Sunday, May 14, 2023

More Paris Wanderings, 2023

The next several days after Parc Floral were devoted to planning our next year and e-renting an apartment in Cary, NC. The next year will involve moving our earthly possessions from the storage unit in Missoula to Cary, where we will spend some time going through them and the usual reorganization and recovery from these months of travel; and preparations for the next travels, commencing in the spring of 2024. And, most importantly spending some time with family in Cary, daughter Rebecca and her husband Jeremy, and, most particularly, with grand-daughter Penelope. Amid all the planning and communications with the rental agency in Cary, we did undertake several walks, one for sightseeing, the others to visit favorite magasins and restaurants.

Peering into Luxembourg Garden from its westerly panhandle; the
Garden was closed that day for some sort of government ceremony
followed by, of course, a protest

We were en route to Rue Moufftarde, one of Paris' market streets,
which we'd never visited before; among the beautiful buildings 
along the way

Red buckeye trees in bloom all over the city; white
ones too

The lower end of Rue Moufftarde; turned out to be somewhat
less than a meh for us; perhaps better when the street market is
in session; we have by now seen many if not most of Paris' street
markets

Interestingly stencilled building--something not often seen in Paris--
across from...

The eglise Medard, known for "mass hypnotisms" and other
Protestant miracles in the 17th century

Other end of Rue Moufftarde; fairly touristy...

Mural overlooking an elementary school playground

New (to us) product line

Highlight of the walk for me: the Diderot family
house on Rue Moufftarde ("No man will be free until
the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last
priest"); now a Lebanese restaurant; sic transit, Gloria

Other highlight: where Joyce lived while writing
Ulysses


Right down that gated alley (does that make it a
gated community?)

A block from our apartment: the building where
Foucault did his pendulum thing, demonstrating
the rotation of the earth...

Now across the river, near Les Halles, visiting my
favorite FNAC

The day's caryatids

A new apartment building that caught our eyes

School crossing guard on Boulevard Sebastopol,
en route to our old apartment in the Marais

A building that was under wraps and scaffolds last year, now
a beautifully restored art deco

Dinner at the Louis-Philippe, which we came to like
during our stay in the Marais in 2022; onion soup and
snails; yes, we were doing a parody of French cuisine

Boeuf Bourgignon; best ever, Vicki says, so I had to try it too

Apart from the churches, it's most unusual to see
Medieval buildings in Paris (thank you, Baron
Haussmann); these two, which we've walked past
half a dozen times in previous years without 
noticing, are thought to be 14th or 15th century


Updated in 1967 (I'm getting pretty good at having
Google Lens translate these things for me)

Near our apartment, the Richard Wright Center

En route to my favorite outdoor store, Decathlon, near the Madeleine


Saturday, May 13, 2023

Parc Floral, 2023

Somewhat drier and warmer weather was forecast for VE Day--still a big national holiday--so we took the Metro out to the Bois de Vincennes to see its Parc Floral. The Bois de Vincennes is among Paris' largest parks, almost a thousand hectares (about 2500 acres), complete with a chateau, royal chapel, donjon, exposition venues, and the Parc Floral, which is itself a multi-function sort of a place, with woodlands, floral displays, sculpture, lakes and ponds, trails, art gallery, cafes and restos, mini-golf, tropical plant houses, an impressive bonsai house, and more. We were there for the flowers mostly. Previous visits to the Bois de Vincennes include https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2014/08/vincennes-le-chateau.htmlhttps://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2014/08/saint-chapelle-de-vincennes.html, https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2014/08/parc-floral-de-paris.html, and https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2019/06/vincennes-parc-floral-and-more.html


The mini-golf venue: Paris-themed, of course; practical tip: for 
some reason, the ice cream here is significantly cheaper than at
the cafes

Part of the iris garden...as many labels as flowers...

A few of the things we liked at the art gallery


Not many flowers were out until we got to the rhodos and azaleas
and the bulbs and other early bloomers




Same scrawny peacock as in 2019

Apparently mooning the audience is part of the ritual

Most of the rhodos were at their peak

Big-leafed Gunnera, native of Brazil, from the Jurassic


Nice primroses

Of course there's a Guignol theater, going full-force,
and you could hear the kids' screams and laughter from
some distance

Love the rhodos...like a trip to Kent or Sussex...

Until you hear a French-type personne pronounce "rhododendron"


Some sort of Asian gathering down by one of the ponds

One of the ponds

And now we are in the very impressive bonsai house



Love this one...a forest on just a mound on the platter


Mountain scene; Vicki's favorite


Entrance to one of the trails...so French

After our successful day's outing, we took the metro back to
Montparnasse to begin sampling the umpteen creperies on the
Rue de Montparnasse; at Creperie Bretonne, best ever, so far;
note the chouchen, a Breton mead I am sampling...outstanding