Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [297]
École Ritz Escoffier (Map; 01 43 16 30 50; www.ritzescoffier.com; 15 place Vendôme, 1er Concorde) This prestigious cooking school is based in what is arguably Paris’ finest hotel (though you also enter from 38 rue Cambon, 1er). A four-hour Saturday themed workshop (petits fours, truffles, carving fruit and vegetables, pairing food and wine etc) costs €135; a two-day introductory course is €920.
Language
All manner of French-language courses, lasting from two weeks to a full academic year, are available in Paris, and many places begin new courses every month or so.
Alliance Française (Map; 01 42 84 90 00; www.alliancefr.org; 101 blvd Raspail, 6e; 8.30am-7pm Mon & Tue, 8.30am-6pm Wed-Fri; St-Placide) French courses (minimum two weeks) at all levels begin every two weeks; registration (€55) takes place five days before. Intensif courses meet for four hours a day, start at 9am and 1.30pm and cost from €400/700 for two weeks/one month; extensif courses involve three hours of class for three days a week, start at the same two times and cost from €176/332.
Cours de Langue et Civilisation Françaises de la Sorbonne (Map; 01 44 10 77 00, 01 40 46 22 11; www.ccfs-sorbonne.fr; Galerie Richelieu, office C391, 17 rue de la Sorbonne, 5e; 10am-noon & 2-4pm Mon-Fri; Cluny La Sorbonne or Maubert Mutualité) The Sorbonne’s prestigious French Language and Civilisation Course has courses for all levels. A four-week summer course starts at €530, while 20 hours a week of lectures and tutorials costs €1300 per semester. Instructors take a very academic (though solid) approach to language teaching.
Eurocentres (Map; 01 40 46 72 00; www.eurocentres.com; 13 passage Dauphine, 6e; 8.15am-6pm Mon-Fri; Odéon) Intensive courses lasting two/four weeks with 10 to 14 participants cost from €660/1272. New courses begin every two, three or four weeks.
Inlingua (Map; 01 45 51 46 60; www.inlingua-paris.com; 109 rue de l’Université, 7e; 7.30am-8.15pm Mon-Fri, 9am-1.30pm Sat; Invalides) Individual and group lessons for all levels, from ‘first contacts’ through to that linguistic state we all aspire to, ‘full control’. It has seven centres, including in La Défense and Versailles. French lessons for kids too.
Institut Parisien de Langue et de Civilisation Françaises (Map; 01 40 56 09 53; www.institut-parisien.com; 2nd fl, 29 rue de Lisbonne, 8e; 8.30am-5pm Mon-Fri; Monceau) Four-week courses with a maximum of 10 students per class cost €148/222/296/370 for 10/15/20/25 hours a week plus an enrolment fee of €40.
Langue Onze (Map; 01 43 38 22 87; www.langueonzeparis.com; 15 rue Gambey, 11e; 11am-5pm Mon-Fri; Parmentier) Well-received independent language school with two-/four-week intensive courses of four hours’ instruction a day for €390/630; evening classes (four hours a week) start at €175 for four weeks. Classes have a maximum of nine students.
Return to beginning of chapter
CUSTOMS REGULATIONS
Duty-free shopping within the EU was abolished in 1999; you cannot, for example, buy tax-free goods in, say, France and take them to the UK. However, you can still enter an EU country with duty-free items from countries outside the EU (eg Australia, the USA) where the usual allowances apply: 200 cigarettes, 50 cigars or 250g of loose tobacco; 2L of still wine and 1L of spirits; 50g of perfume and 250cc of eau de toilette.
Do not confuse these with duty-paid items (including alcohol and tobacco) bought at normal shops in another EU country (eg Spain or Germany) and brought into France, where certain goods might be more expensive. Here allowances are generous: 800 cigarettes, 200 cigars, 400 small cigars or 1kg of loose tobacco; and 10L of spirits (more than 22% alcohol by volume), 20L of fortified wine or aperitif, 90L