Play vs. work . . . hmmmmmm.

I guess it's time to start on the accounting forms I've been avoiding this weekend! I've been having fun sorting and posting some of our photos from the Paris trip and learning more about putting pictures on Panoramio for Google Earth consideration. I also started an HTML version of the Paris Walks I began working on about 1981. You can check it out here. It's only a start, I wanted to play with some formatting ideas. I called it a "treasure hunt," because Lee used those words when we were looking for street numbers, and it made sense. It was fun.

This is Lee walking down the Rue St. Victor. It's quiet, and pretty, and there's a raised sidewalk because one side of the street is way higher than the other. We found a shop that had an antique train in the window. Cool! It's fun re-living the experience of being in Paris with Google Earth and the photos. I also got it together to upload a photo of Astoria and one of Corona (California) to Panoramio. It's easy, it's just more logins and passwords to remember.



Here's a mini Panoramio so you can see just where the picture at the top of the blog post was taken. More fun: you can drag the Panoramio map to see more of Paris, but there will be no additional photo icons. When you code Panoramio to appear in your web page or blog, it only shows the photos from the original square you insert into the page. Be aware - the map will also move when you click on a small square to see that photo. You may have to drag it back to continue to look at the original map frame.

And now I have some serious accounting to take care of so I can get the material to my accountant so he can do his thing. Wish I could have somebody do my part, too! I don't mind the normal accounting. I don't like the part where you have to get details for the forms. It's too hard to figure out! On the other hand, if I wait till Monday . . . ?????? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I'm on the verge of needing a new keyboard because this one is giving out. Maybe it will break and give me an excuse. :-p Or maybe I'll finish the book I bought at the airport. It's called Merde, Actually, by Stephen Clarke, and it's funny. About an English guy opening a tea room in Paris, but more about his messed up love life. It does shed some light on cultural things. We couldn't figure out why one of the waiters yanked the cloth napkins off the table we sat at and brought paper ones instead. Well, we did have an idea about it and it turns out we were half right. It seems you do NOT sit at a cafe table and order coffee when the table has CLEARLY been set for lunch already (a more expensive meal). Duh. Well, in this case the waiter was reasonably nice about it, but he was abrupt and probably a little ticked. Americans! What are they thinking???

Oct 17, Part 2 - Paris: Morning walk to the Seine

Just outside the door of our hotel, directly across the street was this pizzeria. We never are there, and most of the time it looked pretty empty. But this woman is enjoying a quiet breakfast off the beaten path.

You can go west or north leaving the hotel, and we chose north this morning, walking one short block to the River Seine.

From our street, Rue Maitre Albert, you reach the Seine at the Quai de Tournelle. Here's an ice cream shop, but it was still chilly morning, and we had other ideas. The sun was out for the second time on our visit. What were we going to do with such a beautiful day? Enjoy it, of course! The lighting does blow out the lights and darks in the photos, but what a wonderful sight for me - Paris in sunlight. Yesterday was sunny in the afternoon, but the morning had been dark. I'm more used to the overcast days. I tend to visit during the rainier seasons.

Here's our first glimpse of Notre Dame for the day, right at the foot of our street, one block from the hotel.

A kiosk, so typical of Paris. I like the shadows on the pavement.

The book- and print-sellers are already at work along the Quai de la Tournelle. Notre Dame is on the other side of the river, or rather on the Ile de la Cite, the big island.

"Just" another view of it. I can never get enough of this beautiful, peaceful spot. No matter the crowds or traffic, it always feels peaceful to me, although today there were not that many people, and the traffic was slow at this hour.

Fall colors along the banks of the Seine.

I was enchanted by the buildings here, looking south (inland) again up Rue de l'Hotel Colbert.

Crossing the street to the river, we encountered this plaque. Lee was pretty good at deciphering the French. I could only make out a few words here and there. It seems to be a history of boats at or near this location. Maybe. The bridge is Pont au Double, which crosses to the front of Notre Dame cathedral, which was on our route. I don't remember if it was our intention, but we were going to be ending up at a cafe we enjoyed on the Right Bank, Cafe Zimmer. I think we had decided we were headed that way for brunch, wandering a bit on the way. Or did it just turn out that way? Anyway, we had to pass Notre Dame and the river, and that's an advantage any day.

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Oct 17, Part 3 - Paris: Notre Dame and the Ile de la Cite

Yesterday afternoon the sun came out brilliantly for the first time on this trip, and this morning was the first time in a long time I'd seen a Paris morning in bright sunlight. It was gorgeous. As we walked from our hotel to the Seine (last post), I was enjoying the fall colors and bright light.

