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.
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.
Labels: BHV, bookstore, French, museedorsay, Notredame, orsay, paris, SacreCour, skakespeare
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