Perfect Paris

In October 2022, Dan, Jay, Barbara and I joined Pat in Paris after she had spent a week eating croissants, eclairs and shopping at the beautiful spots in town with our sister-in-law Kaija. We arrived as Kaija was leaving and immediately picked up the eating mantle.

On our first full day, we went to the Montmartre Grape Harvest Festival. Montmartre is a gorgeous old neighborhood on a hill. The festival consists of a pop-up market of little white open-front tents, in the streets around the Sacre-Coeur Basilica. The tents sell everything from specialty food, including red wine sorbet, to all types of wines especially champagnes produced across France. Here’s the view from the steps of the Basilica.

We gorged ourselves on fantastic champagne, oysters and mussels. Here’s a pic of Jay and Barbara juggling some bubbly and flutes while the rest of us picked up some other foods.

Loved the mussels from this vendor!

By now, you may think that all we did was eat and drink and you might be right but we did a bit of sightseeing also. We took a 3 hour tour of the Seine on a small boat replete with more champagne and goodies. This is a family-run operation as the photo below illustrates. Arthur does the tour and his wife shows up at the end to help him unload the tourists and put the boat away.

Here’s a different view of the Eiffel Tower than we usually see.

We walked everywhere and saw some wonderful sights. Where else can you find a knife sharpener on the streets?

You may be surprised to learn that New York City’s hugely successful High Line wasn’t the first elevated railroad bed to be converted into a much-loved linear park. That distinction goes to the 2.9 mile elevated park in Paris that NYC planning director Amanda Burden acknowledges as the model for the High Line: La Promenade Plant in Paris. We loved walking a small part of it. Here we see it from a beautiful street in the Bastille hood.

We spent a lot of time at Museums. A highlight was this sculpture at the Pompidou, an industrial-looking museum with a focus on modern art. Notice the photographer in the background.

I can’t end this entry without noting that we had a fabulous time with family that lives in Paris. We had a lovely meal, with fine wine and even better conversation, with our young french cousin Diane and the grand dame, Jeanine. Love this last photo of the gang!

Hope you enjoy the brief tour of our trip to Paris. Please leave a comment after reading it so I know you received it and read it.