These photos are my few pictures of Notre Dame with alluringly blue skies.

We're crossing the Pont au Double from the left bank onto the island, and this is the gorgeous view you get of the south transept, the rose window, and the flying buttresses from that angle. The spire has some of the most interesting sculptures on it - mainly interesting to me just because of the blue-green color contrasted with the spire itself. Well, yes, and it's interesting to see these figures on the roof of the church.

It was such a nice day that the artists were out on the Pont au Double. I'm not usually interested in the caricaturists, like this one, but I do enjoy seeing really fine drawing. I have tended to think that even though this is Paris, most of the street art was by artists who were not so good, but this trip we saw many who were excellent. This guy was probably quite good for a caricaturist, but that's not my cup of tea. We saw some good portraitists at Montmartre.

This is where the Pont au Double intersects with the Parvis Notre Dame (the square in front of the cathedral). I like the arcs of cobblestone a lot. I also felt a kinship with the person trailing their luggage. Whenever possible, I like to make Notre Dame the first and last stop of my trip. Fortunately, we still had some days left to enjoy the city. It was still a novelty to see blue sky over the buildings of the Prefecture de Police in the background.

Passing in front of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, we came to a corner at Rue d'Arcole and Rue du Cloitre Notre Dame. I've always enjoyed the tile paintings that are part of this building. I like them better than the dime-a-dozen assembly-link prints being sold to tourists at the shop. It was hard to get pictures of the tilework today, though, because of the scaffolding. This image is on the Rue d'Arcole.

This one is around the corner on Rue du Cloitre Notre Dame. It's really, really too bad about the stupid graffiti.

In the warren of ancient streets to the north of Notre Dame, this is the Rue Colombe (named after doves) going to the left, and the Rue Chansoinesse ahead. We were making our way over to the Right Bank via some of these streets that are so easy to miss.

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Bonjour from Paris - Testing Mobile Send

I hope this works, because I can't delete it till later. Lee and I are sitting at the Cafe "Le Zimmer" across the street from the Chatelet metro stop and across the Seine from Henri-Something's beautiful Medieval towers. OK . . . let's test! BTW, this cafe is delightful! More later. ~ Sheryl
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

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Oct 17, Part 6 - Paris: Around Cafe Le Zimmer

This is the outside of the Cafe. I may have taken it as we approached rather than as we left. In any case, it shows more of the building, the historic Theatre du Chatelet. The decor of the cafe is at least partly a reflection of its proximity to the theatre, I think.

I love this photo with the guy and the bike and the cafe in the background. I don't know who he is. I don't even know if he looks French. Maybe he's Polish or American.

This is the view of the cafe as you stand between it and the Seine.

The fountain in the Place du Chatelet.

The tower on the left is the Tour St-Jacques, standing near the Place du Chatelet. The tower on the right is in the Place. It's a monument to victory - specifically, Napoleon's victories.

This photo is pretty messy, but I included it because it's the only one I have of a chestnut vendor. We'd been talking about them. I remember more picturesque scenes from earlier trips, where the vendor could be found on cold days with roasted chestnuts; in fact, he could be found with his dedicated push-cart in the park under wide chestnut trees with the brazier burning to keep his hands warm as well as the chestnuts. Visually and romantically this scene can't compare, but the set-up seems to work.

It's "just" another scene of the Seine. I love it.

Here we're looking across the river at the two Medieval towers of the royal palace and Concierge. There is so much inside that building, and I haven't seen most of it. The tower on the right is called the "Tour d'Argent," Silver Tower, because it held the king's money at one time. But it's hard to look it up online, because the restaurant of the same name is so much more famous.

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Oct 16 (Day 3), Part 1 - Place Maubert, Paris

Yesterday we grabbed breakfast on the run. Today we sat enjoyed the view. It was a bit drizzly, and once again, we were trying to decide which of the many options we wanted to take advantage of on such a day. I think I would have to be in Paris for a long time to relax about what to do that day. It's always a feeling of "so much to see, do experience, and so little time." It was nice to start the day just watching the square, and of course, I was getting addicted to the cafe's quiche.

Umbrellas and a fountain in Place Maubert.

Activity. The ubiquitous cell phone.

Here is the market I'd enjoyed seeing so much on our first day. It was right across the street from the cafe we'd chosen as our favorite. The cafe where we sat on the first morning is behind the market stalls. Apparently at one time this market was on Thursdays (?) only, but now it seems to be every day, or at least it is at this time of year.

Here's Lee outdoors under the awning of "our cafe." What will it be? Coffee? Omelette?

