Paris: Day five

Sorry I missed a day yesterday. I came down with some type of virus late yesterday afternoon, that sent me to bed shivering with a fever. still feel crap today, all my joints ache and my throat is so sore, it hurts to eat!

So my kids are playing at a friend and my hubby is out and I am tired of being in bed...only so much of that I can do!

Day five Paris: 26th March 2011

We woke up pretty early, around 7am and got up, dressed and had le petite de'jeauner (breakfast!)
From the Hotel we headed on the RER to Port Vanves. (14th Arr).
We went to the Le Marche aux Puces de la Porte de Vanves.

It was on my list as one of the things to do!
I am so happy we went, I don't think J was that ecstatic as me, but he let me wander off on my own while I happily browsed around...

I got some lovely vintage postcards, a pile of old stamps, some vintage toy cars for my son.

After enjoying that early morning excursion, out in the soft light flickering through the newly sprung green shoots...we headed to the nearby park...Parc Montsouris .

A very beautiful park.

We strolled around, sat on a bench, took photos.







We then walked out and I wanted to find the little street I had seen on google earth in this post.




After the park we went on the tram back to the RER.








More walking towards the D'Orsay Museum. We Really enjoyed this museum. The atmosphere was nice and the paintings were more my style than the Lourve. I loved



This painting is amazing. A painting of a gallery and each individual painting is so detailed! You could stare at it for hours!

So after viewing the paintings we had to go and meet up with one of my dearest and closest friends, Emma and her hubby, Bob.

Oh by the way it was so kind of the French to name a shop after me! You can't see it but on the side it says "BonBonniere" hee hee


We spent the day with them walking around, taking the metro and had supper at a place near the Eiffel Tower. Earlier on, we had walked up to Montmarte and got caught in the rain! None of us had an umbrella (I had been carrying one all week , trust the day we don't bring it with, it rains!) or rain jackets! So we huddled under one of the covers of a souvenir shop and then decided, well we couldn't stay there all day, so we ran!

We ran down Rue Norvin street to find the man coming out the wall!
Taken through the rain!


Romance...
life...
Music....

Needless to say we were soaked to the bone and had to go back to the Hotel to shower and get changed!
After that we headed out for supper near the Eiffel Tower.

My hubby got these lovely shots of the Tower.







Have a great weekend!

Paris: Day Four

{Thanks for all comments, I so enjoy reading them!}

Day Four: Friday 25 March 2011

(technically only day 3 of actually being there)

The weather was beautiful. Another sunny day. I loved the fact there was no wind. Here where I live, we are constantly bombarded by wind!

After breakfast we went to the metro and got on a train to the Science and Industry Museum.
About the Metro...once you get the hang of it, it is actually quite great how quick you can get to your destination! We used the Metro A lot during our stay.

The science and Industry museum was okay, a bit disappointing. Like they had this huge building they needed to fill with things but the spaces between the displays was huge! I don't think they had enough in it. What was interesting though was the submarine we went into and had a look around. Not great if you suffer from claustrophobia! It was hard to imagine a crew of 40 people in that tiny place all at once!

I did take photos, if you are interested to see, give a shout and I will post them.

After that we went to the Île de la Cité.




What a lovely part of Paris. Besides the Notre Dame, the streets there are less crowded and some really lovely buildings are hidden away.

We found a lovely indoor market.
Heavenly scents filling the air.


I bought a little trinket there and Jonathan snuck this photo of me after which he was politely told not to take any more! hee hee.

We made our way from Notre Dame to Pont Neuf to the mark there.
Sat on a bench and rested our aching backs.






From there we made our way back toward the Eiffel Tower.
I got a laugh out of the way people park there! It completely baffles me how they get in and out of their parking bays!


How????
With grumbling tummies we found a cute place to eat with a lovely view of the Eiffel tower at night.



Delicious food. A quiet street and a good view and company. Who could ask for anything more?

