Le Marché de l'Avenue de Saxe

A while back I mentioned the photos I took back in early July at the Marché de l'Avenue de Saxe in the 7th arrondissement in Paris, near the Hôtel des Invalides, and not far from the Eiffel Tower. I said I'd post the photos, but they kind of got lost in the Paris scenes shuffle. Now I'm getting to them.

Shopping and working up an appetite on a beautiful morning in Paris

The view up the Avenue de Saxe, Paris 7e

The open-air Avenue de Saxe market sets up on Thursday and Saturday mornings, just off the west side of the Place de Breteuil. This is a beau quartier and it's an upscale market. Prices can be pretty high, but the displays of vegetables, fruit, fish, and meats are beautiful and enticing.

Focusing on fish for lunch

There's nothing like going to this kind of market during the morning before lunch, especially on a pretty day. You'll find your appetite is really enhanced after you've looked around for a few minutes and picked out what you want to serve and eat for the mid-day meal.

These are the makings for ratatouille — poivrons, aubergines, courgettes, et tomates

Artichauts, petits pois, carottes, et pommes de terre nouvelles

The Saturday morning in early July when I went to the market, I didn't really need to buy anything. CHM, who lives nearby, had already planned our lunch. He stayed home to cook while I went out for my walk and photo shoot. I have more photos for another day...

Le Louvre, and that balloon

I'm winding down my Paris series, though I still have a few days to go in August and plenty of photos that I haven't published yet. Bear with me. This is the Louvre, seen from the other side of the Seine, showing the Pont du Carrousel. Earlier I posted this closeup view.

And about that photo of the hot-air balloon yesterday: here's another shot of it and the moon, taken a few seconds after I took the one where the balloon had just passed across the moon. I just want to show you how far from the house it was. The montgolfière was moving along at a pretty brisk clip over the vineyard.

I took the photo through the bedroom window, with the camera at full zoom. I was lucky that the photo was as sharp as it was — which was not very...

Double whammy

Paris

Saint-Aignan

I love both. And Callie loves both the moon and the balloon.

She went crazy yesterday morning when she saw both at the same time.

The top photo shows the Porte Saint-Martin, seen from near Arts et Métiers.

Four photos from the Fourth Third

It was July 6 and I was in Paris for the first time in two years. It's hard to believe Walt and I live so close to Paris and hardly every go there any more. When we lived in San Francisco, between the late 1980s and 2003, hardly a year ever went by without a trip to Paris. Some years, we made the trip twice.

I spent that Saturday afternoon out walking around the city. I wandered through the Marais, which is the 3rd and 4th arrondissements. The café above is at the corner of the rue de la Perle and the rue Vieille du Temple.

Did you know that there is a Hôtel de Saint-Aignan in Paris? There is, and that's it above. It's on the rue du Temple. In French, « hôtel » means of course a hotel as in English, but it also means a grand house in a city. The Hôtel de Ville in Paris is, for example, city hall.

The Hôtel is Saint-Aignan was a residence, and now it is a museum. The figure above is what you see on the big carriageway doors that close the hotel's courtyard to the street. The Hôtel de Saint-Aignan was recently restored. More about it later.

Finally, another café, this one on the rue de Turenne, near the Eglise Saint-Denys. I stopped here and had something to drink. As you can see, there weren't many people sitting out in the hot sun that afternoon.