Correspondence from the States

Bonjour!  Hello!

Well, we have been back in the swing of things stateside for about 3 weeks now.  Yes, my faithful followers, Customs let us back in the States. 

When we actually had time to review the pics we took I was taken aback.  There are 799 photos, many of which are too dark, not really clear or just plain unidentifiable.  A CS client works at a photo place and will take a look at them to see what can be cleaned up.  I love to take pics, enlarge and place in intricate places.  For instance, I have a metro sign leading down to my basement and I pass under the Eiffel Tower every time I go up or down my stairs. 

Well, here are some top pics for now:

This is the Seine from Pont Neuf (we believe).  Pont Neuf was the bridge we walked over most often.  Anyway, this was our first day in Paris, just hours after arrival.

Here I am in front of the Pyramid in the Louve courtyard.  We entered the Louve thru the pyramid.  Below are pics of the Mona Lisa.  I included both so you can see the actual size of the Mona Lisa.  While its not as small as many have said, it isn't massive either.

We lit candles at Notre Dame, which we were at nearly every day.  Notre Dame was about 1/2 mile (at most) from our apartment.

Well, here is a view of the Eiffel Tower right smack dab in front of it.  We visited early in the day as we took our first adventure on the Metro so see how long it would take us to get there so we weren't late for dinner that evening.

This is our view from our dinner table at the Eiffel Tower!  Magnificent.  We had a table for 2 right in up to the window.

This was my appetizer at the Eiffel Tower.  Andy had the same thing.  It is a prawn with avacado and that thing sticking up tasted like a tortilla.  Very tasty!

Well, I've tried to load more pics but I keep losing them so this covered Day 1, 2, 3 for the most part.  More to come in later days. 

  Until next time.......

Beaujolais Day

Bonjour!

Well, today is the long awaited uncorking of the 2011 Beaujolais Nouveau.   While we did not participate in the running thru the streets in Burgundy area we did participate in the drinking of the wine.  Andy had a sip but I dove right in.

As to our adventures of today.....we decided to revisit the galleries area to get a bit more of the Opera area in before we left.  After losing the Starbucks shop, then finding one again we made our way back (believe me we walked and walked) to the Printemps and Galleries Lafayette shops.  The windows of Printemps, as I mentioned yesterday, are fascinating.  The puppets are quite animated and mesmerize little children.

We spent quite some time just roaming the stores in the galleries just to window lick (as they say in France) until we really needed to get something to eat.  As we were leaving we found yet another Tiffanys.  This time I looked with intent.  I decided against even thinking about buying anything because everything referred to Tiffanys NEW YORK!  Well, I wanted Tiffanys Paris.  Apparently there isn't really one.  Oh well!  So much for my Tiffany item.

We strolled the Rues of Paris for quite some time and came across, yet again, the Au Pied de Cocbon (the pig bistro).  Jennifer Joy told me this was the place that had the absolute best French Onion Soup so we decided to give it  a try.  We get in and have to wait because it is there changeover time, I guess.  No one really spoke much English so I picked at words I knew and figured it out from there.  They are taking the Beaujolais day very seriously.  They have all kinds of purple ballons in the shape of grape clusters encircling the entrance.  The matre de shoves glasses of beaujolais in our hands while we wait for a table.  When we finally get a table, we order our French Onion Soup......they came quite some time later because the french take their time.  Andy's looked amazing. Mine did as well but a bit more well done. Normally, a little crunch to my cheese is heavenly but I could not get my spoon thru the cheese.  I tapped away and started giggling as well as the lady next to me.  I got the attention of someone, showed him what I was doing and he took my soup away.  A few minutes later I get a perfect crock of soup. These crocks were huge and the soup was absolutely the best tasted in all of Paris.  There was so much cheese and bread in this soup that the base was almost creamy.

This was all we needed to eat and walked out stuffed.  Luckily we were still quite a distance from the apartment.  We walked and walked and decided to hit the shops of Ille de Cite area one more time for some last minute gifts.  Then it was off to the apartment.

