Paris: Things on the list/next time

 I keep a running list of sights and restaurants to try. I cross out the ones we've been to.

SPOT24 olympics exhibition daily 930a-645p 101 Quai Jacques Chirac, 15e

La Brasserie de l'Isle Saint-Louis, closed Wednesday. Thur-Tue 12-1030pm

Miura closed Sat-Su; M-F 1215-145p; 715-945p

Café Varenne bistro r d Varenne and r d Bac Closed Su; M-Sa 730am-11pm

Bourdelle Museum closed Monday, Tue-Sun 10am-6pm

Musée de La Poste closed Tuesday, Wed-Mon 11a-6pm

14^th around Raspail Metro

Montparnasse cemetery, daily 9am-530pm

Fondation Cartier, exhibit ends 4/21

Zadkine Museum closed Monday, Tue-Sun 10a-6pm

Basilica Ste. Clothilde

Perrett’s house, rue Raynouard

Le Castel Beranger, art Nouveau, 16e, rue de la Fontaine next to Maison de la radio

Lavirotte Building 29 ave. rapp 7e

Tour Jean sans Peur near Ettiene Marcel Metro

Shopping: Fabrice-rue Bonaparte 6e (down from St. Germain Church and metro stop, costume jewelry)

Palais Galliera

Musee des Arts Forains 12e, Bercy

Deyrolle Taxidermy Shop, rue du Bac 7e

Musee de l’Eventail (Fans), 10e

UNESCO Bldg Tour

Petit Palais

LV Foundation, Rothko exhibit ends 4/2

LV Dream @ 2 Pont -Neuf daily 11-20, Free

BNF Richelieu Museum closed Monday; Tue-10a-8p; W-Su 10a-6p

Musee de la vie Romantique, closed Monday, Tue-Sun 10a-6pm, free, pair with New Athens

Musee Delacroix, closed Tuesdays, Wed-Mo 930am-1730 (closed for renovations 19/9/2023-27/3/2024)

Pompidou daily 11am-9pm, roof terrace, biblioteque, photography exhibits free

Stravinsky Fountain

St. Merry daily 8am-8pm

Rue Berton down av du Colonel Bonnet, cross Rue Raynouard, small road on left, wanders down to rue d’Ankara and Parc de Passy

Chateau de Vincennes (daily 10a-5p)

Passage lhomme

Cour du Panier-Fleuri

Passage du Cheval Blanc, 2 Rue de la Roquette

It is in this passage located at the back of a 17th century building. that all the wood arriving by the river was stored at the Port de l'Arsenal, right next door. it was intended for all trades revolving around this noble material from Faubourg Saint Antoine. Although the warehouse has not existed for a long time, you can admire the buildings from the 19 and 20 centuries. some of whose half-timbered walls, some of which are decorated, recall the history of this neighborhood in the past. The courtyards of the buildings are named from January to June. For April, it's just a staircase. The passage is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Cour Damoye 14 rue Daval exits onto Bastille

Coer Saint-Joseph, 5 rue de charonne

 

www.France-travel-info.com

Jardin Tino Rossi

Les Halles Saint-Pierre

Beaupassage

Le Coulee Verte

Passage des Panoramas

Place Saint-Georges

Paris: Departure from CDG

 

