Paris 2008 - 30 Juin

Lundi - We walked down to rue Léon Frot, on a corner of which is La Poste, turned there and walked down to rue de Charonne. There we were confronted with the choice of several interesting restaurants in which to have dinner. I had already decided which I preferred, but asked Robb which he liked. He was basically non-committal, so we had dinner at the one I chose, l'Armagnac. I had the Faux-filet with gratin du jour. Robb started with a salad of tomatoes and mozzarela, followed by duck. I had ordered the faux-filet because I was curious to see what it might be. It turned out to be a piece of steak. Why it's called a faux-filet will forever be a mystery. It was good though. Something we've noticed on this trip is that the cuts of meat we've been getting, aren't very good. We were wondering if it's because of inflation and the smaller restaurants can't afford the good stuff. Also, into the mix, we must add that we normally don't eat this much meat, so it may be that we're noticing now what has always been true.

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.

Paris 2008 - VI

10 Mai - It's a lovely, lazy Saturday in Paris. My cold medicine ran out because I stupidly forgot to buy more, so we're off to a pharmacie for that. We walked down to Place Léon Blum since the only open place seemed to be the one to which we went the other day. Then we noticed that a lot of stores had a sign in their windows indicating that they would be closed from 13h00 to 15h00. So now we know not to try going to a store between one and three in the afternoon in this neighborhood.

I got my Jour et Nuit and then we wandered around the area a bit. Just a block or so from the pharmacie we found a Monoprix; the bottom floor is is a general department store, while the upper level is a large grocery store. We bought a few items and left. The building above the Monoprix contains many apartments and was nice looking. We started back towards the apartment walking toward Parc de la Roquette, the edge of which can be seen by the trees on the upper left. The upper end of the parc is just a block from the apartment. At the lower end of the parc is a marchè at which we bought some things for tonight's dinner.

We started the walk back to the apartment when we came across a building with the popular French liberté, egalité, fraternité and the French flag flying just below the words. It's not unusual to come across buildings with those three words emblazoned across the front.

We also came across this advertisement for a Big Band concert on 15 Mai, to which we hope to go.

I couldn't remember the champagnes we had on the cruise, so I wrote to Ô Chateau, the sponsors, and asked them to supply the names. Mademoiselle Claudine Kervadec emailed them to me. The first sampling was a brut, LeLarge Ducroq. The second, which was most preferred by all seven of us, was a demi-sec, Vincent Perseval. And finaly, a champagne rosé, Floquet Doucet. I was not previously, nor since, familiar with any of these wines. I assume they are small, little known houses. I will continue to look for them.

Dinner tonight, at home, started with a wonderful appetizer of Coquille Saint-Jacques, followed by Penne au Poulet et Champignons (Penne pasta with chicken and mushrooms). Robb had his usual salad, but I couldn't handle any more than the appetizer and the main course. I drank Chateauneuf-du-Pape and Robb drank a light chardonnay.

11 Mai - This was a day of miscues.

Robb, forgetting that it's Sunday, got up and made his way to La Poste. I arose a couple of hours later, had my coffee and checked my email. Since most stores are closed on Sunday, by law, we set off on rue de la Roquette to see what we could find. There are a lot of places run by Muslims here, so we figured we could find something. And we did, a nice little store down by Place Léon Blum. On the way back to the apartment, Robb stopped at a fruit stand for oranges, while I went next door to a sandwich shop to get a sandwich for lunch.

We finished our lunch and decided to take a bus ride on our favorite line.....the 69. Unfortunately, the RATP decided they didn't want to operate the 69 line on Sunday, so we're out of luck for today. While waiting for the bus that never came, Robb noticed this birdhouse just outside the parc de la Roquette.

We did go for a very nice, very long walk in the neighborhood. We came across a Ford that you will never see in the US (if the oil companies have their way, and they always do). Across the street from the bus stop is this Chrysler-Dodge showroom, where they sell American sized vehicles including the Jeep Liberty, one of which you can sort of see behind the car on the right of the picture. We have seen a lot more SUVs this time, though most of them are either Mercedes or BMWs.

We were just going to walk around the block, but ended up walking all the way to Père Lachaise and back down to the apartment.

