My mind is in Paris this morning. My old friend CHM is supposed to arrive there this morning for a three-month stay, and other friends will be there on vacation toward the end of May. I myself plan to go spend two or three days dans la capitale toward the end of the month.
These are some photos I took early on a February evening several years ago. I don't think I've ever posted them before. As you can see, the natural light was fading but interior lighting gave the shops a nice glow.
The neighborhood is more or less the one where CHM has his apartment. He grew up there. I've gotten to know it better over the past 20 years. Maybe you recognize the street. It's a famous shopping area.
I'm seriously considering renting a car for my upcoming trip to Paris, rather than taking the train. CHM plans to come back to Saint-Aignan with me when I return, and having a car would make the traveling a lot easier for both of us. It will be a holiday weekend, and if we plan it right we'll get into and out of Paris without hitting all the holiday traffic jams.
Parking in the city — in this neighborhood, anyway — should be easy on a weekend when many Parisians have four days off work or school and will have left town for the coast or the countryside. It's never inexpensive to park a car in Paris, but the main thing is to be able to find a parking space near where you are staying.
Rue Cler is the street that Seattle guidebook author Rick Steves (and his francophone/francophile sidekick Steve Smith) promote the most as the best place to stay in Paris. You see a lot of the blue-bound Rick Steves books being carried by Americans there, and for good reason; the street is classically Parisian with small shops and quintessential sidewalk cafés and restaurants. What a great area in which to spend some time.
ReplyDeleteAu fait, Ken, ça te dérangerait de m'envoyer un télégramme des P.T.T., juste à côté du bar du même nom? :-)
Do telegrams still exist? I think they've been replaced by blog comments...
DeleteLovely pictures from Paris, thank you.
ReplyDeleteDe rien.
DeleteI loved these glowing photos. It's cool to see photos from this dusk-y time of day. I hope that chm's flight has finally happened -- is the strike still going on?
ReplyDeleteJudy, the news is reporting that the Air France pilots' strike is over, before it ever began. According to the AF web site, the problem with CHM's flight yesterday was technical or mechanical. I assume he arrived in Paris this morning, but I don't know yet.
ReplyDeleteAF039 ( Airbus 380) scheduled to leave Dulles yesterday at 4 PM was cancelled. There was another scheduled flight later last night at 9 PM.
DeleteHope AF did not send CHM on a milk run via ATL or JFK or Detroit from VA to Paris
Your plans sound perfect! Hello to CHM!
ReplyDeleteThe one and only time we've been in a private car in Paris was with you. We got to go around the Arc de Triomphe!
ReplyDeleteChris, I hope that trip was exciting but not to scarey. I'm less of a daredevil in my driving these days.
DeleteKen, that trip around the Arc and to La Defense was perfect and not scary at all.
ReplyDelete