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!!!

May 6, 2017

We had a lazy morning today!  Slept late, took a walk around the neighborhood in another direction. It's raining AGAIN and supposed to continue all day. So, we strolled back to the Trocadero and tried our third cafe for coffee and breakfast. As in all of the cafes in the Trocadero, delicious fresh squeezed orange juice is served with a breakfast. My croissant was delicious as was Peter's ham and eggs. We spent a lot of time deciding what to do today in the rain.....probably not a lot of walking!!!  

Since we're going to the Marais district for dinner and a concert, we decided to hop on the Metro (one stop to change lines) and go to the Opera Garnier which we had seen from the terrace at Printemps department store. After touring the opera house, we'll get back on the Metro and head (with one change) to the St Paul stop in the Marais. After long showers and rest time, off we went, about 2, still in the rain, to the Metro station at Trocadero. 

The Opera Garnier is fabulous!  It is considered one of the world's most beautiful theatres!  The facade is classically inspired and is a celebration of Opera with bronze busts of famous composers. The Grand Staircase is just that...GRAND!  Columns, statues, chandeliers and different colors of marble, the place for the elite of Paris to be seen!  From a box seat we looked down on the the 2000 red velvet seats and then up at Marc Chagall's colorful ceiling dancing around the 8 ton chandelier. Opulence galore surrounded by reception rooms with 24 carat gold  statues, archives, infinity mirrors and more WOW!!

Back on the Metro, we traveled to the Marais district, spent a few minutes in a former convent now a Unified Protestant Church speaking with a church member. Then proceeded to the Place Ste. Catherine where we dined sumptuously on a traditional French dinner from onion soup to creme brûlée afterwards attended a concert given by the Alegria String Sextet that played Vivaldi's Four Seasons and then featured a soprano singing sacred music including the Ave Maria that Bea sang at our wedding and Panis Angelicus, my mother's favorite. Fabulous acoustics!  All  of this is part of a birthday present to Connie from her "kids!"  At the restaurant, the clientele were ALL native Parisiens, a lot of them young people. A conversation with those at the next table revealed they were unsure about voting tomorrow!  The concert took place in a 17th century church, Eglise St. Paul-St. Louis, where we saw enormous clam shells that were fonts for holy water given to the church by Victor Hugo on the occasion of his daughter's wedding. We sat in the front row!  

Once again we Ubered home, marveled at the Eiffel Tower all lit up, arrived home and crashed!