Bonjour, I’m constantly reading and watching for new ideas and places to visit in Paris. We found a treasure yesterday by going to the Museum of the Liberation of Paris which happens to be directly across from the catacombs which we’ve visited several times. As usual, there was a queue to get into the catacombs, […]
Bonjour mes amis, We have only a month left in Paris as the time has flown by in a summer that never really arrived! September will end up being our busiest month with two sets of company and then a grand finale on the 19th when we go to Chantilly overnight with our friend Richard […]
Bonjour, Yesterday held a new surprise for us thanks to a tip from our friend, Nancy Colin. Being a history buff, she encouraged us to find a small private cemetery in the 12th arrondissement located very near Place de la Nation. After lunch in breezy cool weather, we jumped on Metro Line 1 and went […]
Bonjour mes amis, Hooray for good neighbors who fix broken faucets. Yesterday, we got a functional kitchen sink again thanks to our upstairs neighbor. Life is back to normal after a difficult few weeks. How we take the simplest things for granted. Sunday afternoons are wonderful in Le Marais. The whole world comes out to […]
Bonjour, This was the final weekend for the Paris beach or Paris Plages. It’s such fun to walk back and forth along the corridor of the Seine which is so near to us every year. It opens about the 19th of July and goes to the third weekend in August. Oh, the memories of the […]
Bonjour mes amis, The weekend is here with warmer weather for us, maybe low 80s today which feels like a heat wave! Alas, it’s August 21 and the days are getting shorter and shorter. It’s fully dark by 9:30 now as opposed to 10:30. Will have to catch those beautiful sunsets on Pont Marie earlier […]
Bonjour, Our day started with horses in our neighborhood and ended with gorgeous sunsets on Pont Marie …with a haircut in between. It was cold yesterday and though we ate outside at lunch, I froze. Mine and Bernie’s wardrobes are scant for this kind of weather! There is a new frenzy in Paris called the […]
Bonjour mes amis, It’s still quite cool in Paris but expected to warm up by the weekend into the high 70s. The city is eerily quiet with almost no traffic. Yes, it makes for better sleeping but doesn’t seem like Paris. Things will crank up by the end of the month when shops open back […]
Bonjour mes amis, Weather is always the trickster in Paris playing havoc with daily plans, wardrobe, and one’s mental psyche. You would think after all of these years, I’d get ahead of the weather’s fickleness, but I never do. It was 87 on Sunday and barely up to 70 yesterday. So, we adapt and lavish […]
Bonjour, Our Sunday was quiet and easy as it was 87 degrees outside. Walking around gets tough because there’s little respite from the heat. It’s not like you can go home to a cool, air-conditioned house! So we kept fans going in all corners of the apartment and the windows CLOSED to keep the heat […]
Bonjour mes amis, Our last few days with the Bilbros have been festive and full of calories! We commented that basically all one does in Paris is eat. And the eating is wonderful. We’re either planning where to eat, making a reservation to eat or ingesting the scrumptious meals in real time. All the better […]
Happy Friday! The weather is finally feeling like summer with a high yesterday in the upper 80s. It was just plain hot which is the first time we’ve experienced that sensation since we arrived on July 4. It was nice to feel the warm sun on our bodies and not be bothered with jackets, sweaters, […]
Bonjour, Not every day in Paris is full of momentous excitement fueling dozens of photos. Some days are made to be relished slowly and completely like a glorious setting sun or a slow rain. Yesterday was such a day, focused on the warmth and camaraderie of friendship. The Bilbros have only a few days left […]
Bonjour, In the early years of visiting Paris before Google Maps and cell phone assistance, I would eagerly peruse through all the travel books by Frommer, Michelin, and Rick Steves, etc. They all lauded a street called rue Mouffetarde on the Left Bank. Bernie had never been there; in fact, he’d never heard of it, […]
Bonjour mes amis, From a rainy Paris, I’m happy to share that daily posts will continue. It’s always good to check with our readers so onward and upward. Blogging is such fun for me, not work, and though I may fuss and fume over Word Press and an internet that comes and goes, overall, I […]
Bonjour, Waking up with no distinct intentions is such a nice feeling, and there’s no better place to be than in Paris on a weekend for simply wandering around. On Saturday, I actually cooked a delicious late lunch in the apartment and then we decided to enjoy the roof top at Les Galeries Lafayette for […]
Bonjour mes amis, Can we step back for a moment and capture some additional photos from Église St. Germain des Prés from Bernie’s camera chip. I failed to include these and they are lovely. Everyone seemed to enjoy the church photos, and I hope someday you get to visit. It is actually the oldest large […]