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Oct 16, Part 2 - The ancient schools and Notre Dame Cathedral

After breakfast we left Place Maubert and walked down Rue Legrange toward Notre Dame. Our goal was the Louvre - and remind me not to do this next time - we decided to walk. Yes, it's a wonderful walk, both historic and scenic, and there was a particular square I wanted to investigate again. It's not really all that far, either, but unless you're in whopping good shape and don't have sore feet or blisters by now, I recommend getting to the Louvre fresh and doing the walk afterwards. There is something to be said for walking TO the Louvre, I mean approaching it from this distance on foot, seeing the old city and how the Louvre fits into it, but once you've gotten inside and found out how warm it is, and how all you want to do is lie down somewhere, and then you've reached the Italian painting and seen the Mona Lisa and are ready to really start LOOKING at things such as the Egyptian section and the Roman glass, you find that you don't really feel like doing that any more, and that's a shame. So I say remind me to get to the Louvre fresh next time. I've blown it twice in a row now.

So anyway, we were walking down the Rue Lagrange. This narrow building is the intersection of the Rue Lagrange (the pavement you can see) and the one-block Rue Galande feeding into it on the left of the photo. There's a ton of history in these Medieval streets. You can feel it, but I don't have all the notes with me. My favorite place to get a good, fattening quiche is in the narrow building under that awning. I took slices of quiche back to the hotel for dinner a couple of times.

Here are the facades on Rue Galande. It curves, so we're seeing about half of it.

Rue Lagrange ends in the very short Rue du Fouarre - the street of straw. It consists of the three buildings you see here, and that's all. The books say it's named for the straw bales that Medieval students, including Dante, sat on for their outdoor classes. The building on the right has been some sort of educational facility for a long time. It has portraits painted on the outside between the second and third floors, and on the building between the portraits are painted the words, "Arts, Morale, Sciences." I love the blue facade. It's perfect in this composition. The tree to the right of the buildings is in the small park outside of St. Julien le Pauvre, and leading left out of the Rue du Fouarre is the Rue Dante.

A short block further on, we crossed the Pont au Double. You can see the Pont de l'Archeveche beyond. Immediately to our left is:

Notre Dame, the one and only. We're seeing it again on another cloudy morning. Not quite drizzly, I think, but very gray.

Dark. Too much light from the overcast sky in the lens.

In the square in front of Notre Dame is this sculpture of Charlemagne.

So now we're on the Ile de la Cite, still ambling our way toward the Louvre, taking the scenic route. Well, one of the many, many possible scenic routes!

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Oct 16, Part 3 - Along the Seine at Quai des Orfevres

From Notre Dame, we walked along the Seine, continuing on the Ile de la Cite (such an historic and ancient heart of the city) toward the "prow" of the island. This empty tour boat came past just as we approached the Pont St-Michel.

There is Place St-Michel, storied hub of the Left Bank with its unmistakable pink marble columns. For once I didn't spend much time in that vicinity, as we were staying further along the river and usually chose another access. Do you see the small dark spot under the bridge on the stones that looks like a black grain of rice? It isn't.

A homeless man thought this would be a good place for some undisturbed sleep. Before the sight became so common, Paris is actually where I first saw someone sleeping on the street. It was cold, and he had a piece of cardboard for shelter. Later, it became a common site almost anywhere.

I thought he was sleeping soundly, but as a passer-by hustled along the walkway under the bridge, the guy jerked upright.

Further along the quai, I couldn't help taking a photo of this tree chestnut tree with its romantic background.

Across the street at 36 is the Prefecture de Police - the main police station of Paris. The officers seem pretty well-behaved here. There are usually groups standing around chatting. They seem to mind their own business and they smile a lot. I think I would, too, if I lived here. The traffic can be a royal pain, but what a beautiful spot!

We continued along the quai. This is the Pont Neuf coming up. Despite its name, it's the oldest still-standing bridge in Paris. There's a guy out for a walk with his dog.

Pont Neuf. Unlike the tourist boat earlier, the boats tied up beyond this bridge seem to be working boats used to carry supplies and goods. I'd like to learn more about what they do. They're very picturesque and nicely painted. I'll have more pix of them later on the walk.

I turned to look back at the tower on the police building and/or Palais de Justice. The sky is gray and overcast, but I burned it out so the building wasn't so dark.

Moving along a few steps further, we came to the Rue de Harlay, which cuts across the island not far from Pont Neuf and the tip. It's here, just past the Prefecture and the Palais de Justice that you turn right to reach a square I'd wanted to visit again, the Place Dauphine. I snapped the picture of the Rue de Harlay on the fly and I'm glad it came out. I think it looks especially nice, and I don't remember another street sign in Paris made just like this, but I haven't taken an inventory.

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