Then around nine-ish, we thought we would go to a restaurant in the 13e, L'Avenue, but after checking the internet, we found a bazillian restaurants by that name, but not the one to which we wanted to go on Avenue de France. Then we thought we might go to one of the great oriental restaurants on Avenue de Choisy, but after walking down to the métro station, we decided to have dinner at Au Cadran Voltaire.....again.

I'm really glad we made that decision, because we had a table by the window on the coin de la rue (corner of the street) where we had an excellent view of all the comings and goings in Place Léon Blum. We sat there for many hours taking it all in and appreciating the fantastic lifestyle we were enjoying. At one point, an older couple was seated at a table next to us. The guy was trying to take their picture with his camera and was having a difficult time. I volunteered to take the picture for them and did. They were most appreciative and I got my brownie points for the day.

We finally left the restaurant and were going for a walk, when we both "got the call" at the same time. We canceled our planned excursion and headed back to the apartment.

Plus à venir, mes amis.

Paris 2008 - V

7 Mai - Another day spent pampering myself and doing nothing constructive. So here's a couple of pictures.

These two pictures are of the post office just down the street. In France, La Poste is also a full service bank. For us, it's a convenient ATM from which to replenish our euros.

This is the Mairie du 13e (City Hall of the 13th arrondissement). There are twenty arrondissements in Paris and each has it's own city hall complete with all the bureaucracy for which France is so famous. I've asked about the trees with the purple flowers but no one seems to know what they are.

8 Mai - Today we took the métro to Place d'Italie. We went to Italie2, our favorite centre commercial (shopping center) in Paris. We didn't do much shopping today, we only went to Tati where I bought some pants hangers and what I thought were T-shirts but turned out to be some kind of "muscle" shirts for which I'm a bit long in the tooth (not to mention that I simply don't have the body for them). Then, still in Tati, we found a photo machine where I had some pics made so that I could put one on my current métro pass and a couple for the next two. Then we walked down rue Bobilot looking for L'Oisive Thé, a teahouse just opened by a fellow blogger. We walked the entire length of the street but did not find it. So we walked back to Place d'Italie.

We had planned to have lunch at the tea room, but since that didn't work out, we decided to have lunch at the Café de France. I had a tomate-mozzarella salad and a glass of wine. Robb had a huge seafood salad and wine.

We went out around nine-ish for dinner at l'Artiste Café (the place to the left is the café), again. I had Penne au trois fromage and Robb had the Magret du Canard. Notice, in the forefround, the double-wheeled scooter. I never saw them before on any of our trips to Paris, but there seems to be a lot of them now. For guys who need training wheels perhaps?

9 Mai - I remembered, after we returned to the apartment yesterday afternoon, that Thursday was not the day to go to the tea house, because that's the only day of the week that Aimee takes off, so we would have missed seeing her. I checked the address on her website again and we set out confident of finding it today.

And we did find L'Oisive Thé. Aimee was happy to see us since Katia had called and told her we were coming. What a nice experience we had. The ambience was so welcoming and comfortable. The tea was excellent and the food was Parisian good. This was the view from our table. It's a must do when you come to Paris.

After a charming couple of hours at L'Oisive Thé, we walked up to Place d'Italie and Italie2. We went back to Tati so Robb could get some pics for his métro pass. Then we stopped into FNAC where Robb completed his Raphäel cd collection. We left there and went to a perfume store looking for perfume for his cousin. We didn't find it, and I think the reason is because it's something that's not made any more. His cousin (who was married to a Frenchman) keeps asking for all these things that she bought in Paris many, many years ago and when we try to find them, of course, they're no longer available.

Then Robb discovered that his sunglasses were missing. We thought maybe he had left them in Tati and went back, but couldn't find them, so we stopped at Printemps where he bought another pair. After, we caught the métro back to the apartment.

We were going to have dinner at A La Rennaisance, but it was closed, so we walked back to la Bistro Expo. Did I forget to mention the music when we were there the other day? What an interesting repertoire; jazz, typical Moroccan music and you haven't heard reggae until you've hear Moroccan reggae.

After dinner, since it was so nice, we walked around the area for a while.

I managed to crash my computer a few days ago and lost all my files. That's why there is no music with these entries. Coming soon.....maybe.

Plus à venir, mes amis.