Me voila de retour en France, je vais en profiter pour poster quelques photos de Chicago.
C'est d'un style un peu different de celles que l'on voit habituellement et j'ai varié les formats et tailles des photos ...enjoy :cheers:

En arrivant sur Chicago ...très ensoleillé

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Ensuite je suis monté dans l'inévitable Sears Tower :runaway:
Je ne vous mets que les photos peu classiques...

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petit zoom sur le Hyatt building en construction
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Quelques photos en vrac maintenant

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En repartant ...

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Vala vala ...hope you enjoyed !!!

mm..merci c'est somptueux ! Le Hyatt ressemble à EDF (LD) :eek:

C'est la photo qui fait ca ou il y a un smog pas possible a Chicago ? (surtout la premiere image) ?

Sinon, superbes photos !

Ouaahhh, grandiose !!!!! :eek2: :eek2: :eek2:



Merci pour ces magnifiques photos.
Quelles sont les quatre tours identiques que l'on voit sur la troisième photo?

c'est seulement des residentiels.

et oui, super pics!

:eek2: :okay:

Chicago, quelle ville !!! Tes photos sont superbes, elles donnent envie d'y aller !
:)

Superbe !

Mais c'est dangereux de sortir la tête hors de la voiture.

bravo ptit ben, beau reportage ! :)

merci à tous pour vos compliments !!!
c'est vrai que chicago est une ville superbe... ce qui m'a étonné c'est qu'il n'y avai presque pas d'embouteillage pour rentrer dans la ville , et une fois rentré, il n'y avai pas de problème pour circuler ...contrairement a Paris par exemple.
Pour le temps j'ai eu de la chance qu'il fasse beau mais ça a été un inconvenient quand même parce que je suis monté a la Sears Tower vers midi, donc pour prendre des photos le soleil génai beaucoup. Je n'y ai malheuresement passé qu'une journée...et avec tous les différents styles d'architecture, le nombres de grattes-ciels et tout ce qu'il y a à découvrir, j'aurais bien aimé y passer plusieurs jours...

Superbes photos Ptitben, ma préférée est celle ci: http://server6.uploadit.org/files/ptitben-Chicagofromavenue9.jpg

Le John Hankock Center est un peu caché et brumeux, il a l' air impressionnant !

Magnifiques photos, Chicago est sans conteste la plus belle ville des Etats Unis avec New York et San Francisco !!! :runaway:

Dites moi, combien coute un sejour à Chicago de 7/8jours vols+hotel ? (en septembre) ^^

Le bon plan, c'était le super-Motel 6 (luxueux) à 20 mètres de Michigan Avenue et à 2 minutes à pieds du John Hancock.
Je payais ça moins de 80 dollars par nuit.

Maintenant, il a changé d'enseigne (Red Roof, je crois). Et il est possible que les tarifs aient augmenté.

En gros au total ça te revient à combien une semaine à CHI en septembre ? NYC est moins cher ou pas ?

A la limite, si la circulation est aisée, tu peux essayer de loger dans un motel de banlieue cheap mais potable genre Motel 6 tout court et te faire une nuit royale au 40e étage d'un hotel chicos.

NY, c'est plus cher que Chicago. Mais pas de beaucoup.
Je suis pas sûr que la banlieue soit un bon plan. J'ai testé la proche banlieue (à 15 minutes de Sears, toujours à pied)... bof, bof.
Pour pas (très) cher, il y a aussi Howard Johnson, sur Lassale je crois.
Un peu à l'écart (à 5 minutes du John Hancock), il faisait environ 80 dollars il y a peu. Maintenant je sais plus.
Quoiqu'il soit bas (2 ou 3 étages), il a certaines chambres avec des vues sublimes.

Quelqu' un sait-il combien de temps cela prend pour faire son passeport ? 2 mois d' attente ? ou plus ?

Quelqu' un sait-il combien de temps cela prend pour faire son passeport ? 2 mois d' attente ? ou plus ?

Pour un renouvellement que j'ai fait faire il y a 1 mois, il faut compter 10 jours

Pour un renouvellement, je l'ai eu direct, en quinze minutes, à la Mairie du 14e. Mais il faut arriver avec toutes les pièces (timbre fiscal, justificatif de domicile...).

et dans mon cas (je n' ai pas de passeport) cela prend combien de temps ?

