Monday, July 28
Our guidebook has several guided walks, so we decided to try one today. We relaxed for a lot of the morning then took a walk around the Faubourg St-Antoine area. Starting at our studio, we walked (sauntered, actually, the weather has been quite warm the past few days) to the Bastille, or rather what used to be the Bastille. Since the prison was torn down to start the Revolution in 1789, there's nothing there but a tall monument in a big roundabout. We then walked along the Port de Plaisance, location of the Paris yacht club and docking place for lots of pleasure boats, and the Paris Arsenal garden with its pretty flowers, cobblestone streets and antique lampposts.
We then proceeded to the Avenue Domesnil and the Viaduc des Arts. This looked to Claire like Paris' version of Showplace Square, the "to-the-trade" interior design shops of San Francisco. In 1859 the Paris Viaduct was built to take a railroad line that linked this district with the suburbs. In 1994 it was revamped to house 50 shops and studios devoted to all sorts of arts and crafts--everything you need to decorate your home in style, from hand-woven fabrics, rugs, furniture designer/makers and restorers, to floor coverings & decorative tile, kitchen & bathroom items, plus fine painting, sculpture, glass, porcelain, as well as more personal items like jewelry, lace, leather bags, ribbons, embroidery thread, buttons. The window shopping was fantastic.
After a delicious lunch at the Viaduc Cafe we retraced our steps back to the Bastille (two stories up this time) along the Promenade Plantee, a lovely rooftop walkway landscaped with roses, lavender, bamboo, hollyhocks and more. Because of the heat, walking back required another cafe interlude for Perrier and a teensy weensy cup of French cafe.
For dinner we returned to Cafe Framboisy, where we had such a wonderful lunch last week. The dinner was as good as we expected. It was a hot and humid evening, so sitting outside was comfortable and people watching was fun. Just as we finished eating, a thunderstorm hit, cooling things off considerably. We walked home (2 blocks) in a lull of the storm and only got slightly wet. The cafe's owner, Francoise, speaks excellent English with a slight German accent. We asked her about this and found that she went to school in Germany and spoke lots of English while there. Also, her partner is an American from the LA area and we had a nice conversation with him.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
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