For our last full day in Paris, our last tour concept “Restaurants in Hotels” we would be visiting the Park Hyatt Paris, one of the gems of Hyatt International and lunch in Cafe Jeanne, one of the hotel’s casual restaurants.
We were lucky in that we got up later this morning than the other mornings because the morning was going to start with a walking tour of the Paris Opera House. I was not exactly thrilled by this and held off buying my ticket before I got there. There was no problem buying a ticket as they were sold at the box office it’s just that Galeries Lafayette was one block in the distance and I really wanted to see the store. I am glad that I went against this judgement because the self-guided tour was so outstanding. The building is truly beautiful.
The entrance to the Paris Opera House-Palais Garnier at Place de l’Opera
https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/visits/palais-garnier
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palais_Garnier
My review on TripAdvisor:
I can not describe the splendor of this building and the beauty of each detail of each room. This was a building that was meant to last the ages and meant to impress the people who attended the performances. Between the statuary, the gilding and the paintings on the walls and ceilings, the people who attended these performances were in a space that was meant to impress.
The entrance of the Opera House
The staircase at the entrance
The staircase at the Opera House
The opera was constructed in what Charles Garnier is said to have told the Empress Eugenie was “Napoleon III” style. The Napoleon III style was highly eclectic, and borrowed from many historical sources; the opera house included elements from the Baroque, the classicism of Palladio and Renaissance architecture blended together. These were combined with axial symmetry and modern techniques and materials, including the use of an iron framework, which had been pioneered in other Napoleon III buildings (Wiki).
The balcony
The ceiling at the entrance
The stairs and the ceiling
The self guided tour progressed to the second floor of the Opera House and the crowds kept growing. This is a very popular site to visit and I suggest getting there first thing in the morning for good picture taking.
The young woman modeling on the steps that morning
The second floor hallway
The second floor hallway
The second floor hallway
The details of the building continued on the second floor as I walked the hallways and the private rooms. There was even a small museum on the second floor with pictures, scripts, paintings of the stars and conductors who performed here and costumes. In the upstairs hallway, there was a display of the costumes of the ballet “Swan Lake”.
The “Swan Lake” costumes
A costume from the ballet “Swan Lake”
The museum was really interesting and had lots of information on the building and the shows performed here.
The museum
The second floor chandelier
The second floor hallway
The second floor ceiling
The second floor hallway
Performers and conductors got their praise here
The last part of the guided tour was the orchestra and stage area which was closed off as they were setting up for a performance. We were able to look in from the sides to see the grandeur of the seating area.
The seating area
The ceiling of the orchestra seating area
Exiting the Opera House
Exiting the Opera House
When I left the building, these two faces stared at me as I left. The symbols that I see in many theaters. There was a wonderful gift shop at the end of the tour and it is worth visiting when you finish the tour. We all met outside on the beautiful sunny, warm Spring day. As soon as we collected everyone from our group, it was off to the site inspection tour of the Hyatt Park Regency Paris and lunch at Cafe Jeanne, the casual restaurant in the lobby. It was would be an eye opening experience for me being a former Hyatt executive. Let me put it this way, the Hyatt Regency Monterey looked nothing like this hotel.
The Park Hyatt Vendome-Paris
https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/france/park-hyatt-paris-vendome/parph
My review on TripAdvisor:
We got such a warm welcome from Guest Services Manager , Chloe, who was our tour guide for the hotel. It was such an excellent and through tour of the Park Hyatt Paris that I felt like I was a member of the team. She was so welcoming to our Graduate Class and was so upbeat I was impressed from the start. What was interesting about the tour is Chloe told us that since it is an American hotel, everything must be done in English including emails. Everyone on the staff was Biligual and that the hotel was very popular with American tourists.
We started with a tour of the public rooms, hallways and the kitchen. Then we toured the restaurants, learned about the menus and had a wonderful talk with the chef. We toured both the restaurants that were open for the day and closed for lunch service.
The Lobby of the Park Hyatt Paris
The Lobby
The first part of the tour after touring the lobby and it’s beautiful furnishings, then we toured the open kitchen and the back of the house rooms for Banquets, the Employee cafeteria and back rooms.
The open kitchen with everyone getting ready for service
I got to stop and talk with the chef, who could not have been nicer and was fluent in both French and English. I found him to be a very nice guy in the short amount of time we got to talk.
We got to tour the first of the restaurants. Pur’, that was closed for lunch. The staff in the kitchen was preparing for the meals and preparing lunch service for the other outlets. The kitchen was as clean as a whistle and that shows the sign of people who care.
