I'm queen of typos so don't worry!!!
Th Brasserie St Louis. I sat outside in the cold eating their steak tartare
so I could enjoiy the jazz group performing on the bridge. Thanks for making your trip, my memories.

Adding Brassarie St. Louis...

Charming report Nina, thank you for sharing your time in Paris. I hope you know I was thinking of the two of you the entire time you were gone. Buying items and telling your husband they are all for gifts..oh yes, that always worked for me, lol! Take care.

Nina - we had dinner and a busy shopping/champagne visit with Andrea just before you arrived in Paris. What fun! I could have shopped for shoes and boots for days. I do think Andrea learned not to leave the restaurant decisions to me :)! Turns out when people say most restaurants are closed on Sunday, they mean it.

We went to Pylone's 4 times and my favorite purchase was the pirate kitchen timer. He dances when the time's up so we've developed a pirate dance to go with it.

I'm glad you had fun and had so many lovely meals! We went to Rome from Paris, hauling a big bag of our favorite cheeses and wines with us. I look forward to a return trip to Paris.

Cigalechanta, We've done and eaten the same thing at the Brasserie St. Louis. I love sitting outside on a nice Fall evening taking to the local expats and playing with their little dogs. My first meal in Paris was at the Brasserie and for many years after, I always at my first meal of my stay there and sometimes my last.

Rosetravels, I remember seeing your pirate timer - we only made two trips to Pylones this time - you have us beat. I thought that we were the only crazy ones who danced to our kitchen timer. Years ago we bought our Alessi, Alphonse timer at BHV in Paris, and danced to it in our apartment there and we still do at home. Crazy no --- maybe silly and fun.

Great report. Look forward to reading more :)

nina,

what a treat to have such a long visit to paris. hope you enjoyed the cirque d'hiver!

Cigale.?.that was one of the nicest things I've ever read here. awwww...I'm all vaklempt.
"Thanks for making your trip, my memories"...
Nina? I'll second that emotion.
Hope you're feeling better...wherever you are, there is a wholloping "cold" running around where I live too.
Man-o-Man I wanna go back to Paris then some time somewhere else in France.

Nina, how much french did you speak during your visit. I am always wondering about this, as I find that I speak very little french in Paris, but outside of Paris I am miraculously understood in french.

Nice info.
Funny, I had hear other people talking aboyt Pylones, stored away the idea that I must go some time.
Went to Paris last november. One of my goals was to check off some sites my list and go to places that other Fodorites recommended, so did the Jacquemart Andre (++), ate faux fillet outside at Breasserie Ile st louis...people, view of Panthon...very nice. And then shopping on main street...Nicolas, Cacao et Chocolat, and then visited this shop with all sorts of neat little items....And now I read..and find out it as Pylones...so thanks for clearing that up! And I second the recommendation to make a visit to that store, and the island in particular.

Nina asked me to post here for her as she has not been able to post on any thread today including her own thread as something is wrong with her connection with Fodor's. She can only read the threads. She has written to Fodor's for help with this and she will post here on this thread of hers as soon as the problem is cleared up.

I'm back ... talk about withdrawals. My entire posting life passed before my eyes as I imagined, for about 15 hours, that my Fodors days were over.

First of all, I want Cigalechanta to know how much her words meant to me. Thanks SuzieC for inadvertently reminding me of my omission.

Happytotravel, every year we find that less and less French is needed or used by us in Paris. As soon as we start a conversation with our fractured French, we often find that the other party speaks excellent English and rarely expects us to speak French. They are often surprised when we bring some French into the conversation. After each trip, we vow to study and practice, but to be honest, the incentive isn't there like it used to be.

Melissa, We loved the Cirque D'Hiver and that is in the next part of my report, which I'll be posting later today. You guys were right, and we are so happy that we followed your recommendations.

Michel_Paris - glad to be of help. The Jacquemart-Andre is one of our favorites too. Did you eat in their beautiful cafe?

If you are in the market for a 13,000 euro bathtub, plus shipping and installation, check out the fabulous bath store nearby. As you exit the museum grounds onto Blvd. Haussmann, turn left, and it is a few doors away. They have numerous bathroom displays, tubs, sinks, toilets, accessories.

Another favorite from previous trips, is Musee Nissim de Comondo. A magnificant former private home with a sad history.

Nina

Nina,
I'm thoroughly enjoying this report, and you're inspiring me to think about a winter trip to Paris someday.

My husband and I ate at the Caveau de L'Isle this past summer, based on the rave reviews here, and we also found it good, but not standout. Given our expectations, we were disappointed and probably wouldn't go out of our way to go there again.

I really had to smile at your experience at the Roman Vishniac show. His work was truly superlative, and he documented villages that were completely destroyed during WW II. There was a show of his work maybe 20-25 years ago in NYC, and I went with a friend of mine, whose family also came from Poland. As we were walking through the exhibit, he looked at a photo and said, "That's my grandfather". The grandfather had been a rabbi in Poland (who did survive the war) and having that personal connection to the photo really brought the meaning of the exhibit to life. I'll never forget that.

Lots of wonderful info in your post! Thank you - now have lots of ammunititon to get my husband to think about the next trip to Paris!

Paule

Thank you Paule for your description of the exhibit and for sharing your friend's experience, which was chilling (in a good way). It reaffirmed the authenticity of these images and their lives.

With your warmth, I doubt that you will have trouble getting your DH back to Paris.

