Our 2023 European Camper

For our month in Alsace and the Alps, we rented (some months ago) a Citroen Jumper/Pilote camper van from Avis, the Adventure camper van pictured here. It's a little longer than expected (6m) and has manual and not automatic transmission, which is OK. It's ample for our modest needs and purposes and is similar to what we'd want to have in the States next time around. There are very general instructions for driving and for camping and for some of the assorted systems and appliances, though not always for the models we have. Even for people as experienced in RVs as we are, there are always new things to discover, learn, get accustomed to, etc. Internet, Google Lens and Google Translate to the rescue! Also helpful European neighbors in the campgrounds. The distances between things we want to see are relatively short, so the driving has not been too demanding. We mostly avoid the freeways, anyway. 

After picking up the camper in Reuil-Malmaison, we drove around Paris and then east to Nancy. We thought we'd do Nancy--the "cradle of Art Nouveau"--in two days before heading on to Strasbourg and the Alsace. Nancy is so charming and interesting, however, we wound up spending four days and still leaving the place very reluctantly. It will take days to blog about our time in Nancy, and then more days to blog about our week or so in Strasbourg and the four or five beaux villages we visited in Alsace. So bear with us. As I write, today we have pressed on through the Jura, had a chicken dinner in Bourg en Bresse, and now are camped just short of Chamonix in the French Alps. And we are enjoying being back on the road.

At Baume-les-Messieurs today, in the Jura, Bourgogne-Franche-Comte
region 

Paris Out-Takes, 3

Break-neck amber necklace

Since Napoleon--I have read--philosophy has been in the high school
curriculum, and the most dreaded of the week-long exams you have 
to take to get your diploma (baccalureate) is the "philo"; above are a
selection of study guides for the bac philo at the local FNAC

No end to the bicycle variations one sees

Free library

Inside

Vicki became nearly a regular at the Bread and Roses patisserie
around the corner from our apartment; the lemon tart, I agree, was
the best ever

The hot patisserie of the moment, however, was Cedric

Grolet, up by the Palais Garnier

Lines like this at all hours

Their stuff did look yummy, but...€7 for a croissant?!

Joyeux anniversaire at Le Grand Colbert; the party was French,
but, strangely, the staff sang in English

I can't remember now whether it was bream or brill, but, from now
on I'm sticking with salmon; or tuna

Le Colonel Moutarde restaurant [click to enlarge]; in the kitchen,
with the knife...

Weeks into our stay we discovered that Paris bus stops have built-in
USB charging stations [click to enlarge]

Chinois take-out from Galeries Lafayette

Carries his own holy hydration

Nice chapeaux display

School for waiters (nyuk, nyuk...)

OK to view in Florida

In a shop that manufactures the woven vinyl cafe chairs we like;
not inexpensive

Heating elements for raclette cheese

Fisherperson hoping to reel in some change

Daredevil seating along the quai

I have become fairly adept at shucking...the appetizer for...

The best seafood repas I had in Paris; at Maison Chez Mark

Paris Out-Takes, 2

Still processing this...

Faux art nouveau; but a nice try..."Tomorrowland"?

Finally! We've been lamenting the absence of American peanut

butter in this culinary capital for years...when can we get Jif?!

Mouth to mouth?

Paris streets and gutters are washed a couple times a
week; finally, early one morning, we happened upon
the guy doing this, who turns on a valve in the gutter
and then sweeps it all downhill; note the gusher in
the lower right-hand corner

Spare barricades left in lots of places just in case the order goes
out "to the barricades"

Porsches and Ferraris and Lamborghinis are common as carrots,
but a Lotus/Caterham 7 will always catch eyes

We didn't see any peregrinos, but The Way definitely passes through
Paris

We've lived in London weeks, months at a time recently and never
seen an Austin Mini

Yet there are two parked a block from our apartment

Photo shoot near the Odeon

He was really good

We interpret this to mean it's OK to pick flowers and catch birds,
but not to stand under a tree in lightning storms

Well insulated homeless shelter

Still an issue in some places

Pastrami and suchlike are practically unheard of
here, but for the efforts of this lone restaurateur...

Metro police waiting to apprehend riders without
tickets

Someone did not like this bicycle park

Institute of Oceanography...note seahorses, octopi, lobsters, bivalves,
and all the rest in the portal artwork

In most places Adam gets just a fig leaf, but at the
Cluny he get a whole bush

NASCAR angel: can only make left turns

Nail-biter

Queen of Heaven transformer

Aerodynamic headgear for spiritual soaring

Bespoke Shops and Micro-Niche Markets

Ever attentive as we are to business and market trends and developments, we have compiled the following assortment of shops serving bespoke (custom) and micro-niche market interests...

Men's underwear shop in the Marais; just under wear;
this brand didn't even have a fly, Vicki observed; was
near the Rue des Mauvais Garcons, I observed

In Saint-Germain des Pres...DIY embroidery in four easy steps at
Maison Labiche: 1) choose your product, 2) choose your message,
3) choose your typography, and 4) choose your message; next year
I am going to have a Disney cap embroidered with the message,
in red baton script, "Ne baise pas avec la Souris"

Right next door to Maison Labiche, Bernard Zins,
Ingenieur Pantalonnier (pants engineer)

The pistachio shoppe; all pistachios, all the time,
nothing else

In the Galerie Vivienne, a bespoke glasses shop

And there's the technician, bespoking away on the lunettes

In the same galerie, a bespoke purse/handbag shoppe

Not cheap either

In the textile area of the 2nd, the ribbon shoppe,
nothing but ribbons; seriously; line out the door

In the Passage Caire, a label shoppe; we saw several
of these in Instanbul; you can buy a whole roll of Louis
Vuitton labels...

Somewhere out in the double digit arrondisements...the almond
milk store

Back in the 6th, a bespoke jeans shoppe...you can even select
the age and degree of distress of the material...€400 and up

All and only gloves

Emerging micro-niche market