Paris day 03, THE BIG HIKE

Ah, Paris. You go and see "the sights" and then you explore the neighborhoods around "the sights". You may even stay somewhere off the beaten path like four blocks away from a sight, and then you say to yourself (and most likely anyone who will listen) that you have REALLY been to Paris. You have seen THE LOCALS. You didn't eat or stay or shop or walk or drink (or blah, blah, blah, blah...) or do anything like a tourist. You know the real Paris!

Except you don't.

And now I will go on to tell you all about how we went off the beaten path and hit all the local spots and saw the people of Paris in their own neighborhoods and that I can now speak definitively all about the "real Paris"... except I probably can't.

I can tell you that all the guide books and article s will tell you about where we are going today:

The 19th arondissement is not for the faint of heart or for tourists who have never been to Paris. It is OK for seasoned travelers. The Boston Globe article posted on Trip Advisor talks about a narrow swath of the 19th that is in the northern half of the arondissement, but go south and the area can become very seedy very fast. Still, it's Paris and the streets are jam-packed with small green grocers, electronics shops, Chinese restaurants, pastry shops etc., however these are all average.

It was a Sunday. Lyle specifically told me he wanted to "get lost and wander". Richard and Christine had their fill of being lost the day before. You remember that torrential rainstorm? They tried to get a cab, but as any New Yorker knows, you can never find a cab in the rain. So they kept walking, hoping to find a cab soon or a metro stop that would take them directly towards the hotel without transfers. Then the rain stopped and they weren't "that far" away from the hotel. Except they weren't really "that close" either. But they wound up walking all the way home just like Lyle and I did.

We had breakfast together and then headed out on separate adventures.

Lyle said, "Belleville." I thought we were playing word association and blurted out, "TRIPLETS!" No silly, he wanted to wander around the neighborhood Belleville. We had been almost there before. Okay, we had been there before but had no idea where we were. Our last trip to Paris, we had stayed near the Place de Republique. Near the end we took a walk the other direction from our hotel and walked up the hill. Not as far as we would today, but it was one of those "Ooooo, look, real people" tours of our past.

Today, we took the Metro to the Republique stop and got out. We walked over to the canal and saw where we had walked before, so we turned left. Went a few blocks, turned right. Went a block and saw a small pop up farmer's market on the side of the street, we went there.
The produce was gorgeous. Pretty enough to take a picture of. So uh, I did. There we stalls for everything. Vegetables, cheese, meet, fish, bread, pastries, and even a stall that just sold oysters and mussels. That you could have right now. On the street. Lyle considered it and my stomach rolled over. "It's 1o in the morning, how could you eat a raw oyster ON THE STREET?" So he opted out.

We wandered and walked and came up to the house where Edith Piaf was born (sort of).

After a few gracious translations online, I believe this is the closest:
On the steps of this house, on December 19, 1915, in a state of utter destitution EDITH PIAF was born, whose voice, later, would turn the world on its head.

We continued on and came to a grand park, Parc de Buttes Chaumont.
I was digging the steps of concrete made to look like logs. The park had some very charming faux bois (fake wood) effects. We saw a temple or grand arbor off on a hill and went over to see it. It gave us a great view of Sacre Coeur where we had been the day before.

The photos taken from the top of the dome were taken from the large round one in the center, up in the top windows.

As we wandered through the park we commented on how structured the park was. Even the waterfall and babbling stream were "built" and controlled it seemed. Then Lyle read in his little guide book,

Buttes des Chaumont park is in the 19th arrondissment in the north-eastern part of Paris, on the site of a former quarry.

Well that explains why those hills have a cement finish that is peeling off.

Finally I had to tell Lyle, "I did not fly all the way to Paris to wear my Gucci scarf in a park on a nature hike!" And we emerged from the park to find food.

Lyle had done some pre-research on food in Paris. He had an article from Gourmet magazine on cheap and cheerful places to find food like the locals would buy. He was so brilliant, he carried the article in his pocket. At any given moment he could pull out a recommendation and lead us there. That is how we discovered this bakery off in the 19th district.
The Bakery by Véronique Mauclerc, an organic bakery that has a century-old wood-burning oven (83 rue de Crimee). This is where Lyle bought the stinkiest bread I have ever smelled. It was fine to begin with. It was just cheese bread. But leave it in your room in a bag for a few hours later and when you return... well, I told Lyle either he put in the fridge or it was going out the window. I believe it had Emmental cheese baked into it.

