You Never Forget

On Tuesday we took a bike tour of Paris proving that once you learn how to ride a bike you never forget.  The tour we took was with Bike About Tours.  We had a blast.  Nicole was our tour guide. She is from Australia. Here are some photos from the tour.

We were with Martha and Bob, the first friends we made when we moved to Sacramento in 1982.  They live in St Petersburg, Florida so we don't get to see them very often.  Being in Paris with them has been so much fun.  

These are the 2 oldest homes in Paris.  You don't see many Tudor style buildings.

This building has a cannon ball embedded in the wall. The cannon ball was shot on July 28th 1830.

This is a gargoyle on the house. It scares away spirits and serves as a rain gutter. See the opening in the mouth?

There are lots of courtyards in Paris with shops and cafes in them.  You have to look carefully or you can miss them.

This is the Place des Vosges built for the Henry the 4th. The builders ran out of brick.  The wall on the right is brick and on the left it is plaster painted to look like brick.

This is the building Jim Morrison lived in and where they found him dead in the bathtub.

Here is an example of a pac man tile character put on walls all over Paris by an anonymous artist.  He installed over 2000 of them all over Paris.  he has published a book about it titled, "I Invade Paris"  He has done this in multiple cities around the world and still remains anonymous.

 This is the Canal Martin with a lovely park and a line of yachts on the edge.

3 1/2 hours later we were getting tired.  

In the evening we went with Martha and Bob to see the one man show, "How to Become Parisian in One Hour".

It was very funny. We feel very Parisian now.  Especially Jim.

284 Stair Steps

There are 284 steps up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe 

We made it.  (Of course Jim would make it) 

This Le Toit de la Grande Arche which is a memorial dedicated to human rights and brotherhood. 

This one is for you Linda Ragland. A crane and the Eiffel Tower does it get any better?

 la Basilique du Sacre Coeu de Montmartre- we have plans to go here to see the sunset if we ever have a sunset with sun.

                    This will be our new vacation home.  We are in negotiations.

Tomorrow we will be meeting up with Martha and Bob friends who live in Tampa Bay.  We are all taking a bike tour of the city in the morning.  I can't remember when was the last time I rode a bike.  Hopefully it is true, you never forget how to ride a bike.

First Sunday in Paris

Many of the museums in Paris are free on the first Sunday of the month. Jim and I went over to the Musee l Orangerier to see Monet's Water Lillies paintings

There a 2 oval rooms each with 4 paintings.  It was amazing.  Monet specifically created these for the French people and designated how they would be displayed.  These photos do not do them justice.

After going through the rest of the museum we took one of the walks from the "50 Paris City Walks" ( thank you Steven and Roger)  We went by the Opera House

 We were looking for a place to have lunch and ended up at Le Paris Quotidien a wonderful restaurant specializing in organic and seasonal food. They serve Sunday brunch until 5PM.  A testament to the Parisian lifestyle.  We sat at a communal table and had some organic beer.  (take note John)

After lunch we encountered the Sunday Rollerbladding tour at Place Colette.

Every Friday and Sunday they block off streets for anyone who would like to rollerblade with the group.  There were hundreds of people on rollerblades.   Right after they went past us they all started to cheer for the bride and groom having pictures taken.

The group gets a police escort on rollerblades!! 

The entrance to the metro station is one of the classic Art Deco entrances. 

This was a very busy place with a group of violinist playing for the crowd.

Maybe Meghan will be playing the violin in Paris one day. 

Nuit Blanche

Every year on the first Saturday in October Pais has Nuit Blanche (White Night) from 7PM to 7AM. There are art installations all over town and some of the museums are open all night.  We went out about 10PM. (can you believe it??)  Here is a little bit of what we saw.

The Hall of Justice

Hotel DeVille - I believe it is the town hall.

All of the neon signs said "Love Differences" in different languages. 

Inside Notre Dame

This was in the Marais

This was also a projector.  It projected what it saw.

Tomorrow is the first Sunday of the month and many of the museums are free plus there is a huge horse race at Long-champs.  We haven't decided what we will be doing yet.

Walking to the Tour Eiffel

Beautiful produce store called Harry Cover

We were ambitious today.  We decided to walk to the Tour Eiffel from our apt.  Here are some photos from our walk.

A shop sign - guess what they were selling?

A church and square we sat in for a while.

Moulie and incredible flower shop

Our first glimpse of the Eiffle

Getting closer

We made it.  Took the bus and metro back.  My dogs were barking!!!

The Arrival

Joe arrived @ 8:35 AM. We got up early and took the RER back to the airport to meet his Air France flight. Lucky dog was able to fly non stop from Seattle.

Joe hadn't had any sleep and was running on adrenaline.  His first request was for coffee.  Bill and Sue met us at the coffee house and off we went walking.  We crossed the Ponte de Arts bridge to the Louvre and into the Jardin des Tuileries.

Mr Bill took this photo of a gaggle of Gaulgers

Next we headed over to the Marais for some lunch at Chez Marriane. Where we sat next to this interesting mural on the wall.

From the Marais we walked to the Ile St Louis where we enjoyed some  Berthillon ice cream.  If you are ever in Paris you have to try it.

We ran across this charming marionette  store.

We ended our day with a free night at the Louvre.  How would you like to have a dinner party here?   (Napoleon's dinning room)

Here is the view of the Louvre courtyard with the Eiffel tower in the background.