Paris Day Five

Has it only been five whole days?  I am very comfortable with the city.  One doesn't tire of marveling with every view and thinking, "I wonder what monument or pretty building I see down that street?"  Today we decided to not make it a really long day, and yet I am tired tonight. 

First, we had to figure out how to do laundry in a machine that is a washer and dryer in one.  We do have clean laundry, but we still aren't sure how it happened.....  and the laundry isn't really dry.

When we did leave the apartment, we headed toward the Tour Eiffel.  We have seen the Tour Eiffel from afar, but had not walked to and around it yet.   We did notice this morning that Paris was a busy place.  Tomorrow, May 1 is Labor Day here and so many people from around France have come here for a four day holiday. To top it off, it was a nice day with blue sky on and off.  Only a little bit of rain and wind this afternoon.  They have been getting a lot of rain so as soon as it stops, the sidewalks,parks, and cafes fill up.

We decided to walk through the Jardin Des Tuileries on our way.  This garden is beautiful.  You can't tell in the picture below, but the flowers are beautiful.

To give you a feel for our walk toward the tour, you can see the progression as we got closer below.

Walking, walking, walking....:The Tour Eiffel was built in 1889 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution.  It is 324 meters tall and welcomes seven (7) million visitors per year.

Here we are across the Seine, about one block away from crossing the river.

Walking around under the Tour Eiffel it was hard to think about how massive it was, because we were struck by the people -- everywhere!  The lines for the elevator to get to the top were everywhere.  Right now, one of the elevators is broken and it is a 2 1/2 hour line.  We will come back after the holiday and probably walk to the second level.

After getting here, we decided food was in order, so we headed down from the park to find picnic food.  We found a nice Boulangerie a couple blocks off the park and for 7 euro's we got a sandwich, a dessert, and a drink.  I had the below lovely sandwich of chicken and mustard on a poppy seed baguette, a slice of walnut apple cake, and a bottle of water.

We grabbed a park bench and even had entertainment.  The parks were packed today with people lounging and playing games.  We got to watch groups of men playing Boci ball.

Below is our view during lunch.  The Tour Eiffel was clearer from the bench on which Kim is sitting.

After lunch we walked through the rest of the parks and enjoyed the flowers.  Common flowers I am seeing include, tulips, iris, pansies, rhododendron, and azaleas.

The Tour Eiffel from the other end of the park filled with people.

In addition to all of this, we checked out the Bon Marche to see what a department store is like in Paris.... big and fancy!  I believe I read that Bon Marche is the first department store in the world.

Dinner tonight was at the little restaurant called Nomad, in the same building as our apartment.  It was very good.  My first course was a Rabbit Terrine (pate) with toasts, pickles and pickled onions.  Perfect!

My second course was a Grilled Swordfish with Ratatouille vegetables.  Yum!  The pictures are a little blurry, as we take them in a hurry hoping no one will notice!  :)

Tomorrow we will find out what happens on a holiday in Paris.  What does everyone do when most of the monuments are closed?  I can tell you for us tomorrow includes a late night show at Moulin Rouge! 

Day Four in Paris

Another fun day in Paris.  After our late night last night, we got up and headed out relatively early, for us, about 10:45 AM.   It was raining when we got up, but by the time we headed out the door, the blue sky and wind had arrived.  First, we took the metro, the train, and the bus (in that order) to the Fontainebleau Chateau. 

This chateau was much larger than Vincennes and further out of Paris.  Fontainebleau was the home of kings.  My head was swimming by the time we left with names like Napoleon, Marie-Antoinette, and all the kings of the 16, 17, and 18th centuries.  Here are a few rooms to give you an idea.  First, a bedroom.

Next, the throne room.

The Fontainebleau chapel.

Proof that Kim and I are traveling together.  Also proof that we have to concentrate hard to take pictures of ourselves and can't smile at the same time!

The gardens and parks surrounding the chateau were beautiful.  I was playing with the panorama feature on my camera here.

Look at those beautiful skies.  It was really windy though the fountains were blowing sideways!

After the visit it was time to get a quick lunch before catching the bus, back to the train, back to the metro.  We each had a Cafe Creme (coffee with cream) and a sandwich.

