More Photos

The Metro entrance nearest our apartment.

Love the Metro signage.

A newer terminal.

The Musée Montmartre. Not open while we were here. But a cool street to walk along.

If you don't take the funicular, you get to use the steps. At moments like this, we're glad we're young.

Still loving the signage.

lf it hadn't been so cold, I would love to have waited around to see the look on the client's faces when they saw their portrait. Maybe they were thrilled. Maybe it looked great when it was finished. Maybe he's an undiscovered genius. Maybe I shouldn't criticize until I've tried doing portraits in sub-freezing weather.

Place du Tertre, again.

On the way home, Robin takes a break at Place du Tertre on a cold night.

Robin at the top of a long stretch of steps. 

Speaking of steps, Robin leaves the apartment. Just seven floors to go.

Robin at Place du Tertre, on the walk home.

Miscellaneous Paris Photos

Art along a long set of steps going up the hill to Place du Tertre, shown below.

Not many artists here in the winter. When spring and summer get here, this place is seething with artists.

An interesting mosaic in the Metro.

One of the cafes that surround Place du Tertre. In warmer weather there would be an accordion player in this photo.

Eiffel Tower from the edge of Place du Tertre.

Same shot without zoom. Santa Fe needs a landmark like this. Oh wait, I forgot... there's already a concrete obelisk on the Plaza. Never mind.

Hazy view from Place du Tertre.

The funicular is handy if you're too tired to climb stairs. We used it last night on the way home from Musée d'Orsay. 

Exterior of the Hope Cafe (the one near our apartment, not the one in Hope, Arksansas).

Exterior of La Maison Rose, where we had a mid-afternoon snack a couple of days ago.

La Maison Rose. 

Place du Tertre at night. One lonely artist braves the sub-freezing weather.

Saturday in Paris

Got a late start today. Felt great. Musée d'Orsay, and its great great collection of Impressionists paintings is on today's list. Stopped on the way to the Metro for lunch at the Hope Cafe (not the one in Hope, Arkansas... the one in the Montmartre arrondissement of Paris). 

The Hope Cafe. I had a hamburger. Very very good. Maybe just a half-notch below Santa Fe's famous Bobcat Bite. I hope they open another location in Uxbridge (where our London apartment is). 

Some of those massive-looking apartment building aren't quite as large as they look from the sidewalk.

Lots of cool looking buildings everywhere.

It was mid-afternoon by the time we got to Musée d'Orsay and the admission line was long. Fortunately it moved fairly quickly.

The Musée d'Orsay was originally a train station.

A giant clock looks out on the Paris landscape.

Back to the Metro to work our back to Montmartre where we hope to grab a snack and relax before returning to our 7th floor walk-up apartment.

We decided to stop at Le Consulate, right in the heart of Montmartre. It's down this street where the street curves.

Le Consulate in the daylight.

Robin at Le Consulate.

Relaxing at Le Consulate.

Robin again, a view looking toward the front door. When Robin ordered paté, she asked the young waiter if bread came with it. He said "Mademoiselle, if I serve paté in France without bread, I will be killed." After a snack and a long break, we walked back to the apartment.

I hope to have time tomorrow morning to post some remaining photos that I missed, before we leave for the train station at noon. 

Au revoir.

Catching Up On Photos

After Friday's visit to the Cézanne exhibit, we walked to the Louvre Museum. Not to go to the Louvre, but to find the Apple Store that's supposed to be nearby. 

As long as we're at the Louvre, we might as well go in the gift shop since I'm looking for another sketchpad. This place is amazing even if you don't buy a ticket to go in. Just enter thru the glass pyramid and wander around the public areas. Or hang out in the vast courtyard outside... if it's not 17° like it was Friday afternoon.

Back at the apartment, with a wee fee connection, Google told us the Apple Store was on the north side of the Louvre. We went there, searched to the right, then to the left. Nothing. We finally asked a sidewalk vendor and it seems there's an upscale mall under the Louvre, and that's where the Apple shrine, I mean store, is.

This inverted pyramid is a skylight that mirrors the shape of the main entrance glass pyramid. Lots of people have their photo taken here. pretending they're holding up the inverted pyramid.

