Paris 2008 - 22 Mai

22 Mai (Jeudi) - Robb fell in love with the jacket I bought yesterday and decided he had to have one too, so we headed for the bus stop. When it came, I decided we should get off at Place Léon Blum and take the 56 to Place de la République. While we were waiting for it to show up, someone came and put up a notice about another damned manifestation. According to the notice, the manif would last from 13h00 to 18h30, during which time the bus service would be disrupted. A woman came along and saw the notice, but like we, she also noted that the bus had just driven past and it was well after 13h00, so we all just sat there and waited and hoped the bus would come by. Sure enough, it did. But when we got to Place de la République, we got to see the actual manif. The notice had said something about the police, but the people we saw demonstrating were blacks. Yesterday, we had seen a black guy handing out brochures, but he only gave them to black people, so I assumed and still believe, it was some kind of black thing. Of course, that meant the second bus we wanted to take would not be running.

We started walking in the general direction of our goal and finally came across the police manif. Then we had a choice. We could continue to walk or we could take the metro. I figured walking was the lesser of the two evils. Does anyone hear that annoying buzz? So off we went. I thought we were following the correct street, but somehow we missed a turn. We stopped at a shop because I was hoping to get another man-bag just a bit larger. They had one that I liked but I decided to shop around a bit more. We asked the salesgirl for directions to rue des Archives. She supplied the info and we set off again.

People in France, and Paris in particular, love their plants and they can be seen almost everywhere.

As soon as we got to the corner of rue des Archives, I recognized it immediately. We walked down to the clothing store where Robb got his jacket, which I like more than mine and, indeed, looked at yesterday but they didn't have it in my size, although I might have been able to get into one a size smaller which is the size Robb bought.

We left the store and walked down to rue de Rivoli and the sidewalk shops outside BHV, where Robb bought a scarf. I was going to get one also, but they didn't have the color I wanted.

We then walked down by l'Hotel de Ville. We were going to just walk past on our way to the Notre Dame area a couple of blocks away, but I saw they were having some kind of exhibit and I suggested we should see if we could get in. No problem. We approached the gate to the entrance and a guy handed us an information brochure and we walked in. Just after entering, we had to stop and let them search our stuff, which was a simple formality. We entered l'Hotel de Ville and began looking at the stuff. It was about a French Navy aircraft carrier, le Charles de Gaulle. It was a great exhibition. They actually built a mock-up of the carrier in one of the rooms and there was a big screen movie showing life aboard the vessel, including the diferent planes taking off and landing, the section in which the guys slept and lived when not on duty, the mess hall and of course, the operational areas. Except for the cute sailors, I think Robb was kind of bored but I loved it.

We left and headed over to the Notre Dame area because the tourist shops there are the least expensive place in town to get souvenirs. The shop to which we went had the kind of scarf I wanted in the color I wanted. Than just to make the deal irresistable, they offered three for the same price everybody else in town was asking for one.

We were both getting hungry, so we stopped at a cafe just around the corner. I had a ham and cheese sandwich; Robb had a salad.

After eating, we walked down to the Pont Neuf and got the bus back to the apartment.

Plus à venir, mes amis.

Paris 2008 - 21 Mai

21 Mai (Mercredi) - I needed an different kind of extension in order to plug in my converter. All the plugs in the apartment are recessed and will not accept the converter. I figured we could just run down to BHV; I was certain they would have the kind I need. but then, while we were getting ready to go out, I discovered that I already had a plug that would work and it did. But we were ready to go and wanted to go, so off we went.

When we got to BHV, we found they have changed considerably. First, the price of everything was much increased because they had gone from a Sears-like operation to a Bloomingdale's kind of place. Then, they had moved all their mens wear stuff to a diffeent building, but again, the prices were not like the BHV we were expecting. We were very disappointed because we very much liked BHV before.

We left there, walked to rue de Rivoli and we bought a scarf. Then we decided to take a walk up rue des Archives just for the hell of it.

We came upon a store with a great looking leather jacket in the window. I checked the price but couldn't believe it. We went in and looked around. I found the jacket and again checked the price. I still couldn't believe it, so I asked the clerk and she verified it. €99 for a beautiful leather jacket. Sadly, they didn't have the one I really liked in my size, but they had one that was almost as nice, so I bought that.