Sunday

4/28

CDG-JFK-MSY 930am-12pm/405pm-644pm Delta 0267/1551 Seats: 30A, 30B; 12F, 12D; 767-400; Airbus A319   -Left the apartment at 6am with G7 cab (he got there 10 minutes early, very reliable). Cost 63E (56 +7 booking fee). Driver was quiet and competent with a deep down funk. Arrived at CDG 2E and he let us off right near the VAT Refund desk (is it gate 8?). We found our check-in location, dropped off the bags. Went through the various security and passport controls. Made our way to gates M (2E has KLM gates) via the terminal train. And had a good 2 hours to wait for departure. The Starbucks in 2E M had the b&w Paris mugs. -The flight was uneventful. The flight attendants were kinda weird, mostly big guys, not friendly or engaging. The food was not great. My seat did not stay reclined so I had a hard time sleeping. Pretty quick to JFK which is a very confusing airport. We landed at Terminal 4 and our flight to NOLA left from terminal 4 but nowhere did it say that, only the gate (A11). And boy were they surly there. We finally figured things out, signage was terrible, and I got in the TSA Precheck line while husband did Clear which took longer than TSA.  -We decided on drinks and a snack at Le Grand Comptoir (drinks good, spinach dip not so good, good server). 4 hour layover was very long and I’m still miffed that Delta changed our flights. At any rate, landed in NOLA early. Brother-in-law brought us home and after a sauna, I crashed. Vacation over.

Home

Paris Day 6: UNESCO and churches

 

Saturday

4/27

10am Unesco Bldg Tour (printed, cultival) SPOT24 Olympics exhibition daily 930a-645p 101 Quai Jacques Chirac, 15e (Picchetto restaurant 50 av. de la motte picquet, 12am-1230am daily, L’Abreuvoir, 24 rue du Dr Finaly, daily 8am-1130pm; Le Tournesol Paris 16e, 2 av de Lamballe, daily, they have scallops risotto!)   -Our last day started early. We had tickets to tour the Unesco Building at 10am and arrived, as directed, a little early. The guide, with Cultival, not a Unesco employee, took our ids and gave us a lanyard. She did pretty well even if her English was a little rough at times. -I must say I really enjoyed the tour. We went all around the building discussing the building itself, UNESCO’s mission, the art outside and inside, including a massive mural by Picasso, the Japanese gardens, the spiral staircase. It was a good 90 minutes and I wasn’t bored. So glad we did it! -Afterwards, we walked down rue de la Croix Nivert to the boulangerie (same name) where the very nice attendant, with perfect English who was still willing to entertain my bad French, served us up two sandwiches. We ate right there. It was funny listening to every person who entered use the same politesse phrases (bonjour, svp, merci, au revoir, bon journee). After coffee, we decided to head to the Delacroix Museum, via Metro. The walk to the Metro was pretty cool. This was definitely not a touristy area. -The Delacroix recently reopened after a major renovation. We toured it in one of our early trips and we both remembered being impressed. Not so much this time, unfortunately. -It seemed like there were fewer rooms open. And the worst was that it was a Delacroix v. Ingres exhibit detailing their rivalry. They were contemporaries. There were many fewer Delacroix paintings on exhibit to make room for Ingres’ art and violin. It was well done but I would have preferred more Delacroix in the Delacroix museum. The atelier was similarly disappointing because of the numerous Ingres canvases. -The garden was still sweet and gorgeous and a perfect retreat. -It started to rain as we left, the first real rain of the trip. So what to do? I suggested visiting churches. So to St. Germain des Pres we went. Easy, quick walk. It’s such a beautiful church. I pulled up the Blue Guide on my phone and read up about it. We had the Streetwise and could see St. Severin not far away so there we went by Metro. -St. Severin is another pretty church, very different from St. Germain des Pres. The modern stained glass is jarring but the way the church was constructed with those fat pillars fanning up into palms was impressive. -Across the way was St. Julien le Pauvre, not much to it, now a Catholic Greek church so the altar is covered over. It’s really old.  -Around the corner is Rue Galande, one of the oldest streets in Paris, and at #42 is a carved relief, mentioned in 1380, of St. Julien and his wife ferrying Christ across a river (Blue Guide). We saw the relief which most people definitely miss. Pretty cool. -We popped into pretty Square Rene-Viviani where the Notre Dame views dominate! The oldest tree in Paris is there, from 1601, a Robinia (Locust tree or False Acacia). They hold the ND Christmas Market here. -We followed the Blue Guide down Rue de la Bucherie to see the gorgeous former Ecole de Medecine. Kept on walking (somehow didn’t make it to Shakespeare and Company which is around there somewhere). Husband spotted the nice looking Maison Colbert boutique hotel, lovely location on rue de l’Hotel Colbert, and price to match! -We ended up at St. Nicolas Chardonet church which we briefly visited a few years before and had not memory of. Probably because it’s not super memorable. We walked on and stopped at a café for drinks. Very nice service. Husband figured out that it was close to where he waited after visiting the minerals museum when I had my macarons class, the same year we visited St. Nicholas Chardonet, and then went to the Miraculous Metal church for metals. -Which is what prompted us to go back to Miraculous Metal to get metals for some folks fighting cancer. We took the Metro, getting off right into the super busy area by Le Bon Marche department store. -Mass was going on and we listened for a while. Then bought the metals and pamphlets and went back in to get them blessed. But we missed something, it was all in fast French, and didn’t get them blessed. We asked a nun outside afterwards, she had no English. But she was super kind and grabbed another nun who spoke a little English who then grabbed a departing priest who blessed the metals right there for us. Very nice. -We did a little shopping at Le Grande Marche. What a fantastic store! They had all the food products you could want but go up the escalators and they had all the home furnishings and tableware and everything else you could want. Fabulous store but so busy! I wondered if there was a day it wasn’t so slammed? -Husband was in the mood for another burger so off (by Metro) to La Brasserie de l’Isle Saint Louis we went. They offered us the catbird seat, non merci, then sat us in the back ¼ of the restaurant again. So weird. And no recognition of us (I mean everyone remembers my blue hair, but not these guys, lol!). -Husband loved his burger again and my salad was good. Then home to pack for our early departure. -In 17 days, only this day was significantly wet. So we had great weather! But we didn’t bring enough warm clothes. Lesson for next time!

