Paris - Day 2

Day 2 – Friday August 27^th

We had ordered our breakfast to be delivered to our room at 7:30.  It arrived promptly, and Chris learned why Jane had chosen the bed farthest from the door – it was so that CHRIS was the one who had to get up to let the breakfast deliverer into the room.  Crafty girl….

Our breakfast, as it did every morning, consisted of 4 bread/croissants each, fresh squeezed OJ, plain yogurt, an assortment of condiments and ‘American’ coffee (somewhere between real coffee and espresso). 


This morning we began a pattern that repeated itself several times throughout our stay - get up long enough to drink our coffee before it goes cold, then lay back down for a few extra winks before we really get up.

(Jane adds: It was really a decadent feeling.)

(Jane adds: They also gave us cheese, fresh butter and assorted designer jams.  We would save some of it for lunches and the birds, (pictures to follow))

Le Marais

Jane and I decided that today we would tour the section of Paris called Le Marais, which means literally The Marsh.  It was to le Marais that the citizens of the Ille de Cite migrated around the 13^th C when the Ille became too crowded.  Since then it has gone through the ups and downs of many urban areas, being the aristocratic center in the 17^th C, seeing a downfall as the aristocracy opted for places like Fauberg St- Germain in the 18^th C, etc.  It is seeing a resurgence in popularity again and is a popular area for artists and such. 

(Jane adds some history:  This area is also the thriving hub of Paris’s gay life as well as literary, artistic and entertainment crowds.  From the end of the 100 year war beginning with Charles VII, the Marais became the home of the French kings, living in the Palais de Tournelles.  That was until Henri II was killed in a jousting tournament.  His grieving widow, Catherine de Medici, was so heartbroken, she had the palace torn down and replaced with a horse market.  Henri IV decided he wanted to build another palace and started with a grand square surrounded by stone and brick pavilions.  Unfortunately Ravaillac dashed the palace dreams by assassinating Henri, but the grand square remains today.) 

(Chris adds:  Jousting, assassinations, so much blood.  Reminds me that Jane bought a pretty hilareous book called A Bloody History of Paris, or something like that.

We very much enjoyed the neighborhood feel of the Marais.  In particular we enjoyed strolling along the Place de Vosges, touted as Paris’s oldest square.  One walks under arch covered walkways covering the old brick and stone pavilions that house artists’ galleries, eateries and trendy upscale shops. 

(More cool history from Jane: These are the pavilions that Henri built.  It is interesting that the 36 rooms (now stores) have an arched opening façade that has a height exactly equal to the width and the peaked roofs of each arch is exactly half as tall as the façade opening.  This was also the one time homes for Hugo, Daudet and Gautier.)

It was not too crowded, and we enjoyed a glass of wine in one of their outdoor cafes as we listened to a young man play beautiful clarinet to a taped symphonic accompaniment.  He was really quite good and we slipped a euro into his hat. 

Jane is looking back at the clarinet player from our table.  We also bought a couple of nice paintings from a vendor nearby who took our photo for us – the only one of the two of us we got in the whole trip, I believe. 

(Jane notes: Chris, you need a new camera.  I know that a camera is supposed to add 10 lbs but yours add 30 to each of us.)

(to which Chris responds:  Indeed, I’m quite sure I had my camera on the 'wide bum' setting.)

Below are pictures from an architectural detail found in the

gardens of the Hotel Betune - Sully adjacent to the Place des Vosges

Walking on from Place des Vosges, we had a falafel lunch in the Jewish quarter, the last remaining vestige of a once thriving Jewish community in Paris, pre WWII. 


(Jane say: Actually it still looked pretty thriving to me.  There was an abundance of black hats and yarmulkes and ethnic food.  It was really hard to pick which restaurant to go to.)

After the Marais we spent a short time in the Louvre, looking again at the medieval artistry (almost entirely church related) that Chris loved so much from the last trip.  It still somehow draws her.  Perhaps she lived during that time in a previous life.   

Here are two of the odder items of that exhibit.

 I call this one 'My Tummy Hurts'.  Apparently, after the folks in that era wearied of the idealized funerary monuments, they became enamored of the realism genre which depicted what actually happens to the body after death.  The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out. 

This I lovingly call, 'Why One Doesn't Stand Naked Over One's Dog'

DON’T YOU BELIEVE IT!

It was as we were getting ready to enter the Louvre that we encountered our first ‘dropped ring’ scam artist.  It would not be the last time.  It goes like this.  Someone walks past you, leans over and presumably picks up a gold looking ring from the ground and asks if it’s yours.  You say no, it isn’t yours, look at it inquisitively and hand it back to the person.  They offer for you to keep it saying it’s your lucky day.  They start to walk away then turn back around and ask, since you’ve been so lucky as to be given a gold ring, if you wouldn’t be able to spare some money so this person could eat. 

As I say – DON”T YOU BELIEVE IT!

(Jane relays a harrowing tale….. Sometimes I wonder about my sister’s sanity.  All of these scams are pretty well orchestrated, like holding your child and begging right next to an ATM, so obviously there is an underground movement.  As we are heading back to our hotel one evening, we see the same perps trying their game on some fresh tourists across the street.  So here is my sister across three lanes of traffic, waving her arms and yelling “No, don’t do it, it’s a scam!!!”  I look at her in abject horror waiting for the Gypsy Mafia to recreate the St. Valentine’s Day massacre on this heroic female trying to foil their plans.  I didn’t walk past that place for a few days.)

Architecture and Oddities

Paris abounds with beautiful architectural details.  I’m talking serious architectural overload.  During our walks this day, Chris couldn’t help capturing some pictures of the Samaritaine building.  Notice the reflected scenes in the store windows as well as the art nouveau tiling.

And by the way, Parisians read seriously bizarre stuff.

By the end of the day it became clear we were still under the influence of EDT. We were pretty pooped out, so for dinner we found a nice outdoor café near the hotel and ate some good soupe a l’oignon and wine.  There we met two kindred spirits in the form of Mary Jo and Phillipe.  They had fun trying out their little bit of English with us, and we had fun trying out our little bit of French with them.  We bought them a round of wine and talked about American and French movies/actors/actresses.  She was all agog over Edward Norton, of all people.  Well, I guess someone has to be.

(Jane notes: One misses so much if they don’t get out and enjoy the people and the ambiance.)

Dancing the Two Step

Our room had two short steps that went from the level where our beds were to the level where the bathroom was.  The first night, being extremely dark in the room, Chris missed the steps entirely coming back from the bathroom and was fortunate not to re-sprain her ankle (which she sprained a few months earlier by missing a step in her house), or break something else equally as valuable. 

After that, each time one of us came back to bed in the dark the other one called out ‘two steps’ so we wouldn’t faw’ down, go boom.  

(Jane adds:  The other person would invariably wake up because you almost had to crawl over one another to get to the bathroom, and if that didn’t do it, the toilet flushing would.  It was never an option not to flush because one of us always prefers a fresh bowl. So I would rather hear that than the consideration of trying to let me sleep.  Food for thought, if Chris took two steps to get up to the bathroom, wouldn’t it be logical that there would be two steps down?)

(Ha ha.  Very funny)