Paris_ The Collected Traveler - Barrie Kerper [276]
Q: When did you first show an interest in retail shopping?
A: It all started when I was eleven years old. My father was a chairman of the World Health Organization, and in those days he worked for a division called the Pan American Health Organization. We lived in Caracas, Venezuela, for a year. We went to the markets a lot, and my dad often gave me the equivalent of fifty cents and said, “Here, Sue. See what you can buy with this.” I loved the theater and excitement of shopping.
Q: What are some organization tips you employ when researching a Born to Shop guide?
A: I was a correspondent for Time and People, and have basically been a reporter for most of my life. I’ve learned that the more organized you are, the more you get done that you wanted to in the first place. I have basic charts I create for each destination—these show the streets of my neighborhood’s hotels and transportation. I have developed a theory that tourists want to see specific sites and they want to know about shopping that is nearby those sites. I’m not a nighttime person, so I order room service and I turn on CNN and I sit in bed with my maps and my notes and I work the charts. I will send you to an out-of-the-way place only if I think it’s worth it. I really believe that people use guidebooks to eliminate things as opposed to following everything, and that’s really valuable information. I’m like an Indian scout who’s riding up at the head of the wagon train to tell you what’s ahead.
Photo Credit bm1.13
Also, I stay in the same few hotels every time because I know my way around most quickly—if I stayed in different hotels, I’d have to learn new neighborhoods constantly. I usually have three to five in each city. I need to know where my grocery store is, where I can get a rotisserie chicken, etc. I really lead a far less glamorous life than people might think. I choose hotels by nearby transportation, extra amenities, and whether there is a club floor or a lounge with food I can call dinner. I just don’t really use concierges. The first thing I do when I arrive in town is go to a kiosk and buy every local magazine on the stand, and then I spend that down time in bed, turn on local television, and start turning the pages. I don’t need to be able to read everything comprehensively, but this gets me in tune with the community.
Q: What are some hotels you particularly like in Paris?
A: The hotel I really like to recommend is the three-star Hôtel de L’Élysée (12 rue des Saussaies, 8ème / +33 01 42 65 29 25), across the street from the Élysée Palace. The location—half a block off the rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, midway between the Champs-Élysées and rue Royale—is superb, and it’s a bit over a hundred euros per night. Some of the rooms are better than others—you have to be able to say, “I don’t like this room; I want this one instead.” Recently I stayed in a hotel that knocked my socks off: the InterContinental Avenue Marceau near the Arc de Triomphe (64 avenue Marceau, 8ème / +33 01 44 43 36 36 / ic-marceau.com), with twenty-eight rooms designed by Philippe Starck protégé Bruno Borrione. I have never been a contemporary-art person, having long preferred an old grande dame hotel, but this was so intime (intimate) and interesting, the décor a mix of Kenzo and wild and wacky and very creative without being offensive. Also you could get Wi-Fi access everywhere—often the old hotels don’t have the IT that you expect.
Q: What are some Paris souvenirs you recommend?
A: Well, it’s important to define what a souvenir is, because for each person it’s different. To me a souvenir works if it