It was quite funny at the waiter wanted us in front of the restaurant where everyone else was sitting. So close that if you put your elbow out you were sure to touch the person at the table next to you). We obliged him but after sitting down and realizing first, our view was taken away as we had a piece of glass between us and the view and secondly the close proximity of the tables, we moved back to our little side street. I don't think he was very impressed, but It made me realize the difference between my culture and theirs. Here we are used to our space, personal space and just space in general. Most people live in a house with a garden. There most people live in apartments and gardens are for those who have penthouse suites.

So that was our day....


I will leave you with a short clip on a man singing in Montmarte. Enjoy!

Paris: Day three

{a photo of the entrance to our hotel}


Remember this teeny little journal I made for my trip to Paris?
Well I thought about a comment I got about if I could fill a whole book with one day's worth of photos, this little journal was not going to be big enough! So two nights before we were due to fly...I took it apart and started over. I used a moleskin. I am so glad I did!!

I will still take photos and show you. It is bursting at the seams and I haven't even printed any photos yet! I am going to have to be selective about photos, I somehow doubt it could hold over 1000 photos!!

So Day three of our trip.
We slept soundly that night, exhausted after a long flight with very little sleep and a whole day of sightseeing and walking...

A lovely breakfast of croissants, chocolate pastries, coffee, orange juice and rolls with butter and jam. Yum. {I don't normally eat anything with wheat in but this trip I must say, It was hard not to! Parisians sure love their breads and pastries!}
note to self: get photos of breakfast off J's phone! {will post them when I have done so}

The first stop was at the local Marche up the road from us. We bought some yogurts, apples and juice to pop into the backpack hubby carried.
It was quite funny as the guy that was served before us, came back into the shop and said to the cashier {all in French obviously} that she must remember it is common courtesy to greet customers, say hello, thank you and goodbye and then he thanked her politely and walked out!
Her mouth was hanging open!!
I couldn't help but giggle!



One thing I found to be false...this theory about the French being rude. I think it is unfair to take a whole nation of people and generalize and brand them as "rude" or anything else for that matter. I am sure you do get rude people but then you get rude people everywhere!
One thing we found was that some people could mistake the way the French are sometimes abrupt or in a hurry-{especially in the restaurants} to be rudeness, but you realize they are just going about their jobs in the most precise, efficient way they can.

I love the way the French are 'people' people. They are sociable and you can see their whole way of life revolves around their genuine interest they have for each other. Take for instance the way you are greeted as soon as you enter the cafe or the Patisserie. {We got so into the habit of greeting and saying goodbye that we found it hard to stop when we got home and realized what a wonderful thing it is!} Now I find myself going the extra mile to greet people when I go about my daily errands. It makes such a difference.

Take for instance too the way they set their chairs and tables to all face the streets. So they can watch the crowds walking by while still holding a conversation with the person they are dining with. Strange for us to see, but so interesting how cultures differ!

The sheer amount of restaurants and cafe's tells you that they love to get together and socialize and I loved that about the City. There is always something going on!

Back to our day...
We went to the Hard Rock Cafe to get our 4-day Paris Pass cards. If you ever go to Paris for any amount of time longer than 3 days, do yourself a favor and get the Paris pass. It is wonderful! I haven't worked out if you really do save money, but you definitely just save a whole lot of time and frustration and waiting. We had free entry into all the museums, and a lot of the monuments like the Arc De Triomphe, an hour free ride on the Bateaux {boat} on the river. {unfortunately we just didn't get around to using it!}. All in all over 60 attractions, free use of the metro, RER, trams and bus's within zone 1-3 and a two day hop-on-hop-off bus tour of Paris and some other specials too.

So we started the hop-on-hop-off tour and got off and walked around when we wanted to.
I LOVE this photo! It reminds me of one of those Posters. I took this while we were on the bus tour, passing a chef school I suppose... {another example of their friendliness!}


We went to the Arc De Triomphe and went up it and looked out over Paris.

From there we went to Parc Monceau. We walked around, enjoying the warm weather and beautiful spring scenes.


We made our way to the Eiffel Tower. Took photos in the parks there nearby.

Had a cup of coffee on the bridge and watched the boats...

Asked a gentlemen to take a photo of us...he clearly thought the Eiffel Tower was more important than two silly tourists!








Dinner from there at 9pm and then back to the hotel.