Michelin star ‘Pur’ at the Park Hyatt Paris
https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/france/park-hyatt-paris-vendome/parph/dining
Review on TripAdvisor:
The restaurant was gorgeous and so beautifully decorated. It looked nothing like the restaurant we had at the Hyatt Regency Monterey except I have to admit our views of the golf course were spectacular. The eye and the attention to detail were top notch.
Then we were off to the explore the rooms. This is where the hotel truly shines. The rooms were so beautifully decorated and elegant but contemporary in their feel. This was five star without feeling fussy or over-done. Chloe impressed us with the Imperial Suite, the Hyatt’s take on the Presidential Suite. It was a large suite with several rooms including a massive bathroom, office space, large bedroom and dressing room and a connection to another room if needed. I would not have minded staying here.
The Imperial Suite Living Room
The Living Room in the Imperial Suite
The bathroom in the Imperial Suite
The bathroom in the Imperial Suite
The office in the Imperial Suite
Us touring the Imperial Suite
The bathroom in the Imperial Suite
The view from the Imperial Suite
After a tour of a smaller room, which was just as impressive but on a less grander scale, we headed back down to the lobby for a tour and lunch at Cafe Jeanne. That was very impressive. The Food & Beverage Manager came out to great us along with the Restaurant Manager. One thing I noticed about the management team at the Hyatt, they were all young under 30 years old and very good looking and well groomed. Not that we weren’t but we were an older staff at our hotel in the States.
Cafe Jeanne was located in the lobby of the hotel and had a very contemporary but casual feel to it. The two restaurants located here were both Cafe Jeanne and the
Cafe Jeanne inside the Park Hyatt Paris
https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/france/park-hyatt-paris-vendome/parph/dining/cafe-jeanne
My review on TripAdvisor:
Cafe Jeanne artwork
The food at Cafe Jeanne was excellent. It was plain bistro food that you would get at cafes in Paris but one notch up. The service was flawless and I could not believe the amount of staff they had running the place. When I ran the restaurant at my Hyatt, it was myself, two waiters, two cooks and a part time host. The server to guest ratio here was double that.
The artwork in Cafe Jeanne
At first they gave us a Prix Fixe with a lot of options that did not like but I think after meeting all of us, the chef let us order off the regular menu. That was something that I appreciated and enjoyed (Please see my review on TripAdvisor).
The menu at Cafe Jeanne
The menu at Cafe Jeanne. It was nice when they let us order off the full menu.
The meal was wonderful and so nicely prepared and served. I ordered a Croque Monsieur with a side of frites and a Coke. Everything about that sandwich was top notch.
The start of my meal
The freshly baked bread was amazing
The Croque Monsieur and frites for lunch
The Croque Monsieur according to the Food & Beverage Manager was based on the ones the chef was served as a child. It was spectacular.
Even the French Fries were perfectly prepared and served with elegance
What was nice was that both the Restaurant Manager and the Food & Beverage Manager stopped by to check on us and welcome us. I have to say that the staff here could not have been more friendly and welcoming to us. Lunch was excellent and we really had a nice time.
After lunch was over, we toured the rest of the hotel’s public areas and then said goodbye to Chloe and thanked her for a wonderful afternoon and tour. It is such a beautiful hotel and I can see why Hyatt takes such pride in it.
The hallway when we exited the hotel
The lobby of the Park Hyatt Vendrome
The detail of their public bathrooms right by Cafe Jeanne
The statue by the entrance of the Park Hyatt Paris
Our group shot with Guest Manager, Chloe of the Park Hyatt Paris
After the tour and that wonderful lunch, we continued to tour around the neighborhood. While we were touring our professor stopped at the Ritz Hotel Paris to see if we could confirm a tour of the hotel. Claudia, the Guest Relations Manager, another beautiful young French woman, came to greet us and take us on a tour of the Ritz Paris. Talk about contrasts in luxury. The Ritz is true old world luxury at its best.
The Ritz Hotel Paris at 15 Place Vendome
https://www.ritzparis.com/en-GB
My review on TripAdvisor:
We were only able to take a limited tour because they had a major wedding going on but Claudia took the time to take us through the restaurant outlets, the pubic areas and the shopping area called the “Hallway of Temptation”. The stores were amazing.
The Ritz Lobby and Terrace Restaurant
The lobby was old world luxury at its best. All the beautiful stonework and antiques in the lobby had an old world charm to it. This was the hotel many hotels after the Civil War emulated in major cities across the United States.
