Paris 2008 - 31 Mai

Samedi - As usual, the day started a bit late, I didn't get up until around noon. But, after all, we didn't even go to bed until after 02h30, so that's not that bad.

When we were at Place de l'Opéra the other day, we had seen an offre exceptionnelle at the Finsbury shoe store. Robb wanted to go and take advantage of the sale, so we hopped onto the 69 bus and were off. Once we arrived at the Palais Royal stop, I thought it might behoove us to go to the Opéra métro station and renew our passes pour le moi de Juin. We should have taken the 27 bus, but another came along and we jumped on. Do you hear that annoying buzzer again? It barely went a block before I knew we were on the wrong bus. And then, the damned thing just kept going and going, until I thought we might be out of the city before it stopped again. I was wrong, of course, and we ended up only a couple of blocks from Place de l'Opéra and the métro station we wanted.

Once in the station, we had little trouble finding the ticket window. Of course, there was a guy holding up the line of several people while he argued with the attendant, who was quite obviously becoming more and more annoyed with him. He finally left and the line moved quickly. We had our new passes in no time at all after that.

We were both feeling a bit hungry, so we stopped at the Brioche Dorée where we each had a slice of pizza. I had a glass of jus d'Orange and Robb had a café. While we were eating, we thought we saw Frog across the street chatting on his phone while awaiting the bus, but before we could get out to check, his bus came and he was gone. We're still not certain it was he.

Then it was off to find Finsbury's. I wasn't really sure where it was, so we started walking. After a couple of blocks, I remembered that we had been sitting at a sidewalk café when we had seen it across the street. As we continued to walk, I saw the café and, sure enough, the Finsbury shoe store was just across the street. We went in. Robb, in usual Robb manner, took quite a while to choose the shoes he wanted. The feat was finally accomplished and we started the walk down to rue de Rivoli and the quest for the bus back home.

However, when we got to Place Collette, there was a group of musicians playing beautiful classical pieces in front of the entrance to the Palais Royal Jardin, so we stopped to listen. I liked them so much, I bought one of their CDs. Then, we decided to take a walk throught the garden and wouldn't you know, there was another group of three young people playing for whatever people were willing to give them. I couldn't very well just walk past, and beside, they were playing Greensleeves and we both love that song, so I gave them a few euros. I joked to Robb that I couldn't afford to hear any more music, it would break me.

We entered the garden area and began walking to the far end, passing this lovely fountain, notice the daddy playing avec son enfant I told Robb that the garden area reminded me very strongly of the Piazza del San Marco in Venice, with all the restaurants and shops side-by-side all the way around.

After the walk through the jardin, we were faced with a decision. How would we get back to the apartment? We could walk down to the quai and try to find the bus stop, we could take the métro which was right there, or we could take a taxi. It dawned on me that there was another choice: we could walk to rue de Rivoli and take the 69 bus to the Champs de Mars where we could re-board it for the return trip. And that's what we did. But, surprise, surprise, when we got to the Champs des Mars, we didn't even have to get off. We just kept our seats and rode all the way back. It was so nice.

Plus à venir, mes amis.

Paris 2008 - 14 Mai

14 Mai - We were up and about by 10h00 today (yes, even me). Though we didn't get started doing anything until around 12h30 or so. Robb wanted to go to a Geox shoe store. We checked the internet and found the closest one was in the Opéra area in which we were just yesterday. So walked down, grabbed the bus and rode to the Palais Royal again. But this time, instead of walking all the way up to the Opéra, we grabbed the 27 bus and rode up. The good news is, there was a Geox at the address we had. The bad news is that it was just the corporate offices. It was in the same building as Celio, so we wandered in there. We each bought a nice belt.

After leaving Celio, my first thought was to have lunch at Café de la Paix, even though it's a really touristy place, but after checking the ridiculous prices, we changed our minds. We were approached by an English girl who thought we were French. She was looking for Notre Dame. She evidently wanted to walk and it really is close enough to do that, but she wasn't sure where she was. When I pointed out that the Louvre was just at the end of the street, she seemed to get her bearings and, thanking us, took off.

We started after her down the street but stopped at a sidewalk sandwich stand, got a sandwich and then sat at a table at the café next door, where we ordered a café.

After the light lunch, we walked down toward the Louvre, stopping once to take a picture of a fountain. There are two fountains, actually, one on each side of the street. I had taken a picture of the other fountain yesterday. Then, at Robb's urging, I took a picture of all the motorcycles parked around the fountain. I stopped a couple blocks later to get this picture of Place Vendôme, a few blocks away.

