Blogs from Paris, Île-de-France, France, Europe
May 26th 2012
The day that I learned that I was hired on at a school for the fall, I called my travel partner Winnie to see if I could convince her to host me in Paris for a few weeks and then slip of to Istanbul for a bit. Lucky for me, she was not hard to convince and we shared another incredible adventure together. Waiting to board the plane in Minneapolis proved a great start to the trip. People were excited to go to Paris! They were paging through their tour guides, talking loudly about plans, and were not trying to contain their giddiness. It was infectious! Appreciating people's exuberance spilled over into my time in Paris. I did not grumble as I needed to dodge a group of tourists gawking at the Louvre or recover from ... read more
May 26th 2012
Day 1 Paris The departure: 9 pm Friday nightThe arrival : 2pm Saturday An hour delay, a little bit of nervous tension, a smooth ride, chating with my neighbour a los angelian on his way to meet his lady friend, waiting on the Tarmac for an eternity, buses, trains and metro ride pretty much encompasses my journey to the beautiful city of Paris. The food: nothing much to say, except that the tomatoe I ate was very good, the kind of fresh out of the garden kind of good, and it came from a small grocer down the street from my apartment.It is my first day and my stomach really has no idea were it is and what time it is. So we are keeping it simple. But...The wine: is fantastic!! A 2010 Cotes du Roussillon ... read more
May 24th 2012
We had a great last day in Paris. A very long and busy day but it was worth it. We started the day by going to the Museum de l'Orangerie, it is a lovely small museum and not very crowded which was nice. We then went for a boat ride on the Seine; very relaxing. Then it was off to the Louvre museum, it is a huge place. They have over 35,000 pieces of art in there. It was really good and I enjoyed it. We made sure we got to see the main works.... Mona Lisa and all of the other famous pieces. I think we have seen over 10,000 statues on this trip! There were at least 1000 in the Louvre. All very impressive. I think our brains are a little overloaded, so much ... read more
May 23rd 2012
After icing the knee and having petit dejeuner, I did a bit of blogging and answered emails. I spoke with Antonia Macarthur in London and confirmed the dates I would be visiting Kew and staying with her. We are both looking forward to catching up as the last time we were together was in Venice for her 70th birthday. I took the Metro to Palais Royal Musee de Louvre, on Line 7 and direct from Les Gobelins. I surfaced near an exhibition space that is part of the Festival International de la Diversite Culturelle and made my way to the Spanish marquee that was featuring the Cordoba region. I picked up some brochures and a 10 minute DVD. This is one of the cities on our post-Camino list and it really looks wonderful. I've now got ... read more
DAY 9 - THE BEST HARDWARE STORE EVER!
Published: May 25th 2012Europe » France » Île-de-France » Paris
May 22nd 2012
The rain has stopped but it is still overcast and quite cool with a maximum of 19C today. It's going to warm up tomorrow and stay that way for the next week at least - somewhere between 23-28C. Neil and I headed out by Metro to Hotel de Ville and came out right opposite the best hardware store in the world in the basement of the Bazar de L'Hotel de Ville (BHV) - as Neil said, it puts Bunnings to shame. Reg had suggested I might find some accessories for my bar at BHV and I certainly did that. I bought several metal plaques with various wine regions and Parisien street names. There's also one with opening and closing times and something for the cats too! We then walked across to Notre Dame on the Isle ... read more
May 21st 2012
We had a great day at Versailles, we did a lot of walking. We were out for over 9 hours. The tour went for 7 and then we came back into Paris and checked out the Eiffel tower. The tour of Versailles was really good, our guide was a young American guy. He was quite funny and very good. He told us all about the history and we heard quite a few stories about the goings on.......there was a lot of that happening. We were in the gardens for a few hours, we only saw a fraction of the area. We got to see some of the smaller gardens that are only open on certain days. We were very lucky to see the fountain water displays and the music playing, it was all quite impressive. There ... read more
May 21st 2012
Spring in Paris has been unseasonable with a lot of rain - where have I heard that before? Today they predicted heavy rain and that's what we got. Reg went back to work after having the week off with Neil and I. We surfaced reasonably early and did the chores including washing, obligatory postcards, a quick call to Mum and finally booking my tIckets to Nice. I thought it might have been cheaper here but sadly no. I probably ended up paying more but c'est la vie! We left Maison Hardman around 1015 in the rain and I followed Neil up the hill to the metro Place d'Italie. We were going to go to a hardware store recommended by Reg, but the rain was so heavy we went straight to Opera and posted our postcards at ... read more
May 20th 2012
This morning I awoke to a very overcast day in Paris. Reg prepared a fabulous breakfast and we sat down to orange juice, fresh oranges, cereal with fromage blanc, fresh baguette and pain au chocolat with freshly brewed coffee, jams and vegemite with fresh Normandy butter with flakes of sea salt (mer de sal). After petit dejeuner, we headed off on foot to the Jardin du Luxemborg. Reg showed us through the gardens telling stories and showing us his favourite spot to relax. The weather turned a little wet so we paused for coffee in a nearby cafe as toilettes were in short supply or not open. Once the weather cleared we travelled by Metro to Montparnasse. First stop was the ticket counter at Gare Montparnasse so Neil and I could buy our tickets to St ... read more
May 19th 2012
Day 7 Second last full day in Paris. What to do? Sleep in sounds start good start. Visit a newly found butcher shop just around the corner - amazing what you find when you go for a walk....... Decide to go separate ways - me to get phone card and Chris to Musee d'orsay. Tick phone card and then off to book TGV tickets for Reims tomorrow. Tick tickets and then decide to walk back through streets to meet Chris. Chris has a good day at the museum and no real queues to speak of. We are going to visit Norte Dame to look at the inside (which we missed by 30 mins the other day) after a well deserved Heinekien and Cafe Late (guess which is mine). Guess what - queues and rain - no ... read more
May 19th 2012
We have had a good walking day today. We were out and about for over 6.5 hours. It is quite easy walking here, very flat. Not like the hills we have had in the Dordogne. We had a good walk around Marais and Bastille, it is a really busy area and a lot happening. We had look through the Latin Quater and St Germain they are really nice areas. We checked out the Notre Dame, very impressive. There were about 150 people waiting in line to have a look through. Walked over the Pont Neuf...the famous bridge...it is in all the films made in Paris! It was quite nice to wonder the back streets, not too many people. The weather was so nice not too hot, just right. It rained this evening but didn't last for ... read more
