Nous Sommes Rentres A Paris

We have returned to Paris. On May 22nd, we put Le Duc in storage by the (left) bank of the Seine, some miles upstream from The Cite', hopped the RER, and got to the Gare de Lyon in a matter of minutes, then walked the mile or so to daughter Rebecca's apartment in the 11th. (She, husband Jeremy, and daughter Penelope had already been there for a month). Interestingly, her apartment, on Rue Faidherbe, is just a few blocks down Rue de Charonne from where we lived in 2014, on Rue de Nice, so we're already well familiar with the neighborhood, the shoppes and restaurants, the Metros, etc. Jeremy returned to Middle California the day we arrived, so it's just Rebecca, Penelope, Vicki and me. Rebecca still has some of the major sights to show to Penelope, but otherwise we're doing more the resident sorts of things, markets, parks, walks, and such. Some initial scenes...

Le Duc safely stored

And we are in Paris!

In a building like this, nearby

In the 11th

Daredevil Penelope at the Tuileries playground

Our old Metro station from 2014

Somewhere up there in the apartments on Rue de Nice

Open book landmark in the old neighborhood

At the Vanves antiques market

Same guy, same piano on wheels as 5 years ago

I actually bought a piece of original art...

Street scene

Favorite weird building in the 11th

Back side

Window shopping...still processing this one

At the Bastille market

At the Bellville market

At the Friday for Future demonstration at the Opera Garnier

Mothers' Day treats...Cyril Lignac is but a block away

Recycling bin runneth over...

"For the tranquility of the residents please don't deposit bottles in here between
10PM and 7AM"...somebody please translate that into Italian and print a million
copies...

Maybe Bellville, maybe Bastille, maybe Aligre, maybe Vanvers...we like markets! 

Escapade On The Auxerre Wino Bus

So the third day we were there, the Auxerre TI was sponsoring a "fleurs de vigne" wine tour, an "escapade au coeur des de 'Yonne," offering visits to as many as 30 wineries in 6 of the nearby wine villages. This is not the Cote d'Or, but it is Burgundy, including Chablis. 5E per personne, plus you get to keep the glass and little bag. We, even Vicki, couldn't resist. We didn't get started until after lunch and had to spend a little time in every village waiting on the five or so circulating "oeno buses." I probably got to 4 of the villages and perhaps 10 wineries, and nearly every one had someone who spoke enough English to make it a great learning experience, about the wines and especially about trends in the industry.

Cute little bag, bottle, and itineraire

As I observed in a previous post, Burgundy has many small, owner-managed
vineyards...here we are going to see some of these family-owned and operated
vineyards...the household dog comes to sniff

So essentially you walk into someone's house, and maybe there's a a bar and tables
or maybe not

Two comments: 1) it's all a family thing and 2) I really want a bottle tree like
this

QED

Alas, I am away from my notes and cannot remember all the villages; the main
one was Irancy

Great pride among all these people in their work

You walk into someone's house to the tasting room--hard to ignore the kitchen,
a real French kitchen--beyond the garage maybe is the warehouse, and beneath
it all are the caves

Cave

Warehouse, packaging, shipping

Pride

Vicki generally took a sip, poured the rest into my glass, and then explored the
village churches, some of which were quite large...these villages have been
prosperous for some time

Another chateau (the balloons designate a participating winery)

One of the villages

Oeno tractor approaching..

Typical...grains in the flat, low land; vineyards and orchards higher up; managed
forest on top

Rouge

I bought a bottle of Chablis from this place

Someone's treasure

One of the quite large churches

Oeno-monster

One of the several wino buses

I just barely made the final Wino Bus, and missed this one last cave, which was
dug into the mountainside; next time

Auxerre's Church of St. Eusebius

It's tough playing third fiddle. St. Eusebius would probably stand out in hundreds of other French towns. It's old, 12th century origins, Romanesque partly and Gothic partly, and, unlike many other such churches, its history is very well documented in a pamphlet; and in English too.

St. Eusebius church

Apse vaulting

16th century windows

Of interest: this pretty good copy of Leonardo's Last Supper, dated 1610

So the question is, what is it a copy of: the restored original? one of the early
copies?

A bit of the pamphlet

Starboard exterior

Port

Nice gargoyle