While we are not in for the night, this will probably be my last blog until back in the States.  We will be strolling the Seine one last time tonight then staying in.  I don't know what tomorrow will bring but we will end up at the Hyatt Regency at CDG airport area.  We need to be at the airport quite early Saturday morning so we decided it would be best the spend the night as close as we can get.

So to all my faithful followers, aurvoir!  Until the States!

A relaxing day

Bonsoir!

I'm sure by now you are all thinking I am unable to spell.  French, maybe but could just be laziness as well.  I see things are not necessarily spelled correctly but I am too lazy to go back and fix so there ya go!

Today was Andy's day.  To date I have been doing most of the adventure seeking and kinda 'telling" him its what he wants to do and of course since I'm a Princess he agrees.  I have seen how tired he has been so today I offered up a couple options but made it his day.

So off we go....to Ille Saint Louis which is a small island behind Notre Dame area.  It is one of the oldest parts of Paris but so peaceful.  It is a very chilly day so we are bundled up and strolling the streets of Ille St Louis to locate the long line to Berthillon IceCream, very well known to anyone searching out Paris information as being the best Ice Cream found.  I assumed it to be quite a bit of hype but probably good none the same.  Being it was just before noon and very chilly there was literally no line, which is unheard of so in we go.  There are a few choices of ice cream flavors as well as some brownies and other pastries.  As I'm rattling off the yumminess of the things a fellow customer turned to me and said....Berthillon is well known for their exceptional ice cream. I said I knew but the other items looked good as well.  Her reply was a quiet voice to me that next door had all kinds of things to eat at your leisure and Berthillon was for the ice cream.  Well, wasn't I given the hint.  So over we go to decide what flavors we wanted.  As the woman left she gave me a secret smile and told me to have a good day and enjoy my ice cream. 

I elected vanilla and Andy elected banana.  The vanilla was a brownish color and the scoop was miniscule by my standards but ooooohhhhhhh!!!  heavenly!!!!  It was like the vanilla beans were grounded down to cream and frozen - that is how fabulous the ice cream flavor was.  Andy pretty much had a similar description of the banana. 

As we wondered the streets we came across a resident home that had drain pipes that had fish mold as part of the drain and many gilded additions.  I would love to add pic to this blog but as you know that is not something we have been able to translate to date.

Next we come across a biscuit shoppe and as soon as we walked in the madam offered us a sample.  Oh my goodness - such decadence so we grab a bag and plastic glove and off we are...electing flavors to purchase to try.  Will this madness never end????  How will I ever go back to normal eating?  Is it the Paris spell on me? One may never really know.

We made our way back to the apartment to press the dryer button again to try to dry our 3 items (only in france).  Andy decided he wanted to do some gift shopping so off we go.  As I said it is quite chilly today.  What that translates into is that many of the open air shops are not open or if so, have limited items out.  Every day we walk by shop after shop of touristy items but today...no so many.  Actually very few so after a couple hours of being lost (how lost are we really - after all we are in Paris!) we bought some frommage and a demi bagette and had our lunch.  We relax a bit, fall asleep actually!  It is now time for Andy to decide what to do this evening.  We end up at a local shop where these elderly madams make all the food that is comfort food and you buy by weight.  We get roasted poullet, creamed spinich, roasted potatoes and gateau de riz (Oh my god!  rice pudding!!! could it be?!)

We have just finished eating our "home cooked meal" and I am already dreaming of dessert of gateau de riz!  This is also the evening of the Beaujolais Nouveau release!  What I have been waiting for!  I will try to stay awake till midnight but I just don't know if my body will participate in that same mission.  We will see....if not I will be visiting Nicholas to purchase my bottle first thing in the morning!  I am so excited to taste my beloved beaujolais as young as it can be!

Until then.......sweet dreams!

An extra note

Bonjour!  My faithful followers....

You are quite lucky today in that I stumbled over  pictures of the Printemps store window displays I mentioned in yesterdays blog.  The puppets were quite fascinating and much todo was put forth to make these windows be the shining star of the season.

The article I read mentioned the unvailing of the window displays brought out Karl Langerfeldt and a famous french singer whose voice echoes throughout the are at the display.

