Bonsoir, This is our eleventh trip to Paris and my eighth year to write about it. That becomes somewhat of a challenge. How many adjectives can you use? How many expletives can describe the aura and beauty of Paris? Can you wear away the sense of awe at all the treasures and serendipities? I guess […]
Bonsoir, It’s 9:45 pm and we are just in from a busy day touring one of Paris’s largest parks, Parc de la Villette. We discovered last evening as we were strolling Le Paris Plages near us that there is another beach section on Canal St. Martin which evolves into La Parc de la Villette. But […]
Bonjour, Today was our day to share something new with the Bilbros. They had never been to the Musée Jacquemart-Andre on Boulevard Haussmann. We love their tearoom for a very French lunch, and the pastry tray from which you can personally make your choice is awesome! We arrived about 12:30 to find no line! That’s […]
Bonjour mes amis, Today has been lovely in Paris with slightly cool temps, a gentle breeze, and a rainy forecast that did not materialize. We did some housekeeping chores this morning and then decided just to stroll a little for the afternoon. We ended up in the Palais Royale, one of the ancient royal palaces […]
Bonsoir mes amis, It’s Sunday evening in Paris after a day devoted totally to Le Tour de France. The Bilbros had never experienced the Tour so we were pleased to accompany them to Les Champs Elysées. We left about 1pm and found a spot for lunch and a very nice waiter who allowed us to sit […]
Bonjour, Saturday evening we had the pleasure of meeting our friend Richard Nahem for dinner at a new restaurant for us, Le Petite Marché. Richard has the wonderful blog http://eyepreferparis.com which many of you already follow. Jim & Peggy have followed his blog, emailed and enjoyed each other’s photography but had never met in person. It […]
Bonjour, Today I will make you laugh out loud because it’s pretty chilly in Paris! After the scorching time we’ve had in the apartment, this morning all of our windows are closed up tight. The wind howled last night so much that it blew wide open a slightly cracked large, heavy window in the kitchen! […]
Bonjour, Yesterday was a different kind of fun day. The guys and the gals went their separate ways. Peggy and I met for lunch at a neat little shop near St. Catherine’s Square called L’ÊtreAnge. I didn’t have the camera so pulled some photos from last year along with their business card or Carte de Visite. […]
Bonsoir, What could be better than gorgeous, cool weather; lunch in front of the Louvre pyramid; and a stunning fashion exhibit at one of the prettiest buildings in Paris? That was our day! If you don’t know about Café Marly, check it out when you visit the Louvre. It’s a delightful experience that we enjoyed […]
Bonjour mes amis, Today was an absolutely gorgeous day in Paris. And a great day to make new discoveries with good friends. First a little background and a funny story followed by some interesting history. Last year, we went to Le Butte Chaumont area at the recommendation of some Parisian friends. We walked around for […]
Bonjour, Mondays in Paris are always a calmer, slower version of the rest of the week. Many shops and restaurants are closed and with the advent of vacation time (late July through August), it is even more noticably sedate. Our area, the Marais, is where many Parisians live and work. There are still hoardes of […]
Bonsoir, I’m thrilled to relay that it is cool, cool, cool in Paris with the arrival of a nice rain storm late last night! How wonderful to finally experience the Paris weather we are more accustomed to! Bernie caught the rain shot out our window about 11 pm. It didn’t rain nearly enough to compensate […]
Bonjour, Paris is teeming with tourists but locals are preparing to depart for their vacance or vacation. In a week or two, the local areas throughout the Marais where we are will be noticeably less crowded, and some of the shops will close for most of the month of August. It’s an efficient way to deal […]
Bonsoir, Today has given some relief from the heat remaining in the high 80’s, which while still hot, is nothing like it has been. We are grateful! We had a slow, easy day which began this morning by going in search of the very helpful magazine “Where Paris.” It contains all the latest happenings around […]
Bonjour, We prepared to do battle again today with the unseasonably hot, dry weather in Paris. It has not rained here for over a month which is just hard to believe given that generally there are pleasant showers at least three or four times a week. The dust in the air is heavy; the leaves […]
Bonjour mes amis, It goes by many names: La Fete Nationale; Bastille Day; Quatorze Juliet (14 July). Whatever you call it, the experience is “formidable” as the French would say. The stage was set by the weather (gorgeous and not too hot). Jim Bilbro braved an early morning and went to stand on the Champs […]
