Paris - Day 4 (Friday)

Yesterday morning we started our day by heading over to BHV (Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville) to do a little shopping before meeting up with Chuck and Coryn. Heather had asked me what type of store BHV compared to and I had a hard time coming up with one. It has a bit of everything, unlike any store in the US. Take for example the first floor. In the front are cosmetics, much like a department store in the US, but then as you venture further back you come across bathroom fixtures like shower heads and faucets. Another section carries paper products and pens. In the lower floor, or floor 0, holds the hardware, power tools and a small selection of lumber. Its another example of the economic use of space that Coryn has noticed.

A search for the toilette brought us to the 5th floor which also has one of Paris' few self serve cafeterias. Since it was near 12, we decided to grab lunch before heading to the Musee d'Orsay. The sitting area has a nice view of the city which we enjoyed as we ate our salads, bread with cheese and a nice glass of red wine.

Our quickest route to the musee was to walk to the other side of the river and catch the RER for one stop. This took us over Ile de la Cite and in front of Notre Dame and then into St. Michel. We came across Shakespeare and Company bookstore which is a little English bookstore that has been a part of Paris for over 50 years. Its now run by the original owner's daughter and had a lot of life when we stopped by. Its a very old building and the rooms inside reflect the budget a small independent bookstore spends on renovation and upkeep. This is not your big box Barnes and Noble with a Starbucks built in, but it was so very inviting to browse through the shelves of books looking for a dusty treasure.

We met up with Chuck and Coryn and spent a few hours going through the collections. The Musee is so different from the Louvre, but just as interesting. The 5th floor where all the impressionistic works are displayed was very crowded. We've been renting the audioguide devices at each of the museums and it really adds to the experience being able to hear how the work was received and other comments about each of the works. There was a very interesting exhibit of photographs that I enjoyed. some of the earliest photos showed daily life scenes from the 1890s. I've always loved to study those and see the details of what people wore when caught candidly on the street, they are so different than the posed photographs that became popular. There was a cafe on the top floor with an outdoor terrace with a great view of the city. the clouds were swirling around Sacre Cour in the distance. It looked like it was going to storm, but the rain didn't fall that day. We've been checking the weather report every chance we get to see if the rain will finally fall, but so far we've been lucky with only a few sprinkles that don't last much more than about 20-30 minutes.

We finished up in the Musee and decided to head back to St. Michel to look around and visit some shops. This is an area of Paris that Chuck knows pretty well so he led us through the small pedestrian streets, filled with shops and cafes. This street holds a restaurant/cafe that has been there since the 1685. Places like this just emphasize how short our counties history really is. We bought a small music box for Brady in the toy store here in the foreground. He loves to play with Sophia's jewelry boxes and watch the music play. Now he'll be able to o the same. I can just see him now, laying on his belly watching the cylinder go around. He'll most likely try and touch it too much, so I had better get him a backup one too :)

We finished up the day, as the rain started to fall, in a small little French restaurant (Collation, 17 Rue Gregoire De Tours). Isabelle greeted us on the street to explain the menu and to convince us her's was the best restaurant on the street. We sat inside the small restaurant of about 8 tables and had a wonderful dinner that lasted 3 bottles and about 3 1/2 hours. We talked with Isabelle a lot through the night about her visits to the US and her ultimate goal of opening a french restaurant in LA one day. She was amazed at how much people would pay for a good French meal in LA, even though it was so easy to prepare. We exchanged emails with her in hopes that we can one day visit her restaurant in LA.

Paris - Day 3

Heather and I woke up to a beautiful day yesterday morning. The sun was out and it was a nice cool morning. On our way over to the local market, that is between us and Place Bastille, we stopped to get an almond croissant. This was our first one, the previous days we'd been too close to the tourist sections and we were unable to find an authentic pattisserie. With food in hand we continued to the market. It was very alive with people picking out fresh ingredients for the day's meals. The fish market was amazing, it had such fresh looking fish, and so much of it. To think there are markets like this all over Paris each day explains why when you go into the local monoprix there isn't any type of veggy section. We walked up and down the isles looking at all the different booths for a bit, but not buying anything because we were on our way out.

We made our way over towards Rue St. Antoine where we stopped at Cafe Modern for a Cafe Creme et une Chocolate. The owner was a younger guy in his late 30s and was working as hard as we Americans do, very un-typical. We've been trying to keep our meals under control because again that Euro is really kicking it to us. We took what we felt as a long time to finish our small breakfast, but I'm sure we were in and out of there in record time compared to our counterparts.

We met up with Chuch and Coryn at the Pigalle metro station. Its at the bottom of the hill that Sacre Coure is built on. I felt a little bad for Coryn and HB, who was not feeling well, because there was no easy way to get up to the top. Luckily, there are a ton of little shops that serve as mini rest stops along the way. I picked up a few small things for the kids and found a Poste to buy some stamps for our post cards. I hope these make it home before we do for the kids.

We stopped and had lunch at a fondu place on the way up and were greeted with the French service I remember from back in the day. Coryn was really offended, but I was glad she saw it because the service we had been getting up until that time was nothing like what I had grown up with. The waitress threw her pad of paper on our table, turned and walked away when Chuck asked for a few more minutes to decide. I think we won her over by the end of the meal, but that's only because of all of her follies like spilling my Perrier on the table next to us.

As we made our way to the top of the steps at Sacre Coure, we took a rest on the steps with tourists from all over the world. The sun was brilliant and there was a constant wind from being up so high. We saw a sign for the "Crypt-Dome" that looked interesting and we paid our 5e and stared the ascend of a spiral staircase. I'm glad I offered to go up alone because it was a challenge for the girls, but they did great getting up there. After a bit more than 300 stairs, we reached the top of the large Dome for a spectacular 360 degree view of Paris. There weren't many people up there so it was a great to gaze out and identify different landmarks and just revel at the sights. I was amazed at the detail that was put into the simplest of things when they constructed the place. This observation tower, so high above Paris gets few visitors, but everything was ornate, from the seating benches to the arched doorways.


After descending, we made our way over to the artist's square. This is the same square we visited on our last visit when we bought Coryn a painting. We met a very nice French painter who spoke very little English. I find myself enjoying talking to the people with less English a bit more. I guess it reminds me of growing up here and always having to struggle through a conversation with both sides only halfway understanding the other. We had already purchsed a small painting of his of a little girl and were talking to him about another painting of a village scene. His style of laying the paint on very thick was quite unique and really worked with the tree that was predominantly place in the foreground. He told us that it wasn't a particular French village, but merely from his imagination and memories from his travels. The paint was still wet so he constructed a protective shell out of cardboard for its safe shipment. When we get home I'll need to inspect it for tree debris that I'm sure it picked up on that windy day. Chuck and Coryn also bought a very interesting painting of Notre Dame.

Heather is ready to head out, so I'll need to finish this post later. This picture is of a shop we passed where the butcher was wrapping a piece of beef with bacon. You can see the bacon in the background on the table, right behind the smiling piggy. :) More Later.