Of course we also got some pastries.

Refueled, we forged ahead. At one point Lyle said we should probably head back and I consulted my trusty iPhone with GPS Google maps. We were walking away from our hotel.

We turned around and meandered the right direction. This time we found a HUGE pop up Farmer's market. It was packed and we forced our way into it.

Please god, no. No more stinky cheese!

Lyle found the colors of the fish fascinating (particularly on the left). I was thrilled they didn't smell.

Hey, I know that guy!

Pretty door detail.

And then we walked some more. Back to the Place de Republique (where I offered to take the Metro, but Lyle said no) and then towards the Gare De L'est (the train station where trains departing to, or returning from points East begin or end). Then we stumbled across the "town hall" of the 10th arrondisment. It is known for it's extravagant design. How had we missed this before?

Then as we headed towards the correct direction we literally said, "Oh look, an arch!" and went the other direction towards the arch.

Porte Saint-Martin

This is when Lyle announced he had to sit down. He needed a break. I offered to take a taxi. He said no, he wanted to keep walking but first his feet needed a break! So of course I agreed and then pointed out there was another (ANOTHER!) monumental arch just a few blocks further the other (wrong) way and maybe we should go there and sit! That idea was met with stony silence.

So we sat near the Porte Saint-Denis. Lyle had a Perrier and I had coffee. We had our cliche Paris outdoor café moment sitting next to each other facing out towards the street while an old man to the left chain smoked and the wind blew it all in our faces. Ah, Paris...

This was what we stared at while we recharged. See anything interesting?

The name of the shop?
The faces carved in stone above every window?
No...
How about the dead Christmas tree on the balcony in the middle row, second window from the left?

Recharged, we leapt to our feet (yeah right!) and headed the correct direction (so long other arch, you looked interesting but now I'll never know you...). And at last, AT LAST we were home.

Today's walk, 8.5 miles.

Recovering in our room, feet throbbing, sick of clothes and just wanting quiet, we heard the most amazing noise coming from the street outside. What the hell? An explosion? No. A demonstration? No. Like people yelling, but happy and the sound of water running or was it...? I had to know, I got up and looked out the window, OH MY GOD!

I ran and got my camera and Lyle kept asking, "What? What it is? WHAT IS IT?" And I told him he would have to look himself because I needed my camera! And so, if you had been down in the street below and looked up you would have seen the two of us standing in our window (me leaning out over the balcony) in just our underwear staring down in awe at this:
ROLLERBLADERS!
The street had been taken over by HUNDREDS of rollerbladers! This was the very end of it, but they had been going by for more than 15 minutes already. You can also see they have a police escort for both front and back. Totally amazing. I can not imagine Los Angeles giving up one street ever for anything like this.

That night we all agreed to eat somewhere close. Little or no walking. Luckily there was a great restaurant that Richard and Christine had seen that was just around the corner. Chez Janou. It was French Provence style cooking so there were more olives, tomatoes, rosemary and pasta used. Since we are still getting used to this whole dining thing we had not made reservations. Luckily they had tables available on the patio that was thankfully tented in and blissfully heated.

I had the duck breast over pasta. VERY flavorful.

We all had dessert.

After, since it is "The City of Lights" I suggested we go see some of them. How about...... The Arc de Triomphe!? Yes! Yes! Yes! No.

So Christine, Richard and I forged ahead and Lyle went home to put his (now bleeding and blistered) feet up.

I had read that you could go up inside the Arch and we discovered that yes indeed, you can. The Arch is open until 10:30 pm and the last entry is at 10. We had arrived at 10:15. Oh well.

I also knew that was a way to get onto the island that the arch is on but had never figured it out before. This trip we did.
We walked around the arch and it was so much more impressive being under it and up close to it than just looking at it from across 8 lanes of swirling Paris traffic.

Richard then noticed soemthing very special carved into an inside wall:

MY LAST NAME!

So there I am wondering why. Why is my last name on the Arc de Triomphe? I've done some research and the answer is, these are all names of battle locations where Napolean was victorious. Which led me to my next question, how is my last name a battle location? Turns out there is a city in Germany (across the river from Strausbourg) that is named, Kehl.

Okay, I've had this name all my life and I have NEVER known there was a city out there that is my name. It's a game changer. I now HAVE to go there. Next European trip we include Kehl and Strausbourg (because I think we all know the French side is going to have much better pastries).

In the way far away background is the Grand Arch.

A closer shot.

Mission accomplished, we walked a little down the Champs Elysees (well it was supposed to be a little, but we kept missing the Metro stations and then we were closer to the one in front than the one behind, so we walked quite a ways) and then it was home to rest. Tomorrow, would be another big day and I had no idea which shoes to wear.

Paris Day 02 part two, St. Germain De Pres

We had begun our day in the regular working class neighborhood of Montmartre filled with the residents out doing their weekend food shopping. We climbed to the top of the hill and saw Paris sparkling at our feet in the sun. After heading towards the flea market and being put off by the teeming crowds of people buying fake handbags and knock off watches we did what any other civilized tourists would do, we headed to St Germain De Pres. A very exclusive part of town, emerging from the subway in front Louis Vuitton and their very real (and pricey) handbags.

We decided to have no agenda and began "Une Marche de Oiseau" as my french teacher called it, "A bird walk" because a bird doesn't go from point to point, it just flits around where ever it wants in no particular order.Then it started to rain. And we decided we were hungry. And grumpy. No one wants to be hungry AND wet in Paris. It is a very off-putting combo.

We managed to find two restaurants that looked good. Since we didn't have a reservation (for a Saturday lunch?) the first one told us they were absolutely full and we lucked out into going to the second one. They spoke VERY LIMITED English and remember, we were a tad past hungry... I ordered what I could decipher, as did the rest of us.

Le P'tit Fernand
7, Rue Lobineau, 75006
Tel. : +(33) 1 40 46 06 88

On the right is Lyle's entree, Steak and potatoes with apples(filet de boeuf et pomme de terre avec pomme).
On the left is my entree, Foie Gras Ravioli. Oh. My. God.

VERY satisfied, we walked out and began our bird walk tour again.

Église Saint-Sulpice
It's as if the two sculptures are on wither side of the door saying, "TA-DA!"

And then the rain came again. Much worse than before. We ducked into a shop called Muji. (which I had been instructed by friends to check out) It is a large chain out of Japan and we don't have one yet in Los Angeles. As I shopped, Lyle, Christine and Richard stood and looked out the door at the torrent of rain. The whole world had stopped. No one was walking outside. Everyone just watched the wall of water.

I made my selection, purchased it and met Lyle at the door. Lyle told me to go back and get umbrellas. "But they're 15€! You can get them for 5€ on the street." To which Lyle asked me, "Are YOU going to go out into the street and find one?" Point taken.

Richard and Christine were done with the walking tour (or so we all thought) and went out on their own to grab the metro or a cab back to the hotel. I needed to shop more (or so I thought) and Lyle and I headed off on our own.

We wound up at the Jardin du Luxembourg. And let me just launch this section of the tale by telling you this is a part of town I had never explored before. Without Richard and Christine, I probably still wouldn't have been in this neighborhood.

Lyle and I thought we may not make it back to this part of town again and decided to walk through the park. It was still raining but there were still people out.

Big head.

Lyle forced to pose (again).

I started to freak out about my shoes. Yes I knew it was going to rain, but no, I had to planned to walk through mud in a park in them. It's really all about my shoes you know. So we left the park.

In looking at our map we see that the Sorbonne is nearby. We've never seen that, so we head that direction. We get within a block of it when we are distracted by a large impressive building up a different street. "Let's go...... that way!"

The weather is very odd and moody right about now. I took these two photos from the same spot.

Look to the left and see the Sorbonne is having a very sunny day.

Look to the towards the right and there is a storm gathering above Le Panthéon.

There was a line to get in the Pantheon. And it looked like maybe you had to pay as well. We were tired and wet and did not go inside. Now looking about for information on this monument I TOTALLY regret that! Check out this photo of inside (that I obviously did not take):
Well now it's for certain. I must return next week. There is so much I missed and need to go back to.

We watched a show on the History channel a while back (you know, that channel that if you were in high school you'd be forced to watch every show on it and you would moan and fall asleep during, but now suddenly it all looks so exciting that you Tivo those same shows and tell your friends about them? Yeah, that channel) and the show was all about how Paris was built starting as a native habitat on the islands in the middle of the Seine, through to today. One of the fascinating things we learned was that at one time there was a wall around the entire city. A HUGE WALL.

And here is a piece of it still standing:
And from the little plaque over there on the right, I have graciously translated what it says for you. (okay, me and a gracious translating service online. But I helped it make sense.)

Enclosure of Philippe Auguste.
In 1190, before his departure for the third crusade, Philippe Auguste (1165-1223) asked the inhabitants to contribute to the security of the city by the construction of a wall of approximately 5 km. completed around 1210. This high wide curtain was crowned with a covered walkway, and had about ten gates. Limited in the west by the fortress of Louvre, built there to protect it in the first years from the 13th century, in north by the Markets, and in the south by the Holy-Genevieve borough, it defines a capital of 250 hectares: from this time on, the palace, the treasures and the people are safe and have a residence, even if the king does not reside at it always. It is the first attempt at union of the three districts Parisian which include: the city center - religion, administrative and judicial; the economic city - locations around the ports of Right Bank; and the University area consisting of the left bank.

We continued on our crazy walk hither and dither until we decided we both had to pee and we were getting hungry again. And tired. And foot sore. SO we started making sense of our directions and aiming for the hotel.

There is a little game we play in foreign cities between Lyle and I. It's called, "I could totally live there." Generally I choose nice views, reasonable sizes, quaint neighborhoods. Generally Lyle chooses chateaus, grand hotels or former palaces that are now museums.

Here's one I called out before Lyle noticed it. "You could totally live there!" I shouted and then made Lyle go stand in front of it.
And from it's little plaque on the side, I have translated as best I can (with my computer friend)

Hotel Le Brun
Nicolas Saint-Denis, master mason, built this hotel in 1701, under the direction of Germain Boffrand (1667-1754), one of the most prolific architects of the 18th century. This beautiful example of Parisian architecture was built at the end of the reign of Luois XIV and is designed accordingly. It has now yielded its long term function to bear the collections of the Cabinet of natural history.

We crossed over from the left bank to the Isle St Louis, which afforded us a great view of Notre Dame from the bridge.

And since I am not very good at being a casual walker without a purpose, we were headed to the Isle St Louis for a reason...

PASTRY!!!!
We picked up a couple of each. One for now and one "for the room". You know those emergency pastry situations are always popping up.

Our approximate walking tour, 3.5 miles. Added to our previous morning tour brought us to a 5 mile day.

That night we ate at Café des Musées, which was just two blocks up the street from our hotel. We had foolishly not phoned ahead for reservations, but we were lucky enough to get in despite that fact.

Pate du maison.

Watercress soup.

Cake du maison.

Religious Freedom

I am totally digging on this video. It's an easy learner on marriage equality and religious freedom.

Paris Day 02 part one, Moulin Rouge & Sacre Coeur

I know, a simple 1.5 mile forced hike looks simple, but today we are going up, up, up to the to top of the hill and when we get there we will go even further up (more than 300 steps in the stairs) to the top of the dome.

We begin at Moulin Rouge. Since I have no interest in seeing a show of naked breasts here at night (too much like work) this is as close as I will get.

These can-can girls need some inspiration...

So I get up and show them how its done!

I love how civilized this city is. A french bulldog shops for shoes.

Lyle poses for this photo I took just for my father.
Look dad, SNAILS!

About this time you may think, "Poor Lyle, all those photos with things on his head..." But look, this windmill is merely ABOVE his head, not ON his head. And let's be fair, we've cut the back and forth down to this:

Hey, turn around.
No.
Just stop right there.
No.
Wait, I want to get a picture.
I know. And No.
You might as well give in, you know I'll be a pain until you do.
(heavy sigh) Fine.

Its all very civilized and quick and then we can get on with our day.

We hiked up, up, up into the neighborhood and I made my pilgrimage to the Place Dalida. Aside from it being a lovely sculpture and a gracious square, this also give s you a sideways approach to the monumental church of Sacre Coeur. Everyone comes up the front steps or the funicular, but I prefer the surprise discovery of it all at once looming above you with very little warning.

A rare four shot thanks to a very kind German tourist.

Since I go to Sacre Coeur almost every trip, and hike to the top of the dome every time, you'd think there would be nothing new to see or discover. But here are a couple of snaps I took that were all new to me.


The city doesn't really change from year to year from this vantage point high above it, and yet, "Hey, is that the Pompidou Centre? I never noticed that before..."

Lyle and Christine freeze smiles on their faces for the camera. And I do mean FREEZE. It was amazingly cold that morning and the higher we went the stronger the wind blew. BRRRRR.....

Jesus, he keeps staring at me all over the inside of this church...

Though this couple did not get married inside the church, they came here with their bridal party for photos. Note his GOLD sneakers.

When you see famous photos of Montmartre there is always the one of these long steps in the fog with the lamps on down the middle. I always wondered why they had that photo because I had never seen those steps... until this trip! We discussed our next point of interest and decided the metro stop to the left was our best choice et Voila! We discovered these stairs. More stairs. More stairs. More stairs...

We headed towards the metro with the idea of going to the Mache aux Puces (the flea market), but when we got there (three metro stops away) the crowds were crazy. Only slightly crazy, but we stopped and took into account the idea of it being a Saturday, us being jet lagged, and how put off we were by just a mild teeming throng of people and we decided the NO, today was not our flea market day. We would go somewhere else...
This photo is a random throw in. As we descended into the metro, there was woman dragging her shopping cart down the stairs, thunk, thunk, thunk, and Lyle very kindly stopped and picked up the other end of her cart to assist her. This being a VERY RARE scene (Lyle helping a stranger) I snapped a quick photo. At which point the woman got a little frightened and asked why was I taking her photo? And then I tried to explain that Lyle is not normally a kind person to strangers and it was so rare that I HAD to take a photo of HIM... oh forget it, I don't speak that much French... I just said, "Non, him." and pointed at Lyle, then walked away.

All this was before lunch.

Paris Day 01

We arrived in Paris at 7:30 am. Cleared customs, claimed bags and we were curbside by 8:30 am. Perfect time to grab a cab and hightail it into Paris. During rush hour on a sunny Friday morning.


We arrived at out hotel at 9:30 am. Check in time was 2 pm. They were very gracious and took our bags into storage so we could stroll the town unfettered. First order of business, COFFEE.And let me introduce out travel partners on this journey, Richard (who if you click on this photo above you will discover is drinking "Café Richard) and Christine.
Christine is beholding the wide array of stinky cheeses available in Paris. Seriously, you could smell that shop from the street with the door closed.

After we had ingested some wholesome goodness, coffee and croissant) Lyle and I took Christine and Richard to the Isle St. Louis in the middle of the Seine.

Lyle explored mysterious courtyards...

Everyone (except me) went in to the butcher shop (look closely, you can see them inside).

And though we've been to Paris numerous times and walked down this street every single time, we heard music coming from inside this church for the first time and we decided to take a look inside.
St Louis en l'Ile Church: First built in 1622, this atmospheric church invites with a vast, stunning wooden door decorated with angels. Inside, it is surprisingly impressive and immense.

The Hotel Lambert on the Isle St. Louis has a rich and interesting history.

We stumbled and walked our way all over the city. We saw quite a large police presence around some government building and commented it must be in response to recent protests in Paris. This always brings up a quote from my first visit to Paris when I met a friend of Lyle's who told me, "You may have traveled to Paris before, but until you've been tear gassed in Paris, you've never really been to Paris."

We turned the corner in front of City Hall (Hotel De Ville) and found out protesters.
We took a quick photo and all agreed that we did not want today to be the day we got tear gassed in Paris. We moved on.

Lyle had done some research on where to eat in Paris and selected for our first meal, Robert et Louise.

Back in the 1960s Robert et Louise started charbroiling côtes de boeuf (rib steaks) over an open fire in the back of their small restaurant on the Rue Vieille-du-Temple in the Marais. With its low prices, the place was popular with impecunious students, some of whom paid the bill with paintings, which still hang on the walls (don’t expect any Picassos), along with all sorts of photos and kitschy memorabilia.

That is our steak for three (that more than served four) on the open hearth cooking INSIDE the restaurant. All the smoke went out the open door next to it... I can't imagine what this is like in the deepest cold of winter, but in the cold of early Spring we were loving it.

We sat sown at a communal table (after the staff moved people around) and we had our steak, potatoes, salad and a bottle of wine. I think we had dessert but at this point I can no longer remember.

At last out hotel rooms were ready. We checked in, unpacked, then Richard and Lyle took naps. Christine and I went out shopping. I think Christine bought a T-shirt (a nice Parisian designer t-shirt) and then we toured a few more shops including this lovely EXPENSIVE dog store.
After a few hours dodging doggie doody on the Paris sidewalks, you do not want to think of a dog that size leaving presents behind!

We all managed to stay awake for dinner and found ourselves wandering down the Rue de Saint Paul. We saw a menu board we liked, we ducked into a hidden courtyard et voila! Had dinner in a restaurant all to ourselves.
This photo is to illustrate that we had all received the memo that the current trend for scarf wearing in Paris is looped once around your neck and then both ends fall casually back to the front. Do not be caught with last year's scarf tie!

Update:
I found a groovy thing on the Internet that allowed me to plot out (approximately) where and how far we walked the first morning. Behold!

Approximately 3.5 miles. After a full day of travel, not much sleep, and not nearly enough coffee.

We're baaaaa....aaaack....

We have returned. Though we should have been home Sunday night around 7, we got home about midnight. Delays leaving Paris, delays landing in Dallas, slow to clear customs... same old, same old.

As we walked through the door to home I turned to Lyle and said, "I've been up 26 hours now!" Though probably not as chipper as I thought it would come out. Lyle slept 8 and half hours of the ten and half hour flight home. I watched 5 movies.

• Vicki Christina Barcelona: Billed as a comedy, I never actually laughed. Still waiting for the plot to make a point and it's been two days.
• Burn After Reading: Another "comedy" (though this one I put quotations marks around) I not only did not find it funny, I found it gross and it gave me a bad dream later. Here's a tip to budding film promoters, IF SOMEONE GETS SHOT IN THE HEAD AND BLOOD SPLATTERS ALL OVER THE SET, IT IS NOT A COMEDY. Oh, and the movie had absolutely no point.
• Bonneville: I watched it to see what Jessica Lange looks like older.
• Bolt: Thank goodness I didn't know it was John Travlota voicing the dog or I would not have enjoyed it as much as I did. Now that I know, I like it less. But it was still very good. Damn.
• Yes Man: I don't care for Jim Carey movies normally, but this one was not nearly as annoying as it could have been. There seemed to be a light hand on the mugging. It was fine.

So I may take some time to get things organized around here. Though my body is getting up nice and early, between 6 am and 7 am, my brain seems to still be sleeping in a different time zone.

Dans la nuit

The Arc de Triomphe at night.

Pilgramage

I will return to Hermes.
(And the Crillon Hotel for champagne)

View from the top

This is the view down from the top of the Eiffel Tower.
It is also the view in my dining room.

Paris goes on, and on, and on, and on...

I'm tired. I don't want to complain that my vacation is too long, but
I can't go on at this pace much longer. The walking, the eating, the
only three pairs of shoes... We're home on Sunday night.

We have our iPhones with us. Before we left we activated a plan to use
50 MB of data at a discounted rate. The regular price would be $5 per
megabyte. I asked Lyle if that would be enough and he told me that I
don't use that much in a month at home. Of course, when I am at home I
am in my own wi-fi at the house and use the Internet on my computer.

We arrived in Paris on Friday morning, and on Monday afternoon Lyle
called and changed me to the 100 MB plan.

This posting I had to do from Lyle's phone as I will be very close to
my limit by Sunday.

I write all this just to explain why I may post less for a bit. That,
and I am tired!