The strike ended as scheduled at 8pm yesterday. A 1-day strike is a 1-day strike. Do they not exist in your country?

kerouac:

Nationwide strikes are rare. Never heard of a general strike in the US, thankfully.

It's not too late to pick up a copy of A Moveable Feast to read about where Hemingway and Hadley visited in Paris, but he mentions Les Deux Magots as well as le Select, Le Dome, La Rotonde La Coupole and les Closserie des Lilas. If you get a chance walk up to the Place Contrascarpe just off the rue Moufftard. There are three cafes surrounding the Place where you can sit and have a drink. It seems to be an area where young people hang out so the drinks are less expensive. The Hemingways lived just around the corner on the rue Cardinale Lemoine where you will find a marker to that effect.

Pjk

Good Afternoon - Just got back to the apartment for a short break and our evening meal. First of all we went back to St Denis so DH could see the crypt. Glad we did as he really enjoyed it. Then we rode the metro to the Montmatre area. We climbed the steps up to Sacre Couer - then we watched this funicular type thing take people up! There were the guys there tying bracellets on people, glad I had heard about that trick as well! Oh well, there goes some more calories. Walked around the town a little bit and had lunch there. (In my formal report I will list everything in more detail) Then we went to the Opera House. Oh my goodness, what an utterly fantastic place Got to watch the workmen on the stage lower a water scene with waves. Just too cool. Got back to our Odeon stop and walked down that ancient road with the cafes on our way back to the apartment. We are now contemplating the Orangerie yet tonight! More later - Patti Oh yeah - more blue skies

You are having such a fun trip - wonderful!

The Orangerie was closed again! The guide book said it was open late on Friday's. This was our 3rd attempt to see it. Will try once more tomorrow as we leave on Sunday. We did make it to Angelina's for the hot chocolate Africans. To die for - - - -

Patti-

I've been following your post with envy. Heading to Paris at the end of April. Will also be staying in one of Thierry's apartments. My first time using him and so far everything has been wonderful!

My question - what is the "people tying bracelets" trick. Need to keep up on all of the schemes!

Thanks!

parisinspring - These buys come up to you with string and say, let me make you a bracelet - then they make the bracelelt right on your wrist and you can't get it off, so they charge you for it because you can't give it back! There also a lot of women that come up to you with and say, do you speak English? and they they hand you a little card that says they are from Bosnia and need money. We just wave them off and we have not had anybody bother us. I love the guys in the subways playing the harp and sax and accordian. It echos through the subways. Love it! Thierry is great - you won't have any problems dealing with him.

guenmai - saw on apothecary type shop today called guenmai!

Yellowrose,

Thank you for the continuing description of your trip. It is good to see Paris with fresh eyes.

All the visits to the different churches - yes, they are all different and old, older than anything we have in my town here in the US. The last time I was in Saint Sulpice, I was crying for no reason. I bawled for such a long time, my friend's husband was flabbergasted when I got home that afternoon. (I normally stay with them when in Paris.) Paris affects me that way! I like the Gregorian mass at Notre Dame on Sundays at 10:00 am. I noticed you also visited Saint German l'Auxerois - I do go to mass there occasionally. Eva Longoria got married there with the plaza in front where people had a ball watching the star-studded wedding.

Keep them coming and enjoy the rest of your trip and the blue skies.

yellowrose, I'm still reading this too. I hope you get to the Orangerie. I'm hoping we get to see a little sunshine next week!

At this point I'm still thinking that St Chapelle has had the greatest impact on me when I walked up those stairs and the bright sunshine was coming throught those windows! Wow! Of course the Opera house today was magnificant too. Tomorrow we want to go to a couple more churches - we have not gone into St Germain de Pres and it is right around the corner from us practically - we are going to go St. Louis on the island and another one that I can't remember the name of right now. We went into the church next to Sacre Couer today as well. That plus St Denis this morning - wow, that church is really amazing as well. I am running out of adjectives when talking about all of the wonders here!

yellowrose477.

I am loving your report. I will be there in May and am anxiously counting the days. Even though I have gone to Paris many many times each visit seems like a new visit in some ways and also like a visit to a good friend who I have missed . I will be at the GTG on May 23 and looking forward to meeting some fellow Fodorites. I also am renting a apartment from Thiery and I am happy to read all the positive reports about him. Continue having such a great trip.

Yellowrose-How funny...a shop with my name....but I am the original,"Guenmai!"...sort of like...Cher....Madonna....Guenmai. Smiles.

By the way, in a few hours, I'm headed to Part 1 of the weekend long L.A. Asia forum GTG. I'm a regular on the Asia forum and I actually threw the weekend long GTG in the spring of 2007. So, it'll be a night of a lot of laughter as we get along really well on the Asia forum and have been to several GTGs around the U.S. and overseas together. The out-of-staters are arriving this evening from everywhere from Hawaii to the far east coast. L.A. is still probably recovering from my big bash with them in 2007. Smiles.

Keep having a great time. Happy Travels!

Yellowrose, this is so much fun following your trip. I am so glad you having a great time!

yellowrose, I can't pass a church either. I love them all. I think the one at St. Germain de Pres is the one with the giant scallop shells for the holy water. I could be wrong. At some point they all blur together. We took a tour at St. Chapelle and it was wonderful. The guide was an American working on her degree. All those windows mean something!

Guen, have a wonderful weekend!

St-Sulpice has the scallop shell holy water fonts. They are gorgeous!

Does anyone know what happened to the statue of Ste-Marguerite in St-Germain-des-Pres church? She was missing the last time I was there. She was in the left aisle, before Ste-Rita.

Yellowrose-
Thanks for this report. I will be in France in 53 days and I am living vicariously through you right now. It all sounds so exciting.Please keep sharing all your wonderful details.

I can hardly wait to read your official trip report. I hope that it will be posted in time for me to print and take with me when we leave in May.

Just got up for our last day here But it is bright and sunny and DH just left for pastries for breakfast I sure hope I get the official trip report in before May! Heading out to St Germain de pres first thing this morning. DH wants to re-visit the eiffel tower and Notre Dame also. It is bright and sunny and that bright blue sky. We have truly been blessed with 7 days of perfect weather.