First Days In Paris

Daughter Rebecca and grand-daughter Penelope arrived at CDG on July 7th, and we met them there, RER'd back to Paris and our apartment, then headed out for some initial walks in the neighborhood and BHV. Trying to fight off the jet-lag. No pix. They slept well that night. Next day we did most of the Carnavalet--P had been studying French history from the Enlightenment through the Revolution--to those we of course added the Belle Epoche, but no more. We then walked to the Samaritaine department store, which Rebecca had not seen since its re-opening a year or two ago. Again, few pix. And then to Mollard, a favorite art nouveau restaurant, for dinner celebrating our 54th wedding anniversary. Next morning, Rebecca departed for London, to meet husband Jeremy, and a week there. Our day with P included the Bastille market, Les Halles, and a couple gothic churches in the neighborhood, St. Merry and St. Eustache. Few pix. As I explained, we were more intent on showing Paris to P than documenting it all. Nonetheless...

Someone else's great shot of the interior of Samaritaine's
oldest building, now restored

Displaying its history...50s, 60s, 70s TV ads playing
on TV sets from the same times

I usually document our fine, or awful, meals better than this time;
we were having too much fun looking around at the Mollard decor
and being with Rebecca and Penelope; the gist here is that I got
to have two or maybe even three entrees (by design)

Vicki's onion soup

My pate; forgot to take pix of the main courses altogether

My baked Alaska with Grand Marnier (after flaming at the table)

Vicki's berry soup dessert

Us, 54+ years happy, in one of our happy places

Penelope got her introductory lecture on Gothic architecture at
St. Merry's, across from the Pompidou, sometimes referred to as
"little Notre Dame," a church we'd never been in before

The lectures continued at St. Eustache, other side
of Les Halles, a big late Gothic I've always liked,
now substituting for Notre Dame while its reconstruction
continues; set up for an organ concert, a nice juxtaposition
of console and pipes; I thought

Vicki and Penelope looking into some of the art work;
P is still pretty creeped-out by all the memorials, funereal
stuff

Sculpture/rock-climbing outside St. Eustache

Marais Scenes

 At least within a few blocks of our apartment...

Our street

Side street: premonition of Disney

Our apartment building door under the XV; don't
know whether une Glace a Paris is the most expensive
ice cream shoppe in Paris, but it was 5€ a scoop

Our little building; our apartment was the second
set of windows up; fortunately it was a very quiet
street

Directly across the street...not the budget part of town

Cool Nature store across the street

More nearby streets

No, we did not attend the Frenchy Bitch Party

A few blocks away

On the Rue des Mauvais Garcons; seriously

More a ladies' store, I think

Two blocks away, the Hotel de Ville

Our favorite Parisian department store (Galeries Lafayette
does not have a hardware department where you can buy, 
for example, mouse traps)

Popular sentiment here

Across from the Pompidou, 3 blocks away, 800 years of Paris
architecture in one row; I guess that's not that unusual, really

Interim Update #1,268: In France

The blog is hopelessly behind, I know. Sic semper. We're in Sarlat-la-Canéda, the Dordogne, now, and have been here a week. Before that we were ten days in Paris, all of which were busy because a) it's Paris, and b) we were joined for most of the time by grand-daughter Penelope. She's eleven now, a bundle of energy, old enough to remember Paris and to be impressed. (Not her first visit.) Plus, she's fluent in French, and was happy to serve as our interpreter in exchange for a trip to Disney Paris. We (Vicki) readily agreed. In any case, the next several posts will concern Paris, mostly Penelope in Paris, since I blogged about Paris extensively less than a year ago. 

We did not do anything particularly new during Penelope's visit, except maybe Versailles, which we hadn't done since 2014, and a church or two. We just wanted to show her our favorite city. Our apartment this time was in the Marais, 4th Arrondissement, even closer in than our previous appart on Rue Saint-Denis. We mostly walked to various destinations in the city, occasionally hopping a bus or the Metro/RER for longer journeys. Among things we did were the Carnavalet museum, the Marais neighborhood, BHV and Samaritaine (department stores), St. Merry church, the Bastille market, Les Halles, St. Eustache church, Mollard's (for our 54th wedding anniversary dinner), Disney Paris, the Louvre (twice), Versailles, selected sights on the Rive Gauche, Galeries Lafayette, and, by night, sort of, the Champs de Mars and the Tour Eiffel. Grandma and Grandpa needed several days off after Paris with Penelope.

Farewell, Britons!

After a day of packing and cleaning, we headed to St. Pancras station and the Eurostar to Paris. We'd been reading about delays on the line, and, sure enough, our train was nearly five hours delayed, getting us to the City of Light just as it was getting dark. Fortunately, St. Pancras is not a bad place to be stranded for a few hours.

Britain is probably the only place you'll ever see "catenary" and
"knock-on" used in the same sentence

Fellow detainees

In addition to all the shoppes, there's always people
playing the several pianos

Some very good indeed

And then there's some great sculpture upstairs

Not least, John Betjenan, the poet laureate who
saved St. Pancras and other glorious Victorian structures;
thank you, Howard, for introducing us to him

British Out-Takes, 2022, Part The Second

Pretty much the theme of the week, "Great job, Ma'am"

At a batsman practice shop, serving refreshments as well

Serious memorial in Camden; I whistled the Colonel Bogey March all 
the way back to Fitzrovia, also muttering "Madness!" occasionally along
the way

Still processing...

The BT Tower near our studio, along with the
interesting Bowellist structure I photographed last
year

Near us on New Cavendish St.

With its interesting displays

Most popular pub nearby

Noisy religious procession beneath our window

Street food on Tottenham Court Road

Shop/showroom on Great Portland Street; redoes your ugly exercise
machines in attractive natural wood

Always attentive to literary fashion

"I was here first!"

In Paris I guess they'll call it "Fromage!"

Soft opening

OK chippie, nearby

Proper view of Orwell's Ministry of Truth

The only public mention of Chamberlain I've seen here

Jubilee display at the Bloomsbury Waterstone's