Bike-Minded Travelers

Bonjour, Paris!

May 26th-May 31st

We arrived late in the day and our driver, Mamar, was waiting for us. This year our apartment is located at 103 Rue de Vaugirard in the Montparnasse neighborhood. We rented on AirBnB from a lovely Frenchman, Pierre, of course. The apartment was lovely, clean and modern located near restaurants, a Fran Prix grocery and the metro. We were able to walk to several main attractions as well. Since we arrived late we went up to the corner Bistro, Villa Marquise and had a quick dinner before bed. The smash burger Jay ordered was superb so we revisited on our last night in Paris.

Day two in Paris we just tried to acclimate and get through our Jetlag. Since we have items stored with StoragePal in Paris our main goal was to take the empty bike suitcases to the storage place and pick up our two boxes of "God knows what" we left behind. Once that was accomplished Jay spent the afternoon assembling the bikes and I unpacked and got settled. We made a reservation for dinner at one of our favorite Paris restaurants, Combo at 29 Rue Dauphine. Jay ordered the Magret de Canard (duck breast) in an orange sauce and I went rogue and ordered the salmon which was delicious! The camembert with honey appetizer was fabulous as well. It is an amazing and very reasonably priced spot, even though we had to walk about 30 minutes to get to it, it was well worth it!

Day three Jetlag really hammered us so we mostly wandered around, drank coffee and took little naps before meeting up with Marc Florette (Jay's sister's friend from years ago) for dinner. Marc lives in the Marais section of Paris so we hopped on the metro to meet him at his apartment. What a lovely and very art-filled home he has created. We had a lovely Burgundy Chardonnay from the Chassagne-Montrechet winery near Beaune and some tasty tapas before heading down the street to a favorite restaurant of his for dinner. He is such a typical frenchman and the evening was just delightful discussing the past, present and future.

Oefs Mayonnaise (basically deviled eggs)

Leek Salad Entree

Day four found us in a better place so off we went to discover the Natural History Museum located in the Jardin des Plantes. The museum had lots of stuffed animals but the info was all in French and organized in an odd way so it was a little frustrating to make heads or tails of it. The gardens were in bloom so wandering around was a great way to spend the time there. Since it was such a pretty day we decided to revisit the Luxembourg Gardens located near our apartment before heading back. I never tire of just strolling through this massive park, people watching, taking in the ambiance and enjoying whatever is in bloom. Before dinner we stopped along the Rue de Buci, a lively bar-strung street, for an aperitif. We met a lovely young Australian journalist, now living in London, who told us of her escapades around Europe as a foreign correspondent. In addition a wonderful couple from Ontario chimed in for some interesting conversation as well. At L'Oliveto where we once again both ordered the incredible Linguini alle Vongole (linguini and clams in a white wine sauce) we met a couple from Connecticut. Her mother has an apartment on Rue Bonaparte where we stayed the year before so they have been to Paris many times. It was fun to share stories and recommendations for where to go and what to do. A very busy day!

The Natural History Museum

Roses in Jardin des Plantes

Medici Fountain in Luxembourg Garden

Linguini alle Vongole at L'Oliveto

Day five was another walking day, first passing by Les Invalides, then up to the Eiffel Tower, which is all walled off now with plexiglass. They are doing construction on the park so perhaps that is why? Nearby is the Jules Lavirotte Phallus door at 29 Avenue Rapp which is an amazing example of art neuveau architecture. We wandered over to the Rue Cler for lunch before going to the Louvre for the Couture Collection. These parts of Paris were very crowded with tourists and we were happy to escape back to our neighborhood for some peace and quiet. Dinner at Huguette is a seafood lover's dream come true. The oysters from Normandy, the mussels and fish were delicious!

Les Invalides

Phallus Door

Christian Dior

Versace

Our last day in Paris we did a VoiceMap tour of the Saint-Germain-des-Pres area narrated by Annie Sargent of Join us in France. She does excellent walking tours of several areas in Paris and we have done three so far and we can highly recommend them! A new museum opened last year, the Musee du Fromage, and I decided we should go check it out. It's located on the Ile Saint-Louis. As we made our way there we walked by the Notre Dame cathedral and saw the massive crowd waiting to get in. I tried every day to get a reservation but failed. You can only reserve up to two days ahead and I guess you must do it at 12:01am because it fills up quickly. We will give it a try in July when we return. The Cheese Museum was very fun and the cheese maker, Pierre, was super informative. At the end you taste the cheese he has made with a little wine of course. Dinner we decided was to be at the corner Villa Marquise again. When we arrived there were lots of empty tables but as the evening wore on it was jammed. All of a sudden the waiter came out and turned on two big screen TVs to show the soccer match between France's San Germain and Italy's Milan teams. France prevailed 5-0 and boy did the celebrations begin! Fire works into the night and a hugh parade on the Champs Elysees the next day. We had no idea this was happening but apparently it's like the Superbowl of professional soccer players in Europe. The smash burgers were great too.😉