Bonjour mes amis, We returned via train to Paris from our visit with Bernie’s cousins last evening about 8:30. Our top speed on the TGV was 313 kilometers which is almost 200 mph! The weather is much cooler in Paris and all was well in our apartment. This morning demanded a trip to the grocery […]
Bonjour, It’s a gorgeous day in Alsace enhanced by delicious food and a visit from more cousins, Marie-Josee and Jean-Paul who live in another small town near Alsace called Beaume-les-Dames. These two are in their mid 80’s, still going strong and still driving. We had a wonderful visit over exquisite cuisine prepared by Laurie and […]
Bonjour, Yesterday (Monday) was very hot again in Paris. It was an out-of-sorts day with a beautiful ending. Here’s the story. I have a horrible blister on my left heel from so much walking in a pair of shoes I thought would be perfect. Au contraire! So yesterday, I had to wear an open-backed shoe […]
Bonsoir, We’ve had a much cooler Sunday with even a little bit of rain. The city came alive this afternoon and evening as everyone was out and about enjoying the cool breeze. It has been so dry for so long that the trees are beginning to lose their leaves, and it looks like autumn in […]
Bonsoir mes amis, It’s Le Weekend in Paris and still unseasonably warm. However, at 3pm today (Saturday) it was only 91 compared to 97 yesterday. The skies are overcast which makes a huge positive difference in our apartment since we get the scorching, direct, Western sun. One of our friends down the street answered Bernie’s […]
Bonjour, Our time outside today in Paris was limited to just a couple of hours as the temperature is soaring to 97 degrees. The frustrating part is that for us there’s no place to hide… sweltering both inside and out with very high humidity. We strongly considered going to the meat/seafood market at the Monoprix […]
Dear Friends, It’s 3pm in Paris and 87 degrees! That’s 15 degrees cooler than yesterday. It’s a bit cloudy off and on with a nice breeze. What a difference 24 hours can make! Hopefully, today’s blog will make up for the sparseness of yesterday’s. I must start, however, with some photos which I took last […]
Bonjour from a very hot Paris! It is an act of courage just to walk around today in Paris so I’m afraid that today’s blog will not be one of our most interesting. We feel for those who work outside: the contruction workers right down the street who are taking down scaffolding; the taxi drivers […]
Dear Friends, Weather is always a huge consideration in Paris but never as much as when the temps soar like they have this week. The two jackets I brought, all the scarves and my two new pairs of jean capris will not get much wear right now. The predicted high for today was 100 but […]
Bonjour mes amis, Today has been a very productive day which started with a trip to the internet cafe. I received an email response from an agent yesterday who wants to see the BERNIE AND ME manuscript! We brought the entire manuscript with and without pictures on a USB stick, just in case this might […]
Bonsoir, It’s Sunday in Paris and hot as can be under brilliant blue skies. The weather forecast for next week is trecherous with a prediction of 100 degrees on Tuesday. Yikes! We are shocked at this in June, usually an August problem. Our new apartment has plenty of windows but no set of fans to […]
Dear Friends, Nous arrivons…we have arrived on a picture perfect day in Paris. The local temp is in the low 80’s with that sharp, sunny blue sky that cuts across the landscape with a fierce crispness. It creates the penetrating light that Paris is so known for. There’s a parade blaring around La Place de […]
3-2-1…Blast off! Here we go on our eleventh adventure. And what a start. At this point we have no idea if we will be able to get a taxi from Charles de Gaulle airport or not, given the recent controversy with Uber in France. Some have asked if we can take the metro and the […]
Eleven years is a LONG time to reap the joys of Paris. Three days and a wake-up are all that stand between Bernie and me and our eleventh trip. It seems like a fairy tale sometimes but oh so real. How blessed we are! Now comes the challenge of packing for Paris for almost seven […]
For the past eight days, we have enjoyed a visit from Bernie’s French cousins. To have them here in America has been fantastic. Most of our time together has been in France, in and around Alsace where they live near the German border. Or in Paris. If you are a regular reader of my blogs […]
“It’s almost ready!” “What’s almost ready?” “Why, the book, of course!” “What book?” “Bernie and Me-A Paris Love Story!” After ten years of traveling to Paris and one LONG year of writing, editing, fretting, struggling in a steel brace for ten weeks with a broken patella, and getting my life back, our book is almost […]
Dear Friends, January is almost half over already, and I must admit that I’ve never been busier in my life! I slipped in conversation the other day and made reference to being “retired.” I and the friend I was with both burst out laughing as we simultaneously saw the ludicrousness of that statement. Marketing a […]