We were going to walk through the Louvre (there is a street that runs through the center), but then I saw the sign for the Carrousel du Louvre, and we figured we would go in, have a look around and get a cool drink. Not many people know of this entrance to the Louvre, most think that one must enter through the Pyramid. This entrance brings you in to a place where you can see the upside-down Pyramid (if you remember the DaVinci Code). This entrance also brings you in through the Carrousel which is like a mini-mall with all kinds of stores. I saw this interesting display of fossils in the window of one store. Then we walked through the room which contains a remnant of the original wall that surrounded the city of Paris back when it was first built. We ended up at the restaurant area and stopped to get an Orangina and sit by the railing overlooking the upside-down pyramid. It was great for people watching.

We left the Louvre by the entrance through which we had entered and continued our trek through the courtyard, where I stopped to take this picture of the Pyramid. Then we left the Louvre and walked along the Seine. I took this picture of l'Institute de France, the body entrusted with the preservation of the French language. I followed that with this picture of le Pont des Arts, which is usually full of people doing all kinds of things when the weather is good. Next, I took this picture of le Pont Neuf and Ile de la Cité. The green area in front of the island is the Point Vert, a little park, in which we will be going to a picnic in a couple of weeks. In the background to the left of the picture, you can see a couple of pointy turrets; that is the Conciergerie where Marie Antoinette awaited her fate after the revolution. Then I spotted Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, which is just opposite the eastern side of the Louvre.

We walked down to the Pont Neuf, where I stopped to take this picture of the crazy motorcyclists riding in the middle of the traffic, then we walked midway to the entrance to the Point Vert. While we were checking that out, it started thundering, so we headed back to get the bus before the rain came. We didn't make it. We were only about half-way back to the street when the rain began. Luckily, I thought, I had brought my umbrella, but the damned thing wouldn't open correctly and I had to hold it open. We made our way to the Pont Neuf métro station and ducked inside just as the real downpour began.

The rain only lasted ten minutes or so, and then we set off to find the bus, which I thought would be on rue de Rivoli, but I forgot that rue de Rivoli is one way in the wrong direction at that point. So then, I figured we had to go back to the street along the quai. We walked down there, but the only bus stop I saw was for several buses, but not the 69. I thought we were going to have to walk further down the quai, but Robb somehow spotted another bus stop next to the one I saw, and that was the right one.

We hopped aboard the bus which showed up almost immediately, happy to be safe from any remaining showers that might happen along. None did. The 69 bus passes the Bastille both going and coming. It stopped in the perfect spot for me to shoot this picture of the Opéra Bastille.

We got off a stop before our regular stop because I wanted to stop and buy another umbrella, having deposited the other one in the first trash container I found after leaving the Pont Neuf métro station entrance after the rain had subsided. I got my umbrella and we continued back to the apartment. It began raining lightly, just as we were almost there. The rain continued pretty much for the rest of the night.

Plus à venir, mes amis.

Paris 2008 - VII

12 Mai - We got up bright and early (around noon), actually Robb did get up around 09h30 to mail his letters, but someone to whom he spoke at the local La Poste told him he had to go to a main post office over by the Opéra, so we took off to find it. We finally got our chance to ride the 69 bus. We boarded on rue de la Roquette, riding past the Bastille down to rue de Rivoli. We rode down rue de Rivoli to the Palais Royal stop where we got off. Then we started the trek to the Opéra area. It was further than I thought and we probably should have taken the 27 bus, but we were determined and walked all the way, looking all the time for La Poste.

We stopped at several places asking directions to La Poste with no success. When we got the Opéra Garnier, we heard music but couldn't quite figure out what it was or from where it was coming. We finally saw them. We still have no idea who they were or why they were there, but there was a thirteen-member band performing in front of the Opéra. While we were watching, the white limo you can see behind them drove up. It was from Cherie.fm, one of the French radio stations to which we listen online at home.

I took the picture from the steps to the Opéra entrance. Then, I panned a bit to the left and shot this scene of the Place de la Opéra down to the Louvre.

We still had to find La Poste, so we took off again. We came to a Celio. I bought a "man-bag", a kind of purse for men that will come in handy because I like to take my camera everywhere I go but it's a bit cumbersome carrying it in the pocket of my jeans. Robb bought himself a hat. It occurred to us to ask directions to La Poste while we were there. The store clerks were very helpful, although they didn't know exactly where it was located, they gave us the general direction but told us it was probably closed today because it's a holiday. I didn't know it was a holiday and for whatever reason it never entered my head to ask which one, so I still don't know. When we got home later, I did look up French holidays on the internet but found nothing for the 12th of May.