On dit que ça prend plus de temps en Mai,Juin, Juillet, à cause de la saison touristique.
Alors, tu ferais mieux d'y aller dès Jeudi. Mais téléphone avant pour te munir des pièces à fournir.
Il faut aussi deux photos d'identité récentes.

Merci Fabb, j' y vais dès jeudi matin, j' ai toutes les pièces demandées à ma disposition.

Ca y est c' est fait ! j' aurais mon passeport debut août :)

Je compte partir à la mi-septembre soit à NYC soit à Chicago, c' est pas encore décidé... :cheers:

Fais les deux !
Les vols entre La Guardia et O'Hare sont très fréquents.

Fais les deux !
Les vols entre La Guardia et O'Hare sont très fréquents.

J' y ai pensé mais le problème c' est que j' ai un budget très limité, je ne peux pas mettre plus de 600€

600 euros ? on va pas tres loin avec ça..... :D

NY, c'est plus cher que Chicago. Mais pas de beaucoup.

moi j'ai une excellente adresse de bed&breakfast dans le nord manhattan, pour vraiment pas cher... max 30 euros la nuit, 20 euros pour deux ou trois...
:dj:

Dis-nous.
Pourquoi ce suspens ?

j'ai pas ça sous les yeux là. c'est sur la 200th en tout cas, au pied des cloitres.
nickel. later on.

Pour patienter ...

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German investor fund to buy 333 W. Wacker
$208 million price for trophy tower

By Thomas A. Corfman
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 21, 2004

A German investment fund and longtime joint venture partner of Block 37's developer is set to buy 333 W. Wacker Drive, the curved, green-glass office building along the Chicago River, for the hefty price of about $208 million, which represents a 37 percent increase in the building's value in less than two years.

The purchase by Kan Am, a Munich-based syndicator of real estate funds, is another sign of the steamy investment market for well-leased, well-located downtown office buildings, despite the tepid leasing market.

Meanwhile, prospective buyers have been cool to buildings with high vacancy rates or expected tenant departures.

"You have to differentiate big time between long-term leases and creditworthy tenants in well-located, Class A properties versus everything else," said Donald Shapiro, chief investment officer of Chicago developer Beitler Co., which is not involved in the deal.

"Because of low interest rates and the lack of alternative investments, such as the stock market, people are continuing to search for that constant return," he said.

The 868,000-square-foot building is 93 percent leased, according to real estate research firm CoStar Group. The largest tenants are New York law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Chicago-based Nuveen Investments Inc., which combined account for nearly 30 percent of the building.

In the transaction, Kan Am is represented by Westwind Capital Partners, an Atlanta firm with ties to several German institutional investors.

Kan Am-Westwind has signed a contract to acquire the 36-story trophy tower, emerging from a crowded field of potential buyers, according to sources familiar with the transaction.

The building is owned by a joint venture of Boston-based investment firm Beacon Capital Partners LLC and Chicago developer John Buck Co. Representatives of the joint venture declined to comment.

Four years ago, Buck Co. and another investment partner acquired 333 W. Wacker for $145 million. In December 2002, Beacon bought out the investment partner in a deal that valued the building at about $152 million.

The joint venture put 333 W.Wacker up for sale just two months ago, hiring Eastdil Realty Co. to market the property. Eastdil executives could not be reached for comment.

The Beacon-Buck venture put the building on the market shortly after Beacon agreed to buy 222 S. Riverside Plaza from another Buck Co. joint venture. That $195 million transaction, which closed last month, was financed by Beacon with money from a new $1 billion fund.

Westwind has represented Kan Am in numerous transactions, such as the $158 million purchase of a 50 percent interest in Opry Mills, a 1.2 million-square-foot shopping center in Nashville, from Arlington, Va.-based Mills Corp. That deal, announced in March, gave Kan Am a stake in 10 malls and two developments owned by Mills, the Daley administration's developer of Block 37 at State and Randolph streets. Westwind executives could not be reached for comment.

For 333 W. Wacker, a purchase price of $208 million means that the capitalization rate, or rate of return, is estimated at 6.65 percent, sources said.

