Paris day 06

The Trip is almost over, so many places to go, to see, people to see.
I apologies for the people I could not call or forgot to tell I was in France.

Anyway, this morning, the chorus from the church next to our flat woke me up. So got out to buy some croissant. But I could not find one bakery. The only one there was was closed for the holidays. I wandered around for about half an hour and found a fake bakery who made some.












on my way to the bakery :









My favorite lingerie shop







An interesting restaurant.






The statue of Jeanne d'Arc.


After breaksfast we went out to go to some more stores.











The Opera Garnier.


We went in the mall center inside the Louvre Museum called Le Carrousel du Louvre.
By the way, if the line for the museum is too long outside, you have another entrance through this door. Time saver.





















Ekin's favorite car (Audi A2)















The Tuileries Garden.

Le Musée du Louvre.



Some cops on a stake out.









We walked all the way to the left bank and went to the Saint-Germain district.



















Stopped at Léon de Bruxelles where we ate some nice mussels from Brussels.
It's a Belgian restaurant but there's only one in Belgium and a dozen in Paris. Interesting, isn't it ?

































Please eat a Special Léon Waffel. Too good.


Ekin paid tribute to Skull-a-day with the chocolate cream I left









Then we met with Alex and Zied and finally got to ride those vélib' bicycle thing.
So what is it. The city of Paris put bicycles parks at every corners (sort of speak) that you can rent for periods of 24 hours. If you're living in Paris and have a subway pass, you can use your pass to get one by just passing your pass on a bike. It will then charge you there.
If you are a tourist, you can use your credit card. It's very simple. It will charge you 1 euro for the 24 hours period but will then charge you extra every hour. The trick is that the first half hour is free, so if you change your bike every 29 minutes you can go around for 24 hours for only one euro. You can then drop your bike at whatever bike park. If you can find an empty spot.































The Panthéon


From Notre-Dame, through, Bastille, Place des Vosges, Le Marais...




































We left our bike at a parking place in the Marais district and went to Amorino to eat the best Italian ice cream in Paris. I took the Nutella one, it's excellent.









Then we had a drink at L'étoile manquante (the missing star). I love their restroom. They have a picture of a building where you can see inside the home. And they put a train railway and can sometime see the train go around. Goes to the ladies room and comes through here and so forth.











Took another bike and went on through Paris. Place Vendôme, Place de la Concorde.


























Hotel Crillon (one of the most expensive hotel in France).


To the Champs-Elysées where we left Alex and Zied and then went back by the Alexander III bridge, Le Grand-Palais, Le Louvre and Châtelet.
















































Then riding the subway we went to the apartment in Pyrénées to finish cleaning up and then went back home at around 2 a.m. We made it to Châtelet with the last subway then took another bike to go home and sleep.

Paris day 05 - post 1

Today is another busy day. We left Zied's flat to go settle to my parents' friends' flat near the Tuileries Garden by the Louvre Museum.







This is very wealthy neighborhood. We were on Rue Saint-Honoré. Ekin used to work there when we were living in Paris. So we decided to buy some Chinese food at this little little Chinese convenient store.
So in France, we have new Coca Cola flavors since we last came. Cherry & Zero. They told me that Zero was like the Diet Coke but for men. But I guess it's different since it doesn't have aspartame either. Anyway, the best Coca Cola is the original one. Please drink with moderation.



















We grabbed our food and went to the nearby Tuileries Garden made by the King as gift to his wife. Pretty cool.










































As you can see the weather is still cold. around -5°C (23°F).
The building in the back is the Orsay Museum. It used to be a train station and was build for the World's Fair of 1900. It was supposed to be temporary so that people would have an easier access to the Grand and Petit-Palais (see down) where part of the fair was hold.
It was never taken down and was turn into a museum in 1977.
It is actually made of steel construction, the stones being just for the eyes.

After this nice meal we headed toward the Grand-Palais where different exhibitions are held.



















Le Petit-Palais.








Inside le Grand-Palais.















Those two buildings were also built to last temporarily to host the 1900 World's Fair. As the Musée d'Orsay they weren't taken down and were later turned into museums. The left wing used to host a branch of the Sorbonne University where foreign languages classes took place.
I actually studied Swedish and Russian there for 2 years. Then it was shut down and the building went through extensive renovations to replace the glass ceiling.
It's the first time I saw the new ceiling since this part of the museum reopened in 2005.

Nearby you can see the Alexander III bridge who was also made for the 1900 World's Fair which is a replica of a bridge in Saint Petersburg (I think). The Eiffel Tower was made for this fair as well and was supposed to last 10 years. The goal of the architect (Gustave Eiffel) was to show what we could do with steel construction at the time. Television saved it from destruction since it was used as an antenna for the whole area.




Front of the Grand-Palais.
A exhibition about trains is held in this part.









Side of le Grand Palais.


We visited an exhibition about design on this side (Design against Design, 200 years of creation). It was very very nice but pictures weren't allowed.







ice ice ice.



Then we went up the Champs-Elysées to meet with my parents and my nephew Lucas.







Where we stopped at the Renault Store to have a drink. They did some magic tricks with a car (a real one) by making it fly and turn around in the air, so my nephew was really amazed.












Concept car Renault Zoé.









After leaving them we went to visit the Virgin Mega store right across the street.












After worth we went back to the Lafayette dpt store to buy some last things and walked to our new place by going through Rue de la Paix (the most expensive street on the Monopoly board game), where all the jewelry stores are.
On the picture is the Vendôme Column on the Vendôme Square where the Ritz Hotel is.












Ekin paused with this original Chagall painting we saw in this gallery right at the corner from rue de la Paix and rue Saint-Honoré.









... see next post...