Nina

Hello Nina66, I am so glad to see you that you are able to post on Fodor's again.

Polish Jews..I had a good friend, an attorney in CA who now lives in Canada. His father had eleven siblings and only his father and one uncle lived through the devestation of WWII. Our friend was born and raised in Israel and brought here to the US in his late teens. The stories he shared, told to him by his father. It brings tears to my eyes to this day.

I so love your trip report Nina, and I do hope you are feeling a bit better.
It seems like viruses are going around the entire world including in my city. Take care and stay warm dear friend.

Thank you LoveItaly for your kind wishes and words. I will try to finish my trip report in the next day or so - it seems like it is longer than the trip itself.

Nina

I think I read somewhere that it annoys some people when other people bookmark, but I'm afraid I have to bookmark this! Nina66 I've really been enjoying reading your trip report, and don't want to lose track of this(: Looking forward to the next installment.

Thanks to Melissa19 and some others, we booked our tickets on line for the Cirque D'Hiver - 81 euros for two tickets. We picked them up at the Bastille branch of FNAC.

I hadn't been to a circus since my daughter was a little girl and truthfully I had forgotten how much fun they could be.

When we met Marcy at Jim Haynes' one week earlier, she and her family had gone that day, and were in the same seats that we were. She had nothing but praise for the performers and so I began to get excited about attending.

The performance was scheduled to began at 5:00PM and fortunately we arrived well in advance because we had to wait in line for at least a half an hour. Luckily, we brought our umbrellas as showers had been forecast and it drizzled during our entire wait.

Our seats were in the first row, only a few feet from the action. In fact they were so close, that we got an up front and (too) personal view of the big white tiger's private parts as he sat on his pedestal.

We also had a bird's eye view of the performers, the clowns, ventriliquist, the dancing juggler, the horses, the fabulous aerialists and my favorite act, two young women twirling umbrellas with their feet, while laying down in convorted possitions.

The fun part was watching the expressions of the small children. An adorable, well behaved three year old boy was sitting next to me. I watched the looks of glee, and amazement on his little face. Every so often during the talking parts, he fell asleep and his parents would wake him for an exciting or animated performance.

From the cirque to our dinner reservation, was a nice, albeit a drizzly 25 minute walk to Robert et Louise, 64 rue Vielle-du-Temple, 3rd, Meto: Rambuteau, 01.42.78.55.89.

We first heard about it on the Travel Channel, on Anthony Boudain's Paris segment. I later read that they don't take reservations or credit cards. That has changed, both are accepted and reservations are advised because it is small and does a heck of a business.

We booked about 3 days in advance (I took a chance and called because we wanted to eat there on a Saturday night). It never hurts to ask, and when presented with the check, we found that they do take credit cards.

We arrived a few minutes early for our 8:00PM reservation and 90% of the front tables were empty. The owner escorted us to the rear community, picnic type table. There were already about 8 other people at the table and we asked if we could sit an one of the vacant small tables in the front. The owner was adament that we sit had to sit at the community table, even though we had a reservation. As soon as we sat down, we realized that everyone else at the table was American. An older French couple came in a few minutes later, and they too were escorted to the large table. Madame refused, and apparently she was as stubborn as the owner, because they were then seated at their own small table. It was a cold night, but when someone would inadvertently leave the rear door open, even for a minute or so, the cool breeze was wonderful. We were back by the meat cooking source ... an open fire grill. There is no kitchen per se, only a small area, which was just opposite us, where they cook the potatoes, etc..

When the people next to us finished and left, a nice guy from Cambodia, who has resided in Paris for years and his visitor, another nice guy from Switzerland, became our dinner companions. Most enjoyable. The guy from Switzerland, about 50 years old, had recently sold him mint condition Elvis fin type Cadillac, to finance his solo trip around the world. Any conversation that includes vintage cars, along with a good hunk of red meat, is enough to get DH's undivided attention.

Fortunately we like our meat rare, and ordered it signon, because it arrived 'bleu" - raw in the middle. It was a good, flavorful, thick cut of meat, but it was cool in the middle. I liked it better than DH, who would have preferred it a bit warmer. Judging by our tablemates' steaks, I think they are all grilled like that. The man on the other side had ordered his well done, and it arrived fairly pink. Since the service is fast paced and they serve a lot of customers, using the one fireplace grill, I do understand.

For starters I had escargot and DH had the sausage plate, which were both quite good. The cook saw me struggling with one of the escargots who absolutely refused to to leave his little home, and with a nice smile, he plopped two more down on my plate. Nice gesture.

We had steak for two, with each of us having a choice of sauteed potatoes or salad. We took one of each and shared.

With a 1/2 bottle of Merlot, one very good creme brulee, one cheese plate and one coffee, which DH said was excellent, the total bill was 84 euros.

It was an enjoyable meal, with nice service and reasonably priced for the quality of the food, and we would go back again, pretending that we weren't consuming a months supply of cholesteral.

A nice walk home completed our ejoyable day.

Nina

Nina, I avoided Robert and Louise because of the Turkish toilet, what wuith my bad knee :)

Mimi, I had almost forgotten about their Turkish toilet. We too knew about in advance and I was hoping to avoid using it.... but, well you know how it goes :-)). It was late, and we had at least a 30 minute walk home, plus the time spent doing late night window shopping along the route. I was wearing pants too. I managed to use it without falling in - my worst fear when confronted with one of those antiquated monstrosities.

Nina