Month: June 2018

I have always loved window shopping in Paris.  You can find streets in every neighborhood lined with small boutiques that are so attractive that it is a joy to wander (which I love to do–Rick not so much!) and just look, or to venture inside where you are always met with a lilting “Bonjour!” Just looking is welcomed.

Most shops are uncluttered and not crowded with racks of clothes in every size.  Usually one or two sizes of each style are out, and you just need to ask, “Avez-vous autres tailles?” The shopkeeper will then look you over, decide what size you probably need, and go to the back or the basement to find it.

Since we are heading directly back to the States from Paris, I am breaking my two-year rule of not buying anything unless it replaces something else already my little suitcase.  (I even bought a second suitcase to hold my purchases!)  I connected with a young stylist through Airbnb, and she took me out shopping for a whole afternoon.  She asked me lots of questions before we met to determine my goals, budget, size and style.  It was so great to be guided toward shops and items that I liked.  I had my best luck at the atelier of a young designer, Koshka Mashka, where the designer herself met us and helped me to find some treasures.

And on this trip, I also purchased a pair of very fashionable boots.  Can’t wait to wear them!

Paris has several big department stores, among them Galeries Lafayette, which is worth a visit if only to gape at the ceiling!

The main floor is usually crowded with tourists, especially young Asian women who will wait in line (!) to get into the Gucci handbag boutique  or the Jimmy Choo shoe section.  But if you need a specific cosmetic or a bra in your size, they have it all!

As I wandershop ( I this this is a better description of what I do…), I love coming upon tiny shops that only sell one thing, like tassels, but have every size and color that you can imagine.

And then there are the Vides Grenier! Literally translated, this means ’empty attic,’ but these are the flea markets of Paris.  Especially in the Spring and Fall, these occur regularly in every neighborhood, and include furniture-some of it kind of careworn-

and odd things like drawer knobs

and all the silver flatware that their kids don’t want…

but I have fun looking and wandering through these markets.  I don’t buy much, but I was happy to find this old wrist watch for 10€.  I got a new battery for it and viola!  A souvenir of Paris!

Optical shops abound in Paris – some are ordinary, but many carry very fashionable eyeglass frames.  Last December, when my Baltimore ophthalmologist determined that I needed progressive lenses, I decided that I’d buy my glasses in Paris.  But in February, while helping Julie with her new baby, I decided that I didn’t want to wait until May to see clearly. I found a very cool Portland shop and bought frames made in Switzerland that I really liked.  Then, while we were in Bulgaria in April, I sat on my glasses and broke the frames!!  Thanks to Google, I found one shop in Paris – Carlotti – that carried the Swiss brand (Gotti).  I corresponded with them, provided the specs for my frame and – Voila! The day after we arrived, I took them my lenses and, a few days later, I had new glasses!

So now I can truthfully say that I bought my glasses in Paris, after all…

Another fun place to wandershop are Passages (arcaded shopping streets) that are scattered throughout the city.  Galerie Vivienne, located near the Palais Royale is one of the prettiest.

Passage Panoramas and Passage Jouffroy, nearby, form a network of arcades the lead from one to the other and are filled with used bookstores, philatelic shops, galleries and small cafés.

Shopping is one more reason that Paris is my favorite city of all…

During our extended stay, we have experienced all varieties of music. From the musicians in the Metro tunnels, of every variety

to the young woman who sang ‘torch songs’ in a small bar and then sat down to chat with us as we ate dinner

to our neighborhood jazz club, 38 Riv, in the cellar of a building on Rue Rivoli just blocks from our little apartment,

we don’t lack for quality musical experiences.

Churches in every neighborhood offer concerts, usually focused on classical favorites like Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’ and Pachelbel’s ‘Canon.’   We think think that this concert might be expressly for the tourists who only know two pieces of classical music!  You can’t beat the acoustics of a church for this type of music.
And to move from the sublime to the ridiculous…we found this organ grinder at the Bastille Market on a Sunday.

Joan Baez was in concert for 10 days during our stay.  I saw this poster in the Metro when we were here in September, but I failed to follow up and, by the time we arrived, every show was sold out.  Too bad…

One final “only in Paris” musical nugget.  One sunny day, we spent the afternoon walking around Montmartre, visiting (or viewing from the outside) studios of Van Gogh, Utrillo, and Picasso.  When we came back to our place, we found Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris  on Netflix and watched it as we ate dinner.  We soon began to hear music coming in our window from the wine bar across the street.

Only in Paris…

Rick & I both love to eat, and we are in heaven when we’re in Paris!  Good food is everywhere and we try to take advantage of it all…

We signed on to two different food tours, each of which took us into a neighborhood with which we were not familiar.  In the 9th arrondissement, north of the Opera and south of Montmartre, our guide was a food journalist.  The tour was concentrated along rue des Martyrs and included the chocolatier (Henri Le Roux) whho, we were told, invented salted caramel, a pastry shop, Sebastien Gaudard, that had Rick’s mouth watering,

a wonderful cheese shop run by a couple in their 80s,

and a fish market (Au Bon Port) to which I’ve returned several times, most notably for the blue lobster that comes from Brittany.

