Thursday - More Eat, Drink, Shop, RELAX

We had breakfast at home this morning. Then walked to where we met our guide for our food tour. Rosemary took us on a private "Taste of Paris" tour. We wander around the Les Halles area. She gave us some history of the the area.

There used to be a market with many small stalls with umbrellas or coverings. Then Napoleon 3rd (I think) had this built. It was there a long time. It was deserted because of rats and whatever.

To bring people back they started building this building in the 1970s and before it was finished they decided that they did not like it.

They are now tearing it down so they can build this new mall/cultural center.

We stopped in several stores. Then we ended the walking portion of the tour at a little wine shop.

We had our tastings there: bread, cheese, wine, cherries, quince paste, a fresh mint chocolate dessert. That was interesting.

cheese and quince paste

bread - she told us how you could pick a good baguette.

fresh mint and chocolate cake.

After our tour we went for lunch at the Creperie Beaubourg near the Pompidou. We all had savory crepes and wine.

After this Kris stayed home and got some much needed rest. Jennifer, Sharon and I headed off to the left bank for an afternoon in the 6th arondissment or the Saint Germaine area.

There are these bicycle stands all over the city. You rent them from one place and can drop them off at any other stand. The first 1/2 hour is free and so a lot of people rent for 29 minutes and then wait a few minutes and then get another for another 29 minutes.

Along the outside fence of the Luxembourg garden is an feminist art installation of photographs. This is one titled Moscow. "An Orthodox Mona Lisa" at Weaver's Cathedral 2005

No shortage of views of the Eiffel Tower.

We went to Jardin du Luxembourg, a very manicured garden.

We went to Un Dimanche for hot chocolate. It was hidden away in a side alley. We were lucky we found it.

Unfortunately, I had the same problem I had at Angelina's a few days ago. I don't want hot chocolate when I am hot and tired. I hear it was a delicious drinking chocolate. So I had a red peach sorbet which was very refreshing. Someday maybe I will go back to both Angelina's and Un Dimanche for hot chocolate in the morning and compare.

We walked home over one of the bridges of locks (not its proper name). Apparently when couples get married they buy a lock and attach it to the fence of the bridge and then throw the key into the Seine. Profess undying love and that they are locked together. The city tried to remove them and there was such an outcry that they left them alone.

We had to make a quick stop at the Louvre to go to the gift shop. Sharon needed a Louvre book. Then we had to hurry home, get Kris and head out again to get to the concert we were going to at La Sainte Chappelle. We made it just in time.

We went to a concert at La Sainte Chappelle. I was blown away. It is a small chapel but it is entirely in stained glass. Not an impressive place from the outside.

We heard Handel's Sarabande, Mozart's Sarabande and Vivaldi's 4 Seasons performed by Bertrand Cervera and Company. It was an hour concert. I am so glad we went.

After that we came home to relax with some wine and cheese. We needed a break from the fabulous 3 hour dinners. :-).

Tuesday - Eat, Drink, Shop, RELAX

I am not sure that "relax" is a word that I would use for today. I really wish I had my pedometer because we did A LOT of walking. More than we needed to I am sure but that is what happens when you are in a different city and don't know exactly where you are going. It was still a fun day. When we would come out from the metro we would usually find ourselves in a Place. We never knew quite where in the Place we were or how to get where we wanted to go - even with all of our maps so sometimes we did make some wrong choices. Each Place may have 4-6-8 streets coming out in different directions.

I guess I should explain about Olivia. She is the sister of Kris and she has always wanted to go to Paris but could not swing actually joining us so we brought a picture of her instead. We have a lot more pictures of her than what I have put up on the blog.

We had heard about Hotel du Nord in the Canal Street area, so we went there for breakfast. Unfortunately they do not serve breakfast so we had cafe creme. Luckily I had a protein bar in my purse so we split that 4 ways to tide us over until lunch.

It was a cool building. Note the waiter's t-shirt "greetings from New York"

We wandered around the Canal Street area.

The canal was pretty. We saw boats going through the locks.

Lots of shops which did not open until after 11am so we walked up along the canal and then came back to poke in shops.

This area is probably not one that I would rush out to come back to. Though it did have its unusual quirky shops.

Lunch at Le Marine.

My pork was delicious. Another restaurant to put on our fabulous list. We ordered the "formula" thinking that the portions would be smaller - no such luck.

We went across town to the Left Bank.

The Thinker at the Rodin Museum. We just wandered around the gardens looking at his many sculptures.

We walked to the Champ de Mars to see the The Monument to Peace in front of the Eiffel Tower. The glass has words of peace in all the different languages etched in it.

Wine bread and cheese in the afternoon in Paris - how could we have gotten more cliche. This was on a 2 block street called Rue Cler. Quaint with all kinds of markets, small shops. I wish I had more time to poke around here.

Many of the cafes have the outdoor seating arranged for people watching.

We went by metro to the St Germaine area where we met Jason, the jazz tour guide, at the Eglise St. Germaine de Pres. He was a very personable young man. He had just gotten married 2 days before so his parents were still in town. They joined our tour group. That added another dimension to the tour. Jason is a musician as well as our tour guide.

He gave us each an mp3 players and we listen to jazz as we walked from one historical jazz joint to another. He told us many stories of the development of jazz in Paris.

After the tour we went to Au Vieux Comptoir for dinner, which is a restaurant close to home.

3 of us had the best boeuf bourguignon. Wow. Of course it was way more than I could eat.

Les Duc des Lombards is one of the more famous jazz joints in town. It was the last stop of our jazz tour. By the time we came back to it for our concert, it was dark.

We ended the day with a jazz concert. We heard a quartet from Sweden. Very enjoyable. A drink was included in our ticket price. 2 of us had gin/fizz and 2 had gin/tonic.

Le Duc des Lombards was only 2 blocks from our apartment so it was easy to get home.