Paris Favourites

Our time in Paris is coming to a close, and we head off for the USA in a couple of days.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our apartment here in the Marais. It's been warm (once we worked out how to use the heating system), perfectly comfortable, very well appointed with everything short term stayers like us would want - hot plates, microwave oven, dishwasher, refrigerator, washing machine (no dryer) and all the kitchen utensils needed, and broadband. The bathroom was excellent, large, bright and airy. Being fresh juice squeezers, we were delighted to see an electric squeezer, but we wrecked it within a day or two, so we bought a new one from BHV (Bazar de l'Hotel de Ville), but it too only lasted a week (just long enough for us to have thrown away the packaging and receipts). Obviously French juicers are not up to Australian juicing behaviour.

A real bonus with this apartment has been the "entertainment" visible from our windows which overlook both Rue Vielle du Temple and Rue Marche des Blancs Manteaux. The crowds i the streets, and the cafes and shops we can peer into, are enough, but we can also see into the local community hall, l'Espace d'Animation des Blancs Manteaux. In an upstairs room of that hall, we can watch pilates, yoga, dance and fencing classes close up (see photo), and in the downstairs main room, we've enjoyed a popular two week exhibition of artistic treatments applied to industrial materials, and before Xmas there was a Xmas market, with arts and crafts.

At our apartment, we have to pay for the electricity we use, but we can and do monitor it every day quite easily. The average cost for our power is about 7EUR / day.

In our time here, we have gravitated to certain shops which best fill our daily requirements. We have found our favourite boulangerie for our daily baguette (Saveurs de Pains), and Clare's favourite coffee shop (Columbus), and a favourite fromagerie for our cheese. Most notable is our favourite corner store where we buy milk, daily fruit and alcohol (Les Vergers du Prince de Sicile) where we've become quite friendly with the owner (see photo); his English is about as good as our French. For serious shopping, there are 3 Supermarkets (G20 and Franprix) within a very short walk, and for real fun with the language, there are the street markets for specialised fresh produce.

Possibly the most spectacular architecture (gothic in this case) we have come across is the pretty well unheralded Sainte-Chapelle, a church built by the Louis IX in the 1200's to house treasures from the holy lands, most notably the Crown of Thorns. No photographs can do this masterpiece justice (modest attempt attached), and no description can convey how beautiful the inside of this building is, particular the upper chapel which seems to be all stained glass and no walls.

Our thanks to friend Anthony for recommending the visit to Ste Chapelle. We would probably not have gone there if not for him.

And the most beautiful and pleasant park has been that of the Palais Royal. Obviously this opinion is based on weather at the time of our visit, but so be it. This garden has ambience, a fountain which was working, chairs to sit on, interesting artwork, real grass etc etc. So it wins our prize, and because the sun was out and people were lazing around to take the sun, we were able to take our coats and gloves off, and hats too(Ben!), for the photo.

By the way (message here for Telstra), Paris is replete with free WiFi hotspots. As a visitor, we notice them mainly in parks, where you see people logging on with their Macs and PC notebooks. We wonder how long Australians will have to wait for free wireless broadband access across the Sydney CBD and elsewhere?