Our group included a couple from South America on their honeymoon, and a young woman who was being married that Saturday (in Paris, to a Frenchman) and her parents from China.

Our second food tour took us to Belleville, a neighborhood that includes parts of the 10th, 11th, 19th and 20th arrondissements. Historically, a working class town that was annexed by Paris in 1860, it is now home to many artists and musicians, and lots of good food. A highlight of this tour was an opportunity to go into a boulangerie kitchen and see how the baguettes are made.

I learned about the different types of flour that are used to make different types of bread. For example, type 45 is the finer flour used for brioche or croissants, while type 65 is ideal for baguettes because it makes a bread that has lots of holes and is chewier since it has more of the wheat grain in it. Types 80, 110 & 150 are stronger flours of increasing darkness.

We eat at home often because the ingredients we can get at the markets are so fresh and wonderful, and I DO like to cook. When we arrived in Paris, the wild asparagus (asperges sauvage) was plentiful.  Of course, I bought some and made a wonderful pasta meal for us.  And, isn’t it pretty??

Restaurant meals are a treat, too, and something we try to do a few nights a week.  Our meal with friends from Baltimore at Les Papilles featured a fixed menu (you get what the chef is cooking that night…) served family style.  The pork belly was lovely and delicious.

Dinner in a private home is a special treat when we are visitors in a city.  Through Airbnb, we had dinner in a loft that was once occupied by Modigliani.  The chef for the evening was Nicola

who prepared a lovely meal that, we were told, will be featured on page 57 on his upcoming cookbook.  The meal was delicious but the dessert, oeuf a la neige (floating island) topped with lavender and pomegranate, was divine and beautiful.

Our dinner companions included a charming young woman from Mumbai who lives and works in Vienna.

The French regulation of wine is familiar to most of us – the AOC (appellation d’origine controlée) on the foil cap guarantees that it comes from a particular region. This designation is also applied to cheeses

like this Camembert de Normandie, and other agricultural products. France is justifiably proud of what it produces and many vendors (green grocers, butchers) disclose the origin of the things they are selling.

I have to talk about the butter in France, particularly in Paris.  First of all, it is made from raw milk, which gives it real flavor. Salted butter is available in several varieties. My favorite is called ‘demi-sel’ and it has crystals of salt in it.  See them?!  You buy it at the cheese shop rather than the grocery.

I will really miss this!  When we are back in the US, I plan to be a much more deliberate food shopper and consumer.  Maybe, if I look more closely, I’ll be able to find some of these pleasures on our side of the pond.

Probably the most common question we are asked, when telling others about our adventure, is, “What is your favorite place?”  Our answer is always the same…PARIS.  Even before we started traveling full-time, we found excuses to begin or end a trip (to other destinations) with a stop in Paris.  We continue to return here because it just draws us.

As we come to the end of another ‘chapter’ in the adventure, we are back in Paris.  In fact, we are staying in the same Airbnb apartment in Le Marias (4th arr) where we began ‘Chapter 1’ in September 2016!

It is ‘cozy’ (code for small), but quite functional, and you can’t beat the location, right in the center of Le Marias, one block from a stop on the Metro Line 1.  The boucherie (butcher), boulangerie (bakery), fromagerie (cheese), verger (green grocer), poissonier (fish), and grocery store are all an easy walk away. We adapt easily to the French custom of shopping every day, and we have wonderful choices!

We will stay this time for a total of 5 weeks!  When we’re in a place that is this comfortable for this long, we tend to settle in and live more like we would at home…planning dinners out and tours, but not everyday.  Sometimes my favorite way to spend a day is to wander…window shopping, people watching, stopping at a cafe for a coffee or ice cream, sitting in a park with a good book.

A highlight of our first week in Paris was getting together with Good friends from Baltimore who were finishing up a Wine & Food Society trip.  Ernie & Donna Kovacs, Rick & Elaine Born and Livio & Diane Broccolino joined us for a lovely dinner at Bistroy les Papilles.

Atelier des Lumières is a new gallery space in a former foundry that calls itself a ‘digital art center.’ The inaugural exhibition features three artists, including Gustav Klimt.  It is a unique experience – like surround sound for your eyes…just magical!  None of my videos came out well but, if you follow the link above, you can get a sense of what this experience was like.

On one of my wanders, I found myself outside the Forum des Halles, where these children were having a ball playing in a spray fountain.

Inside, I found a Lego store that seemed as busy as your average Apple store! Lots of interactive stations, including this one where you could create your own figures from thousands of different pieces.

On another day, in Luxembourg Gardens, I found children taking advantage of the breeze by sailing boats on the Grand Bassin duck pond, a tradition that is almost a century old.

One of our traditions is taking a picnic to the Champs de Mars, the large public green space at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.  Our typical fare is cheese, charcuterie, foie gras, bread and. of course, wine…this time, rosé.

We try to go just before dusk because, as the sun goes down, the tower lights up. And at the top of every hour, it sparkles!  Talk about magical, this defines the word for me…

One day, while I was window shopping, I came across a stretch of sidewalk on which someone had scattered hundreds of hearts!

Can you see why we love this place??