At such high prices, some observers think values have topped out for buildings such as 333 W. Wacker, which was built in 1983 and will face tough competition from newer structures.

Top-quality buildings that were sold in the late 1980s saw their prices on average decline about 33 percent when they were resold more than 10 years later, Shapiro said

"And that market in the late 1980s was the same kind of crazy [market]," he said.

Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune

WHAT'S DOING
In Chicago
By MONICA DAVEY

Because it sometimes arrives late and often leaves early, summer is adored in Chicago as in few other cities. Everything moves outdoors - onto back porches, into neighborhood parks, onto restaurant patios.

And especially to the edge of Lake Michigan, along the favorite ribbon of beaches and paths that hems the city. Boats fill the harbors. Softball teams pack the stretch of diamonds along the edge of downtown. The city even shows free movies outside. Chicago lavishes attention on Venetian Night, July 31, when decorated boats parade up the lakefront from the campus of the city's museums to Monroe Harbor, and people sit outside to watch.

This month, at last, Mayor Richard M. Daley held a grand opening for one of his favorite projects, Millennium Park, an outdoor architectural and artistic extravaganza in the city's heart, between the skyscrapers of the Loop and the lake. Though some have complained about how long it took to complete the park and about its cost ($475 million), it is undeniably ambitious. This is no big green lawn. Something hits the senses in every direction: a performance art center, fountains, a promenade, sculptures, a restaurant, an outdoor music pavilion with the touches of Frank Gehry.

And so, Chicagoans have found another reason to go outside.

Events

Inside at the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 South Michigan Avenue, a new exhibition examines one of the museum's most famous works, "A Sunday on the Grande Jatte," to show what led Georges Seurat to create it and how it ultimately affected the art world. "Seurat and the Making of 'La Grande Jatte,' " runs through Sept. 19. The exhibition looks at his earlier works, as well as those of Monet, Renoir, Pissarro and Signac. Timed and dated tickets are required, and are available at (312) 930-4040, or www.artic.edu/aic. Tickets are $12 Monday through Thursday, $15 Friday through Sunday. Weekday hours are 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Thursday until 8 p.m.); weekends, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

On Tuesdays through Aug. 24, movies are shown on a 50-by-34-foot screen in Butler Field, at Lake Shore Drive and Monroe Street, as part of the Chicago Outdoor Film Festival. The schedule includes "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," "Roman Holiday" and "Guys and Dolls." Showtimes are between 8 and 9 p.m.

Chefs from Chicago and around the Midwest give demonstrations this summer in the outdoor kitchen amphitheater of the Chicago Botanic Garden, 25 miles north of downtown. They will show people how to prepare meals from their own gardens, as well as answering such basic questions as, what does one do with Swiss chard anyway? The demonstrations, at 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. on weekends, run until Oct. 10. Admission is free; parking is $10. The lavish gardens at 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, Ill., are open daily, 8 a.m. to sunset; (847) 835-5440, on the Web at www.chicagobotanic.org. Buses to Metra commuter trains are available; contact the Regional Transportation Authority, (312) 836-7000 or on the Web at www.rtachicago.com.

On the city's South Side, in the Hyde Park neighborhood around the University of Chicago, carillon performances (a "Carillonathon") are being presented all summer in the late Gothic revival Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, 5850 South Woodlawn Avenue. The university's carillonneur, Wylie Crawford, and guest artists from around the country and Europe perform free on Sunday at 6 p.m. until Aug. 22. The music will range from classical to pop to show tunes - anything that can be played on 72 bells. Call (773) 702-2100 or (773) 702-7059.

Three clowns perform Shakespeare in their own avant-garde, improvisational way, in "500 Clown Macbeth," at the Lookingglass Theater, 821 North Michigan Avenue, (312) 337-0665 or on the Web at www.lookingglasstheatre.org. The show is set to open Wednesday, and runs to Aug. 29. Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 8 p.m.; Friday at 1 and 8 p.m.; Saturday at 7 and 9:30 p.m.; Sunday at 3 p.m. Most tickets are $25.

The Mexican gray wolf, long threatened, is on display this summer at the Brookfield Zoo, 31st Street and First Avenue in Brookfield, Ill., 14 miles west of downtown Chicago; (708) 485-2200, on the Web at www.brookfieldzoo.org. Admission, $8; parking, $8. Open daily 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. this summer. From downtown, take Metra's Burlington Northern train to the zoo stop.

