Our Neighbourhood

Well our last week is starting, cannot believe how the time is flying by. We have done a lot of walking and have enjoyed seeing so much of Paris and the way of life here. The Parisians are great stollers, and spend a lot of their leisure time walking about their neighbourhoods. Our part of Paris, le Marais, is very busy Friday, Saturdays and Sundays, all the little shops and boutiques are open, and a popular thing to do is have a falafal from the many jewish shops selling them here. The photo shows the Sunday crowds in the Rue des Rosiers which is the street the Nazis marched down to grab 75,000 Jews and send them off to concentration camps. Our apartment is in the block on the front left of this photo. From our window, we look down directly on the Rue Vielle du Temple, one the most popular streets in le Marais.

Clare has her "local" coffee shop, which she uses most days. We are using a boulangerie for our daily baguette, and so far the lady behind the counter is aloof and not recognising us, although polite to us, as she is to all her customers. I think the man in the corner store, where we buy our milk is starting to know us now.


Everyone in this area is stylishly dressed, beautiful coats, boots and scarves. This includes the French men, they look so good! A lot of people buy take away ("a emporter"), and eat it while they are walking, I think because the cafes are always so crowded. Just like Surry Hills!

The metro is very good, although sometimes very crowded, we just squeeze on with every one else. So far have not had any trouble with pick-pockets, which are very bad here in the summer, when it is peak tourist time, but we protect our valuables very carefully. We do see some homeless people, the French always give them money and food. There are also the "gypsies", from eastern Europe, who beg at the tourist hot spots. They ask us "do you speak English?" to which we reply "non" in our best non English accent, and they quickly move on.

We are looking forward to the last week of our stay here, as the non-smoking rule will be here, it will be interesting to see how the French smokers deal with it! Only 2 more sleeps!
We have been back to the Louvre for a second visit, that is how we spent Boxing Day. It was very crowded, but we had a great visit, and its good that a ticket is good for the day, so you can have a break and then go back in.

The weather has warmed up a bit, we are up to 10 or 11 , during the day now, so it is perfect for walking. A few showers the last couple of days, but nothing serious.


Some gems discovered in recent days have been the Parc des Buttes Chaumont (a good sized park complete with steep hills and waterfall in the north east of the city), and the Canal St Martin between the Gare de l'Est and Belleville (Edith Piaf's home 'burb). This canal has locks and even goes underground for quite a way until it reaches the Seine (see photo of footbridge and lock). We now know that the Marche Bastille that we visited on our first Sunday here is actually over the top of this canal. Also, l'Hotel de Sens (photo), built in 1475 the oldest medieval mansion in le Marais, featuring a cannonball in the wall from the Revolution, and a port over the portal for pouring boiling oil on unwelcome guests, neither of which we could photograph because of the scaffolding and renovation going on!