Paris

Paris Day 6: Miura, etc.

 

Friday

4/26

1pm Miura lunch (PVD) Metro to Musee de la Vie Romantique, wander New Athens and Rue des Martyrs   -Our final boozy lunch was at Miura. -We got up and out around 1130 and headed toward the Arc de Triomphe which is not far from Miura. We had time to kill so decided to “run errands.” Stopped at the post office to mail the postcards. Stopped at Monoprix to look for the ET shopping bags but they didn’t have them. Admired pastries in the patisserie window. Admired the pretty buildings all around. -This was our 4th time at Miura and it was as good as ever. The dining room was filled with French business people. Of the 2 tables open, we chose to sit in between two other diners. But, as always, we could barely hear them talk (they were very quiet talkers). -We got champagne to start and glasses of wine afterwards. Menu dujour was 65E. Can’t remember the starter. Had John Dory as a main, was good. Husband had steak and potatoes. For dessert we both had the outstanding chocolate souffle. Enjoyable meal. Would definitely return. -We took the Metro to Nation for the Musee de la vie Romantique, which gets great reviews. As we stepped out of the station, there was a Monoprix and we stopped in for the bags, which they didn’t have. They did have a whole section of souvenirs so I picked up a few things as well as the Sacre Coeur plus Moulin Rouge bags they had there (it was really close to Moulin Rouge which had lost its sails a couple of days before). And around the corner, on the way to the museum, there was a Starbucks and I got two Black and White Paris mugs! Excellent! -The Musee de la Vie Romantique (free) has a big connection to George Sand who was good friends with the house’s owner, Ary Scheffer, himself a painter whose works were on display. Some Delacroixs were also on display. Sand was involved with Chopin and there was a cast of his delicate hand. The museum was tiny, like 4-5 rooms, and only one was furnished to the period. Not much translated to English. The garden café seating was pretty. It didn’t meet my expectations. -I had printed out a walking tour of the area and we loosely followed it around New Athens. We ended up on Rue des Martyrs which is a really great street! So much going on. We sat at a café and had drinks and people watched. Very enjoyable. -At the end of Rue des Martyrs was the beautiful Notre Dame de Lorette. Her façade/outside was all under scaffolding but inside was very pretty. A group of kids were practicing for a play so the altar was covered up. -We decided to have drinks at Le Meurice again because why not? So took the metro to Tuileries. I made husband walk through the beautiful gardens. There was some major Olympics related construction at Place de la Concorde and in the gardens themselves. We were walking along where the Christmas Market was set up. -At Le Meurice, we were first sat outside in two chairs by the column but moved into the bar before we finished our first drink. The woman pianist was accompanied by a man on the bass. Very nice. The bar was full then empty then filled up again. We were there a couple of hours and got fries. Very enjoyable. -Metro back to the apartment in time for the 11pm sparkle show.

