As I was leaving the apartment this morning, I came across this scene of school children working on art projects right downstairs in my street. I believe there must be a small private school on my street but have yet to find it.
Today I was determined to start my “CityListen” walking tour of the Marais. Citylisten.com does audio walking tours for many large cities both in the US and abroad. There are 3 available for Paris and I thought it would be a grand idea to do the one of my home district. The tours include the history of the area as well as giving directions and streets to follow, and are a veritable bargain at only $7.95. You can download them from the internet in seconds, upload them to your MP3 player and off you go. Well, theoretically off you go. Let me tell you, it’s a lot more difficult once you’re out there in the real world! Especially when at the beginning of the tour, for instance, you exited the metro using the wrong sortie. And then a cute young Frenchwoman says, yes, this is rue St Antoine. And there you are walking down rue St Antoine wondering why you cannot find any of the landmarks this man is talking about. Interesting little sidelight here – in Paris many streets that were part of ancient Paris were named for the city or area of the city where they were located; but later, as suburbs grew around Paris, new additions were added to those streets and they attached the word “faubourg” [literally false city or town] to those new streets. And rue St Antoine Faubourg, is not rue St Antoine. So it was back to square one, which happened to be the Bastille monument [the Bastille itself was largely demolished by 1879.] Once walking in the right direction, I was able to see the apartment where Jim Morrison died on July 3, 1971. And around the corner and down a twisty little street was la Ville St Paul – a hidden little village through an archway consisting of little shops and art galeries. From there I made my way back to rue St Antoine to see the Hotel Sully. Per the British gentleman on my MP3 player one should enter the courtyard here and walk toward the back to see evidence of the architecture of this ancient mansion. In reality, the courtyard was locked and when I entered the hotel to inquire about “entering the courtyard”, there was an old crone with a cane walking about and that was it. So, I took another route and arrived yet again at Place des Vosges, listened to a bit of history of that area, and then of course it started to rain. [Would love to see that area without rain, but that may not be possible.] So being resourceful, I of course headed for the nearest cafe, consumed a wonderful lunch of omelette au fromage and frites, and left for home. Just like a true Parisienne, I had an appointment with my rental agent to fix my washer/dryer. Maybe I’ll take up that tour again another day.... Or maybe it was just better in concept than in reality.
Café La Guirlande de Julie -- lunch in the rain
Today was one of the few days that I ventured out again in the evening. Usually fatigue sets in by evening time and I’m more than happy to curl up with a good book and dinner in my little abode. But this evening I needed a new book, so it was off to the Shakespeare & Co. bookshop over on the left bank across from Notre Dame. One of the few English language bookstores in Paris, it has quite a history behind it. Here’s a link from Wikipedia if you’re interested. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_and_Company_(bookshop)I picked up a book by Hemmingway and another F. Scott Fitzgerald to read here and on the way home. These just seem to be must-reads for Paris, and I've always loved Hemmingway's writing in the past. That’s a picture of the bookshop above, and here is another picture of Notre Dame from the side of the cathedral -- it was beautiful in the evening light as the sun was just starting to set. Then it was back to the crowded metros – afterall, it was Friday night.
jusqu'à demain 
No comments:
Post a Comment