Enjoy!

The streets of Paris from my eyes

Bonjour!

Well, today started out with our local handyman sanding the steps of the apartment once again.  The French are very good at keeping these very old buildings looking handsome.  While we curse the spiral stairs every day we walk up them, they are quite beautiful if you are just looking from the comforts of the apartment with no more intent of walking them for the day.

Our adventure was to meld two walks from "24 great walks in Paris". Today was "The Madeline District" and "The Phantom of the Opera".  Of course, as is our fashion, we never quite start at the beginning of any walk but somewhere in the middle or end based on where the RER or Metro take us with ease. 

The Madeline District brought us to a few churches, the first being the Polish Church, which I cannot say much about since it was very close to Chanel store.  Again, window shopping is all I can afford to do.  Our next stop was the church of la Madeleine.  What a magnificent structure, almost greek in nature; simple in structure but with massive pillars.  The church is dedicated to St mary Magdalene.  The top frieze in the front show Jesus with Mary Magdalene kneeling besinde him, entreating him to forgive our sins.  Upon entering the church it was almost errie but you can clearly see the dedication to Mary.  This seemed the place to say prayers for Jodi in hopes of her having strength and courage to be the best she could for her mother.  

We walked several blocks to Chapelle Expiatoire, which is a small park where many families go to be at peace, for children to play and just to relax and enjoy the beauty.  Finally, the end of this walk brought us to one of my personal favorite saints and a much beloved one to the French.....St Joan of Arc.  The statue is of Joan on a horse dressed in armour looking much like the tomboy trying not to be discovered a girl.  She led the french to battle during 100 year war and eventually was burned at the stake, deemed a witch. 

We continued our trek to The Phantom of the Opera by walking down Haussman, where we believe Andy really saw Tiffanys (yes stubborness still).  We came across two department stores (malls by our standards) - Printemps and Galleries Lafayette.  Printemps has unbelievable storefront windows, most put on my Chanel using puppets with quite animated songs with movement.  This store area houses 9 floors of all high end shops from burberrys to chanel to TIFFANYS to YSL, Hermes and on and on.  I found a beautiful gold YSL bracelet as well as a lovely necklace from Coach, both within a price that would not take us to the poor farm but, as Andy said....we need nothing to bring back...our gift is Paris itself (so well said from the man who knows how much we are spending!).  Galleries Lafayette, on the other hand, was much more lower end such as Diesel, MGI, etc. My big mission here was to find les Toilettes as we had stopped at a Starbucks along the way for our daily drink.

Andy was sure there was a Tiffanys on Haussman NOT in a mall so onward we went.  At this point, between you and me, knowing I can't do more than just look has taken quite a bit of the excitement of finding another Tiffanys away from me.  We never did locate so we moved onward and tried to find the Opera, which we did.  An interesting fact about the Opera besides its esquisite beauty is it is built on a water tank because when digging began to build water was discovered and after several tries at pumping to no avail a tank was put in place and the Opera built over so water would not get in the Opera.  Somehow that story brought on the stories of the Phantom although I'm not sure how they relate.

We wondered past the Opera and made our way to Place Vendome.  It is a square with many high end shops with gables all adorned with gold sunbursts, symbol of Louis XIV and off to the right The Ritz.  As you may or may not know, the Ritz is the last place Princess Diana and Dody Fyad were at before their fatal car ride.  We were going to go in and have a glass of wine at the Ritz bar; however we could not get in because someone important was getting ready to leave and paparazzi were all around with guards all over so it was pictures and onward.

We ended up back at Jardin de Tuilleries and once again a beautiful day for a leisurely walk thru the gardens, a stop at a bench to reflect on our day, then back to the RER.

