May 7, 2017

Our last day in Paris!  We had hoped the weather would cooperate and be warm and sunny!  However, just like every day here but one, it was quite cool and sprinkling for a good part of the day!  Never daunted, we simply changed our plans a bit!  We scratched our picnic and long walk in the Bois de Bologne and did other great things!

After breakfast at the Trocadero (we've visited EVERY cafe there), we headed out for a walk anyway!  We strolled to the Arc de Triomphe in our layers of clothing (me with my umbrella) and discovered that Paris was pretty quiet!  Are they all voting or are they at church?  In any case there weren't many people around. Even the Place de l'Etoile was at a slow pace!  At the Arc, we walked around until we found Avenue Foch. 

Avenue Foch is the widest boulevard in Paris;  it is prestigious and very expensive. The Avenue itself is lined with a 50 foot wide park on both sides and the park is full of flowering chestnut trees (unfortunately not in full bloom yet!). Beyond each park is a side street with access to the elegant apartment buildings and mansions. We walked up and down both sides. Many we were able to see but the rest were hidden by with a 10 foot black wrought iron fence!  We did see the second floors and up of #19-21 which were owned at one time by the Rothchilds, #88 which was owned by Aristotle Onassis and # 88 which was taken over by the Germans during World War II and used as the Gestapo Headquarters. Pretty impressive!  

By now we were back at the Arc and decided to head down the Champs-Elysees for a coffee to warm up!  Traffic was picking up by this time but it was still occasionally showering!  We passed the most profitable McDonald's in France....there are 1000 McDonalds in France. It has become typically Parisian to dine "chez MacDo!"  Across the street is a Toyota dealer where we saw the prototype of a wooden car in the showroom.  We DID stop for a coffee and then decided to Uber to the Bon Marche department store , where we could go inside for a while and also thought we might find at the Bon Marche Grand Epicerie a Breton pastry Peter's been wanting to buy. We have it at the Pepis every year! No pastry but we did each have a delicious sandwich. This place would give Eataly a run for its money. The rest of the store is quite elegant and rather expensive in spite of its name....."bon marche" means inexpensive in French!  

We then Ubered to the Marais district for a Discover Walk. Audrey, a Parisienne who grew in Martinique but has lived in Paris for 17 years, was our tour guide. Audrey is in theater as an actor/director and is quite lively and has a good command of the English language. At one point in our walk we saw two nude statues of females reclining and Audrey said we could touch the "boobs!"  Peter asked how to say "boobs" in French and, after thinking for a minute Audrey replied, "seins" which means "bosom!" She couldn't believe she was talking about this with a stranger!   Guess there's no slang word!  We saw private historical homes and heard some interesting stories of gentlemen and their mistresses and wives and their lovers. At the Place des Vosges, we saw elegant English gardens, but with the weather there were no sun-bathing bikini-clad women to ogle!  Around the Place are elegant Old World townhouses, one of which was owned by Victor Hugo. The walk finished with a stroll through the very alive and active Jewish area of the Marais. The cost, again, for this walk was "tip only!" 

Still trying to hunt down the pastry ( called kouign amann, pronounced koon ya men) we Ubered to the Metro stop Odeon and found, thanks to Audrey, the Maison Georges Larnicol where we purchased four of these light, flaky, layered delights!  We were right there so we took the Metro back to Trocadero and headed up Rue Kleber to a pizza place Peter had seen. For dinner he had a pizza margarita which was quite good and I had a salad of tomatoes, grilled eggplant, burrata cheese and olives. Perfect AND delicious. Back at our apartment,  we started to prepare for our departure, ate our pastries and we were in bed at 10!!

Stats:  during our 6 day stay in Paris we rode the bus, took the Metro, Ubered and used our legs to see Paris. We walked a little more than 40 miles!

A bientot, Paris!!!