Paris

Paris Day 5: Astrance, etc.

 

Thursday

4/25

Chateau de Vincennes (daily 10a-5p) Brasserie de l’Isle Saint-Louis Or 1pm Astrance Lunch (him the fork) Montparnasse Cemetery, Musee de la Poste, Musee Boudelle, Notre Dame du Travail Dinner: La Causerie (rue vital, 16e) or snacks   -Today’s boozy lunch was at Astrance. We took our time getting up and out. We finally decided to visit the Musee des Arts Moderne because it was just a few minutes’ walk from there to the restaurant. And MAM is free :) It was a spectacularly beautiful day! And this area of the 16th is beyond gorgeous! -MAM was fresher and prettier that our last visit (to our eyes). The free collection was outstanding, again. I liked that they tied it into the Olympics a bit. The views over the Seine to the ET were gorgeous. The section with the history of the museum’s build were very interesting. As someone who doesn’t really like modern art, I really like this museum. Especially, of course, the gorgeous, magnificent, massive Spirit of Electricity by Duffy. -The new Astrance (1 star, was 3 then 2 then it moved to the new digs and is now just 1 star) is a really pretty space. Bright, fresh, with some Asian influences. Very comfortable. The servers are in the still stylish blue suits. The maître is looking a little older and maybe less healthy but chef Pascal Bardot looked good. He stopped by our table 2xs as he did his vuelta around the restaurant. -Food was really fish-centric and they served husband a second fish, like they did for me, instead of a meat course. If/when we go back, we’ll have to ensure that doesn’t happen bc he missed his meat courses. We started with champagne. The restaurant was pretty full. -We chose the 125E menu saisson and wine pairing 50E (although there was some confusion on our part about the cost of the wine, lol). Menu dejuneur is a bargain at 85E. *=loved -Amuse: chick peas galette; brioche with butter and a vegetable?. Starters: oyster; welk; ?scallops in a nice bright sauce; and halibut; *lobster and carrots soup with Japanese rice; *biscuit with shrimps jam; palate cleanser mint and cilantro. Mains: *turbot with soy sauce butter, cabbage bok choi and pickled veggies (I had 2 bones); mackerel marinated in ouzo, peas, artichoke, carrots, lentils on the side. Desserts: palate cleanser strawberries and rhubarb sorbet; peanut butter ice cream, caramel around the light galette, pistachio and lots of sorrel lettuce like stuff on top. Aside from the sorrel, the dish was delish. Eggnog and chocolates for bill paying. No cheese and no fruit to end the meal :( Overall, very good and enjoyable and would return. -We grabbed the Metro to Montparnasse-Bienvenue to visit the Bourdelle Museum (free). The Montparnasse building is uglier up close. -Antoine Bourdelle was a sculptor who became famous for Heracles. But his oeuvre is much deeper than that. The museum is where he lived and worked. It has many rooms and gardens. There was a special exhibit in the basement about objects he collected. Very cool museum. Glad we went! -We took the Metro to Notre Dame du Travail. It’s a really cool industrial looking church, with art deco style decorations in the chapels, while outside it looks as traditional as possible. I liked it a lot. -We stopped not far from it at a Choubidou cafe for drinks; pretty good people watching. Then walked down picturesque and definitely not touristy Blvd Pasteur to catch the metro back to the apartment. But as it was around 7pm, we decided to stop at a café (and chose well in Le Pasteur, attentive service, bustling place). We had drinks then husband got a truffle croque madame with fries and salad which I helped him eat. It was tasty and just enough food after our nice lunch. -It was an early night, we were home by 9pm!