What all this walking brought to my attention was.......all the hub-bub on stylish clothing, perfect coiffure and the right shoes, etc to have before travelling to Paris - HUH!  While many at the Salon tried to get me to keep my short, stylish, flamboyant color hair for France, my decision to go au natural color and longer length had me fitting right in.  Anyone under 65 wears there hair long, straight and what appears to be rather natural coloring.  Most hair color on females is brunette.  The dress of the locals is either skinny black pants or skinny dark wash jeans, always ankle boots without heels and the most fabulous jackets, coats, sweaters and scarves one could hope to see.  The french men dress basically the same as the females, really!  No one wears tennis shoes like Americans but you will see converse by the younger crowd but converse only or low boots.  Men are same or pointy shoes for the artist crowd. 

The tourists wear the high boots, whether high or low heeled and brighter colors for clothes.  Also seen are jeans and nikes or the american athletic shoes.  The hair was all over the place for tourists, long, short, colorful or natural.  Such a difference from what I read everywhere before I left.  The french style you read about was only seen in the higher end neighborhoods by probably wealthier women and men.  Interesting.

I have spent the days here wondering all around admiring all the beauty of the people, the shop windows and just being happy to be in Paris.  Andy has been my champion to assure I did not step in dog poop.  Very interesting thing is there are dogs all over Paris with their owners taking them in shops, etc.  The homeless have dogs to keep them warm and probably for some sympathy as well.  So much art related to the Cat you would think you'd see cats around but noooo just dogs.  We did finally see a cat on the street somewhere and snapped a picture since it will more than likely be the only we see. hmmmmm

Well, we are in for the evening to enjoy chocolates and each others company as we think of a new adventure for tomorrow.  I think we will visit the Marias area which we have only  walked the tip of.  Well, until then.....

a bientot!

Facing brave new worlds

Bonsoir!

Well, today we ventured forth onto the Metro.  As you know, we mastered the RER, which is the rail system.  The Metro, on the other hand, runs underground as well but is similar to our RTA rapid transit lines.  They look like the trains but stop many more times and there are more options of switching lines.  Much, much more crowded as well.  But we did it!  Much to our chagrin......

We took the metro 4 to Montmarte based on the book client Barbara Byrnes lent me called 24 great walks in Paris.  Based on the book, we would get off at Anvers metro station and walk a bit until we reach Sacre-Coeur.  Well, past sex shops, trans sex shops, gay sex shops and just plain yukky sex shops we found our way to something I can only describe as breathtaking!  More steps - the French LOVE steps!  Once we reached the top and the chapel it was truly breathtaking....literally!  We were breathless....I guess that coissant we had to give us some energy wasn't what we needed.  It wasn't french perfection in my quest for the perfect coissant either.

Once we finished our visit of Sacre-Coeur we meandered down streets and alleys, totally forgetting to follow the book.  I believe I found a cafe Charmayne really wanted us to visit but she couldn't remember the name.  At that point I decided to start reading the book and we tried to find our way and get on track.  Montmarte can only be described as very quaint, where there is a tiny vineyard right along the road in someones backyard (so to speak).  It is truly a starving artists paradise with many hilly winding roads and alleyways to wander down.  It certainly is quaint but so very different than central Paris.  We found a chocolate shoppe (Sycre Matinal Douceur) and did some comparison sampling.  Interesting!  I am a true dark chocolate caramel lover so we got a dark chocolate caramel and split it (yes that is what we have been doing to keep my weight from going totally haywire).  To my surprise the taste was caramel but the texture certainly was not.  I can only describe it as a solid truffle center that tasted caramelly.  We both much prefer our Maison Larnicol Meilleur Ouvrier de France chocolate shoppe near our apartment.  Anyway digressing! We kept wandering the streets and found the apartment Vincent VanGogh spent his starving artist years and ended up at Moulin Rouge.  Moulin Rouge in the daylight is rather seedy looking. I have seen pics at night when its lit up and its quite lively but daytime....not so much!

We found a local Starbucks and wondered in to get a jolt and toilette break.  After some serious thought, we decided our original plans of spending the entire day in Montmarte wasn't such a good idea since we would then have to head back to the Metro thru seedy sex shoppe part of town again so off we went....back to familiar grounds.

Once off the metro we had a late lunch at the Bistro Pont Neuf so I could have a glass of wine and my beloved tomato, walnut, goat cheese on toast salad.  Yummy!  We were once again waited on by a jovial waiter who refered to me as 'babee"....

