An excellent intro to the NYT crossword for beginners. I liked not just the five major attractions in PARISFRANCE that made up the theme, but the extra theme related entries such as 24D: Grand ____ (cultural trip around Europe) (TOUR) and 39D: "Vous êtes içi" ("You ___ here") (ARE). The latter was sadly not true in the way I wanted it to be. As Liz Lemon would say, "I want to go to there!"
And now for the ranking of said attractions. Your mileage may vary, of course.
1. THELOUVRE. There can be really no question about this one.
2. NOTREDAME. Such an iconic piece of architecture. I also enjoyed climbing into the bell tower and seeing the gargoyles up close.
3. PONTNEUF. Central, with wonderful views up and down the Seine.
4. EIFFELTOWER. A tourist trap, which is more than can be said for...
5. SORBONNE. Not exactly a tourist attraction at all. Other than the fact that it's on the Rive Gauche?
But really, how much more wonderful could it get to be in Paris at all? The answer, of course, is NONE. None more wonderful.
Anyway, it's a smooth grid, with some nice bonus entries, such as KINGMINOS and SAFETYNET. I'm not convinced by FES (I wanted to spell it with a Z, but I see it spelled both ways on the Google). Otherwise, color me TONES of impressed.
- Colum
4:04
ReplyDeleteNice. Time.
This is your first trip down into the twos, is it not? Congratulations.
Yes, a lovely theme. We'll be there in three weeks! :)
I would quibble with your rankings, but it's very hard to put one above another. I guess the Louvre is hard to argue with at number one, but the Eiffel Tower is oh so lovely from all over town, and Pont Neuf is so... Pont Neufy... But yeah... Notre Dame... hard to say no to... ok, let's put ol' Eiffely at number two and stick with the rest.
Yeah... didn't want to make too (two?) big a deal of it.
DeleteI know, I know. Maybe I should have put the Eiffel Tower higher, but the others are just so nice and old. And beautiful.
Well, I did my first digital puzzle in 42:33. I liked NERFGUN. Definitely not used to the typing logic. Kept finding that I was typing where I didn't think i was typing. I ended up typing over some of the words that I had already figured out. I devoted my last 10 minutes searching for the last typo, and finally changed GRIM to GRIP, and MATRON to PATRON.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that your times will eventually go down. :)
DeleteTrue so far. 28:38 on Tues.
Delete5:37
ReplyDeleteGeez, amazing time, Colum! Never having visited the place, I won't comment on the rankings. I don't have ATONOF SCAT to add to the above, except to say that I enjoyed the clue for NAKED (51D Like a jaybird, in an idiom).