Sightseeing

Wandering Chicago in summer may be best undertaken without an agenda: follow the path beside the lake, and see the city's architecture from every direction. Walk north until you arrive at Fullerton Parkway, head west into Lincoln Park and find the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, a short walk from the lake at 2430 North Cannon Drive, (773) 755-5100 or www.chias.org. Here, you can learn about the Midwestern prairie, butterflies and wildflowers. Open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends. General admission, $7; free on Thursdays.

For a less crowded path, walk south, past a reinvented Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears, and on toward the city's skateboard park, at 31st Street, which draws gravity-defying teens from all over the area.

On the city's West Side, too often overlooked by tourists, the Garfield Park Conservatory, 300 North Central Park Avenue, (312) 746-5100, www.garfieldconservatory.org, is well worth a visit for a lush array of plants. A new exhibition, "Giants: African Dinosaurs at the Garfield Park Conservatory, created by Project Exploration," on the Web at www.dinogiants.org, has brought massive African dinosaur skeletons into the conservatory's plant-filled rooms; through Sept. 6. A donation of $3 is suggested. The el train's Green Line will take you from the Loop in 10 minutes. Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily (Thursday until 8 p.m.).

Where to Stay

In the heart of the theater district, a playful musical theme fills the lobby of the Allegro Chicago, 171 West Randolph Street; (800) 643-1500, fax (312) 236-0917, online at www.allegrochicago.com. The 483 Art Deco rooms contain touches of zebra prints and pink, and feature CD players. Guests can enjoy a free wine hour daily. Pets are allowed. Double rooms from $139 to $279.

For a view of the Chicago River, consider Hotel 71, at 71 East Wacker Drive; (800) 621-4005, fax (312) 346-1721, www.hotel71.com. The 454 rooms are done in a minimalist style and are decorated with photos of some of Chicago's landmarks, like Buckingham Fountain and Water Tower Place. Doubles from $129 to $329.

Budget: The 130-room Comfort Inn and Suites Downtown, 15 East Ohio Street, (888) 775-4111, fax (312) 894-0999, on the Web at www.chicagocomfortinn.com, sits along a hectic and touristy street, but inside, it is peaceful and attractive. Doubles start around $119 and go up to $249 for a suite.

If price and location matter most, the Best Western Inn of Chicago, 162 East Ohio Street, (800) 557-2378, www.innofchicago.com, may suit: It is the shortest of walks from the Magnificent Mile, the glittering strip of stores along North Michigan Avenue where you can quickly spend all the money you have saved at the hotel. The 357 rooms are often small and forgettable, but clean; rates range from $99 to $139.

Luxury: The Drake Hotel, 140 East Walton Place, (800) 553-7253, fax (312) 787-1431, on the Web at www.thedrakehotel.com, is a Chicago institution beside Lake Michigan.

The 537 classic rooms, some of which look out on the lake, are decorated in regal tones, with dark wood and brass. Afternoon tea is served daily. Double deluxe rooms, with two queen beds and two bathrooms, are $209 to $489.

In the center of downtown, The old Carbide and Carbon Building, built in the 1920's, has become the Hard Rock Hotel, 230 North Michigan Avenue; (312) 345-1000, fax (312) 345-1012.

The 381-room hotel subtly reflects the rock 'n' roll theme: embroidered guitars appears on the edges of pillowcases, prints of the Beatles show up on otherwise spare walls. The modern, sleek rooms come in shades of taupe and chocolate and have CD players, DVD players and free high-speed Internet access. Standard double rooms, $179 to $239.

Where to Eat

Mirai Sushi, 2020 West Division Street, (773) 862-8500, is in Wicker Park, on one of the city's fastest-growing stretches of boutiques, funky shops and restaurants. The tuna-tuna-salmon plate is rich and succulent. For those who don't care for raw bluefin tuna or salt water eel, there are excellent cooked options too: baked king crab in a spicy sauce and steaming buns filled with pork and mushrooms. Dinner for two can cost $85 or more. Open Sunday through Wednesday from 5 to 10:30 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday 5 to 11:30 p.m.