Paris

Paris Day 4: Septime, etc.

 

Wednesday

4/24

Saint-Ambroise Church (8am-730pm) 11am Atelier des Lumieres (buy tickets in advance) 1pm Septime (me) “Hidden” Passages in the 11e   -Getting a reservation at Septime involved waking up at 3am Central time 3 weeks before the day we wanted to dine. But I was successful! And today was the day. -Septime is 1 Michelin star and consistently on the 50 Best Restaurants in the World list. It gets mixed reviews. The food is vegetable forward. It’s a very casual place but most people were dressed nicely (looking at you, young couple with your baseball caps, c’mon, man!). We could overhear the excited Asian gentleman who was there with his family talking about how it was hard to get a reservation. Cute. -The maître and sommelier was from California so of course his English was good. There was a lot of English. We got the menu of the day 85E and a wine pairing 60E. Plus of course the champagne to start. They were considerate of my pickiness. -We started with a broth and brioche waffle with compte cheese (delicious). Next was an asparagus with spinach, sorrel, egg yolk, like a salad; artichoke in onion sauce with meyer lemon on top; flash steamed lettuces with 2 mushrooms. Mains were St. John with morel and a garlic bud thing (that was too strong for me), husband's had lardo; tuna with sour cream sauce and charred broccoli and flowers—excellent, although could have been cooked like 3-6 more seconds for me. Husband got the cheese plate (18E) with 2 goat and 1 sheep cheese. Dessert was hazelnut ice cream and cardamon cream. Very good meal. Was funny that the maître/sommelier had just been to CDMX on direct 12 hour flight from CDG and loved it there. -We were walking distance to Atelier des Lumieres so I convinced husband to go, after all it was about Egypt. No issues with getting in without pre-booking, place was not really too crowded, although a French Karen objected to husband standing in one spot as she reclined on the floor to watch the show (they are everywhere!). It was well done, like all of these have been, but I didn’t like it as much as the impressionists or Klimt. -We headed to St. Ambroise church but I had forgotten to bring the information I printed up about it. At any rate, it’s pretty. It’s newer (like 127 years old) and obviously a parish church. -I wanted to check out a particular purse, by Faure Le Page, so put in their flagship store’s address in the google and there we headed. It was a metro ride but when we got off, I realized we were close to Printemps so in there we went. There was no Faure Le Page but there was a Goyard. We looked at the bags through the cases, none of the clerks seemed very inclined to help us. -Printemps is a pretty store. I knew they had a terrace so up and up and up we went. Ended up on the 7th floor where there were very high end “second-hand” designer items for sale. We saw our first Hermes Birkin bags. They were older models ranging from 9,000E upwards of 20,000E. Beautiful and way too extravagant! -The view was very pretty from the terrace, as it was from the bathroom. Took elevators down to the street and walked around a little in the cute streets. My feet were killing me! -Routed ourselves to Galleries LaFayette and one Metro stop later, we were getting out right in front of it. Very pretty store, although it’s not as special as at Christmas. -Found Faure Le Page and very nice clerk showed us the bag. I like it but don’t think I love it. And not sure I want the one with the zip after all. Would have to allow time at airport for VAT refund, and with our early flight, didn’t want to risk it. Will reconsider next time. -We grabbed the Metro to La Muette and had drinks at the Tabac, which closed at 830. They were kinda wrapping things up but still served a few latecomers. We considered getting fries but decided to try a different place. -Le Bois was busy. Le Rally Passy smelled bad and the servers ignored us. We went down to the Aero, which is a hotel with a bar/restaurant, and they couldn’t have been nicer. Had a drink and my fries and all was well with the world. -Back to the apartment in time for the 10pm sparkle show.

