paris in the summer

The apartment is very central. We can look out the window and see Forum des Halles, and the entrance to the Metro, at the end of the short street. We can see the cranes where Les Halles is being renovated. The jackhammering starts at 8am.
Rue de la Cossonnerie is short pedestrian street in a maze of medieval streets. It has groups of large trees in the centre which makes the outlook pleasant.

The apartment is on the third floor with a winding staircases showing some original hand hewn framing timbers. The tiny lift goes up beside the staircase. It's big enough for three supposedly. The windows of he apartment face south and fortunately are double glazed as there are a couple of cafes in the street. We can leave the windows open most of the time. We didn't think flies flew so high, but some do.

On day one, to try and counteract some jet lag, we went to Parc Andre Citroen. The parc is in several parts. The first we went to had lots of trees and a sunken garden walkway. The second area was open with a large water feature, with children running between the water spouts getting very wet, and a long grassy area with a tethered hot air balloon. The last area was a lot of wild gardens with sprinklers we had to dodge. Hilary, taking a photo, could hear the sprinkler but not see it. She didn't get too wet.

Later we walked up rue Montorgueil to get fromage, baguette and flowers. We got wetter in the rain coming home.

We could see a tower with gold and black zigzag tiling at the top right down the end of rue Saint- Denis and decided we would walk down to it. It was the Conciergerie on the other side of the river.

Hilary looked at a t-shirt in Zara. It had a proper hem at the bottom, nice grey on grey embroidery on the front and back. Oh, the embroidery is a skull. Maybe not.

On Sunday we left at 0815 and walked down rue Saint Denis and across the Il de la Cite to St Michel to catch the RER to Pont d'Alma to church . Along the walk was a perfect time to take people free photos. The American church is a Gothic church with an enormous pipe organ at the front of the church impressively played. Paul Child [husband of Julia] worked on some of the later stained glass windows.

Afterwards we caught the metro to the 11th to Marche d'Aligre in an old Algerian quarter. We had coffee and cakes in an Algerian salon du thé, then wandered around the fruit markets and brocante. Afterwards, we walked to Viaduc des Arts, an old railway line that has been restored with shops under the arches, and a garden and walkway along the top.

We took an afternoon walk along some other medieval streets in the area, stopping to take lots of photos. Rue Quincampoix is an interesting, particularly narrow street with a beautiful art nouveau building at the end.

On Monday, we visited the Jacquemart-Andre Museum housed in a late 19th century mansion. The husband and wife team gathered their huge collection of Italian Renaissance & French 18th century works of art with a final view to donation to the Institut de France. We walked along the Renaissance period rue du Faubourg-St-Honoré, watching the changing of the guard at the Palais de l'Élysée on the way. We visited the Village Royal, an enclave of 18th century houses now shops. The chocolatier had a display of very large half submerged hippos in the window all made of different chocolates.

In the evening we had dinner with our friend Sue [Jean Claude is in Greenland]. The building [about 1800] only has street access from the other side of the next building, then its up the winding well trodden, wooden staircase to the top apartment. It was a wonderful time of family catch up.

We had another medieval walk – this time to the east near St Paul. We saw a piece of the Philippe Auguste wall [1200ish] and wandered along the curved streets. We then had a very 21st century experience checking out the hardware section at BHV department store. They have a comprehensive section of shoe making supplies, including coloured hides.

In the afternoon medieval walk through some tiny passages we found a large, interesting 1970s apartment complex. Called Quartier Horlogue, the district owes its name to an unusual clock. An armed man with a sword controls a dragon, bird and crab by hours.

We walked along rue St Denis to the Arts et Metiers museum housed in an old abbey. It was Geoff's second visit and he loved seeing the machines he had only seen in pictures.

Tomorrow we catch the train to Amboise to stay in the village of Nazelles Negron across the river Loire.