Wallace's Catfish Corner, 2800 West Madison Street at California Avenue, (773) 638-3474, sits due west of the Loop, not far from the United Center where the Bulls and Blackhawks play. The atmosphere is loud and hectic but the fried catfish here is fresh, as is the okra, and not too greasy. Other specialties include fried shrimp and barbecued rib sandwiches. You may even spot Wallace Davis Jr., a former Chicago alderman, behind the counter. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. A meal for two will cost less than $20.

In the River North neighborhood (just north of the Chicago River), chef Kevin Shikami dreams up delicious French-Asian pairings at Kevin, 9 West Hubbard Street, (312) 595-0055. The combinations - a soup of asparagus with goat cheese, shiitake, chives and truffle oil; a roasted wild striped bass in a bed of artichokes, pancetta and morel mushrooms - are delicate and surprising. Dark woods make the room feel intimate. Lunch weekdays, dinner nightly except Sunday. A full dinner for two with drinks can cost well over $100.

The Uptown neighborhood on the city's North Side may not have a choice of upscale restaurants, but Magnolia Cafe, 1224 West Wilson Avenue, (773) 728-8785, offers an elegant option. American cuisine, dressed up beautifully and carefully presented, includes mushroom ravioli, pork tenderloin and seared salmon. Dinner nightly except Monday. Sunday brunch, too. Dinner for two with drinks: about $75.

In the Ukrainian Village neighborhood, A Tavola, 2148 West Chicago Avenue, (773) 276-7567, is easy to drive past. It looks more like a house, and it feels that way inside, with a few tables in the dining room and attentive hosts. The chef creates simple but well-prepared Italian fare: a simple salad of greens topped with pears; a roast chicken beside a creamy polenta and a beef tenderloin filet, gnocchi in browned sage butter. Dinner for two, with wine and dessert, can cost $85. Dinner nightly except Sunday.

MONICA DAVEY is a correspondent in the Chicago bureau of The Times.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

J'ai renouvellé mon passeport pour aller quelque part (je vous laisse la surprise). 6 jours pour renouveller le passeport.

600 euros ? on va pas tres loin avec ça..... :D

C' est sûr qu' à 19 ans je n' aurais pas le budget de quelqu' un de né en 1975 avec plusieurs années de travail rémunéré derrière lui.... ^^

Pour Newyork je trouve plein d' offres d' une semaine vol+hotel à 600€ mais rien encore pour Chicago :(

C' est sûr qu' à 19 ans je n' aurais pas le budget de quelqu' un de né en 1975 avec plusieurs années de travail rémunéré derrière lui.... ^^

Pour Newyork je trouve plein d' offres d' une semaine vol+hotel à 600€ mais rien encore pour Chicago :(

Pour NY, le NY Times recommande cet hôtel pas cher :


Budget: The SoHotel, 341 Broome Street, (212) 226-1482, fax (212) 226-3525, www.sohotel-ny.com, formerly the Pioneer, is one of the city's cheapest hotels, with clean, small, no-frills rooms from $59 for a single with a sink (the shared bath is in the hall) to $99 for a double with a bathroom. The hotel, between the Bowery and Elizabeth Street in Lower Manhattan, is in the middle of a sea of kitchen-supply and lighting stores, but the neighborhood is filling up with trendy bars and restaurants.

August 29, 2004
Summer in the Second City
By CHRISTOPHER SOLOMON

THIRTY-SIX years after the death of Upton Sinclair, Chicago's tourism office must still want to get its hands around his neck. Surely I'm not the only one who got his first impression of the Second City in high school English class while reading "The Jungle." Later, though rancid meat no longer defined Chicagoland for me, I still held to the image of a tough, beige and provincial megalopolis - the buckle of the Rust Belt, a place where residents moved through a gauze of withering humidity in summer. Friends talked of exploring Chicago's great museums and food, and the season's active outdoor life. I demurred. Stifling cities aren't my thing. So when I finally relented and headed to Chicago in late July I was prepared to hopscotch from one air-conditioned museum to another.

