Letters: Changes in Paris

I read Susan Spano’s “So You’ve Seen Paris?” in the July 17 Travel section. I always enjoy her insights and observations, usually beautifully woven with history and detail that make me want to be packed and ready to go on the instant, no matter what destination she is writing about.

However, I am becoming disheartened by the way Paris seems to be evolving. Japanese hot towels? Palace rooms at $1,000 a night? Or, for that matter, mats on the floor of a closet for $250 a night?

Shall I stop taking French classes and plan for a six-week sojourn in the fall of 2012 in another area of the world that retains some semblance of a real community instead of what’s beginning to seem like a copy of Las Vegas?

Trisha Gillis

Laguna Niguel

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I read the comments in the Travel section [Letters, July 24] about Paris. I’m always interested in more places to stay in Paris, so I went to the website of the Hotel du College de France and was pleasantly surprised.

The rooms, though they seemed on the small size (what isn’t in Paris?), were very nice. But who goes to Paris and eats at McDonald’s? Yuck.

Eating like the French is part of the experience. You can stay home and eat at McDonald’s.

Bill Sims

Encinitas

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Spano’s recent article “So You’ve Seen Paris?” seems to have elicited recommendations in your Letters column that range from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Sublime is Shirley Porter’s memory of an apartment at 21 du Cherche-Midi and the boulangerie. My wife and I are big fans of renting an apartment, as the Porters did.

Not only do you get food and lodging savings, but you actually get to live in foreign city if only for a week or two, meet people and get a taste of how they live.

On the other hand, less inspired is the recommendation to eat at McDonald’s for breakfast. I have no problem with staying a hotel in the Latin Quarter, but good grief! You’re in Paris and you go to McDonald’s for breakfast? Why not have a Big Mac for dinner?

In fact, why travel overseas at all? You could stay home, have breakfast at McDonald’s and watch travel videos. That would really save big bucks.

Bob Rosenberg

Glendale