Our Anniversary

We were lucky enough to spend our 27th wedding Anniversary in Paris. As we are on a budget tour we decided against the Moulin Rouge or Le Tour d'Argent (if it is still there) for our celebration. We opted to spend the day and evening aboard the BatoBus, a canal style boat the takes you up and down the Seine, stoping at 8 different famous locations. You can disembark and re-board at will. Since is was, after all a celebration, we decided to spend the day getting off the batobus to have a drink at each of the 8 stops.
Below is a brief log of our tour/adventure with some photos, of course.

Stop 1. Palais Royal/Louvre
After we poked around the Louvre for awhile we boarded Le Batobus. No drinks yet!

Stop 2. Arch de Triumph/Champs Élysées
A nice picturesque spot BUT no cafes/bars in sight and it was about a 6 block to the nearest cafe. Poor planning on the part of Batobus! We took a few pictures of Les Invalides (Napoleon's tomb) at quite a distance from the bridge then hopped back on the BB about 15 mins. later. An auspicious start to our celebration cruise.

Stop 3. Tour Eiffel. Success at last! The area beneath the Tour, in all its majestic beauty, was mobbed, been there done that. We strolled a few blocks away and discovered Cafe Gustave! At last an opportunity to rest and revive. Although they spelled his name wrong, you will see in the photo that Gus had a clever way to remedy that.

After a few libations that we really enjoyed we continued on our cruise.

Stop 4. Musee D'Orsay. We had been there before and it is a great place but no cafes in sight so we continued on with the cultural police at our heels.

Stop 5. St. Germaine de Pres. A lovey area of Paris named after the Midieval church located there. We found a terrific cafe just across from the Bato stop and spent a few hours there people watching and catching up on our CQ(cocktail quota). We even visited the church a few blocks away. It was very beautiful and stirring but in great need of repair. Really enjoyed that area and returned to the Bato very light hearted!

Stop 6. Norte Dame.
Beautiful and majestic as ever. We wanted to go inside but the entrance line was formidable and we had been there and up in the towers several times previously so were content with enjoying the gorgeous weather, taking some photos and visiting the book stalls across the river.
It was getting near dinner time so we began our search for our selected cafe.
While wandering around we stumbled across a hotel named the Hotel des Carmes. It turns out that I had stayed there when it was Auberge des Carmes for two months during my six month study in Paris in 1967. AND Gus had also stayed there(changed to Hotel des Carmes during a trip to Paris he made in 1982, two years before we met. How about that for "Karma"? We grabbed at a table at a nearby cafe just on the corner overlooking Hotel des Carmes and had a great dinner..... especially the French Onion Soup and enough drinks to cover this and the nest two remaining stops.

Stop 7. Les Jardins des Plantes. This lovely garden was located about 6 blocks from our dinner spot. It is on the Southeast bank of the Seine just beyond the Left Bank. It was a lovely area that we had never explored before and found lots of picnickers, music and dancers as we strolled along to our next Batobus stop. It was really quite delightful.

Stop 8. L'Hotel de Ville. This is the Paris town hall. I missed taking a picture of this building as I was so e distracted by the "Paris Beach". This is an area on the North bank of the Seine that runs in front of the Hotel de Ville for about one mile and is covered with sand, beach umbrellas and beach chairs to create a BEACH along the Seine in Paris. It was fairly busy there for about 8:30 in the evening. Since we had had a wonderful day/evening, achieved our drink goal and the Batobus stops running at 9:30pm we decided it head back home We managed to get a few sunset photos on the Seine before the and to a wonderful day.

Since I cannot get these photos in correct selection I will attempt to label them.
1. Pont Napoleon
2. Seine Sunset
3. Pont & Les Invalides
4. Abourd Batobus
5. Pyramide, Le Louvre
6. Tour Eiffel
7. Norte Dame
8. Sunset Paris
9. Rue des Invalides
10. Pyramide, inside Le Louvre
11. Tour Eiffel
12. Bato Cruise
13. Tour Eiffel
14. Hotel des Carmes
15. Cafe Gustav
16. Cruise View
17. Cafe Gustave
18. La Place Louvre
19. Eglise(church) St. Germaine des Pres
20. Cafe Anniversaire & Le Pantheon
21. Spires of Notre Dame
22. Seine Sunset
23. Cafe Gustave
24. Seine View
25. Batobus
26. Seine View
27. Notre Dame

La Defense

La Defence is an area just a West of Paris, 5 metro stops from Arc de Triumph/L'Etoile. It was conceptualized during the 1950s to continue the great monuments of Paris and as a memorial to Veterans and constructed over the last 25 years.

At it's center is a HUGE steel and marble Arch which is in alignment with the Arc de Triump, the at Place de la Concorde and the Pyramide at the Louvre. Around this Arch they have constructed huge high rises which house offices, apartments, shops and restaurants. Only one large fountain and two outdoor cafes...all other restaurants are inside. It seems to have missed the heart of French life with all its steel, concrete, lack of gardens, outdoor cafes, lush greenery and charm. A monument to concrete, marble and steel with some unusual sculpture ie: Le Puce (The Thumb) also pictured below.

LaDefense is a very controversial project among the French population!
See what you think.

Sacre Coeur & Montmarte

The third day we spent visiting our old neighborhood where we stayed just down the hill and not far from Sacre Couer & Montmarte. It had changed enormously....imagine in just 15 short years! Lots more shops and people than there were there back then and the area had gone definitely more upscale. C'est la vie!
We had a light lunch in a sidewalk cafe we thought we remembered and continued on to climb Sacre Couer and stroll the artist's square in Monmarte.

Sacre Couer is the photo that looks like a big white church on a hill with a large white dome because that's what it is. It is a fabulous work of art with fantastic views of Paris and is always worth a visit and lighting a candle for someone you love. It is, however, a bit strange that it is surrounded by little foreign guys selling miniature statues of the Eiffel Tour. Go figure.

Stopped in another cafe to have coffee and a crepe Grand Marnier. Still as good as ever. A few hours of people watching there and off down the hill towards home snapping some photos along the way.

Paris Arrival

We arrived in Paris last Sat. and it is amazing as always.

We spent our first morning visiting the open air market which is only about three blocks from our apartment and drinking coffee at a local cafe.

In the afternoon we met our good friend(student exchange teacher) Asma, at the Jardin (Garden) de Luxembourg, one of the most gorgeous gardens in Paris. We strolled around, took some pictures and visited a few old haunts on the Left Bank. Great day!

I have also attached some exterior photos of our apartment building. A beautiful 5 bedroom place about 4 blocks from the 1/yellow line metro station. The high speed metro is fantastic and we can be anywhere in Paris very quickly.

Paris is so beautiful these days. Since we were last here, 15 years ago, they have "sand blasted" most of the buildings and what was old dirty grey and black is now sparkling white and cream color. What a transformation!