Paris 2008 - 11-12 Juillet

11 Juillet (Vendredi) - I got up early today (before noon) and we decided we would go to MK2 on Avenue de France in the 13'eme to see Sex and the City, Le Film. Does anyone hear the annoying buzzer? We caught the 61 to the end of the line where we saw beaucoup des Gendarmes. They started appearing just before the bus made the turn to cross the pont. They seemed to concentrated on the pont, and then there were a few on the other side. While we were waiting to cross the street to get the next bus, several police vehicles drove past with sirens wailing. Shortly thereafter, the gendarmes disappeared and we still don't really know what was going on, but we suspect it has something to do with le Quatorze on Monday.

We got our bus, the 89, to the MK2. As we walked to the entrance it began to rain very lightly. Once inside, we were greeted by this anatomically correct gentleman. We checked the movie schedule only to find that Sex and the City was no longer being shown.

We walked over to L'Avenue, got a table on the café terrasse, in the shade, and had a café. It was then decided to take a walk several blocks down the street, where we came upon what we think is an attempt at art. Either that, or they're bringing in blocks to construct another building. Robb stopped into a Monoprix and bought himself another pair of sunglasses, then we caught the 89 bus, but didn't get off until it got to Le Panthéon.

We walked around it, taking pictures of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont and the Mairie du Véme. We walked down rue Soufflot and for the very first time ever, entered a Quick, because Robb needed a pit-stop and I wanted an ice cream. Then it was off to the Jardin du Luxembourg. We strolled around the grounds taking several pictures: Pan, the Medici fontaine, a general view of the gardens and back towards the Panthéon.

Our bus stop was just outside the entrance and we rode back to the Jardin des Plantes to get the 61 back to the apartment.

We were trying to decide where to go for dinner. I suggested we should give L'Angella another shot. We're glad we did, because the dinner tonight was excellent. Also, it was the most people we've seen there since it opened a month or so ago. I speculated that they might have hired a designer to do the interior because it really is very nice and looks like it would be a lot more expensive then it actually is.

12 Juillet (Samedi) - While I was waiting outside for Robb, I happened to see, parked just across the street, a cool Ford (another you will unfortunately never see in the US) of which I've been trying to get a daytime shot for over a month. If Ford would offer this car in the US, I guarantee it sell thousands within a week of its debut. It's called the Ford Streetka according to this article about it.

We caught the 61 bus to the Pére Lachaise métro area. We were going to walk back to the apartment, but I decided to take a detour down rue de la République. It was an interesting walk during which we noted there were no buses at all. I thought that was kind of odd for a major street, but there you have that Parisian logic again. When we reached Avenue Parmentier, it started to rain and Robb had not brought his umbrella. There was a nice bistro right on the corner, Les Anemones, so we went in, ordered a café and observed the comings and goings around us.

While we were in the bistro, I noticed the 46 and 56 buses going past. After leaving, we walked across the street and caught the 46 to Place Léon Blum.

When we got off the bus, we noticed a restaurant named Candide, We walked down there and had a very nice dinner around nine-ish. We would like to return before our trip is over.

Plus à venir, mes amis.

Paris 2008 - 4 Juin

Mercredi -

The original plan was to make yet another trip to the bank for some ridiculous something, but overnight, I managed to talk Robb into forgetting the whole idea. I mean, it would be nice to have a French bank account, but not when we have to put up €8.000 that we can never access without replacing it immediately. We don't have $12,000 that we can just give to a bank. It rankled me to the core to even think of doing that, and Robb finally woke up to the stupidity of it also. Of course, stopping the process is almost as difficult as starting it, so we most likely haven't seen the end of it, yet. We're still waiting for a call from the person with whom he dealt at the bank.

In the meantime, we needed to go to Place d'Italie and Italie2 to pick up Robb's pants from Armand Thierry. Then I had an idea; I've been wanting to go to the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle for some time, why don't we go there first and then go pick up the stuff at Armand Thierry? A brilliant plan if I do say so myself.

I even came up with a new way to get there. Instead of taking the 69 to Gare d'Austerlitz, we could take the 56 to Nation, a section of the city to which we've never yet been except on the métro. Great idea! Nation is rather nice. More so than I was expecting for some reason. After we arrived there, I took these three shots of the area: 1, 2, 3. At Nation, we caught the 57 to Gare d'Austerlitz and the museum.

We entered, paid our six euros and proceeded to look around. There were bones everywhere, even on the walls above the display cases, as well as on the floor. The stuff on the floor was cordoned off and watching some of the too-young-to-be-there kids, I could easily understand why they had done that. I think it's totally admirable for parents to want to take their children to educational places like the museum, but I think it would make a lot more sense if they waited until the kids were old enough to have a clue as to what they were seeing. Many of the kids thought it was just a cool playground, and I'm certain that tomorrow, they will have no remembrance of where they were or what they saw.

The first floor, starts off with an excellent argument for evolution, although it was somewhat obvious in their display that a link or two might have been missing. Most of the stuff on the first floor was primates (including man), four-legged animals and fishes and whales. We walked up the stairs to a mezzanine where I took the pictures, somewhat hesitantly, because I had asked if it was okay to take pictures and the attendant said it was if you do not use a flash. I took the first picture and there was no flash, so I figured I was good to go.

While the first floor was quite interesting, the second floor was more to my liking. Dinosaurs! They had a full skeleton of a Brontosaurus and even the head of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Wow! Those were the biggies for me, but there was a lot of lesser sized critters filling the room, including some not-so-small mastodons. There was a guy on a ladder cleaning one of the skeletons. That was interesting because it never occured to me that they ever needed cleaning, but after seeing him at work, I began to notice that some of the skeletons were a bit "dusty". I took my first picture, and wouldn't you know the flash came on. Well, we had seen pretty much all there was to see, so I took a chance and took the second picture. If anyone noticed, they said nothing.

I have to admit, as much as I liked it, I was disappointed. I had seen pictures in which they had whole dinosaurs, mastodons, sabre-toothed tigers and much more. I saw none of that today. Maybe it had been a special display. Still, it was easily worth the pricce of admission and I'm glad we went.

Then, it was off to Italie2. Robb collected his jeans from Armand Thierry, was very satisfied with the alterations and bought a light jacket, though I'm beginning to wonder if he'll ever get to use it. The weather has been very much on the cool side (according to some, it's downright cold to me). I can't believe it's this cold on 4 Juin. It feels like it should be mid-February or something.

We wandered over to Chez Jules for lunch. I had an Omelette Mixte, Robb had a steak filet. We drank Sancerre.

After lunch, it was back to Italie2 because Robb decided he needed pants with which to wear his new jacket. While he was doing that, I bought yet another man-bag. A larger one because I seem to be carrying more and more stuff with me whenever we go out. With the crazy weather here, I'm afraid to go out without a scarf, my hat and an umbrella. Then there is my camera and all the métro/bus plans and my copy of Paris Practique. Robb was complaining that the original man-bag I had bought and given to him, was too small, so I gave him the second one. Now we have one that will never be used.

Part of the plan for the day had been to bring all our purchases back to the apartment, get some rest (me) and then go to MK2 to see Sex and the City with dinner at L'Avenue afterward. It never happened. By the time we got back to the apartment, it was after 19h00. I laid down to take an hour nap, that lasted until about 20h30, which meant there was no way we could make the movie. Ah well, maybe tomorrow, after the laundry is done. Finally. I hope.

Plus à venir, mes amis.