Another Paris Trip Report
 

It was only 7 months between visits to Paris but the time was right; we're getting a puppy in November and after that won't be traveling for awhile. The Paris addiction was pulling at us and it only takes the question, "would you like to go to Paris this fall?" to be off planning and clicking the mouse on buy tickets.

We did splurge a bit on the airfare, but it was worth it. We flew on Air France from BOS direct. We paid a little extra to sit upstairs on the 747 and selected the exit row. I would do it all over again given the opportunity. We started our meal service with champagne, of course and from there red wine. The meal was ok and actually satisfying. I am so unused to having food served on an airplane it was just like the "good old days". I didn't even watch any of the video, although they had a great selection. I just dozed on and off and before we knew it we were there at CDG. We flew near to the city and could see the Eiffel Tower and Sacre Coeur. I don't recall flying in to CDG and seeing that before; it's usually fields and farms and little towns. It was raining when we left Boston and sunny when we landed in Paris. It very often is the other way around.

We stayed in an apartment on Blvd. Richard Lenoir that we had already stayed in two Octobers ago. We loved it for the big windows overlooking the street and the twice weekly market. It was also very comfortable and suited our needs perfectly. Here's the link to the apartment.
http://www.vrbo.com/443533

Here's a link to some of the photos that we took. I tend to not take too many photos anymore as I like to enjoy being there and not worry about pictures, but of course I enjoy them when I return.
https://picasaweb.google.com/1148196...O32p-zj3cyFvQE

I will write more later.

This is a good start! Waiting for more.

Thank you.

Enjoyed your little photo essay very much! Your apartment is close to where I like to stay in Paris. Lovely, evocative shot of the rain.

thanks for sharing

opaldog - love the location of that studio! was the sofa sleeper comfortable?

Thanks all for your comments. Seamus, I think we have both stayed at the apartment on rue Mornay (many years ago). The sofa bed at this apartment was comfortable and very easy to put away and take out. The best feature of the apartment was the view from the windows. We liked to sit at the little marble kitchen table and watch the passing scene. This visit the weather was so beautiful that we spent most of our time outdoors.

The location was the second best feature of the apartment. There was the Bastille metro right down the block and the Breguet-Sabin metro stop across the street. The neighborhood behind the apartment, rue de la roquette was good for patisseries, take away food, and small grocery stores. The atm was also less than a block away. You could walk across to the Marais in a couple of minutes and across the river in 10 minutes.

I posted some pictures of food that we consumed happily during our stay. We ate at the following restaurants:

http://www.labrasserie-isl.fr/
My husband loves the choucroute here. I always order the omelette mixte with frites and we both have a mug of mutzig beer. We've been stopping here on every one of our visits since 1999.

http://www.maisonconstant.com/cafe-constant/
I love the prix fixe lunch menu here. I have never been unhappy with the choice. The meal photos that I posted are from Café Constant. This visit we were the only Americans at lunch, amazing! Everyone besides two French couples were Asian. The waiters and waitresses were speaking English to most everyone.

http://www.letrumilou.fr/
We have been back here a few times. Many, many years ago when we were in France with our adult children we all ate here and had a very nice experience. We hadn't been in a long time but after reading the article by David Lebovitz I wanted to go back to try the starter salad Lyonnaise.
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2015/07...ro-restaurant/

http://www.l-oulette.com/en
We ate lunch here on our last day, which happened to be the only day we had rain. We were out walking and it was starting to rain fairly hard and we wanted to get in and out of the weather and enjoy a relaxing meal. We had been to this restaurant about 10 years ago when it was the Baracane so we knew what to expect of the interior. I think the food was better on our first visit, but still a pleasant way to spend a rainy afternoon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMyKkTZ_mMY
This little video shows you Traiteur Marocaine at the Marche Enfant Rouges. We were looking for a place to eat that didn't require reservations. We were tired, it was Saturday night, Nuit Blanche and the city was packed. I suggested Chez Omar so we walked over there to check it out. The outside terrace was completely filled with Americans eating and enjoying. Yes, I know, it's not nice of me to not want to hang out with my own kind, but that's not really why I go to Paris, so we continued on and happened upon the marché in full swing. For 30 euro total we each had a different and delicious couscous with a pepper salad. It was perfect!

http://www.lepainsavoureux.com/boula...n-75011-paris/
This was our neighborhood boulangerie where we shopped every day for a baguette and evening dessert. Unbeknownst to us they were closed the last two days of our trip.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...de_France.html
This was a back up on the days that our neighborhood place was closed. It didn't compare, but was still tasty.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/miss-manon-paris
We have been stopping here for years now when in the area.

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2006/02/the-sunday-mark/
This wonderful market was right outside our window. This is hwere we purchased our picnic food for our walk along the Promenade Planteé and picnic in Bois des Vincennes We planned our trip so that we would have two markets while there. There is also a Saturday arts and craft market that is much, much smaller.

More later.

Your cheese was most probably Mimolette.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimolette

pariswat - your are right about the cheese. It was vieille mimolette. The person standing before us in line purchased it and it looked so nice in color and texture that we thought we would try it; very glad we did. Thanks for that.

Your apartment looks great. I am still renting in Paris. I like that area. My landlord said she pays taxes and is legal. Her building was hers except for top floor owned by a doctor. We were quiet and only heard his footsteps at night. We only had one day of rain last week also. We were drenched but soldiered on. I didn't even take a camera but used phone. Congrats on new puppies.