We left the store in the general direction they had given us. We wandered around in back of the Opéra but found no post office, as I knew we wouldn't because just behind the Opéra is Galeries Lafayette. Galeries Lafayette is a huge department store comprising three seven-story buildings. There is the main store (mostly women's stuff), Lafayette Maison (the home store) and Lafayette Homme (the men's store). We entered the men's store because Robb has been trying to find shoelaces for the past few days. We have looked in just about every place we could think might have them. We found a place in Monoprix, but it was closed. Neither did we find a place in Galeries Lafayette. We wandered about for a while, during which I shot this picture from the third floor walkover. Robb bought a nice short-sleeved shirt and then we left.

I thought we might go to La Taverne on Boulevard des Italiens, have a café and then have dinner, but I didn't realize it was only 16h00 and it would have been a long, long wait for dinner, so we grabbed a taxi back to the apartment. That was probably a mistake but I did manage to get this picture of the Panthéon across the Seine.

When we got to the apartment, we were only there a short while before we realized we needed to go the store for a few items. We got some things for dinner as well as milk for the morning coffee and that was pretty much it for today.


13 Mai - The day got off to a good start for Robb. He had spoken to the concierge yesterday and she told him that he could send his letters from La Poste down the street instead of having to trek across town. So he got up around nine and went down. Then it got a little dicey because he saw a boulangerie and decided to get a couple croissants. Of course, you all know by now that his sense of direction is a bit muddled, so it caused him a few moments of consternation. But he finally figured it out and made his way back to the apartment.

In the meantime, I was trying desperately to get some sleep after having been kept up most of the night with various problems, some of which were caused by Robb and some of which were caused by the people in the apartment directly above us. I'm not sure what kind of schedule they keep, but they seem to be up all night and disappear (or sleep) during the day. At any rate, they're not quiet during the night and since I'm a very light sleeper, that makes for a long night for me. Then, around 07h30, the demolition squad starts work next door.

I finally gave up trying to get any more sleep and got out of bed around 11h30. Robb had already made the coffee and mine was in the micro-onde. Sweet Robb had bought some croissants, so we had those with coffee and that was breakfast.

We walked down, got the bus to Place Léon Blum and walked past the mairie du 11e to Picard, where we (Robb) bought a bunch of dinner stuff. Picard is a frozen food company, but don't even think of American frozen food when you think of Picard. There is no comparison. For about €25, Robb got enough for several dinners. We aren't doing much actual cooking here, because the kitchen is less than conducive to cooking. All we have is a tiny two-burner stove and a micro-onde, so it's a lot easier to buy frozen stuff or eat out.

After returning to put the frozen food in the freezer, we decided we wanted to see whether or not L'Avenue was still where we remember it being, so we caught the 61 bus to Gare d'Austerlitz where we then got the 89 Bus to Bibliotheque François Mitterand. We then walked back to L'Avenue, which as it turns out is not on Avenue de France as I thought. I forgot how the streets change names every few blocks or so. We were then confronted with what to do next. It was way too early for dinner and way too late for lunch, so we decided to sit on the café terrace and have a café.

We drank our café slowly and thought perhaps we would walk over to the MK2, which is just next door. The MK2 is a large complex containing twelve movie theaters, several cafés, at least one club (the Limelight) and a store where you can buy DVDs. The current popular movie at MK2 is Indiana Jones. But they're already excitedly advertising the showing of Sex and the City around the end of the month.

We checked out the DVDs at MK2 and walked over to the Seine to check out the new passerelle Simone de Beauvoir, built since we were last here. We couldn't come all this way and not have a walk across, We took a long last look across the passerelle and started off. I walked as slowly as i could, stopping to take a few pictures as I went. The first was this picture of the Junk, an IN jazz club mostly known to just locals. Then, I couldn't very well pass up the opportunity to get this beautiful sailing vessel. Since it was pretty much the beginning of the rush hour, I snapped this picture of the traffic on the quai, although my timing was a bit off and it doesn't look much like rush hour traffic. From the middle of the passerelle,I took this picture in which, if you look real hard, you can see the spire and towers of Notre Dame just beyond the Pont de Bercy.

We made our way back across the passerelle (so called because it's for pedestrian traffic only), caught the 89 bus back to the Jardin des Plantes, where we got the 61 bus back to the apartment.

It had been an exhausting day for me, and evidently for Robb as well, since he fell asleep on the couch just after dinner while I was writing this entry.