Dear Friends and blog followers, I’ve never written a post quite like this one, and I do so with a heavy heart. Beth Wise and her travel companion sat in my home about three weeks ago to discuss some tips on their upcoming trip to Paris and other destinations in France. Bernie joined us. Beth […]
Bonjour mes amis, It is my tradition to write a final summary blog every year before we depart for home. It’s always a challenge to come up with a new idea. Thus this closing post is generated painstakingly over multiple days, not a few quick hours in the early morning. It needs time to simmer. […]
Bonjour, Many thanks to the 50 folks who took the time to vote. It wasn’t an easy choice as many of you expressed. Maybe the message is to have only one theme moving forward! Anyway, hope it was a fun exercise for you. Maybe next year, we’ll do café chairs again because they have all […]
Bonjour, Just a quick reminder that today is your last day to vote for our two theme winners, Doors and Lovers. It’s a summer’s worth of fun! Reference my post from Monday, September 20th which contains all the choices by number. It should be in your email or you can go directly to my web […]
Bonjour, As we wind down another Paris adventure, it’s time to consider our two themes for the summer…lovers and doors/door knockers. You selected these themes quite a while ago in late June before we left. The doors have been easy to photograph, but the lovers were always a challenge. I’ve missed so many kisses it’s […]
Bonjour mes amis, Well, we’ve had an interesting 24 hours. Perhaps, it is life’s way of applying some reality to our fairytale visit this year! These are definitely first world problems given all the issues in the world right now. But, nonetheless, they are frustrating and stressful. It began with an email from our airline, […]
Bonjour mes amis, The problem with family visits is always how short they are!! Our last day with Pierre and Laurie was filled with blue skies and sun which we absolutely deserved after Wednesday’s trudge through the rain. We met them at La Bourse du Commerce which we have already shared with you. However, we […]
Bonjour, Yesterday tried really hard to dampen our spirits but we prevailed with Pierre and Laurie to have another glorious day. After having such nice weather for the past few weeks, we are sad to see the gloominess. Paris is a wonderful city but my sunshine roots from Alabama do NOT take kindly to days […]
Bonjour mes amis, Amid a gray and slightly rainy Paris, Pierre and Laurie arrived by train right on time, and the rest of our day was busy! We had reservations for lunch at Café Lepérouse in the Hôtel de la Marine at La Place de la Concorde. The lunch was so much better than the […]
Bonjour mes amis, Sunday morning, we made one last effort to find a requested piece of artwork for our friend, Sharon Tyson, at the Edgar Quinet Sunday art show near Montparnasse. Alas, it was to no avail. We did a very quick, disappointing walk-through and rushed away to get to the Arc de Triomphe for […]
Bonjour mes amis, Two weeks from today, we’ll be lugging suitcases down 34 steps into a cab on our way to the airport and back to Alabama. Wow, the time has gone so quickly, but there’s much ground to cover yet with Bernie’s Alsace cousins company coming in on Tuesday. We will cherish these last […]
Bonjour mes amis, Wednesday was hot! Close to 88 degrees again with rain predicted for the evening which did come, though sparsely. Paris needs a good downpour to wash away the dust. After a slow, easy morning and lunch in the apartment, we decided to take the bus to Luxembourg Gardens to see if the […]
Bonjour, So yes, we’ve become slightly obsessed with roof tops which is something we haven’t pursued that much in the past. Our journey in today’s blog is to the very lovely department store, Au Printemps, meaning spring as in spring of the year. First a little fashion and then the rooftop on the second-to-last floor. […]
Bonjour mes amis, Monday while many of you were driving home from the beach or a football game or cooking out on your patio, we were playing like we were the rich and famous. September 6 would have been the 85th birthday of the Hollywood icon, Audrey Hepburn. This website caught my eye and we […]
Bonjour mes amis, We hope you have had a good Labor Day Weekend. Of course, Labor Day is an American holiday, not celebrated here in Paris. It always feels a bit odd to know of the typical holiday celebrations going on at home and be isolated from all of that here. Same goes for Fourth […]
Bonjour mes amis, No eggs and no butter?? What? Can you really make French pastries without these two Parisian staples? Well, let’s find out! Today’s post is for you French foodies and was conceived by our friend Richard Nahem – neighbor, blogger, and travel guide extraordinaire in Paris. We are posting simultaneous blogs on this […]
Bonjour and Happy Labor Day Weekend! We wish for all of you a pleasant, safe weekend of rest and relaxation, though we know many of you are suffering from some of the unpleasantries which COVID has created. What strange times these are! Yesterday was an adventure day with our neighbor, Chantal, who has become a […]
Bonjour mes amis, Just as I predicted, we are in for a week of “Summer in September” with temps expected to rise into the 80’s for the next few days. Maybe that’s a new song title for the returning ABBA! We’ll relish the warmth and be able to wear some of the clothes we brought…maybe. […]
Bonjour mes amis, One of the fun things about our apartment on rue St. Paul is hearing the horses of the Garde Républicaine clip-clopping under our window. The barracks for the horses is very close by. Finally, I got a picture yesterday. They are part of the national police or Gendarmerie. Oddly, they were going […]
Bonjour, The streets are teeming again with cars, trucks, bicycles, scooters and people! Stores are reopening and life is getting back to crazy normal here. Still cool and cloudy but very little rain. Outside every pharmacy, tents are set up where folks can get the rapid test for COVID, and vaccinations are still moving forward. […]
Bonjour mes amis, People often ask me what we do every day in Paris for three months. The simple answer is always, “We just live!” Groceries have to be bought, laundry has to be done, some days a little cleaning is demanded, and always meal preparation and cooking. Yesterday was one of these ordinary days. […]
Bonjour mes amis, We are greeted this morning with so much bad news from America: COVID increases, Hurricane Ida and the situation in Afghanistan. We pray for all of these tragedies and feel a sense of desperation for those caught in their grip and those who have lost their lives. May God have mercy on […]
Bonjour mes amis, This has been the week for new Paris adventures! Yesterday, our neighbor Chantal, became our tour guide to the Foundation Cartier in the 14th arrondissement. Ironically, this new experience was just a block or two from the Liberation of Paris Museum! And at the advice of another friend we found a completely […]
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 […]