Paris 2011-6

8 Juillet (Vendredi) - Robb had aother appointment at the banque on Boulevard des Italiens today.  His regular conseiller (counselor) has taken off a couple months (we think she is getting married), so he did business with a really nice guy from the South of France, who spoke excellent English, and seemed to prefer it.

We encountered a slight drizzle on our walk to the bus stop.  Fortunately, we had both taken our parapluies (umbrellas).

As we passed the Monoprix on rue du Temple, we decided to get off at the next stop and walk back to it because Robb wanted to get another bottle of a cologne he really likes.  On the way back to the Monoprix, we stopped at a luggage place where I had bought a suitcase several years ago,  Just to have a look.  A French friend had told me it's very well known, and I can understand why.  The prices for their very good luggage are excellent.  Then we stopped quickly at Tati where I bought a European extension (the little black things are American to European adapters).  We finally made it to the Monoprix and Robb got his cologne, UdV (Ulric de Varens).  It's named in colors, I like the Blue.  When we went out to get the bus (the stop was just outside the Monoprix door), I took a picture of Église Sainte Elizabeth, just across the street. There was a guy in a wheelchair waiting for the bus and I managed to get a shot of the wheelchair extension from the bus.

At about 20h00, we walked down and caught the 96 bus to Saint Paul.  We had planned to take the métro from the Saint Paul station to the Étoile station, because both have escalators to the side walk.  But there is a taxi stand there also, so...  The taxi let us out in front of Pizza Trionfo, a place at which we had dinner several times a week last October.  It's basically a pizza place as one can tell from the name, but we almost always had the pâtes (pasta).  I liked all the pasta dishes, but I loved the pâtes bolognaise.  The only time I had a pizza there, I thought I was ordering tartiflette.  And it was a tartiflette pizza which was very good, but when you're expecting one thing and you get another, it's not the same.

Nino recognized us as soon as we walked through the door.  He thanked us for the carte postale we had sent from Fort Lauderdale and we chatted for a few minutes.  There was a sizable crowd in the restaurant.  I think we were the only non-French in the place.  An interesting point: even though it's an Italian restaurant and the proprietor's name is Nino, he's not Italian; he's Egyptian.  For desert, I had a créme caramel and Robb had the Parfait Café.  As usual, Nino gave us a digestif on the house.
    

9 Juillet (Samedi) - Laundry (jeans) and La Tour de France.

10 Juillet (Dimanche) - Aujourd'hui (today) we went to le Musée des Arts et Métiers (Museum of Arts and Crafts) which involved taking the same bus twice.  We had a choice; we could take the 20 to the end of the line and come back, or we could do what we did.  First, we rode to the next stop after the bank, and then we walked down to rue du Quatre-September, where we got the bus going in the opposite direction.  We got off at the Réaumur-Arts et Metier stop, which is just across the street from the musée.

The first thing you notice is L'Église Saint-Martin des Champs, which you can enter from the musée, but isn't part of it.  Regretfully, we did not go in for a look.  The second thing you see is the Statue of Liberty.  That now makes three of which I'm certain in Paris, but there could be more.

The musée has exhibits on three floors.  The first floor exhibit was a temporary show about the Paris métro system.  We didn't see that either.  But there was more than enough to see on the other two floors, including one of the first, if not the first, airplanes.  I'm not sure I'd want to take a flight in that.  The ceiling above the hanging plane is almost as spectacular as the plane.

The musée is large and filled with fascinating stuff.  We were there for about three hours and we didn't even see everything.  As well as the stuff in the musée, there were interesting things to see outside as well.

Afterward, we caught the bus back to the apartment, and decided to walk down to Comptoir Turenne for a drink and (for me) a rest.  I had a coupe de champagne, Robb had a Kir Royal, and we shared a dish of pommes frites (French fries).  While sitting there, I saw one of the famous Space Invader mosaics on the building next to the church on rue de Turenne.

Walking back to the apartment on rue Saint-Claude, I noticed a couple other graffiti-like things; the spaceman, the social comment and the very cool barber's sign.

You can see ALL the Paris pictures at Paris 2011

À la prochaine, mes amis.