Day 5, Market day

 Yesterday, we went to the market on Richard Lenoir, aka Bastille market. There was this wonderful duo with terrific voices. The little girl in pink was swaying with the music.

 Here's what I purchased at the market. I was happy to see the simit (the round sesame seed bread) like in Istanbul. The long cucumbers were 2 for $1.27, inexpensive.  What a feast. And I found some repro postcards.

 Leaving the market we saw these pigeons taking a bath in the water that was pumped out to clean the streets.

 In the evening, we took the bus to our friends place up by Pere Lachaise cemetery, and went to a restaurant for dinner. I chose the couscous.

 Notice the lovely vegetables. There was a small bowl of chickpeas, another of white raisins, and some harissa for spicing it all up.
Afterwards, we went back to our friends' place for some Armanac (spelling?)

We decided to walk "home" rather than take the metro, as the buses had quit for the night. It's not a long walk, only 2.4 miles, though it seemed longer. Probably because it was pretty quiet and very few people were out. We stuck to the wide, busier streets. This is the Mairie of the 10th or the 11th or whatever arrondisement we were walking through. It was a nice night, and we enjoyed the walk. We got "home" by midnight, ready to sleep well.

Day 3, Friday

 This is a "telephone booth." It has Bonjour on the top, and is internet connected via Orange. I'm not sure how it works. It has an old school hand set (or whatever we call that thingy) and a touch screen. I must lurk around it to see it in action at some point.
It's by Metro St. Paul where rue de Rivoli becomes rue St. Antoine.

 The little carousel has very modern transportation for the children to ride in. A small child, bundled up in orange, was in the purple rocket waiting while it's mother paid the fee. I'll snap a photo of it sometime when it's running. Maybe at night.

 These Christmas trees were lined up in a courtyard with the only lights being tiny blue ones laid out along the bottom part of fake grass. The building is 1700s.

 What a fabulous door knocker. Wonder how it'd work on my door at home!

 I honestly do not remember this fountain being in this location. I don't know why. It's next to the "telephone booth." These are famous fountains. Read all about them here.

 These are the Christmas trees at the place by Metro St. Paul. There are two groupings of them. The pigeons are hanging around and under them. They must be delighted. The pigeons, not the trees!

 My honey picked up this container of olives to have with lunch. I was very amused by the bottom explanation. It's very amusing in a direct English translation, right?

At 2 p.m. the shadows were long and sharp. The sun is out. We took a walk late this morning, but I think I need to go outdoors again and enjoy this weather while it lasts.  It's 4 p.m. as I post this. I'm off on a walk!

End of our trip, France

 A pain aux raisins, my favorite, at the airport (CDG) awaiting our flight back to the U.S. of A.

 View from the train as we sped along between Grenoble and Paris.

 The old water spigot in the courtyard of our friends' abode in Paris.

 Lots and lots of flowers in Paris, lots and lots of tulips especially.

 This is a municipal pigoen coop! The city put it up outside of a small park. It provides food, water, and nesting boxes. The idea is that the pigeons will go to the coop and not the window ledges of adjacent buildings, plus the city sterilizes the eggs or the birds. Can't remember which. It was interesting to see this.

 An angel in the corner of the Ethiopian restaurant we went to on Chemin verte. The food was delicious!

 This is a municipal water station. You can fill up your small water bottle OR large ones. There is a hanging sculpture (see Chuck taking a photo of it?) using plastic bottles. The French appear to be trying to get people to use tap water. Too many plastic bottles in the environment, there and everywhere. The water was excellent, by the way.

 Passing along the street next to the Promenade Plantee, this view, very surprising, a bit of old Paris.

 We stood on the Pont Marie, eating a Berthillon (I had pistache and banane) watching the Seine. Isle St. Louis is to the right.

We spent a couple of afternoons sitting in Place de Vosges. The weather was lovely, people were stretched out on benches and the grass. I was taking advantage of the free WiFi (weefee) and a place to just relax. It was a moment to say au revoir to Paris once more, and quietly saying "I hope I'll be back."

La Poste

Where would Mail Art be without La Poste, the post office? I've been to the Musée de La Poste in the past, but this year, I had a special treat. Not only did I go through the museum but prior to that, I had lunch with our new friends Jean-Claude and Régine, who work for La Poste. I know this may not seem exciting, but believe me, it was. Here are some images I took in the museum. The painting on the mail bag was done by Claude Viallat for a special exhibit of many of these. If you clik on Musée above, you can see more of the exhibit. Here's an old mail box, an old delivery coach, and an image from an old film showing pigeon courier soldiers in WWI. The soldiers had small baskets on their backs, with 2 pigeons in them. In the film, it showed them loading their pigeons into the baskets, then hopping on horses and riding off. There was an excellent special exhibit on the mail service during war time in France. And a really fabulous exhibit of work by Marc Pessin, that you must check out. He does intriguing calligraphy, engraving, embossing, collage work.

A day with friends...part dos

The black bean soup was yummy, as were the views of the playa from the hotel terrace. We sat for a long time, visiting , chatting (si, en español,) and watching the palomas and a tiny lizard.

More holiday views

Can you figure out where we are on holiday? This is day one, we arrived at about 1:30 and in short order were out walking. We're so glad we're in the viejo area, lots to see, including Parque de las Palomas. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a bakery and got two really good pastries. Oooops! Forgot to take a picture before we ate them! Oh well, guess we'll have to buy more of them so you can get a look. Carlos had told us that we'd be right next to the children's museum and we are! More vues tomorrow. Buenos Noches, amigos. (images by Mim and by Carlos B aka Chuck)