Paris

Paris Day 3: Carnival, libraries, etc

 

Tuesday

4/23

1030am Musee des Arts Forains (printed), Bercy Village Lunch: Brasserie de l’Isle Saint-Louis  BNF Richelieu Museum closed Monday; Tue-10a-8p; W-Su 10a-6p   -I’ve known about Musee des Arts Forains for awhile but since it is far outside central Paris, it hadn’t made the list. So it was time to see what this place was all about. -It’s a bit of a hike from the 16th to Bercy Village on the Metro. But the metro station lets out at the shopping center which was clean and fresh with cute stores and eateries. We were running a little late so kept walking to the museum. We arrived at 1003, lol, and the tour had already departed. It was all in French but they gave us a handout to follow along. The very nice young woman guide did not translate or engage in English (except to tell me she loved my hair and had done some blue in hers in the past, and to tell all non-French speakers that the race games would be repeated so all could participate, and to give the safety instructions for the bike carousel). She did a great job with the kids on the tour and kept their attention. -It was a fun place to see and explore. We heard opera from wax mannequins; rode a horse carousel; I sat on a goat; there were waiter and horse races--they moved when a ball was successfully rolled into their slots, I finished 3rd in my race; the bike carousel was so fun; and dancing in the grand ballroom was a kick. The guide actually thanked me for dancing, lol. -It was about 90 minutes long. I told husband I wish they would record the commentary in English and make it available on the website so we could listen along instead of having to read. We did miss a lot! But it was fun. -We were hungry so went over to Bercy Village and settled on a Japanese place. Pretty good lunch. Very busy place! -With no real set agenda, and the parc de Bercy right there, we walked through it-very pretty. Climbed up over the road and looked at the flowering plots on the other side—still too early for many blooms, heading in the direction of the Biblioteque Nationale de France (BBF) Francois Mitterand. I had read they had Louis XIV globes on display. -It was quite a hike (and my feet were definitely hurting) and included crossing the Seine—it was bigger than expected out there. -The library was enormous! The hall we went down was lined with chairs and people working on laptops or reading quietly. Behind the hall were the library stacks but you’d need a library card to access them. At the end of the hall was a terrace and a café and the enormous globes. Only 2 on display and the exhibit was closed. But they were quite impressive. -We walked into another free exhibit about punk in France. Then made the long walk out along a different hallway from the one we entered (no chairs or patrons on this one). There was a small forest in between the two long hallways. It was a massive library! -I wanted to visit the newly reopened museum at BNF Richelieu so we found the Metro and there we headed. When we arrived, we realized that our old favorite brunch place, Les Manufacturers Alain Ducasse, was on one corner. We’re still sad that place has closed down permanently. -Got through security, paid our entry fee, and explored the collection. I liked that there was a QR code with descriptions of specific items in each room and once we figured out how to find the items (there’s a number next to their description on the physical display board), we read up on these treasures. One fact that blew me away was that the BNF has 600,000 precious coins in their collection. There were maybe 100 on display. -The Mazarin Gallery was spectacular! So many precious items on display. I loved seeing the original manuscripts like Zola’s J’accuse, for example. -We saw the oval reading room and it was as impressive as I remembered. When we saw it the first time, the museum was closed and under renovation and they had some sad little displays in another building. The new museum is great and I would recommend it to anyone. -Outside, we walked into the cute Square Louvois with the statues of French Rivers and little girls gawking at my hair, lol. -We had drinks at Earth K, packed with youngish locals. -Then grabbed the Metro to have dinner at Brasserie de l’Isle Saint Louis again. Better seats this time, in the middle of the restaurant. Got crowded. Husband loved his burger again. I had the salade du jour and his fries. Fun. -Back home for the 11pm sparkle show and a spectacular full moon. Was a long day!

Paris