In Paris, the Euro price is the final price, tax & tip included. But you'll pay 27% more when changing US$ to Euros.
Bottom line...currently the Euro menu price in Paris costs the same as the US$ menu price in the U.S.
OK enough boring stuff, on to some photos.
Do you remember Mademoiselle Noir from last year? Well, here's Mademoiselle Noir 2012. Other than their clothing color, what do these ladies have in common? They're both checking their cell phones.
Last year I posted lots of photos of the July Column at the center of Place de la Bastille. I swore to myself I wouldn't do it this year. But I couldn't pass up this one of the Column on the second night of the blue moon.
Often we have lox & bagels for a special Sunday brunch. Why should it be any different in Paris? We did have to compromise with the bagel, though.
After brunch we headed out to the Marais also known as the Jewish Quarter although it's becoming more high fashion & less Jewish as time passes. Here are Parisians doing what they do best, chilling at a sidewalk cafe. And two ladies on a bike zipping by.
That bike BTW is called a Velib. Several years ago the City of Paris created a program of placing racks of Velibs all over the city. After becoming a member of the program (easy, even tourists can do it), you can rent the Velib in one place, bicycle to wherever you want to go, then leave it at a rack "there". You're charged only for the rental time.
As we were stashing our travel gear at our apartment (but before we could move in, cleaning needed) we met the prior occupants, an Aussie couple from Sydney. They raved about how they explored Paris on the Velibs the six days they were here.
We're not ready to trust our survival to Paris traffic & Parisian drivers.
We strolled through Place des Vosges, one of the prettiest places in Paris. Lots of relaxing on the grass. The French love fountains.
Then there are the street musicians. These gentlemen were playing selections from "Fiddler on the Roof". Since there were so many, I gave them an extra tip. You can see the tip basket near the curb. Not exactly subtle.
Our first choice for a museum was the Picasso Museum, but it's closed for renovations til next summer. Bummer. So we went to the Cognacq-Jay Museum named after a husband/wife team who started out as humble peddlers & went on to found the Samartine department store chain, sort of a 19th century WalMart situation. Many Paris museums are located in fabulous mansions. Visiting them is walking into a time warp. This museum is no exception. There was lots of art but I won't bore you with many.
The only thing remarkable about this piece is that it is a Rembrandt. Otherwise it's just an overly dramatic fantasy. Susanne likes how the ornate frame casts a shadow on the wall.
Most art is a portrait of something (still life, a scene) or someone or several someones. The scene is static. What's happening at the moment is not particularly important, i.e. if the same scene was painted five minutes later, not much would've changed.
Then there's action art. The freezing of an incident into a precise moment. The sculptures of Frederic Remington are an example of frozen action.
I didn't think this was done in the old days til I came across this piece aptly titled "L'Accident".
This poor 18th century fellow climbed up the ladder, went out on the ledge that crumbled and down he went. What happened next seems quite certain but left to the imagination.
Here is a room in the mansion. Fussy, fussy.
We then went on the the Carnavalet Museum, devoted to the history of Paris. I've been avoiding this museum for years, assuming it was boring. While not the most exciting in Paris, it does trace Paris history through the ages with art, portraits of famous Parisians and Paris scenes organized by century. The section devoted to the French Revolution was inexplicably closed that day. That is the most interesting to me so we'll go back later.
The only piece I photographed was of the Emperor. I would argue that he was France's biggest hero & worst nightmare all rolled up into one way bigger-than-life personage.
That can't be said of too many people anywhere or any time.
Back in the Marais, it was crowded with lots of hustle & bustle. The place on the right "L'AS DU FALLAFEL" is in many guidebooks as a super source of a low cost take-away meal. I've never eaten there because I lack the patience to stand in line for food.
One of our must-do things is to buy a poppy-seed pastry called Pavot. There's one place to get it. It is very, very rich so that sharing one is just right.
Susanne found a quiet place to enjoy a bite. This was not where we purchased it.
That's it for now. We returned to Tony's Pizza last night. Our favorite waiter Jimmy was there as he has been for the last 10 years or so. But he says he's retiring in a year or two.
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