This evening we went to a fun event that I had found on a blog site I watch, David Lebovitz's living the sweet life in Paris.     The event was raising money for a charity called SOS help.  It's an English speaking helpline for English speakers in Paris.  There was wine and appetizers, but most fun, David Lebovitz spoke and there was a lovely Canadian folk singer called Cat Jahnke.  It was a really nice evening.  We both enjoyed it.  It was fun learning a little bit about American and English ex-pats and what it's like to live in Paris as an ex-pat.

On our walk home, we crossed the street to drool at another Chocolatier window display.  I'll leave you this evening with a view of this display.  I think we'll have to go back for the Candied Orange Slices dipped in Dark Chocolate.

Day Three Paris

Wow, day three was a long day.  We left the apartment a little before 1 PM and got home about 12:40 AM.  Here's how a long and very satisfying day in Paris goes.

First, we are headed to the Montmartre area and we hear loud chanting near the Opera.  Oh good, a demonstration!  It's almost fun to watch, once you know demonstrations are common in Paris and they are not scary.  The police and demonstration people probably plan ahead the length of the demonstration; what will happen; and when it will shut down.  This one was small, but loud, and as we watched, the police came out of the van, the demonstrators stopped chanting and that was that.

Next, we continue our wanderings up the hill to Montmartre and I had to take a picture of this Chocolate Shop window.  Really?  We Americans apparently have no clue what size real chocolate Easter eggs should be.  We could learn from this window.  These were over a foot high.

Next, I find a row of bikes to take a picture of for you.  These bikes are for anyone to use.  You can pay to use them for a day or more, or just 1/2 hour.  Your choice.  You take them and leave them parked anywhere else.  I'm too chicken to ride a bike in Paris.  But I see many people riding bikes.  If they are Parisian women they are doing it in high heels, so I know it's a fine method of transport.  Please note, I have not seen these bikes anywhere other than being ridden or safely parked in their stalls.  In Green River, WY we tried providing free bikes for people to ride on the Green Belt and they ended up wrecked, in the river, or stolen.  Here, people pay for their bike, ride it, and return it - not a hard concept.

One gets hungry quickly when you are walking by all the cafes with people sitting and eating.  At this point, we were in Montmarte, so it was time for lunch.  We used a book I bought, Clotilde's Edible Adventures in Paris to choose this restaurant, Coquelicot. It was packed and we were very happy with our lunch. They made their own breads of all kinds.  I had the pizza of the day and a green salad and Kim had the quiche of the day with salad.  It came with another basket of bread and une carafe of water for only 8.80 euros.  Pretty awesome for a well made lunch.  And for those that think $11 is too much for two lunches remember, that includes tax and tip.  When you look at a french menu the price includes tax and tip so you know exactly what you are spending when you order!

When we came out of lunch it was raining, so we opened the umbrella's and finished the climb up to Sacre-Coeur.

Work began to build Sacre-Coeur in 1875, but it was not finished until 1919 after World War I.  This is a church dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Christ.  No pictures were allowed of the inside.

Montmartre is known for its artist community and we enjoyed the streets of the area.

There was much wandering in the rain that afternoon, in and out of artist shops, past the Moulin Rouge, the Montmartre Cimetiere (Cemetery), and more.

Finally we were hungry again.  We headed back to a cute restaurant we took note of earlier, Le Basilic Restaurant.  It is so quaint inside, there must be some history, but since google is only allowing me to search in french right now, I'm clueless.

In Paris, they don't eat dinner until later, usually after 8 PM, so it benefited us to be the first in the restaurant around 7 PM and watch it fill up.  Which it did!  Every table was full when we left after a lovely 23 euro menu that included a first course, main course, and dessert. 

I enjoyed the below Salmon Tagine for a first course and every course was lovely.

But our day wasn't done yet!  At that point we headed to Au Lapin Agile, having no clue what we were getting ourselves into.  After another good walk, which included more hills, lots of stairs, and beautiful early evening views of Sacre-Coeur, we reached"The Frisky Rabbit" as it translates, to find a line.  I had read a description of this as "Paris's oldest and strangest night spot" and ""the hangout of painters like Picasso, Vlaminck, and Maurise Utrillo".  We made it into the show even though we didn't have a reservation to find a log of people packed solid into a very small room with cabaret music.  Live singers mostly singing what I would describe as French folk songs for 2 1/2 hours.  We were served a small glass of brandy and brandy soaked cherries as we sat and took it in.  The night was indescribable, so I won't even try.