Bonjour, Yesterday was quite cool with a brisk wind, enough to almost move us indoors at lunch! It’s so weird to have these kind of temps in August. The city has definitely emptied out from vacationing Parisians. It was already sparse but now it’s eerily quiet. Makes for good sleeping on our busy little street. […]
Bonjour, A word about the weather in Paris. It feels like late October when we were here in 2019. Yesterday, the temps did not reach 70 degrees. People start and end the day in coats of some sort and you do see everything. It’s really odd and counter to almost everything I brought to wear. […]
Bonjour mes amis, One of the tributes I must give to the French is the artistic vision of repurposing the old, as opposed to tearing it down. Such is the case with the former stock exchange building called La Bourse de Commerce. The Bilbros and Bernie and I have had tix to this before we […]
Bonjour, Good news, I think, to report on my iPad situation. After a trip to the Apple store on Les Champs Elysées, I am able to continue to use my iPad. They installed a magical, superimposed home button at no charge that I can use since mine is not working. It’s a tad cumbersome, but […]
Happy Sunday to all, Unfortunately, I am having trouble with my iPad and will have to take it in to the Apple store soon. The home button is not working properly which means I can’t easily navigate. So, there may be an interruption in my blogging for a while. I’m attempting to make this one […]
Bonjour, Jim and Peggy Bilbro have been friends for many, many years. First to Bernie when Peggy was his son’s Spanish teacher at Randolph. Now to both of us as people who love all things Paris. They, like us, usually spend a portion of their summer here, and we have memories galore with them… strolling, […]
Bonjour, We try to grab the good weather when we can, and yesterday was definitely an outside day. After lunch we strolled along one of the prettiest promenades in Paris called Le Viaduc des Arts. It begins just past the Bastille, only a 5-minute walk for us. The promenade which is roughly 3 miles long […]
Bonjour mes amis, When there’s no blog from me for your morning cup of coffee, that’s a sure sign of a rainy previous day in Paris. Taking photos in the rain is not a hit with us, and we choose to stay inside the apartment. Such was the case on Tuesday when it rained almost […]
Bonjour mes amis, The streets were already less crowded in Paris; the lack of tourists noticeable. Now with the arrival of August in a few days, the streets are even more subdued. All of Europe takes “holiday” or “vacances” during the month of August, but according to a local friend, France is “the worst” about […]
Greetings from le weekend, C’est dimanche…it’s Sunday…in Paris, a day which starts very slowly and quietly with late café breakfasts and family picnics in the parks. It’s not as slow and quiet as it once was. We were here back in 2012 when the stores started to open on Sundays. Prior to that, other than […]
Bonjour, Just like at home, some days are ordinary and simple. Yesterday was one of those days for us. The weather was still clear and quite warm in the mid-80s. We have a commitment to try to eat at some different spots which is always interesting. I am usually the ringleader of this effort, and […]
Bonjour, We love doing the blog for you and do so appreciate all the comments. I don’t always respond because there are just so many hours in the day. It is certainly not due to a lack of appreciation. Yesterday’s blog was the most involved I’ve written and took hours because of sifting through all […]
Bonjour mes amis, One of our favorite activities to do in Paris has always been a picnic on the river. Yesterday was the perfect day: the wind was down, the temp in the mid-80’s and no clouds in the sky. It is the Paris Plages right now or Paris Beach. The beach chairs go out […]
Bonjour, Yesterday, I totally forgot to mention Le Tour de France. We had watched it on television almost every day through the month of July except for the week we had company. We were primed and ready to stand once again on the Champs and watch the cyclists whiz by. Alas, the plan didn’t materialize […]
Bonjour, Refreshed and rested, I’m back on the blog. I miss it terribly because it’s my way of staying connected, and we love seeing your comments. Finally, July weather is upon us with gorgeous blue skies and temps in the mid 80’s. Our fans are up and running for the first time. I slept for […]
Bonjour, Our final day with family was the best, weather-wise. Mid to high 70’s with enough clouds to keep it from getting hot. The day got progressively nicer and of course, the light lingers until after 10pm which I love! Off to a very late start, we tried to ride the train to the Luxembourg […]
Bonjour mes amis, If you’re a person who likes it cool, then this is your time to be in Paris. Yesterday, it barely reached 70 degrees. Today may be a little warmer. We can’t recall another year quite like this one in terms of weather. Remind me of this when it’s 95 degrees in mid-August […]
