Paris... one of our second homes
We flew from Budapest to Paris. We look forward to our return to Paris. We will be staying in "our" apartment located off rue Montorgueil, which we think is one of the top areas to stay when in Paris. Not a tourist street, it is lined with cafes, bakeries, even a hardware store. Great street life here.
The Rue Montorgueil neighborhood is a small section of the Châtelet-Les Halles district, located at the city center. North of Rue Montorgueil is the area known as the Grands Boulevards; directly south is the Saint-Eustache Cathedral and Les Halles. It is considered one of Paris's permanent market streets, offering a wide range of fresh high-quality foods.
After close to 20 visits to Paris we don't have to get up in a rush to knock off a specific number of tourist locations. We can take out time and casually select an area of the city we want to explore. For me, I have a number of photography spots that I routine visit. Not to capture them for the first time, but just in case something unique can be captured.
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This year I wrote one of the photographers on Instagram who lives in Paris, to let him know I would be in Paris and asked if he wanted to go on a photo walk. He did, and Vincent Marcolla (https://www.instagram.com/vincentmarcolla/) and I headed out for a long walk along the Seine. We walked to the the Pont de Bercy, a beautiful bridge that I had not visited on previous times in Paris. We walked and talked for over five hours as if we had known each other for years! Great thing how photography brings people together.
Sometimes just walking leads to places you previously looked for and could not find! The evening walk along the river had rue Cremieux just appear. This is a street of old homes painted in pastel colours is written up in many tourist articles on Paris. The aspect I did not like was the paper signs in windows saying "No Photography". I get it, it can be rough living at at tourist location, but really!
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On each time in Paris we always seem to encounter something new, some location we have never before visited. This year we headed out to see rue de Lévi, a street noted for its market. Well it was a couple of notches below rue Montorgueil but pleasant enough. While there we had lunch at the cafe, Dome - a trendy cafe that was packed. The street has numerous market stores and on the morning we were there the street had numerous outdoor market vendors adding the the festive mood.
The day before we were leaving Karen pointed out an optical store I had not previously visited. Eye Show, 75 - 70 rue Montmartre, 75002 Paris. Well, they had a number of frames that interested me. In the end it came down to two different colours of blue, and I decided it would be best to go outside in the natural light to see what the frames looked like. While out on the street, Karen called over to people sitting in the outdoor patio and asked that they thought. Sure enough, people came over, they all offered very solid opinions with reasons as to a preference and the same was concluded! Who says people in Paris aren't friendly!
We had a good lunch at a very busy and trendy cafe:
Le Dome
4 avenue de Villiers
75017 Paris
Our friends, Chris & Carmen Grant were in Paris for two of the days that we where in Paris, on one night we went for dinner in a great little restaurant not far from the Palais Royal:
Le Petit Machon
158 rue St. Honoré
75001 Paris
+33 1 42 60 08 06
We ate at this restaurant last year with our friends Mike & Margot from Vancouver and Jacques and Vannarith from Paris. It was a very good meal in a charming setting. We were not disappointed this year either. We ate late, so the restaurant was not crowded, the French doors were open allowing a slight breeze to float through the restaurant. Our meets were very good either either the roast veal or duck being selected. Our server suggested a very nice, and very affordable bottle of red wine. The next night with Chris and Carmen I shopped at La Maison Stohrer, a very old and established pâtisserie in business since 1730. Expensive but good.
We liked Le Petit Machon so much we decided that as a gift to celebrate the wedding of our friends we would give them a gift certificate to the restaurant. In North American this is a common occurrence, but we found out not so in Paris. After much explanation the person at the restaurant got the idea that we would pre-pay for the meal. We received a business card with "Free Meal" written on the back, and it was written in the reservation book, the bible of restaurants, their names and "Free Meal". We are confident all will work out.
Our last day in Paris was relaxing. In the morning I did a long walk down rue St. Denis, one of the oldest streets in Paris. It was charming. Very authentic. There are numerous old passages which now many are decaying but have an interesting aspect. I was there too early in the morning and many were locked. I am going to explore this street in more detail on my next visit to Paris.
Then the day to leave arrived. Our driver arriver as scheduled and we were off to the airport and then the non-stop flight to Vancouver on Air France.
Wonderful trip. Il était très bon d'être de retour à Paris. Nous ne pouvons pas attendre l'année prochaine.
© Glenn Marcus
my travels in FRANCE, ITALY AND BEYOND!