Around and about in Paris

Bonsoir tous!

Nous sommes desolees to realize that our time is running away rapidement… Laurel will probably cringe at my fractured french!! She sounds so fluent.

We’re quite established now in our little home in Rue Bachelet, Montmartre. I’ve taken over a few of the domestic duties because Laurel is much more attuned to the map reading & planning directions than I.. Every morning I trot down the hill to buy le pain/ & croissants for breakfast. Discovered chocolate with almond croissant. ( Kirsty eat your heart out!) I’ve made a friend of the lady at the Boulangerie. She’ll miss me when I’m gone! I farewell her with “bonne journee” and she responds “ avaguday” even tho’ I was so careful to enunciate each syllable.

We’ve been busy since returning from Barcelona. Exploring the Marais, Rue de Montorgueil , 2 days worth of ‘ Hop on, Hop off Autobus’ with really interesting commentary as you go, plus a day on the Seine “ under the bridges of Paris ….” on a gorgeous Autumn day. I have such fantastic photos (I think) that it’s extremely hard to make choices to share with you’all - I have to admit the subject matter is amazing! So we’re probably including far too many . Did you see that you can click on each photo to enlarge?

I loved hearing a singer with incredibly high voice singing ‘ Lucia ..’ under the arches of Place Des Vosges, delighted to observe how Parisians make the most of ‘street theatre’ or just philosophizing, by lining up side by side in cafes, and make the most of the sun in the gardens - all lined up as you see in the beautiful Jardins de Luxembourg. ( We’ve bought everyone one of these great stripey woolen hats you can see in a photo)

La Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Arche de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Champs Elysees still all sitting here where they belong so wonderfully. I never tire of hearing all the history & reflecting on so many changes. I’m always gazing upwards at the superb architecture everywhere you look. Just enamoured of pretty wrought iron balconies, geraniam flower boxes, carved portals, magnificent statues, street lights & fountains.

However, there are definite layers of humanity here. On the bottom are the homeless who lie down on the warm grille vented from the metro, so many very bent -over Islamic ladies begging for their hungry children, buskers who hop onto the train to sing or play ( I think to myself “this is how Edith began!” & give my change) & then the cleaning contingent who are mostly black…..& so on!!

On Wednesday, we took the Eurostar to London for the day, leaving at 7am & booked for the last train back at 8pm.
Laurel guided us all over the city without much ado, in fact with great aplomb!

Christmas decorations are appearing - look at the table in Fortnum & Mason! We imagined Ross & Helen reveling in their sumptuous anniversary ‘high tea’. And the ceiling in Harrods food hall ---- well I could have stayed there all day. What positively, decadent lusciousness…

It was a great day & we returned to St Pancreas Station in plenty of time to find something to eat. So we were eating & decided to re-check the time …..30 minutes earlier than we’d been planning! & it was the last train to Paris! I still was munching half a delicious ‘take away’ antipasto salad & miso soup. Laurel was up & off. As she was wearing her elegant full length black coat, she appeared in the distance to be swooping up the street, darting here & there with the theatrical coat swirling & twirling, while I scurried along behind slopping the miso, & nearly beside myself with laughter at the comical vision!!! I was terrified to put it down in case she flew off without me!! Actually we made it with time to spare but it “was a bit of a worry”.

This morning we indulged in breakfast at Pain Le Quotient in Rue de Montorgueil (we haven’t really taken too many indulgences - as yet!) Superb food & ambience!
As we walked back up & over Monmartre we just caught the Eiffel Tower sparkling on the hour. That ‘grand old iron lady’ ( as they refer to her) absolutely shimmied her sequins over the chimney tops of Paris. It was a splendid spectacle!

And, the “Autumn leaves start to show…” The trees are beautiful.

Laurel here….

I’ve definitely got the best end of this deal now- Carolyn is revelling in writing poetic descriptions of what we’ve been doing, and I (a very poor correspondent at the best of times) get away with just saying now and again “No, you can’t put in 80 photos”.

But I have been charged with writing about the fashion parade we saw yesterday at the Galeries Lafayette department store. We had to book a week ahead, and had a few worried moments about what we could dredge out of our travel wardrobes to pass muster. Then we realised that it would probably be full of tourists like us, and this was absolutely true…not a sign of Anna Wintour or any other fashionistas.

Because it is a department store and they were obviously hoping to sell a few items afterwards, most of the outfits were quite wearable if you are: a) 6 feet tall and rake-thin, b) under 35, and c) rich, with a couple of empty suitcases. Alas, we and most of the rest of the audience didn’t qualify but it was great fun to watch.

As is traditional I’m told, the show ended with a wedding dress. It was quite exquisite and we’d highly recommend it to anyone who’s in the market for a wedding dress, but a piece of advice- you need to wear it with a black leather biker’s jacket and fluffy pink earmuffs. That should get the guests talking to each other!

Carolyn again...

Paris was drenched today & we decided on a trip to Fontainbleau. Great decision! We were lucky enough to be able to meander the gardens without rain, before touring the sumptuous staterooms. Goodness! What an escape from reality - what fabulous tapestries & trompe d’oeil! No wonder they all ‘ lost touch with the masses’! We enjoyed the vision of little Napoleon perched up on a gigantic blue velvet throne! Back home to re-visit ‘ Desiree & Tale of Two Cities etc.

And from both of us...

This is our last entry for this trip- Laurel is leaving in a few days and Carolyn has another 10 days before going on to Bangkok (but Laurel is running away with our trusty, if VERY slow, netbook). Hope you've enjoyed travelling with us...once we got over the teething problems and managed to post this where it could actually be found! Have we inspired anyone else to do a blog on their holiday? (thanks Lyn) We'll look forward to some 'virtual holidays' coming our way too.

Au revoir a tous!

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