Is this spot special or what?

The iconic pyramid entrance and a tiny fraction of the Louvre courtyard.

When you walk through one of the passages that connect the courtyard with the streets on north and south sides of the complex, giant glass windows let you see some of the exhibit space inside.

The mall beneath the Louvre. 

Stopped in the mall's Starbucks for a latte, a rest break and to use their wee fee connection.

Inside the main entrance pyramid.

As we walked across town we saw another smiley cat painting on the side of a building. Turns out he's Mr. Cat and he's famous. He shows up here, New York, Amsterdam. The creator was anonymous for a long time, but finally was outed. The whole store is at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._Chat

There are 60 Mr Cats in Paris, mostly on chimneys. 

Dinner At Chez Francis

Two Americans at an undisclosed location.

The view above is outside of Chez Fancis where dinner was included as part of our Crazy Horse show tickets. The dinner was pretty darn awesome. 

The food was as good as the ambience.

Chez Francis. The Metro entrance is just a few steps away. Crazy Horse is a couple of doors down the sidewalk.

The view from Chez Francis.

Smoked salmon starter. A full meal already. Hope the main dish is small.

After dinner we went to the Crazy Horse show. It was fun, the dancers were beautiful, but the stage and venue is much smaller than the Moulin Rouge show we saw some years ago. The show went for a cutting edge techno feel in choreography, lighting, and music. 

We enjoyed the show, and I'm not one to complain when almost-naked women are running around onstage, but the Moulin Rouge show and venue is more the classic Parisian cabaret experience you might be looking for.

Lunch With A Hollywood Star

After the Cezanne exhibit, Robin and I made our way over to the Cafe de Flore, one of the most famous cafes in Paris since the 1800s.

As we enjoyed our quiches, wine, and hot tea, I recognized someone a couple of tables away having lunch with a couple of women. A Hollywood movie/TV star. I was going to post his name, then thought "What if he's here on a secret project, what if he's enjoying anonymity and doesn't want to be outed?" Oh well, it's not like he's the top of the A list, so it's not that big a deal. But still...

 Cafe de Flore reeks of Paris Cafe-ness. Still popular, good food, and great service (older men who seem to have been here for decades, or longer.

On the walk from the Cezanne exhibit, we passed another street artist painting of the very cool smiley kitty.

The Two Magots has been the rival cafe to Cafe de Flore for a hundred years plus. The two cafes are just a half block apart.

Hot tea and wine on the cafe placemats. 

That was the first half of the day. 

Part 2 coming soon. Headin' to Crazy Horse.

An Exciting Early Morning Friday Start

We set our alarms for 7 a.m. so we could catch the Metro to the part of town where we have tickets to a Cezanne exhibit at 10 a.m. Things were going smoothly until we got to the elevator on our floor (7th floor) and pushed the button. No elevator. We take the stairwell, get down one flight and run into a woman with a small kid and a baby in a heavy stroller coming into the small, circular stairwell, trying to get down the stairs. Robin convinces her to take the baby out of the stroller and carry it, and I carry the stroller down. Halfway down the stairwell lights go off (on a timer and don't stay on long). Fortunately I was near a stairwell door and found another light switch and turned them back on.

We got back to the apartment late afternoon, elevator still broken. No sign of elevator repairmen. Our apartment is now a 7th floor walk-up. For that kind of real Paris experience, you usually have to pay extra, I hear.

The early morning train was just what I hoped for: standing room only and get to watch people try to force their way through the crowd and get to the subway doors before they close again. Great entertainment. Unfortunateley, most people got off the stop before ours and we just walked off the train without having to wedge thru or even say "pardon, pardon."

When we got off the Metro and got above ground, we were at a nice street market. The meat vendor was obviously from a long line of salesmen. I almost bought some raw meat on the way to the Cezanne exhibit. 

The museum was a relatively short walk from here. We got there early enough to go to a nearby cafe and have coffee.

The exhibit was great. Got to see some famous paintings up close and learned a lot about the artist. Didn't know he died in his late 60s because he was painting outside, got caught in a rain storm, caught pneumonia and died. 

We soon leave for the trek to the Crazy Horse show and dinner.