Sunday, November 2, 2014

Saturday, November 1, 2014


As we have said on other occasions, La Comedia è finita. (from the opera  I Pagliacci)

We leave Orly airport on an Open Skies flight at 1:30 and arrive in Newark at about 5:30.

We hope you have enjoyed our blog. Please let us know if you have questions or comments. We will let you know when our next one will be published.

In the meantime, here are some more interesting photos of Paris that you might enjoy.


A Shar Pei guarding the shop.


Some more graffiti. 


A shop window.

Jose behind the bar at Le Sancerre.


Art is my work.


An interesting, colorful doorway.

Friday, October 31, 2015


Today, our last full day, we met an old friend, Steve, for a drink. We met him, at the newly reopened Picasso Museum and found a café that had a free table that was almost outside. It was another lovely day and the cafés were mobbed. After about an hour, we said goodbye to Steve for another year and went off to the Mariage Frères tea room and shop for tea and a dessert. We had a lovely tea (they have hundreds of different kinds available) and a fabulous raspberry tart.

We went back home and did some preliminary packing before we went out for our last meal in Paris for this trip. Erwin had noticed at his morning coffee that the Café Sancerre, our favorite local haunt, was having as one of its specials, Brandade, which we happen to like very much so we went there for an early dinner since we had an early start Saturday morning. Click here to read all about brandade.

We will miss Sancerre and will look forward to being there again next June when we hope to spend ten day in Paris after singing in Ireland the week before.

Thursday, October 30, 2014


Today we had a restful day after the tennis. We walked up to the park that we had told you about on October 3 called Square Emile-Chautemps. We then went to the Café de la Gaité for a sit and a drink. This is a nice place for people-watching too.

In the evening, we went to the Montparnasse area where we had dinner in one of our favorites, Le Bistrot du Dôme. They serve nothing but seafood. I had the solettes (baby sole).


Alexandria had risotto with langoustines.


We had a favorite for dessert. Baba au Rhum, which is a kind of sponge cake doused in rum and topped with cream.

On the way home, we passed this building. Quite a sight at night!


Friday, October 31, 2014

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Well, today was big one. We had tickets for the BNP Paribas Masters Tennis Tournament at the Bercy Arena. We got there just about 11 am and there were mobs of people. By the time we got inside and seated, it was about 11:30 and the first match had already started. Before we found our seats we were able to see the draw and the results of the games played the two days previously.


We had very good seats, almost at the net and about halfway up the side of the arena. Here you can get an idea of where we were seated and the excellent view of the games.


In addition, they had a huge screen right over the center of the court where they posted the scores and also some of the interviews. 


The arena from a different perspective.


And another.


Roger Federer being interviewed after winning his match.


Introducing the p[layers for the first match with a light show.


The scoreboard introducing the players of the second match


Warming up for a match.


The umpire at work/



Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Monday, October 27, 2014


Today we had a rather long route starting out at the dentist's office. Alexandria had a slight problem which was easily repaired. The dentist was one that we had used before several years ago so we knew we would get a good job. The young dentist was from Madrid where she had attended dental school. She worked in the practice of a French dentist. She spoke an excellent English.

We walked down to the rue de Rivoli, a well-know shopping street. There were lots of people there probably since the schools were closed due to the All Saints week off. We stopped for a light snack along the way and also did a lot of window shopping. We finally got to the chocolate shop called Michel Cluizel where we made several purchases. It is one of the high quality, well-known shops of its kind in Paris.

We worked our way over to St. Sulpice and went down the little side streets to one of our favorite eating places, Le Mâchon d'Henri. There "mascot" seems to be a pig, as you can see.



After dinner, we took the bus home after a long day with a lot of exercise.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Today, we had a rather long itinerary. We walked down the rue des Archives near us and crossed over to the minuscule street called le rue des Guillemites. This is the street where my friend of many years, Marcel Lederman, has an antiques shop. The shop was open and he recognized us immediately even though he was helping a customer. Here is the shop.


  We chatted on and off for an hour between helping customers in the shop. I had met Marcel for the first time when we did a student exchange 25 or more years ago. Each time when we are in Paris, we stop off and visit. He still looks aa great as ever.


After we said our goodbyes for another year, we headed toward la rue des Rosiers. This street crowded with shops and restaurants is in the middle of one of the large Jewish areas of Paris. On the way we stopped for something to relieve our thirst. We discovered a café/restaurant that we called the Crabe Kitchen. Many of the items on the menu featured crabs, e.g. avocados and crab, crab burgers, crab salad, cream of crab soup, etc. 



The place was on a small one block street called la rue du Trésor, the street of treasure. While we were there a street entertainer came down the street. Note the little boy's interest.



We got to the rue des Rosiers itself. It was mobbed.  The reason? Sunday afternoon. We stopped at the l'As du Fallafal where after about a fifteen minute wait we were seated amongst crowds of others.
We each had "use assiette" of typical food. 




It was only about 6 pm but it was already getting dark because we had had the changeover to Standard Time early this morning, a week earlier than in the USA. After dinner we walked back to the apartment. We had actually walked in one big circle in about 4 hours with various stops.  
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Monday, October 27, 2014

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Today we went for a random walk and ended up at the place de la République for supper. I will not  tell you where we went or what we had. Just look at the photo and guess.


OK, it was to Léon de Bruxelles at the place for "moules/frites" as you can see here.