I also despaired of being able to pull off my three-day trip on the cheap. Sticky or not, Chicago in summer is a draw. Even a private room at a hostel can cost $70 a night. Some sleuthing finally turned up the Majestic Hotel, a few blocks from the Red Line of the El, Chicago's elevated train system. The Lakeview neighborhood is a little far north of the tourist center, but the tradeoff was quiet tree-lined streets and a three-block walk to Lake Michigan. My room in the refurbished 1920's women's boardinghouse was small but well furnished, with a queen bed and an uncramped, modern bathroom. The Internet rate I found, $99 a night, included a simple Continental breakfast. After arriving, I pulled on my running shoes and headed out to shake off the long flight and to meet the city.

It was late afternoon, and a summer shower had moved on. North Lake Shore Drive was black with new rain, and the sky was a dishrag color. I ran through Lincoln Park. People sat in their cars in the park, staring east. I didn't understand what they were doing. Then, over a grassy rise, Lake Michigan came into view. In the matte light the lake was sometimes blue, sometimes emerald but always a more fitting color for some Caribbean latitude. Its beauty startled me. The people in their cars were still there, staring east, when I ran home. It was my first sense of how much Chicagoans crave to be outside in summer, and how much they love those places where land meets water.

The next morning I headed down to the Loop, Chicago's downtown. Surfing the Internet before my arrival had turned up an intriguing entrée to the city: the Chicago Greeter program. The city's tourism office organizes free two- to four-hour tours in small groups, led by volunteers. Visitors can take one of 40 tours: a general overview of the Loop, theme tours like "Literary Chicago," walks in Ukrainian Village or two dozen other neighborhoods. Transit fares are included where necessary. The program's best part, however, was the chance to see the city through the eyes of a real Chicagoan who wanted to show off his home.

Before my arrival I had signed up for an architectural tour. Now I met a white-haired retiree, Harry Roccaforte, at the Chicago Cultural Center, which houses the city visitors' center. Harry said he had immigrated in 1950, at 18, and has lived around Chicago almost ever since. Sometimes, he gave tours to visiting Italians in his native language. Today I was his only charge.

For the next four hours we wandered the streets of the Loop. With the El banging overhead, Harry explained the elements of the turn-of-the-century Chicago School of architecture - the big glass-fronts at street level, the glazed ceramic cladding, the decorative columns at the building's top. We pushed through revolving doors of office buildings to admire Art Deco escutcheons in the lobbies. At Marshall Field's we stood among the lipstick counters and craned our necks to admire the 1.6 million bits of Favrile glass in the Tiffany mosaic high above. If the tour lacked scholarly rigor, I didn't much mind. I liked being out with a real Chicagoan who was proud of his city, and enthusiastic. Besides, I could have listened to Harry pronounce Italian terms like terra cotta and tempietti all day long.

The city was enjoying an unusually cool summer, and this day was another gift of sunshine and low humidity. On such an afternoon, the idea of spending even one hour indoors at the Field Museum or the Museum of Science and Industry seemed like a punishment. I'd even had enough of tall buildings; too much time without a horizon and I grow dizzy. I headed toward the lake.

For the visitor who arrives clinging to Carl Sandburg's industrial, "hog butcher for the world" vision of Chicago, the strand of lawn and sand and breakwater where it meets Lake Michigan is a wonder. In good weather it's a slice of city life best taken in from behind a pair of handlebars, friends had advised. At Navy Pier I rented a slow bicycle ($29 and up for a half day) and pedaled north, quickly, until the pier's cheesy midway scene shrank at my back.

The city has 26 miles of public lakefront, with nine harbors, three golf courses and 29 beaches. A wide pedestrian-bike trail links many of them. But numbers only hinted at the place's importance in summer. I rode past Ohio Street Beach and thought I spied an unlikely seal in the water. It was a man in a wet suit. Then another, swimming laps in Lake Michigan within sight of the platinum-card shops of the Magnificent Mile. I kept pedaling. At North Avenue Beach the sand was strung with rows of nets. Fit young heartland women wearing bikinis and Ventura County tans dove for volleyballs.

The lake breeze lifted the sweat and kept me moving, past the volleyballers, past the zoo, the nature museum, the sailboats with white foresails crisp against the blue water. It was quitting time now, and all of Chicago, it seemed, was converging on the lake. Runners jammed the path. Men on mountain bikes commuted home with their dress shirts stuffed in their knapsacks. A cyclist in the now-familiar United States Postal Service Team jersey Lance'd past me. At Montrose Beach, where Chicago thumbs out into the lake, a woman and a man with a Rasputin beard sat in folding chairs and watched the skyline and argued leisurely in what sounded like Russian.

