Saturday, April 25, 2015

Walking Around Paris, Lighting Candles at Saint Sulpice

Statue of Belgian King Albert I high among the flowering branches

Les Invalides, the Tricolor, and Louix XIV

Inside Sainte Clotilde, a 19th century version of Gothic design

Saint Clotilde

My favorite wisteria on Rue Barbet de Jouy

The building where Simone de Beauvoir lived near Montparnasse Cemetery

Vavin Metro

Saint Sulpice (which loomed large in "The Da Vinci Code"

Tiny dog defending the huge doors of Saint Sulpice

Inside Saint Sulpice, candles and prayer

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Around the Passages of Paris Today: Funky, Weird, Wonderful and even Exquisite

This is an old engraving shop turned into an Italian restaurant. What the winged wolf with the emerald necklace has to do with either I am not sure.

Gesture through frosted glass.

One of many beautiful prints in many print shops.


The rear of the wax museum, next to the Hotel Chopin.

A shop specializing in umbrellas, canes, and moose antlers, it would seem.

Another shop specializes in postcards and letters from the front in World War I


And nearby, the Bourse, the old stock exchange that is, now, mostly empty thanks to digital technology.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Lighting a Candle and Chasing the Setting Sun: From St. Germain des Prés to the Louvre


I was walking by St. Germain des Prés and thought I would light another candle for my ailing friend.

It's the one on the second row near the middle, just under the little red one.
After that, I walked down Rue Bonaparte and thought, as I always think when I pass this façade, "So much for history."

And then, walking across the Pont des Arts, I saw the sun going down over the Seine, as spectacular as I have ever seen it.

7:30 pm: Walkers, runners, friends, lovers along the banks of the river. What a glorious evening.

7:34 pm: This huge red orb at the end of the quai.

7:35 pm: Now I was running, afraid I would miss the show, and saw this through the windows of the Louvre from the Cour Carré


And then, the sun was gone, and the twilight lingered for what seemed hours.

I walked through the Richelieu wing past this lonely trumpet player, took the Metro and went home.

Sunday morning around the Etoile in Paris France





Saturday, April 18, 2015

April in Paris: Walked up to Sacré Coeur Today to Light a Candle

Started at Opéra

Through the Galerie Vivienne 


The Passage des Panoramas

I fantasize about staying in this hotel in the Passage Jouffroy

Up rue des Martyrs

Up the 250-some steps ... 

Put a large candle in front of a demure Virgin (there's a chrome Madonna, but thought her a bit much)
Up the stairs to the dome

Hadn't noticed the pigeon droppings sprouting new life before ... 

Selfies on the edge ... 

The view of Paris from the dome of Sacré Coeur

On the way down


Made a pit stop at Aux Deux Moulins, which figures in the movie "Amélie." This is in the toilet.