saturday night.
September 26 - return. Sob, sniff.
September 7 - arrive in Paris, about 2 in the afternoon. Plan is to check-in, take a short rest, walk to our favorite place, Taverne Henri IV, for a light dinner and some wine, then a walk along the Seine and an early to-bed.
September 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 - Paris. Derek and Jill arrive about 10 in the morning of the 14th, Craig and Annie and Clara about noon the same day.
September 16, 17, 18, 19 - Chartrettes, where our friends Mary and Gilles Germain live.
Craig and Annie and Clara will go, too. Mary has arranged a dinner Saturday night with them, their son Eric, whom Laurie and I know well, our friends Jamie and Hervé Rufin, who live nearby, and the Berlin Zumstegs. That will be a memorable evening, I guarantee, and Gilles' wine cellar will likely not recover for a year.
September 20-23 - travel to Burgundy. Mary and Gilles are going with us, which will be great; we really enjoy traveling with them.
September 25 - descend on Chartrettes again. We're going to have dinner with Jamie and Hervé Saturday night.
September 26 - return. Sob, sniff.
This will be way too much fun.
We're Going on Another Ramble.
Our pattern for a number of years has been to travel every other year, so this year is different, as we visited Spain and France last year and now we're off again this year. But another pattern is that Laurie and I decided some years ago that anytime we travelled in Europe, we would spend a week in Paris, either coming or going, and last year we had barely five days there. As we were leaving, Laurie said, "Next year: let's do two weeks, just in Paris. Let's do a family reunion in Paris." It took a good ten to twelve seconds to convince me.
As it turns out, we're not going to do two weeks in Paris, just nine days. Then we'll go to see our friends Mary and Gilles in Chartrettes, a small town 35 minutes south of Paris. After a weekend there, the four of us will travel to Burgundy for a few days, then we'll return. Total trip: 21 days, including travel. Short, by our standards; we like four or five week trips, but as we're breaking our every-other year pattern, short will be okay.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
One More Photo of Clara
Well, this isn't exactly from our trip, but here's our favorite Clara photo, taken when she was 2-1/2 months old. If this picture doesn't convince you that she's the cutest and most intelligent baby ever, I don't know what will.
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