It was a great apartment and area to be in. We also only had one day of rain on the 5th. My feet got wet and generally took a beating this trip. I learned my lesson, don't wear new shoes and expect to be able to walk. They looked and felt comfortable but didn't stand up to walking around the city.

We are looking forward to our new Boston and will be house bound for awhile.

opaldog,

I just wish you would stop it. Just stop.

I am going to Paris next month, and I have **enough** restaurants on my list. I don't need any more wonderful recommendations to distract and annoy me.

:-d

(Thoroughly enjoying your report, and thanks so much for posting!)

s

Enjoyed your report very much, particularly the links, lots of good information for next week when I will be in Paris!

swandav2000
Thanks and here's a link to the place we had our petit dejeuner each morning. Sometimes it was just coffee, but a very pleasant spot.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...de_France.html

Thanks travelchat. Later I will focus on some of the things that we did while we were in Paris.

I enjoyed your report and loved your pictures! I saw that you used the Canon SX260. Isn't that a neat little camera to fit in your purse?! (I have the SX240 and love it.)

Thanks for sharing. Are you going to share any more of your adventures?

Nice start and great pictures! We, too, had great weather in Paris (early September) and spent so much time outside. Granted, we don't go often at that time of year, but I couldn't remember the last time we had an entire trip there with maybe just one shower. Looking forward to more.

Congrats on the puppy!

Yum!

Hi OPALDOG,

Great report. Loved your apartment. I enjoyed your pics including the view from the Musee Victor Hugo.

“The best feature of the apartment was the view from the windows. We liked to sit at the little marble kitchen table and watch the passing scene.”

That comment reminded me of one of my favorite Paris paintings - Gustav Caillebotte’s “Young Man at the Window.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Man_at_His_Window

Will continue to follow along…

I always keep a little notebook and jot down things I want to do and things that I end up doing before, during, and after my trip. This trip one thing that we did not do was Nuit Blanche on Saturday, October 3rd. We were just too tired after being on the go all day and stayed in on this big night of the year. It kind of reminds me of "First Night" in the US and I don't do that either.

Here's a few of the things we did do. First I wanted to see the "Brooklyn exhibition" at Le Bon Marche. Granted it was really just a promotion to sell merchandise, but as my husband lived in Brooklyn during his teen and young adult years and both my parents were born in Brooklyn, I thought we should go. Besides I hadn't been to Le Bon Marche in many years and thought I could pick up something to bring home from the grand epicerie. This is what caught my eye online: http://www.lebonmarche.com/brooklyn/
We did buy a Brooklyn rive gauche bag and dish towel for our son who also has ties to Brooklyn and a grand epicierie bag and apron for our daughter who loves to cook. I bought for myself a little tin of fleur de sel de I'ile de Ré.

That probably wouldn't excite too many people nor will the next exhibit we went to. I am a big fan of the graffiti cat, MChat. There was an exhibit of some murs de MChat in a small gallery on rue des tournelles in the marais. Here's the link:
http://www.galerie-les-tournesols.fr...xpositions.htm
It was a very small exhibit of framed artwork created by the artist who created MChat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._Chat
We were buzzed in by a very friendly young woman who very nicely gave us an exhibit catalog with photos of all the artwork. We explained to her with a smile that we wouldn't be purchasing any of the 3500 euro pieces of art. I think she assumed that.

Saturday afternoon we made our way out to La Chope des Puces out in Saint Ouen by the Flea Market. http://www.lachopedespuces.fr/ It's a great venue to hear gypsy jazz manouche being played. Every saturday and sunday Ninine Garcia plays. The day we went he was joined by his son, Rocky Garcia. Ninine is a very friendly person who very obviously loves what he is doing. We have been there several times and always have a good time. Here's a link to the youtube piece that I uploaded. He's playing a song I requested "La Belle Vie" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM6xnMwwokE
I highly recommend stopping in for a beer or two and listening to some of the best music you will ever hear (in my opinion).

Sticking with the music, on Monday night, our last night we walked over to Atelier Charonne http://www.ateliercharonne.com/
We were fortunate enough to be able to see Angelo Debarre, another very talented jazz manouche player. He was with his quartet and the violin player, Marius Apostol was unbelievable! This is a link to the cd that we purchased http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...8TTB96X09J7W4P

One of the best days of our trip for me was our stroll and picnic along the Promenade Planteé that ended at the Bois de Vincennes. We had food from the Richard Lenoir market and found a nice spot over by the lake. There were woods behind us and we sat on a large tree that had been cut in half to form a nice flat surface, great to to spread out our picnic on. The sun was shining and there was a nice breeze; children were playing; dogs were being walked by their owners; people were jogging; rowing in the lake and then someone began to play the violin. It sounded as if it was right near to us but we couldn't see who it was. It was the perfect Paris moment for me. http://next.paris.fr/english/parks-w...230_port_18987 and http://en.parisinfo.com/paris-museum...s-de-Vincennes
We walked all around the park and the little islands in the lake and then headed off to find the Chateau. The Chateau de Vincennes was closed by the time we got there. It was very impressive looking from the outside. There was a couple having wedding pictures taken in front of the chateau. We decided to hop on the metro line 1 and get ourselves back to the Bastille stop and our apartment.

More later. It's a beautiful sunny day here and I have to catch up on all the outdoor work that I have neglected to fly off to Paris.

Sounds lovely....Paris and a puppy---very nice!