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!
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.
