Paris – Tuesday, Feb. 21st through Saturday, Feb. 25th

I got to Paris fine and had a nice 15 minute chat with the lady next to me on the train who was a (ex?)teacher. I took the day super easy since I was up very early to catch my train. I had dinner with Susan and Emily Pfiefer, which was fantastic. It was great meeting up with them.

Wednesday, I went on a special walking tour in Paris. I say special because it’s listed in a weekly pamphlet you must buy, then you just show up at a somewhat vague location (generally at the exit of a certain metro station – which has multiple exits….), and then just give ~10 euro to the tour guide that shows up. It’s a nice concept. Oh… and did I mention, these tours are all in French?

The one I picked was called “La butte de Montmartre, haut lieu d’une certaine bohème.” It was a tour of Montmartre that showed where artists lived, the history of the area, and how life was before it became a hotbed of tourism. It was great! I always try to stay close to the tour guide to make sure I can hear and have a good view, but since the guide wasn’t much older than me, I ended up talking with her for a decent while also! I really enjoyed learning about an area of Paris that I have stayed in previously and seeing all the things I had missed when I was there! There were a number or things that I walked right by or even went in and didn’t know what it was!

A little public garden hidden behind buildings.
A cabaret

Montmartre’s vineyard

Marcel Ayme

I met up with Em and Susan again for dinner after the tour. Once we had finished eating, we wandered around in BHV (a giant department store) and browsed a bit.

Thursday, I went out and had lunch with Kallie in Versailles. She due in the next two weeks! She’s doing great. We chatted a little about my travels and a lot about the upcoming baby and the changes that will be happening at their place. We took Jango for a walk too – he knows stuff is going on, but doesn’t really understand yet.

I headed back to Paris and ate with Em and Susan again before we all went and wandered around La Grande Lafayette before it closed. It was fun looking at all the French cooking appliances since some of them are so different (or just 3x the American price).

Friday, I picked up a book I wanted at Gilbert and had a cup of tea in a place I will have to go back to someday – you NEVER find tea in Paris for 2.50 euro… it’s normally over 4 in Paris. I went and wandered around the Luxembourg gardens since I had never done it before and had stayed near them more than once. They were quite nice, but very popular since the weather was so nice (I’m talking no jackets at all nice).
I met up with Emily and we headed off to do one of the special tours called “Visions fantasmagoriques de Chinatown le soir” – do not recommend. We were happy when it was over – it was full of bad info and bad generalizations and had nothing to do with Chinatown at night. We grabbed some Thai food in the area before each heading off to our places.

Sunday, I met up with Susan and Em at Laudrée for breakfast (or second breakfast for me since I ate before ‘cause I’ve seen the prices there). I had a nice cup of tea and a mini-croissant. Laudrée is the creator of macaroons. We had a nice time chatting and then it was time to check out their boutique, which took some time.
We each got a macaroon to eat though!

After that, we headed off to Montmartre because Emily knew of some famous fabric stores there and my oh my! were they huge! It was really cool to browse around and see what they had, but nice to learn that fabric and patterns are cheaper in the US… I had to run off in the middle though so I wouldn’t miss my train back to Freyming-Merlebach!

Other things to note:
- I saw a mouse in the metro station…
- If anyone is interested, this is the description of the awesome tour I went on!: “Montmartre est l’un des quartiers les plus pittoresques de Paris. La butte culmine à 13-m de haut. Selon la légende, Saint-Denis, le premier évêque de Paris y fut décapité et son martyre aurais donné le nom à la butte: “mont des Martyres.” Plus que la place de Tertre et le Sacré Cœur, emblématiques, nous découvrirons les ruelles, les placettes, l’histoire de ces habitants illustres qui feront la renommée du lieu comme Braque, Picasso, Renoir Modigliani.” The group who did this tour has a website: www.Balades2L.com and can also do tours in English and Spanish. My guide was Murielle Rudeau and was AMAZING and very nice!!!!!
- For other tours (good or bad), go to one of the newsstands and ask for “l’office de spectacle.”