Well, Steven went to work on the morning of Friday May 12th. My job was to assemble items for a Eurostar on-board pic-nick, collect Patty & Bill, and get them to Waterloo Station. I managed to hail a taxi right on Golborne Road, the folks were waiting on the stoop of their B&B, there was little traffic, we reached the station by 12:15, and I retrieved the tickets without a hitch. Then I realized I had forgotten my passport at home. Raced to Notting Hill Gate on the tube and hailed a taxi which waited downstairs while I ran inside, then headed back. Got through security just as the boarding announcement was made.
The ride was good. Every time the train went through a tunnel Patty asked if it was the Chunnel. We reviewed some Paris materials I had collected, looked at maps, etc. After checking in to our hotel we walked to Boulevard St. Germain and had an aperitif at
Les Deux Magots before taking a taxi over to
Au Bon Accueil for dinner with Kath & “cousin” Katherine. The Eiffel Tower loomed over the end of the block and did its glittery thing as we left the restaurant. We were so close we decided to stroll over (and under) before dropping P&B at the hotel and heading to the Marais to meet our friend Kerem (Turkish guy we met in Istanbul).
Bill’s appetizer
Glittering
The next morning there was some drama: Patty’s passport was missing. No Eurostar lost & found on weekends. Ditto the previous night’s restaurant: fermé. The American embassy is also closed on weekends but of course has a 24/7 help line. We found out that they open at 9am on Monday and that it would take 4 hours to get a replacement. The only problem was that our flight to London departed at 10:50am and Patty & Bill’s flight to Glasgow departed an hour later. So we rescheduled their flight to the next day and they were faced with the prospect of a day and night in Paris on their own.
We headed over to Ile de la Cîté and gorgeous
Sainte-Chapelle, which elicited appropriate gasps. After lunch at a place across the street (where Bill had a mind-expanding European cultural experience you’ll have to ask him about), we strolled through the flower market, past Notre-Dame, and across to
Ile St-Louis (“Ice Cream Island”) for some
Berthillon goodies.
Back on the Left Bank we left P&B to rest and took a speedy stroll around the ’hood.
French graffiti
Returning to the hotel to collect the folks for dinner, we learned of the discovery of the passport. In the passport holder. I won’t tell who put it there or who found it. Glasgow flight switched back to Monday. Water under the bridge. We headed to Les Deux Magots for our aperitif.
On the way
“Mosquito”
French EANABs
Our dining mission was to conquer a plateau des fruits de mer at
La Coupole.
Deco floor
More floor
The plateau
Exhausted after a nearly silent dinner spent concentrating on the intense labor of using specialized tools to extract various sea creatures from their respective enclosures, we returned to our hotel and collapsed.
The next morning we breakfasted at
Ladurée. Insane. Follow the link. You’ll see. Then we walked down to the
Luxembourg Gardens and spent a while just sitting before inspecting the toy sailboat operation. After checking out the Statue of Liberty’s Mini-Me, we miraculously found a taxi and headed over to
Place des Vosges. After lunch we took a peek at the
Pompidou Center, which I thought Bill would get a kick out of (he did).
Li’l Lady
Knife rack
Green broom!
Pompidou
We then had an opportunity to check out an area we hadn’t visited before: sort of north Marais/
Montorgueil...
Decorative grill
Patina
Baroque
Dinner was back on Ile St-Louis at
Mon Vieil Ami. It was fab.
Veal belly
Rognions
Quack
Coffee
Berries
Au revoir, Paris!
Hotel stairs
Steven at Flavin retrospective
Graffiti w/ xerox photo
Tagines from Tagine
Reading Room
Enlightenment Gallery
keep out!
we mean it!
This one's for Bill O.
At the local butcher
Gasworks everywhere
Graffiti
Liverpool St. Station
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