We left and started a leisurely stroll of the area taking in as much as we could, Just up the street, we found this Plan de Marais. After which we came across these three cars that represent one I used to like, one I love and one you see all over Paris. It was really our first day of any length spent in the Marais and we were beginning to see what everyone was raving about. We walked to the Archives Nationales, walked through the garden to the main building and had a look around inside. The was a small charge to actually enter but it was so late, we figured it would be closing very soon, so we didn't buy a ticket to enter.

Another thing one sees a lot in Paris is Smart cars whose owners make a few hundred euros a month by letting companies advertise on them. I think it pays between €300 and €700 depending on the company.

We returned to rue des Archives and caught the 75 bus to Place de la République where we got the 56 bus to Place Léon Blum.

We almost passed the pâtisserie again, but the call was too much to ignore. Robb bought an apricot tarte for me and a strawberry tarte for himself.

Which brings us to this point; there are a lot of words in English which are very close to French words. One of those words is apricot. In French, they change the p to a b. Then there is the word April, in which the p is changed to a v. It's all so very stange don't you think?

Another thing I've noticed here is the number of men who are minding the children. You see guys all the time walking with their kids, picking them up at school or pushing strollers. I think that's really nice.

Plus à venir, mes amis.

Paris 2008 - 20 Mai

20 Mai - The day started by going to the marché where we bought way too much stuff that we had to carry back to the apartment. By the way, that group of things in the picture foreground are the Velib stations and the place where you pay. You can see there are only a couple of bikes left in this rack.

After lunch, we caught the bus to l'Hôtel de Ville, from where we walked to rue des Archives. On rue des Archives, there is a very gay-friendly bar/restaurant called Les Marronniers at which we were to meet yet another blogger. A Brit this time who writes under the name of Rhino75. The meeting was scheduled to take place at 18h30 but because we weren't sure of the time on the bus, we got there about a half hour early. This was not a bad thing because we got to take a brief tour of the Marais.

A couple of doors from the bar/resto is what used to be a church. In the courtyard an artist, Ostoya, was having his show. Aside from being interesting in their own right, most of the pieces had moving parts so that you could rearrange them or, like me, just play with them. 1, 2, 3, 4 Number four was my favorite. There were two or three more like it, of varying sizes.

Then we went to the bar, got a couple seats inside and waited for Rhino. He arrived shortly after 18h30, having walked from his apartment not that far away. I think it was an instant mutual attraction. We got along famously, as we have with everyone we've met over here. We chatted for about three hours until Rhino needed to leave to eat the dinner he had already prepared. Robb and I decided to have dinner in Les Marronniers. We both had the l'entrecôte grillée with potatoes and salad.

Unfortunately, it became time for us to return to the apartment. I knew from the last time that we couldn't get the bus on rue de Rivoli, so we walked down to the quai. We had to walk past l'Hôtel de Ville, and I got these shots of the back side and some detail. We also happened past Saint-Gervais. We looked in both directions, but saw no bus stop. We were confronted with the possibility of walking down to Pont Neuf or walking the other way, the direction in which the bus would travel. We chose that. It's too bad the universe doesn't utilize one of those annoying buzzers that buzz when you make an incorrect choice like on the quiz shows on TV. So, we walked and walked and walked and walked. We finally found the correct bus stop and waited. And waited. And waited. We noticed that the time thingy wasn't listing the 69, but we've seen that before and it just meant the thing wasn't working correctly, so we kept waiting. There's that buzzer again. We watched several 76 busses go by and finally one stopped and I told Robb to ask the driver if it went to Voltaire, meaning Place Léon Blum, of course. The driver said the bus would go to Voltaire, but the one of which he was speaking is not the one we wanted. When I realized it was not going where we wanted to go, we got off the bus. Unfortunately, I had no idea where in Paris we were. Or even if we were still in Paris. We started walking back to who knows where, when we luckily came upon a taxi stand. We hopped into one and were off. It turned out we were only a few blocks from the apartment and the taxi ride was relatively cheap.

Plus à venir, mes amis.