The “Champagne Tea” at the Ritz Hotel
We passed many of the Ritz’s restaurants but they were full and I did not want to look like the tacky tourist taking so many pictures so I took them of the ones that were not so crowded. It was tough as it was during the late lunch hour.
Here Claudia explained that at the Ritz, tea is not the emphasis but Champagne with the desserts is most popular. Here we see the champagne on ice in the front with the luscious pastries on the table. I would have liked to try that.
The Zodiac Bar at the Ritz Hotel Paris
The Zodiac Bar was at the end of the hall and was closed for the afternoon but we still got to glimpse of the beauty of the room. We did get to see the bar where Hemingway spent his time when he was at the Ritz but it was closed and Claudia asked us not to take pictures and we respected that. It is a tiny bar off the hallway and I did not think was as impressive as the other outlets in the hotel.
The Ritz Bakery for Madelines
My review on TripAdvisor:
Our last stop before we left the Ritz Hotel was for Madeline’s at the Ritz Bakery. I did not know the hotel had this bakery but looking at the selection and the prices (which was three Euros per Madeline, I was not leaving without having one. I had three. One dipped in Chocolate, one filled with Lemon and another was a Caramel Cinnamon. I think that lasted one block before I ate all three of them.
Do not miss the delicious pastries and madelines here. They are well worth the money spent and are a real treat.
After we said goodbye to Claudia and thanked her for the wonderful visit, it was off to NYU Paris to present our project presentations. I had worked until 2:00am in the morning to get my powerpoint done correctly, get all my pictures and reviews downloaded and made my points on my tour of the specialty gourmet shops, bakeries and chocolatiers and then gave it my all. What annoyed me was that my classmates slapped together these lame presentations that looked like they had been done at the last minute and in some cases were and they were pretty bad in my opinion. This what annoyed me about the class, some of my classmates thought this was some type of vacation.
The pride and joy of my presentation: The group shot at the Statue of Liberty in Le Jardin du Luxembourg. Just what I wanted to represent the tour.
My PowerPoint Presentations:
The Original Presentation in New York:
The map of the district I covered.
The Final Presentation in Paris:
We spent the afternoon seeing each other’s Powerpoints and at least Bryan and Juan tried. The rest of them didn’t even put in any effort and Blaine, our film student didn’t even bother. He just showed a picture of the Eiffel Tower and explained his experience. This told me a lot about my classmates. At least I know that I put in the effort.
After we finished our Powerpoints, it was time for one final group shot that we took at the NYU Paris stairs. That was the last official shot we took as a class.
Our last official shot at the NYU Paris campus
After we left NYU, it was time for our Farewell dinner and my professor chose La Petite Periguordine at 39 Rue des Ecoles, near the Sorbonne University in the Latin Quarter. This was a typical French Bistro in every sense starting with the waiter who claimed he did not know English that well but talked like he was from Chicago. He had a Midwestern accent when he spoke English.
La Petite Perigourdine at 39 Rue des Ecoles 5th Arrd. was where we had our Farewell Dinner
It was a nice dinner but I did not think it our best. We had hit our budget so the choices on the menu that we had were limited. I had the Roast Chicken, which ended up being a leg and thigh, not my favorite part of the chicken but it was still good. We started off with a selection of Meat & Cheeses on trays with baskets of bread and for dessert I had the Grand Marnier Souffle. I had not had a souffle in so long and it was delicious.
Us waiting outside the restaurant for our table
The meal went by very nicely and we had a lot of laughs about the week. It had gone by so fast. I was leaving for Prague the next day so I was gone but most people were staying the extra day and they had planned a picnic for the next night on the green on campus. Some students were leaving to go to other countries and four of us were moving on to Prague for the next class.
My meal that evening:
The Meat & Pate Trays
The wonderrful bread we were spoiled with on our trip
The Roast Chicken was good but not great
The souffle was the best
After dinner was over (the waiter tried to push us along because he had another group coming in (and my professor told him we would leave when we were ready) and after my professor gave his farewell speech to us we left to explore the Latin Quarter for a bit before going back to the dorms. It was the end of a really great week experience in Paris. I guess I had been nervous for nothing.
Exploring the Latin Quarter after dinner
My class in Paris had been a real eye opener about culture, food, people, language and having an understanding on how people outside the United States live and their approach to life. It is a slower, more appreciative look at life that the French have about everyday experiences and they way they handle day to day living. I am not saying that everyone in Paris lives the same way but there is a behavior and routine that works for them.
I learned a lot about French living and I could handle it for a while. It was a great week!
mywalkinmanhattan 