At the end of this show, about 11:30 PM, we walked home.  Montmartre is pretty far from where we were, so it was still an hour walk home, and we were tuckered out when we arrived but very happy with our day.

Paris Day Two

It felt like a slow start today, as I didn't get much sleep last night, I guess that happens when you move eight time zones, but we still managed to get in 8 hours of fun today.

We left the apartment and headed to the Tuileries metro stop, stopping for a quick salad on the way to the Vincennes Castle on the outskirts of Paris.  It was an easy metro ride and we arrived in another time and place.

Around 1350, John II initiated work on the below Keep, both a place to live for the king and keep prisoners.  The Keep was completed by his son Charles V around 1370.

A protective wall with 9 towers was then built around the Keep.

Vincennes housed kings through the 16 and 17th centuries, until Louis XIV moved to Versaille in 1682.  Below is the Queen's pavilion "or really big house" and opposite it, across the courtyard was one that looked the same and was the King's pavilion.

Started by Charles V, the below chapel was also built and modelled after the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.  This chapel is also called Saint Chapelle.  They are called sister chapels.

After riding the metro back in toward Le Arc de Triumphe, we realized we were hungry and needed sustenance.  This consisted of coffee, beer, bread, and cheese and we were ready to hit the pavement again!

We will be going up in the Arc de Triumphe later in the visit, but just walked around and under it this time.



We had a great day, it was gray, but it didn't rain.  One thing you can't help but notice in Paris is the large amount of motorbikes, scooters, and motorcycles.  They are so interesting.  The French really are full of contradictory paradoxes.  They smoke everywhere.  Kim and I are starting to feel peer pressure to smoke (just kidding).  But I have yet to see a person on a motorcycle or scooter without a helmet!

Tonight as we were walking back from dinner, we came across this metro exit.  Yes, this is where people come out of the Metro at a stop near us. 

Don't mind the fuzziness, that happens after a couple glasses of wine.  Au Revoir.

Paris Day One

It's been an amazing first day in Paris.  Paris will take over this blog for the next couple weeks, but I will try to keep a foodie twist! 

I got into Paris a little after noon (Paris time) yesterday and navigated the train with a connection to the metro to meet my friend Kim at the Tuileries metro stop.  We then walked to the apartment she's been in for a week and I'm sharing with her for two weeks.  I only slept two hours on the flight over, but did pretty well.  At the apartment I freshened up and then we headed out into the rain for 3 -4 hours to walk and get something eat.  When we came home and I finally went to bed I slept for a glorious 12 1/2 hours.  Yes, the Eiffel Tour is still impressive in the rain.

Today we walked for 8 1/2 hours with very little resting.  A few small bites to eat, but probably less than 1 hour total sitting.  It was a glorious day with only one brief rain shower.  We covered a lot of ground.  In the area of Les Halles, look what I found.  It was like a cooking hardware store!

It had every thing you could want.  You should have seen the collection of rolling pins, whisks, tart pans, and more!  Below you see every possible size of cheesecake rim hanging.

I can only possibly share a small number of the pictures I took today.  Below you can see the ceiling of Saint Merry church.

How cool!  They have whole blocks where only electric cars can park!

On the Ile De La Cite, the island in La Seine that houses Notre-Dame, is a year around flower market.  It was beautiful.

I need to play more with the Panorama feature on my phone.  Isn't this a cool picture of Kim?!!?  We are constantly taking pictures of random very cool buildings. 

This is Saint Jean XXII square behind Notre-Dame et moi.

The flowers are very pretty, especially the tulips right now.  But there are never "just" tulips.

As we headed up toward the La Sorbonne, unknowingly as we thought we were Ile St. Louis, we saw this amazing row of specialty shops.  It is amazing how you get your cheese, meat, bread, chocolates, pastries, fish and more all at individual shops.  It means the variety and quality of what you are buying is exquisite.  Because if that boulangiere's baguette is not up to snuff you can go around the block!

The Patisserie windows are amazing!  We have not gone past window shopping yet, but no doubt that will come soon.

Dinner tonight consisted of two glasses of wine and sharing an appetizer of crusty goat cheese with an endive salad.  They brought the bread and bowl of thinly sliced sausage just because.  The selection of charcuterie (ham, sausages of all different sizes and variety, pate, etc) is amazing here.

And finally the sun was setting on La Seine and Eiffel Tour as we walked home.

Bonsoir!