Northward, again. The shadows of the tall buildings almost touched the water now, slowly clearing the beach of people. The bike path ended at Osterman Beach. I sat for a while, unhurried; the return trip never has the same pleasures of discovery.

The next morning I took the El to the $475 million Millennium Park, which opened in late July in an underused corner of Grant Park. Several hundred people already were wandering among the art installations. The Grant Park Orchestra began to rehearse for the evening's free concert featuring Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, an open-air band shell of swooping silver shards designed by Frank Gehry. Suited office workers and families with strollers followed the music to the great lawn of the pavilion, and sat. I joined them and took in the place. A Gehry invites similes: The bandshell looked like a great metallic bloom. No, wait, it was a bow-wave breaking before the Deco-ish Prudential Plaza. Or maybe it was simply the meeting of Coke can and cherry bomb.

The orchestra played on, as I headed to the nearby Art Institute of Chicago. Earlier, I'd gotten in line for the popular exhibition "Seurat and the Making of 'La Grande Jatte' '' ($12, plus $6 for optional audio tour). Open through Sept. 19, the excellent show demonstrates the influences and preparatory work that led to Georges Seurat's masterful 1884 "A Sunday on the Grande Jatte," the landmark Neo-Impressionist scene of scores of people enjoying a fine day at the water's hem. Only later did I realize that, even inside, I was again drawn to scenes of people enjoying the water and sunshine.

That afternoon I made the necessary bow to trendiness and headed northwest, to the Bucktown/Wicker Park neighborhood. Once such a scruffy area that the novelist Nelson Algren used it as a backdrop for his toughs, Bucktown is Chicago's neighborhood of the moment, one where bistros are pushing out seedy bars. I window-shopped for a bit. The farther inland I walked, though, the heavier the air seemed to grow. Eventually I found myself drawn again to the water.

For 52 summers theater companies have put on plays at the Chicago Park District's screened-in Theater on the Lake. The night's performance was sold out, but a ticket was easily purchased ($15) by checking with the box office one hour before the 7:30 performance.

The ticket price and the play's title - "San Valentino and the Melancholy Kid" - pushed my expectations low. The House Theater of Chicago shamed me with a very clever rockabilly opera of Old West revenge and redemption. Afterward, the crowd spilled into the evening. It was too fine a night to end so early. I grabbed a cab to the Green Mill, the august North End jazz club that was an Al Capone hangout, and the reputed birthplace of the poetry slam. (The slams still happen every Sunday night, followed by live jazz). Fame has not ruined the place. I walked in, paid $6 to a tattooed man, and from a barstool listened to the Laurence Hobgood Quintet find its groove.

It would have been easy to stay there, drinking $4 gin-and-tonics in the perfect crepuscular light, until the man packed up his sax. But there was one more thing I needed to do, and Chicagoans told me to only go after midnight.

Wiener's Circle is a one-level brick shack on North Clark Street near DePaul University. Out front are a few picnic tables that are lacquered red by years of repaintings and congealed ketchup. Inside a staff of women has dealt with the city's late-night drunks for so long that they are now famously abusive. Chicagoans who find themselves out past the hours dictated by good sense and temperance come to Wiener's Circle to flip attitude at the employees and savor the lippy service. Some Saturday nights at 2 a.m., the line reaches down the block.

I ordered. The big woman behind the counter heard the "please" in my voice, saw the fear in my eyes, and treated me gently. But the guy in line behind me knew the routine. He hollered his order. Yelled for his change. Demanded to know why his food was taking so long. The woman responded with a hearty obscenity.

"Put a dollar in the bucket!" she bellowed. He grinned and added to the tip jar. I did, too. Quickly.

For $6.50 I was handed a "charred red hot," a hot dog mounded with raw onions, a Kryptonite-colored relish, tomato slices and topped with two dill pickle wedges. Balancing an Everest of greasy fries and a pop, I joined four strangers at a picnic table.It was not great food, but it was real Chicago.

We talked and added to the ketchup spills. It was 1 a.m. on a summer's night in Chicago, and I still wasn't ready to head inside.