Bonjour, Sometimes, it’s better to let pictures tell a story…the afternoon in Montmartre and then the evening for dinner at Le Train Bleu. I’ll describe the day in captions as we go through it. There are so many photos I had to reduce the size. I think you can click on them to enlarge. Hope […]
Bonjour mes amis, Our plans came together yesterday in glorious fashion. Warmer, dryer weather mixed with fly-overs, a little Van Gogh, Kir Royales (pink champagne), and birthday candles brought smiles to everyone. Our usual habit on La Fète Nationale is to go to one of the bridges to watch the fly by. It started out […]
Bonjour, I’ve been rearranging plans like crazy to accommodate this awful weather we’re having. Last week was lovely and next week looks mostly sunny so what did we do to deserve this?? I’ve never been quiet about preferring sunshine days in Paris, especially since it’s mid-July, for goodness sake. Cold…windy… rainy. We cancelled Montmartre as […]
Bonjour, Travel is one of the pure joys of life whatever your age. But it does indeed take a toll on one’s body. I’m working to stabilize my crazy system after a year of health challenges, and the kids are struggling with lack of sleep. But slowly, all are finding a new normal. Emily seems […]
Bonjour mes amis, It’s such an amazing world we live in today. The minute my daughter’s plane landed at Charles de Gaulle, we were able to text back and forth and I could track her exact whereabouts. Unfortunately, her first text to me was “The flight of annoying noises!! Screaming (obnoxiously) baby, cat freaked out […]
Happy Weekend all, Today’s the day we’ve been waiting for: the arrival of my daughter Natalie, her 12-year old son Carson, and her niece, Emily who will celebrate her 17th birthday on Bastille Day or as the locals say La Fête Nationale. We’re going to stretch it so that she celebrates for two days at […]
Bonjour, Rain was in the forecast yesterday (though none came) and we did one of our usual rainy day activities: a subway ride out to La Defense to the huge interior shopping mall Quatre Temps. On the walk to our subway, whom should we meet but our friend, Richard Nahem. He was waiting on some tour guides […]
Bonjour mes amis, The picture says it all…the infamous passport has arrived. Many thanks for your prayers and well wishes. I’m quite sure they helped to bring a smile to Emily’s face. Merci beaucoup! I’m not quite sure why we have gotten so lucky with the weather here in mid-July, but it has been near […]
Bonjour, As many of you saw in the comment section of my blog yesterday, the passport situation surrounding my daughter’s visit has been hopefully resolved. HOWEVER, the delivery at 10:30am yesterday did not happen. Supposedly, the passport is in Kentucky with delivery today. Stress is still hovering until we have that little powerful disrupter in […]
Bonjour mes amis, If you have any pull with the Man upstairs, please say a little prayer for my daughter. It is looking like the special Paris trip for her, my 12-year old grandson Carson, and niece Emily, may not happen. The passport process is arduous right now, and we have pulled every string we […]
Bonjour, Paris is quieter, less congested and quite cool. It’s in the 50’s at night and low 70’s during the day. Who knew? I can remember upper 90’s in mid June a few years ago. Seems I never quite get the wardrobe selection correct as I planned for very hot weather. Oh well, we’ll adjust. […]
Bonjour mes amis, Thanks for joining us through this very strange and scary journey over the past ten weeks. Bernie and I are doing well but have decided to allow several weeks to pass before we go out and see what happens in Alabama with COVID-19 spread. Our cases go up every day but onward […]
Bonjour mes amis, It occurs to me that I’m not doing nearly as good a job as some of my fellow bloggers who are sharing a new post every day. Shame on me. Some days are harder than others. Here are some daily Paris-related blogs you might enjoy: Eye Prefer Paris from Richard Nahem who is […]
Bonjour mes amis, We received our airline refund yesterday for our Paris trip which was great news and sad news all in one. Hopefully, next year, about this time, we’ll be able to return to Paris. France and Paris in particular have been hard hit so we hope they will be in recovery soon. Riots […]
Bonjour mes amis, Writing this blog is sometimes not as easy as I thought it would be. I promised a positive focus and some days “positive” is a difficult mindset right now. I’ve checked off a variety of activities like finishing the edits on a novel, working jigsaw puzzles (now one that has 2000 pieces!), […]
Dear mes amis, I’m seeking to keep this blog a focal point of positive vibes. It’s hard to stay positive, at least for me. But the best we can all do is the best we can do, mais oui? I had distant family affected by the tornado in Chattanooga—two 90-year-olds who hid in a small bathroom […]