Moving to the New Apartment in the 15th Arrondissement

We were up early this morning and had finished breakfast, cleaned the apartment and packed our things for the move by 10 am.  We were feeling some pressure as heavy rain was predicted to start by 10 am. 

We took all the bags, including several bags with food that we’d accumulated over the past ten days, downstairs by the door to the street.  Jim then went two blocks away to the taxi stand and hired a car for our journey from the 5^th arrondissement to the 15^th.   Too many bags to schlep through the Metro System. 

The taxi was a beautiful black Mercedes Station Wagon; a lovely way to ride across town and by 10:30 am we’d arrived at the new apartment.  Our manager, Antonio arrived within minutes of my telephone call and is delightful.  This apartment is much larger, on the first floor   It has been totally remodeled recently and is very modern.  We do look out to the elevated Metro tracks but with the double paned window we don’t hear anything as long as the windows are closed! 

(second floor in America) and we have a small elevator for luggage.

It’s not a quaint area like we had in the fifth but Jim is really enjoying all the modern amenities; especially the television with hundreds of channels.  Who cares if they are in English or not!  We even have a small washing machine. 

After we settled in; and it began to pour sheets of heavy rain, we fixed lunch  before heading off  to explore the Metro system in our area.  We have three stations that are very close and each will take you in a different direction.  Our goal was to reach the Gare de Nord to check out the area where Bonnie and Jane are arriving by Chunnel from England late tomorrow afternoon.  Mary will arrive on the airplane tomorrow morning at Charles de Gaule.  We will be meeting all of them so it’ll be a busy day.  Then we are checking in to a hotel across the street for two nights as the apartment is designed for only four people.   Jim leaves for home on the 12^th.

We had an interesting experience on one of our stops in the Metro.  The Security guards were there in force checking everyone’s tickets to find people who were riding without tickets.  In all of the years we’ve been riding the Metro I’ve only seen this happen once before.  But, it is the fear of the check that keeps people honest in the system.

It was nearly 4 o’clock when we returned, picked up some bags and headed for the grocery store one more stop down the Metro.   With our Navigo Pass we can get on and off at will whenever we want.   And our favorite Metro stop is only a block from the apartment.  The Monoprix at the next stop is the very store where we shopped every day for three weeks in the spring of 2012 so it was like coming home to see an old friend. 

Below is a slideshow of all the photos of our new apartment...

Marche aux Puces and Saint-Denis Basilica

We were out the door by 10 am headed for the Metro and our trip out to the north of Paris to an area known as Porte de Cignancourt where the most famous flea market in France is located.  It is known as the Marche aux Puces.   We’d tried last spring to find it but only found a piece of the fringe; today we found the real thing.  Fantastic!  It goes on and on and on.   You could furnish a whole house from this market with very old antiques. 

But the question continues to arise…how do we ship it to America!   It would cost much more than the object itself to ship!  Lots of fun and we spent zero so we were definitely ahead of the game.   

After several hours we got back on the Metro and headed for Saint Denis Basilica.  He is the patron saint of Paris and all of the royal tombs are in this church.  It is located outside of the city of Paris on the north side…a bit further than the flea market.  Again, we’d gone last year but did not pay the fee to visit the tombs.  This year we did and it was well worth the cost.

Back to the Metro and over to Place Gambetta….very near the Pere Lachaise Cemetery on the western side of Paris.  There we caught the # 69 bus that runs across the center of Paris for nearly an hour to the Champ de Mars.  We got off just before arriving so that we could walk to our favorite shopping street called Rue Cler.  There we spent time at the crepe shop called Ulysse enjoying a ham and cheese (jambon and fromage) crepe along with a bottle of Greek Beer.  Delicious and something we always have while in Paris! 

Soon it was nearly 5 pm so we headed out for the   We were a few minutes late but arrived in time for the 5:30 organ concert before Mass and then stayed after for more after mass.  He is a master at getting the most out the organ and better than most concerts that you pay for.

Metro and crossed the river to the Les Halles area and Saint Eustache.

Soon we were home…it was nearly 8 pm and we enjoyed some wine and chips while making our phone calls this evening.  Tomorrow we move again to a larger studio apartment near the Eiffel Tower…the girls are arriving on Tuesday!

Hope you enjoy the slideshow:

Lunch with Paris Friends and the Bastille Opera House

Out the door by 9:30 am this morning for our trip to Maison-Laffitte, a bedroom community just outside of Paris where friends who I met on a trip to Australia in 2006 live with their two small children.   Both work in Paris but enjoy the good life of a small village to raise their children.  Nine is now 4 years old and Leonel has just turned two this past week.  We’ve enjoyed watching them grow over the years as we visit almost every year. 

We arrived a few minutes after 11 am and walked to their home that is just across the street from the weekly market.  We always go to the market for the food for the lunch to start our day and then Maeliss prepares a wonderful French feast for us to enjoy!  It was nearly 4 pm by the time we left for our journey back into Paris.  While we were there I also learned to tell the difference between a common garden snail and a snail that is good to eat…they had both of them in their garden!  We also enjoyed tomatoes from their garden for our lunch.   I’ve also broadened my appreciation of good cheese as there is always a cheese course before dessert that features four or five different types of cheese.   Both   Jim loves to talk politics with Nicolas but Nicolas wants to talk about USA politics and Jim wants to talk about French politics!  So we have a happy mix of both.   We always look forward to spending a day with them when we’re in Paris.

Maeliss and Nicolas are attorneys and use the English language every day in their work so we are fortunate in that it is easy to communicate with each other.

Nicolas walked us to the Metro Station and helped us find the fastest way back into the city as we were running late for our planned visit to the Bastille Opera House.  We took the RER Train all the way to the Gare de Lyon and then caught the Metro to the Bastille.  Worked perfectly and we arrived with ten minutes to spare.  They offer a tour of the back stage and seating area every Saturday at 5:00 pm.   The kicker is that it is all in French but it was great getting to see all of the many huge rooms where they store and build their sets for the various productions.  We even got to see King Kong that is starting next week. 

Most of the Operas are performed here and the ballet is generally performed in the Opera Garnier that we toured last spring.  That one was very baroque and this one is extremely modern.

Caught the bus home and rushed to eat and change and then took the Metro back to the Latin Quarter to see a Concert.  But, when we arrived we found out it had started at 6:30 pm.  Oops…we did it again!  So we walked over to Notre Dame Cathedral and walked through for the first time on this trip.  It was closing so had to rush.  But we enjoyed the sunset from the bridge and I hope you enjoy the photos on the slideshow: