It was a lovely day to be outside, so after pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant) from our neighborhood boulangerie, we enjoyed a stroll around the Left Bank.  Thanks to Rick Steves (he accompanies me on all my trips), we saw all the highlights of this beautiful and artsy Paris neighborhood.  Starting at the Institut de France where the Academie Francaise decides what new words get in the French language we passed this statue of Voltaire in a street-corner garden.

We loved wandering around the art galleries and found a beautiful chocolate shop and had more chocolat chaud.  I think I am developing a serious chocolate chaud addiction.  We passed Les Deux Magots where Oscar Wilde, Picasso, Hemingway, Sartre, and Jim Morrison hung out. 

We toured St. Germain-des-Pres, Paris’s oldest church and St. Sulpice, modeled on St. Paul’s in London.  After lunch, sitting semi-outside in a little bistro, we walked through the Luxembourg Garden.  It’s hard to believe that France’s secret service is “secretly” headquartered beneath this beautiful garden.

After our Left Bank walking tour, we made a quick visit to the Petit Palais, an exhibition hall built for the 1900 World’s Fair.  We tried to see it yesterday, but the doors were locked.  It wasn’t until we got home that I figured out we were at the Grand Palais across the street.

For dinner, we went to an amazing Greek restaurant that we discovered on the Left Bank.  I didn’t know that real Greek feta cheese is so different from what feta I have eaten.

We spent an interesting morning at Musee Carnavalet, a Paris history museum located in two town homes in the Marais district.  Ever since I read Tale of Two Cities in high school, I have been fascinated with the French revolution.  Although the museum covers Paris history from earliest times to the present, we primarily spent time in the rooms devoted to the French revolution -1871.

We walked some new areas of Paris and continued to be amazed by how we find beauty everywhere we look.

Thanks to recommendations from MN friends, we got some great new cheeses from our favorite fromagerie today at the market.  In addition to Paul’s favorite comte fruite, we got some mimolette and crottin de chavignol..

We started our day with a walk and visit to the Marmottan Museum, home of the best collection of Claude Monet paintings, including Impression: Sunrise which started and gave name to the impressionist era of painting.  After that, we walked to the Trocadero, a plaza with beautiful views of the city and the Eiffel Tower.  This is where we took our first picture of Paris when we came here twenty years ago.

The highlight of my day was chocolat chaud at Angelina’s.  French hot chocolate is like nothing I have ever tasted before.  I had planned for us to have chocolat chaud at Les Deux Magots, a Hemingway hangout and where a character in a book I read always went for hot chocolate.  Our landlady said having chocolat chaud at Angelina’s was a true Parisian experience, so we went there instead.  It was a beautiful tea room, and the chocolat chaud was the tastiest and costliest ($11 per cup) I have ever had.

Paul couldn’t resist this beautiful pastry display at Angelina’s.

We started our day at the Pompidou Center, home of the Musee National d’Art Moderne, the largest museum for modern art in Europe,  Parisians hated the building at first but grew to love the interesting “exoskeletal” building with its functional parts-pipes, heating ducts and escalator-on the outside. The escalator ride to the top provided a beautiful view of the city.  We also got to see a special exhibit of  American artist Roy Lichtenstein works.

Later in the afternoon, we decided to walk in a new neighborhood and left our apartment without Metro cards or umbrellas.  About two miles out, it started to rain.  Luckily we were close to a charming bistro where I had la coupe de champagne and Paul had a Kronenbourg 1664, a French beer.  It worked out great since I have been wanting to experience the French practice of having champagne in a bistro before dinner.

We went to a little bistro in our neighborhood for dinner and got to know our waiter, a delightful young man who comes from a small village in the La Camargue region of southern France.  He has lived and acted in New York and has lived in Paris for many years but misses his village and goes back whenever he can.  He showed us pictures of his town and Paul showed him a picture of the view from our Bemidji home, and then they talked about which game birds were found in both places (surprisingly, quite a few.)  I think La Camargue and northern MN have a lot in common.

We passed this poster on the side of a French government building.

Today was the sunniest day of the week, and the Parisians were out enjoying the beautiful weather.  We visited an art market and a flea market and walked some new neighborhoods.  Our walk took us past Les Invalides, where we saw Napoleon’s tomb.

The highlight of my day was chatting with an older French man who sat next to us at lunch.  The tables in French cafes are very close to each other.  He initiated a conversation with us and complimented me on my French.  I didn’t want to say too much after that for fear he would change his opinion.

After lunch we walked along the Seine.  Children rode their scooters, roller bladed and played games on big boards painted on the asphalt.  Adults played checkers and backgammon.  People of all ages wrote on a giant chalkboard.  On the Pont des Arts, a man made beautiful music playing a saw.

The Pont des Arts had many more “lovers’ locks” on it than the bridge we were on earlier in the week.  One couple had just put their lock on the bridge and were getting ready to throw the keys into the Seine.

Today we decided to tackle la fromagerie at the market.  I had read that cheese shops don’t give samples in France, but rather the cheese masters listen to how you plan to use the cheese and what you like and make recommendations.  In my best French, I told the fromage vendeur that we wanted some cheese to eat with bread and wine that didn’t smell too strongly.  When he smiled at me, I realized, my French was probably shaky and of course, all French cheese goes with bread and wine.  But he was kind and we had a great time choosing cheese with him.  After asking us when we were going to eat it, he recommended a cheese with an ashy skin.  After we agreed on that one, he gave us samples (imagine our delight) of two others which were equally wonderful.  We left with a St. Nectaire fermier, a comte fruite, and a brie fermier.

After a wonderful breakfast of a baguette from our boulangerie, fruit from the market, and our three wonderful cheeses, we took the bus to the Hotel de Ville, the city administrative offices of Paris.  Today was one of two days a year that this building is open to the public.  Like most of the architecture in Paris, it was opulent and beautiful.  My new theory is that Parisians dress so beautifully because they work in such beautiful places.  Although the building is normally closed to the public, the library is open to anyone in Paris.

For dinner we had an amazing three-course meal with wine pairing and champagne at O-Chateau.  Our chef was a Cordon Bleu Culinary School graduate and our sommelier had trained for six years.  My favorite part of the meal was the salad with melon cream on a little pastry with crisp prosciutto.

We started our Montmarte walk at Paris’ highest point in front of Sacre-Coeur Basilica.  Compared to most of the beautiful architecture in Paris, Sacre-Coeur, completed in 1919, is relatively new.

We then walked a few blocks to Place du Tertre, the town square of Montmarte since medieval times.  Great artists such as Picasso, Renoir and Van Gogh lived and worked in Montmarte, and Place du Tertre is a small square filled with working artists.  Twenty years ago one of the artists sketched Samantha’s portrait.

We saw Le Bateau Lavoir where poor, unknown Pablo Picasso lived and painted Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, invented cubism, and became famous.  I think these students next to Paul were on a field trip; they all rushed over, checked off something on a piece of paper and left.

After seeing where Renoir painted Bal du Moulin de la Galette a few blocks away, we saw the former homes of painters Toulouse-Lautrec and Van Gogh.  Then we ambled past Cafe des Deux Moulins, made famous in Amelie, and moved on to the Moulin Rouge where the cancan was created.

We finished our walking tour on a section of Boulevard de Clichy know as Pig Alley because it has so many sex shops, peep shows, etc.  It wasn’t as seedy as expected, but it definitely wasn’t a lovely part of Paris.

Even though it drizzled most of the day and I somehow managed to leave my umbrella inside Sacre-Coeur, it was another great day in this beautiful city.

Twenty years ago, Paul, Samantha and I stood in line more than 2 hours to see a special impressionist exhibit at the Musee d’Orsay, the former train station and now premier museum housing 19th-century art in Paris.  Today, contrary to what the guide books led us to expect, we walked right in.  We spent most of our day enjoying the beautiful paintings and sculpture and especially enjoyed seeing the works of my favorite painter, Renoir, and Paul’s favorite, Van Gogh.

Outside the d’Orsay:

Leaving the d’Orsay, we crossed a pedestrian bridge full of “love locks”.  A couple writes their names on a padlock and locks it onto one of the bridges. The lovers then throw the key into the Seine River as a symbol of their undying love.  For couples who come unprepared, vendors sell locks right on the bridge.

A “gold ring” scammer approached us.  Thanks to Rick Steves, I knew immediately that we were being set up, so I said, “Non, Merci”, and we kept on walking. The scammer pretends to find a gold ring (which is really brass) on the street and states it doesn’t fit her and offers to sell it.   It seemed like an odd scam to me when I read about it, but now I know it really does happen.

We had a wonderful dinner at Le Beaujolais d’Auteuil, a traditional Parisian bistro in our arrondissement.  Our waitress tried out her English with us and helped me with my French.  The Parisian wait staff have been great French tutors.

Today was our first market day in our neighborhood, and we were not disappointed.  The produce was beautifully arranged, the array of fish, meat, olives and cheese was mind boggling, and the people were helpful and happy.  We got bread and fruit (discovered a new fruit-mirabelle) for breakfast and salad, meat and hericots vert for dinner.  Now that we know what is available, we are already planning our strategy for Saturday, the next market day.

After breakfast, we strolled along the Champs-Elysees, one of the most beautiful and famous streets in the world.  At one end is the Arc de Triomphe, which honors all those who fought and died in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic War. We shared a yummy sugar crepe and then walked through the Tuileries Gardens.

Later in the afternoon, Paul worked and thanks to a mutual friend, I met a Parisian woman with whom I had been e-mailing who is also focused on coaching people about retirement and positive aging.  She invited me to visit the 7th arrondissement annual Forum Day, a program designed to acquaint residents with available services.  The Mayoress of the 7th arrondissement visited the program and shook my hand.  She was quite stylish in her blazer, skinny dark jeans and blue suede stilettos, not like any mayor I have seen in the USA.  I also talked with a young Parisian man who had spent three months interning at Disney World in Orlando and loved Florida.  After the program, my new French friend and I sat outside at a beautiful French cafe, enjoyed a glass of Sancerre wine, and had a great time discussing life.

Our first stop today was a visit to Pere Lachaise Cemetery, the world’s most visited cemetery and final resting place of  illustrious French residents.  Some of the famous people buried here include Moliere, Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison, Colette, and Gertrude Stein. Many of the grave sites are elaborate towers and mini-chapels, often holding numerous members of a family.

From there we went to the home of Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  Then on to Places des Vosges, the oldest planned square in Paris built between 1601 and 1612.  We ate lunch by the Place de la Bastille, site of the Bastille prison until its destruction between July 14, 1789 and July 14, 1790, during the French Revolution.

The highlight of my day was receiving a compliment about my French from our waiter at dinner.  Since he responded in English, I am not feeling too confident about my fluency.  After I complimented him on his English, and Paul told him we would be back, he told us which nights he works.  So now we have a French waiter buddy.

Paul taking a photo of me taking a photo of Chopin’s grave site.