Dear Friends, Bernie and I were shocked to hear the news from Paris yesterday morning. The city we both love so much was violated in the worst kind of way, an attack on freedom of speech and freedom of the press. If there are any rights so vehemently defended by the French, it is those […]
Dear Friends and followers, Leaving Paris and reentering our normal lives is a bit like a flu shot. It is necessary but not fun. We had a totally stress-free travel day home, in fact arrived early at every juncture of the journey. To say that we are tired is an understatement, but it is an […]
Bonsoir mes amis, And now we are two. All of our company has departed, and it’s time to say farewell from Paris for 2014. This is our tenth year which is hard to believe. It has been a fast, furious stay filled with birthday memories, visits from family and friends, a river cruise, a cooking […]
Bonjour, We have so much to share with you today and the pictures tell the story. We had a lovely time with all the cousins yesterday as we visited the Jacquemart-Andre museum for a Perugin exhibit and lunch at the elegant tearoom, It was a first for the cousins who said, “You guys know Paris […]
Bonjour, It’s an early morning again for me as I find the best time to construct my blog post is while all of you and my guests are still asleep. It’s a rainy, cold day in Paris but lots of warm hearts around here to keep us enjoying ourselves. We greeted Pierre and Laurie Verdier […]
Bonjour, It is very early here in Paris and I’m trying to make sure I get in my blog post for yesterday. It was a marathon day and one to be cherished especially for Bernie. Remember that now we are 6, soon to be 8! Diane, Curt (Macon cousins), James, Stephen (Bernie’s son and partner) […]
Bonsoir mes amis, And now we are six… with the arrival yesterday of Bernie’s American cousins, Curt and Diane Brewer who live in Macon, GA. Their plane was early and they were at their lovely hotel, La Pavillon de la Reine, by 6am in the Place des Vosges. It was so early in the morning that […]
Bonjour, We are just steps away from the bustling Sunday market at the Bastille in the Marais. This morning, we thought it would make for great free entertainment for James and Stephen. They showed up at our door around 10am and we spent almost two hours meandering through the stalls of the various goods for […]
Bonjour mes amis, Well, it is summertime in Paris yesterday, today and tomorrow. Absolutely gorgeous, in the 70’s with blue skies, sunshine and masses of people out and about. What a treat given that it is November 1. For an autumn in Paris, this is not what we were expecting but certainly no complaints! Yesterday […]
Bonjour, Since we began our Paris trips ten years ago, we’ve always enjoyed having company. This year will be our marathon year for hosting both friends and family! Yesterday, Bernie was sure that our friends Jan Smith and Tony Porter would arrive around 3:30. They had been on the cruise with us but stayed over […]
Bonsoir, Today was the price we pay for having so much fun. We have changed beds, done four loads of laundry, scrubbed bathrooms, vacuumed, dusted, and packed! We are exhausted as we were preparing our rue St. Paul apartment for company arriving later this week. Actually, Bernie’s son is coming for the big birthday, and […]
Bonjour, How funny it seems to be living a Saturday in the fall without SEC football. I’m just noticing that the Alabama game begins at 9:30pm Paris time! Yikes. So Roll Tide and War Eagle to all the fans reading my blog. I actually pull for both sides until they play each other, and you […]
Bonjour, Today has been what the French refer to as “meli-melo”, a little of this and a little of that. This morning we did some reconnaissance around the different apartment that we will use for the last two weeks of our visit while company occupies our rue St. Paul spot. It is on a quiet […]
Bonjour mes amis, Thanks to Anne of Green Gables (via Matt Doss’ Facebook post today) for reminding us that it’s great to live in a world that has Octobers. Paris felt like fall today for the first time as we said hello to the second day of October. It was just a bit cooler, a […]
Bonjour, Every day begins with much the same wonderful question: “What shall we do today?” Usually I am the one who steers our activities but today Bernie suggested that we spend a day on the Left Bank visiting a new restaurant recommended by Jim & Peggy Bilbro, followed by a stroll around the area to […]
Bonjour, Today, we hit the jackpot with Fashion Week. The Chanel event was at 10:30 this morning at Le Grande Palais according to the internet. I convinced Bernie we should leave the apartment at 9:30 (he was not a fan), and off we went to discover whatever we could. I thought the Chanel show would […]
Bonjour mes amis, After a great night’s sleep, we awoke to a little rain this morning and cooler temps. Aha, an opportunity to wear some fall clothes, if even for the morning. It has been so much like summer that wardrobe has been challenging. It’s the “catch 22” of Paris, always wondering about how the […]