The weather is once again just perfect so we strolled along the streets without any hurry to our apartment.  We wondered down alleys we had not seen before and eventually found our way back to take a well needed break. 

We lounged for a couple hours then decided to stroll the streets once again.  It is just so beautiful out its just too hard to stay away.  We wondered everywhere, discovering new shoppes we had not seen before.  There is a very french little alley that has huge iron gates at each end that are closed each evening.  Wondering down the alley is so french.  We stopped in LaFare Premiere Pression Provence, which is an herb, vinegar, olive oil and pestos, etc from Provence area.  I sampled probably the most aromatic olive oil I've ever had.  It was light enough to drink, I think, and tasted almost like the olives were grown amongst lavender.  Heavenly.

We ventured off to try and locate something light to eat for dinner.  We opted for 3 frommage pizza of all things.  Anyone who knows me knows I cannot eat pizza so I had a couple pieces of leftover coissants we bought at a local baker in Montmarte and a couple bites of pizza.  We also stopped at our favorite chocolatier and bought some samples of different chocolates than we have had before.  They also had us sample the french macaron, which is soooo not like our macaroons in the states.  The flavored gel or creme is sandwiched between two cookies that seem to be merangue in texture.  Okay but not all that they are touted to be.  Nothing we would buy for sure.  Funny how things sometimes work in your favor!

We are now in for the evening to savor thoughts of our day and start thinking about what adventures tomorrow will bring.

Until then - auvoir!

Exploring vast grounds

Bonjour!

Today began as is our new custom....Starbucks.  It has become an old friend to us, even though we have tried different locations.  Today we went to one we visited before simply because we decided we had a long walking travel and didn't want to start by getting lost.

We mapped our our way to Pere LaChaise Cemeterie, home to such famous names as Oscar Wilde, Yves Montand and Simone Signoret, Balzak, Jean de La Fontaine and Jim Morrison.

How beautiful!  I am a cemetery person.  The older the grounds the happier I am.  These are by far the oldest I have yet to visit.  The sites were gigantic monuments, wrought Iron, encased many times in moss.  There were paths and more paths, all made of stone that made exploring both fascinating and confusing at the same time.  Every turn brought another sight so much more beautiful or unique than the next.  We entered at the bottom, so we had to make our way up steep hills to the top entrance to get maps to help us locate the resting grounds we were most interested in.  While strolling the grounds amongst gravestones dating back to 1600's and earlier there were crows flying overhead (one swooped down right across my path, I swear!) and landed very close by to confirm it was indeed a crow.  We came across the first site we wanted to visit, Oscar Wilde, the great poet/playwright.  Opps!  Covered for restoration cleaning.  Just days earlier there were pictures posted of lipstick stains all over his headstone.  So on we went......next was Yves Montand and Simone Signoret, together forever.  Then Balzak, the french novelist and playwright, followed closely by Jean de la Fontaine, 17th century french poet.  Geez!  I know these names and who they were.....I mustof retained something in school so many years ago.....too bad french language didn't stick with me.  Lastly we came across Jim Morrison and "the tree".   The tree has many notes to jim written or carved in.  Then we found our way back out and walked those many steps (don't even want to dwell on how far it was).....past the Bastille, fountains, parks and back to Pont Neuf!

We started out around 10am and it is now after 4PM.  We decided to grab a quick bite at a familiar stand of crepes and paninis and frites and brought back to apartment.  We ate and relaxed for a couple hours before dinner.  As it seems to be....dinner just doesn't seem to be happening again!  We are still not really hungry so we walk around the Siene and do some shopping then stop by our very familiar gelato and waffle shop. 

We are again in for the night and starting to map out a new adventure for tomorrow.  The weather has been so beautiful that I hope we can get a couple more days in before it turns cold and rainy.  We have plans to go to Montmarte and Ille Saint Louis.  A client gave me a book of 24 walking tours and both are in the book.  There are also a couple others that are local enough we can do if weather permits.  I also really wanted to do a Ghost Walk but I'm not sure we will get that in......

well....until tomorrow au revoir!