Paris, encore, and Mail Art (#119, 120, 121)

#119

#120

 We arrived at the Charles de Gaulle airport and quickly got onto our shuttle, which promptly got caught in really thick traffic on the peripherique. It took hours to get into the city. 
I took out my copy of Cancer Ward (my book club book) and the woman next to me pointed to it and said "You like?" and when I launched into English, she said "No English." We had a minimal conversation in French.  She was from Moscow, a French language teacher.

#121

These are the first of the three cards that I made while in France.












This happy baker came from the wrapping paper from the baguette I purchased in the morning.

 Coffee at a little cafe we'd often passed by but never stopped at. It was suggested by our new friend in Istanbul (Ekin) that we go there and check out the bathroom. While the cafe looks old and typical, the bathroom is wildly modern, metal and dark, with little tiny lights. It's something to experience. The coffee was Frenchly good. This cafe is across the street from our favorite Eye Glass store (Anne and Valentin)

 This is the courtyard that our friends have made into a garden! Their place is on the left. Those are their kitchen windows straight ahead. They graciously gave us accommodations for our stay in Paris. Here's our friend's website where you can see his terrific sculptures.

 Walking to the Marais, we crossed over Beaumarchais (or Richard Lenoir, I can't remember) and I turned back and spotted this shop. Since I am sometimes called Mimy, this made me smile.

 We went for lunch at one of our favorite places, The Swedish Cultural Institute.
They have a nice little cafe, which offers a refillable cup of coffee, a rarity in Paris. On nice days, one can sit in the courtyard. They have two exhibition spaces and always have interesting art exhibits.

Spring flowers were everywhere in Paris. Tulips in abundance and since we'd just come from the land where tulips originally came from, we took special delight in seeing them.

more Carnavaliet and a little red house.

When Napoleon was young, he was quite a looker! He was only 29 when this bust was sculpted. We had to go down all of these steps after we finished the rooms about the Revolution. It was like going down in history, because at the bottom we worked our way around to the newly opened Orangerie, which had objects found in recent archeological digs in the city. Gallo-Roman and earlier times! Amazing.

When we finished we went across the street to the Swedish Cultural Center and had lunch. This little red house was in the courtyard.