Encore Paris - 2018

An excuse to stay up all night sponsored by the City of Paris. We don't actually understand French modern art.  Or maybe we don't understand anyone's modern art... One night a year the city of Paris runs the event called Nuit Blanche,  which I (Tom) attended 12 years ago and we've been looking forward to since before we arrived.   We accept that we don't "get it".  But,  that's ok.  It's fun.  And one of the areas where they were concentrating this year was less than a mile away. But, first,  lunch.  We picked up sandwiches and macarons at what had been one of our favorite bakeries in 2006 when we lived down the street.   With the weather remaining great,  we had a picnic in Luxembourg Gardens. Now, Nuit Blanche... Nothing says French Art like outdoor roller ball Or tall women posing next to statues of DeGaulle Or soccer under black light in glow-in-the-dark, neon rain jackets. But, Paris at...

The weather has stayed so great that we’re walking our feet into stumps continuing to focus on doing things outdoors.  We hadn’t anticipated this level of activity -- we’ve always thought of this stay as more “living in Paris” than extended sightseeing.  Our saving grace is that most of what we’ve been doing is not hard core sightseeing, but instead just taking advantage of the weather to be out and about. First, the disappointing news. Emmy has not been enjoying this trip to Paris very much.  This neighborhood is much busier, both with people and motorcycles (she hates noises). So, mostly our “walks” have been only the length of our street before she’s done what she needs to do and is pulling on the leash to go home.  It only took her a couple of days to know which door was our apartment building and she'll pull us there and stop. Up until now, the one fun excursion she’s had was to participate in the Jimmy Buffett tailgate picnic at the Eiffel Tower. We’ve b...

On Thursday, we went to Monet's house and garden in Giverny.  From Paris, it takes about an hour via train and shuttle bus and you arrive in a completely different world.  Tom went to make me happy and, once he got there, kept marveling about how it was so beautiful and photogenic everywhere we looked. And, finally, my very favorite photo of the garden: Monet said that his greatest masterpiece was his garden and it's easy to see why.

The weather has been so good that we're making outside activities our priority. Sunday we caught a bus (we love our unlimited Navigo Decouvert passes AND the location of this apartment) over to the Jardin des Plantes and the Promenade Plantee.  In other words, outdoors. On an unrelated note, if you're reading this and worried about not speaking French, OR studying French, the French have given up and are all speaking English!  It's a little sad.  In the past I would have struggled in French, constantly worrying about how horrible my pronounciation was.  Now, I stumble a bit but 80% of the time the other person rescues me by speaking English.  One hint, don't ask someone "do you speak English".  Most people won't say yes unless they feel confident and fluent. All you're looking for is enough to get by... Monday was another walking day. We started at Sacre Coeur/Montmartre and walked down hill (strategic decision for our legs).  From there we w...

We had tickets for Friday night, balcony seats.  Buying them last December was the tangible start of our planning for this trip.  But we were caught up in the enthusiasm from all the Facebook posts from others who had come to Paris and ended up getting tickets for a second night.  7th row center! "Tailgating" is at the "island" median in the road.  The French don't seem to know what to make of all of it.... And there was a picnic with music and 70 or so fans.   Emmy wandered the group making friends. One last photo from the concert -- 1000 seat venue!  Having seen him many times before at concert spaces, it was an amazing experience to do it in this small a venue!

These posts are little out of order.  This one talks about September 25th, my (Maxine's) birthday.  While I'll admit that I'm starting to hate getting older, it's pretty big consolation to celebrate in Paris! I had a lovely day starting with a trip to the local outdoor food market on Blvd Raspail.  After lunch, I stopped by an open house for WICE, an organization that offers courses and cultural programs for the English speaking community in Paris, followed by a walk in beautiful weather, and then dinner at a favorite restaurant, Verjus.  This is when I have to confess that I'm a terrible food blogger since I forgot to take photos of all the courses, especially the main course.  But here is what we ate.  Each course had a wine pairing too. First course was 5 canapes, all great flavor combinations in small bites. Grilled peppers with a tarragon and parsley sauce What an American restaurant might describe of chickpeas 2 ways, in a socca ...