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/

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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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.

Friday, October 24, 2014

We decided to go up to the Le Viaduc des Arts which some of you may remember is an old elevated railway that has been renovated. It has shops in all of the dozens and dozens of arches and along the top is a planted passage with flowers, trees, and bushes that runs for about 4 kilometers. We had walked much of it in previous years and wanted to see more. We took the bus #20 to where it starts near the Bastille, got off and it started to rain. We went into a café there hoping it would stop but it continued to rain lightly. That took care of our walk so we spent an hour or two in the café before returning. We may go back another day. Here is a photo of the sign pointing to the viaduct and then a photo of the viaduct itself. You might be able to see some of the plantings along the top and the shops in the arches. Many of the shops are those of local artisans. See more info and pictures by clicking here.

On the way back, we went through our local park and found the following sign. It asks us not to go on the lawn (which can be done in Summer) because the lawn is in its winter sleep. Cute!

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Today, we thought we would like some ice cream in the afternoon so we went to the Ile St. Louis, one of the two islands in the Seine river. We headed for the shop of Berthillon in Paris. This is reputed to be the best ice cream in Paris. What a surprise to find that they were closed for the next few weeks, possibly because of All Saints Day vacation coming up shortly. Fortunately, there is a shop around the corner that sell the Berthillon brand. So we did have our treat but not in the main shop. On our way to the shop we came across this taxi-bicycle.

They have about 20 different ice cream flavors and about 10 sorbets. All are wonderful. We each had two scoops, four different flavors in all. We did some more walking on the two islands before taking the bus back to our neighborhood. On our walk we came across these two places. The first is a restaurant called "Our Ancestors the Gauls'' The name intrigued us. The second was a shop that had a lot of marionettes on display, many of them dealing with Halloween, or as the French call the holiday, "Toussaints" which literally means all saints. 

Wednesday, October 22, 2015

Today we just walked around the neighborhood stopping to admire some of the local gardens and buildings. We stopped at the Café des Archives where they have a lovely outdoor terrace. Too chilly for that so we went inside. While we were there we made the acquaintance of the "house dog". Here are three pictures of him.

He had freedom of the café and liked to greet everyone, but also appreciated a quiet moment under the bar.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Today we went to the Carnavalet Museum. Click here for the official website. When there click on EN in the upper right hand corner for the English version. This is the museum of Paris with a whole gamut of exhibits about the history of Paris. located in over 100 rooms, many of them rather small. The first room of the visit has a number of interesting items including signs that were posted in the street to tell what each building housed since there were no street numbers at the time.  There are also several to scale models of some of the well-known neighborhoods of Paris.

Here are several other photos. I took about two dozen. The first shows two representations of actors from the middle ages.

Then the bedroom of Proust.

Then one example of hundreds of objets d'art. a clock with many functions.

Finally, two photos of the gardens within the buildings.

After the museum, we walked over several blocks to the rue de Turenne where we had a drink at the Royale Turenne café. 

At seven o'clock we walked a block up the street to the Café des Musées, one of our favorite places to have dinner. 

We had a fine meal, as always there, and then walked back to the apartment. We had a lovely day, although the warm weather has finally disappeared, and there is a slight chill of Fall in the air.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Today was a busy day for us. In the afternoon we went to visit the Memorial of the Shoah. The museum depicts the history of the destruction of the Jews in Europe, especially during the second World War. There are a number of rooms that include more than three hundred articles. Each entry is illustrated by photographs, video testimonials,  objects, animated or still maps, and individual stories. There are numerous walls throughout the exhibition. They include photos of thousands of Jewish children deported from Paris, the names of thousands of adults who were also deported, the names of thousands of French citizens who helped save thousands of Jews from capture, etc. Especially moving were the videos of Frenchmen who were were children at the time and who recounted their stories of their families at the time. Photos of the exhibitions were not allowed but here are two photos of the memorial at the entrance.

A monument showing the names of all of the camps .

The entrance to the Memorial.

The wall containing the names of those French citizens who helped, sheltered, and protected Jews. 

The visit to the Memorial was a moving experience and merits other visits since there was so much to read and to watch. Most of the descriptions of the exhibits were in French and in English.

After the Memorial, we walked up to Les Halles, site of the old markets of Paris. We had dinner at a creperie right across the street from an apartment we had rented ten or more years ago. The neighborhood had changed a bit, but I will bet the apartment hasn't. Les Halles is now a very large area for entertainment, eating, and just hanging out, especially for young people. One the northern edge is a famous and beautiful church named Saint Eustache. To me it rivals Notre Dame in beauty.See the following photos.

We had gone to the church for another one of our concerts. This time it was the Choeur Hugo Distier, an excellent group from Berlin. They sang a series of short works, mostly from the 20th century, based on the theme Peace on Earth. Of the 16 works, we had only ever heard of two, Still we enjoyed the concert immensely. 

After the concert, we walked for about twenty minutes to the nearest bus stop for the "20" bus and then back to the apartment. The 20 is the bus that we probably use the most. We prefer the busses to the métro, which frequently involves lots of stairs and underground corridors. Our bus passes allow us to use either. I think we have only used the métro once, to go and return to an evening concert several weeks ago.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

We had a most beautiful weekend, weather-wise. The skies we're a bright blue, almost lacking in clouds, loads of sun, and temperatures near 80 degrees. Saturday, we just went for a walk to no place in particular. We had thought of going to a big exhibition in the Carreau du Temple near us. There were merchants there with all kinds of old fashioned clothing, old furniture, etc. The line was around the block and not moving very quickly so instead we sat in the Café Crême across the street from the hall and people watched.  And there were loads of them  We were lucky to get a small table since the place was packed. . Here are some photos.

Some kids on a walk with their teacher. Notice they all are wearing the warning jackets.

Other kids with their back packs.

A woman meeting a friend at a café table.

Today, Sunday, we went to another concert in the Chapel at the Gare de Lyon. It was a very good one featuring a string quartet. They played Bach and Schubert. We went back to the Carreau and tried to get into the exhibition again. This time, no line. But paying 10 euros for the privilege of buying old cloths seemed a little much so we declined. We had dinner in this evening. A few photos of the Chapel and the concert.