Visitor Information

My three days in Chicago cost $610, including hotel, meals and entertainment.

For more information about visiting the city, contact the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau, (877) 244-2246, www.meetinchicago.com, which also arranges promotional hotel rates, in cooperation with the Chicago Office of Tourism, at www.cityofchicago.org/tourism.

Getting Around

Visitors can get most places by using Chicago Transit Authority public buses and the El, the city's rapid transit system; at $1.75 a ride. For directions, call the Travel Information Center at (312) 836-7000 or visit the Web site www.yourcta.com, which has maps, schedules and a trip planner.

Where to Stay

The 52-room, nonsmoking Majestic Hotel, 528 West Brompton Place, (800) 727-5108, www.cityinns.com, and its sister hotels, City Suites and The Willows, offer small but well-appointed rooms in neighborhoods north of the Loop. Standard doubles from $99 a night plus tax on weekdays, and $139 on weekends.

Where to Eat

Platiyo, 3313 North Clark Street, (773) 477-6700, serves very good midprice Mexican fare such as tamal de chile relleno - poblano peppers stuffed with vegetables and goat cheese and wrapped in masa, with a tomatillo-orange sauce. Dinner for two, with appetizer and margaritas: about $60. Open for dinner daily and for brunch Sundays.

The Bucktown/Wicker Park neighborhood is home to The Goddess and Grocer, 1646 North Damen Avenue, (773) 342-3200, which serves deli sandwiches for about $7.50 each, and prepared foods. Open weekdays 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The "charred red hot" on the menu at Wiener's Circle, 2622 North Clark Street, (773) 477-7444, isn't the greatest frank you'll ever eat, but jousting with the surly staff here after the bars close is a Chicago rite of passage. Open for lunch and dinner 11 a.m. until 4 a.m. daily, and until 5 a.m. Friday and Saturday nights; showing up before midnight is bad form.

What to Do

The Chicago Office of Tourism's Chicago Greeter program, (312) 744-8000, www.chicagogreeter.com, offers free two- to four-hour city tours given by volunteers, including neighborhood and specialty tours. Register at least seven workdays in advance.

Bike Chicago has rental outlets at five waterside locations including downtown's Navy Pier, (312) 595-9600, www.bikechicago.com. Half-day rentals $29 and up; 10 percent discount coupons available at tourist information kiosks, or by reserving on the Internet.

A century after it opened, the Green Mill, 4802 North Broadway in the North End (773) 878-5552, remains one of the city's foremost places to see Big Band ensembles and jazz combos. Live music nightly, with cover charges from $6 to $15, and poetry slams Sunday nights ($6, or $3 for the jazz afterward).

CHRISTOPHER SOLOMON writes often for the Travel section

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

j'ai pas ça sous les yeux là. c'est sur la 200th en tout cas, au pied des cloitres.
nickel. later on.
Je vais peut etre passer a NY (que je ne connais pas du tout) sous peu, pourrais tu poster cette "bonne adresse" stp? et qu'en est il du quartier: pas trop craignos, pas loin des transports...?
merci bcp!

Je vais peut etre passer a NY (que je ne connais pas du tout) sous peu, pourrais tu poster cette "bonne adresse" stp? et qu'en est il du quartier: pas trop craignos, pas loin des transports...?
merci bcp!
ok, je te file ça dès demain. voire ce soir. no souci.
c'est pres des transports , dans un endroit calme, pres de la verdure.
C ya soon.
:dj:

ok merci! j'ai hate de voir NY, apres chicago c'est la totale :)

bed & breakfast new york (manhattan):

1803 riverside drive
New York, NY 10034 - USA
metro dyckman ST (15-20 minutes maxi de l'empire state building).

pour tout renseignement, écrire à la propriétaire
(plusieures possibilités d'hebergement, pas cher):

christinefargues@yahoo.com

:dj:

super, si c'est si peu cher que tu le dis c'est le bon plan de l'annee!! un grand merci ;)

super, si c'est si peu cher que tu le dis c'est le bon plan de l'annee!! un grand merci ;)

si tu veux plus de détails, j'y ai été, et peux te décrire l'endroit( photos à l'appui). m'écrire sur sskr@wanadoo.fr
:dj: