A little more Paree

I could do unlimited Paris posts, because around every corner there is something beautiful or interesting to see and photograph. This may even turn into two posts if I need to show more photos. We'll see...

One of the things on our "to do" list was to buy a rotisserie chicken, and we knew that we should be able to find a good one at the market. Sure enough, I spotted the place and made a beeline for the chickens.

 

The butcher seemed to know what he was doing as he hacked up the chicken, but we were worried he would also whack off a digit! 

These were red currants and blackberries were beautiful, but we opted for cherries for our picnic.

And bread from this bakery which had won awards for it's baguette. We tried some other things there for our French breakfast, and they were all tasty. 

So we had all the makings for a simple French picnic, which we enjoyed in the Place des Voges nearby, commissioned by Henry IV in the 1600's, which was right behind the beautiful Hotel Sully, shown here. This was actually the Orangerie, where the orange and lemon trees were grown inside. 

Rita has a way with animals and birds, and even got them to eat out of her hand. It was harder getting a photo of that, though! 

After our picnic, it was time to walk across the Seine to the Cluny Museum. Lots do interesting sights along the way,as usual.

I think this might have been my 5 th  wedding photo of the trip...

It would take a special bride to wear this leather wedding dress...

And a cute hedgehog. I saw my first real one on this trip, too! 

Interesting heads from Moscot. 

More roses

While Rita toured The Cluny Museum, I enjoyed sitting nearby enjoying a nice pot of sweet mint tea at a Tunisian restaurant. 

And in closing, a few more stylish French views of windows and an interior. 

Street art

We have seen a lot of good graffiti and street art on this trip, but nowhere as much as in Paris. I thought I would share a few of my favorites here. 

I don't know if I have already shared this one seen in Ljubljana? But I like it a lot, in spite of the message. As anyone who knows me well can tell you, I am NOT a rule follower, in fact, if anything, I'm a bit of a rule breaker. One of my favorite quotes is, " if you follow all the rules, you miss all the fun", or something like that. I truly believe that. But I like this graffiti. 

Some of these photos I took, but this one was courtesy of Rita, seen in Monmartre. 

Speaking of art,we were near our neighborhood in the Village St Paul and came upon an art opening. 

In hopes of being offered a free glass of champagne, we wandered in to look at the art. I told Rita I would give my eye teeth for a photo of the " food" on offer. No fancy canapés or even some cheese, rather on the large table there was a small plate of some tiny muffin like cakes, and a plate of what looked like the candies I remember from my childhood as " dots", in bright colors. Very chic. And no one offered us champagne. So much for the Paris art scene! Haha.

Paris things

Can you tell I'm running out of words, perhaps? I'm also running out of steam for travel, especially on my own. I don't, for one moment, take for granted how much easier it is to travel with someone else, rather than solo. For one thing, you can confer, and puzzle things out together. And when you're lost, at least you're lost with someone else. It's a little lonely traveling on your own, even if you are going to someplace you want to be. 

But for the sake of continuity, let's pretend that Rita and I are still in this together...

It is different for us to be in such a touristy place,and among so many crowds. We haven't heard so much English spoken since we left the US! 

Since we were in St Germaine already, we decided to do a little more browsing there, but it seemed that the deeper we went, the more tourists we saw. 

But I couldn't pass up my favorite, Aquarelle( watercolor) without a few photos. I was sorry that I didn't buy flowers for our room earlier.

Wow, what peonies! They almost look like they are made from  tissue paper.

Clever " vase", eh? 

The French just have a way with flowers...

I wanted to buy all these bunches!

Another thing they do well are darling baby clothes. These are so simple ,but cute.

Heck, I might even try my hand at sewing some, but then I have my friend Sue who us an expert at making cute kids clothes. 

I'd happily dress a little grandbaby in any of these outfits! Just sayin'...

And from the Ritzy part of town, something a bit more formal. 

Up near the Sorbonne, we encountered a few police and others were setting up barricades along the street. 

I asked a shopkeeper what was going on and in our broken translations, she said it was a "celebration", but of what, I couldn't deduce. Looks like fun. Nothing says fun like vans full of riot police. 

We decided to move away from that event, and came across some traditional food and craft booths.

I had to laugh when the guy at this stall started speaking to some customers in English, and they replied in French. His response was something along the lines of " whew, finally some a French people!"

Some really big nougat.

After looking at all this food, we realized it was time to head back to our neighborhood for a rest before dinner. So long for now, St Germaine. 

Big Paris Days

I apologize for the lack of posts, but between our busy days seeing the highlights of Paris and the general lack of good wifi, it has been challenging, and I'm not one to spend a lot if time hanging out in Starbucks for fast wifi( until today). It is my last morning in Paree, and I bid a fond farewell at 4:15 am to my sweet daughter in law, Rita. She has been a dream travel companion. She can look at a map and quickly identify where we are and between the two of us we have found our way around this city pretty well, even on very tired legs. I've always known that Rita is easygoing, but I can't say enough about how fun and easy it has been to have her for my travel companion. 

She had her agenda, which really helped to structure our days. My theory is that you should do or see the things that are most  important first, so we set off to see the Eiffel tour on bus 69. 

We weren't sure if we would go up in the elevator or just observe from below, but we just had to go see that view...

It was cool and a little windy, and me without a jacket...but it was cozy in the elevator! 

We opted not to take the stairs!

Gray skies didn't deter us.

We got someone to take our photo after we decided that we didn't take good selfies. Guess we do need that selfie stick afterall. The very nice fellow was determined to get the tower in the photo and was nearly laying on the ground to get this shot! We appreciated his dedication.

Afterward we walked past this beautiful vertical wall in front of Quay Branley museum.

Then I coaxed and cajoled Rita into going for a spin on bikes. I have tried the velib system with some success in the past and had some fun ( and scary) moments. She was reluctant, but agreed. It was nice when there was a path, but it would disappear. We gave it a go until we reached St Germaine where it was just too busy, and not fun.

We stopped at Pain Quotidian for some fabulous salads. Everything people ordered looked equally good. I know it's a chain, but the food was delicious, and the place was packed! 

Good graffiti poster

We founds some fun shops along the rue du Dragon. I had never seen this street before, but we'd both return for good browsing.

And here's a classic Paris view.