No experience travelling with a dog but no doubt it requires some adjustment. In Paris I suspect u mean Seine St Denis or whatever the exact name of the departement 93, rather than Place St Denis. I ve lived years in Paris, the latter ones in or very near the Golden triangle, but the earlier ones closer to broke and Place St Denis Hardly ever went to the Northern suburbs even in the earlier years. 93, the code of the departement has huge negative connotation there. Residents in parts of the 93 are advised to change their address on job applications to get a chance to be even interviewed. If u live in a posh Paris neighbourhood visiting the 93 is probably less likely than visiting China. Actually the later years I hardly ever went east of the Opera\Louvres, and legions of western Parisians are in a similar situation. Some western and apparently South western suburbs are quite nice. U probably know Saint Denis first hand better than I do, but note that for locals there that is a dodgy part of a separate universe. The fact those aliens get to enter downtown without restrictions certainly causes some frictions. Which reminds me that I enjoy living downtown, and I m feeling underwhelmed in Madrid suburbs- but we had little choice if wanting to stay near Daughter's sports school, which it seems recently managed to be European club champio? (not sure under which conditions, but the club looks awesome, managed to meet the coaches before they close for summer, one who is a current olympian and the other a current Olympic level coach, and they are going to spend the summer travelling and doing international high level camps with their competitive team, which daughter will join, although there is no guarantee they keep her in the main program)
Really struggling with the food in the suburbs, mostly disgusting, I m a 240lbs guy not shy on eating fat, including more saturated than it is advisable especially when travelling. But the Mayo and crazy sauces here are over the top. FOrget to order a salad without sauce and it s good for the trash. Sushi comes with cheese, chinese dudes take care of cooking the meat and it comes overly salty and unedible Choice is better downtown, hopefully I ll get to know better restaurants but so far in the area it is even worse than in China, thought that was impossible when it comes to western food at least. Very upset, ordered from 2 restaurants today incIuding the hotel restaurant but everything was disgusting. I could actually go on eating tortilla and cured ham sandwiches during days but that s not very advisable healthwise, at least the cured ham. Madrid is famous for a city where vegetables are almost as rare as gold. And when u think u have found a salad, it is drowned in Mayo... getting pissed off here ! Found a great gym btw near where we stay, with a cool powerlifting floor. Need to feed the beast but that's proving difficult over here...
I thought it too be a coincidence or bad luck, but my experience with food in Madrid was a disappointment. I've had far better luck in other parts of Spain (Barcelona, Valencia, etc.) where the food have always been delicious.
I don't know Valencia but ime also it is easier to get decent food in and around Barcelona. Found some good restaurants downtown Madrid as well but it is not a given. Comparing again local suburbs with Paris' where several good areas are next to each other,' it is very disappointing here, their top suburb, la Moraleja, has a posh feeling but is not very livel. It also offers decent food in the nice but small mall. It has a bunch of outdoor restaurants that look alright from outside but we couldn't t find a parking spot on Saturday evening to try. Yet it goes significantly downhill just a few steps away, actually driving around from BMX track to skate park we ve passed several suburbs that look better than La Moraleja immediate surrounding. I feel I messed up, can t really live in gorgeous downtown Madrid anymore with both the kids school and sports school daughter must attend 6days a week in the same northern area but feel it is gonna be way less interesting than downtown Fwiw there is no hotel in La Moraleja itself so we can t quite get the feeling of how it is to live there yet, but it doesn't seem overly exciting
The best food I ever eaten in my whole life is in estepona. Next the the main road connecting estepona and Marcella. Food in northern Spain was good too. One thing I see Europe is far ahead is the chicas. On average, many American chicas are huge and Asian chicas are kindly ugly but in Europe they are healthy and beautiful.
My ex wife’s moms house was in la moraleja, 3 story townhouse. I loved it and never wanted to leave when visiting.
Costa del sol vs cote d azur? Latter way more expensive (zumo for €4 vs €2 in spain) but more beautiful waters, landscape, people, and showy. Agree? Here I am chilling with my doggy in Menton. Going to monaco in an hour with wife to drop a few hundreds in Monte Carlo and wondering how poor I actually am
Madrid has no wealth tax in contrary to Costa del Sol and Cote d azur which makes a significant difference in my case, I would care abt the language, if u ve managed to become decent in Spanish it s gonna be a hassle to start again from scratch in French. I likeCote d azur, including Monaco, but suspect it might get boring faster than Costa del Sol, haven t lived in neither though.
I had something similar happen to me in France, except with 500 Euros notes. People lost their damn minds.