En Paris

En Paris!

Great sleep again. Our room looks out over the roof tops of the left bank. But no street noise, warm, a little small (you can almost shower while having a pee!!) but enough for us.

Again, le petite dejourney est included, so breakfast in the dungeons of the hotel.

We are leaving our museum passes until tomorrow so today is free bees. To our local M station where we not only buy our three day metro passes but also assist another couple trying to do the same thing. No thanks received.

John on the turps

Our first planned stop is a free museum!! Not a common occurrence in Paris but after a little internet searching we have come up trumps. Deep in the Marais district of the 3^rd A, is a beautiful wee museum, Musee Carnavalet. The museum deals with the history of Paris and has an absolutely amazing top floor where we learn all about the French Revolution or should that be Revolutions!

Le chat noir

Amazing stories and artefacts. A real look into the life of Parisians around the time of the revolt and some very interesting facts around La Bastille! But more on that later.

Model of the Bastille made from stone
 from La Bastille itself

Keys to Bastille cells

Toys played with by Louis XVIth

On completing the museum, we head out to find the head office of the makers of Ombre Rose. Now there is a story here. Many years ago, when we all had full heads of hair and were young and frivolous, John wished to impress his then young wife. He wanted to do so by buying for her a “special” perfume that would signal their special relationship. He spent nearly a whole afternoon in a perfumery at the bottom of Queen Street, sampling a vast range of perfumes. Eventually he decided that Ombre Rose met all the criteria for his love. Thankfully, his love agreed and this has been Kris’ perfume of choice since then. Eventually the perfume shop in Auckland closed and Ombre Rose was no longer available in New Zealand. Recourse had to be made to the internet with a US based concern providing ongoing supplies. But what could be more romantic than buying Kris’ special French perfume, in Paris?  So further internet research had found that manufacturer’s address and so we fronted up to buy. Bugger!!! Paris closes at 1230 and the doors were firmly shut! Damn.

Merde! Il est ferme

Time was running out for our next appointment, walking tour of the Marais, so perfume buying is placed in hold and after having a terrible cup of coffee from a very grotty street café, we meet up with our pink waist-coated tour guide. We are the first to arrive and as the tour starts, there are only another five people so looks like being a good tight tour. Unfortunately, five minutes later, the rest of the group who had been waiting on the wrong side of the road work out that this is their tour and our numbers swell to over 20. Bugger.

Place des Voges

Wee house in Marais

Regardless of this, we have a great walk through the back stress of the Marais, visiting heaps of beautiful small parks and gardens hidden away down alley ways in this one of the oldest parts of Paris. Of course we cover the revolution and La Bastille. The tour guide asks the difficult question; “How many prisoners were released when the prison was liberated in the revolution?”  Now not being a smart arse, but then of course he is, John pipes up with “Seven” The correct answer which he had learnt from his museum walk that morning. Now that stunned the guide!!!

A good tour and the third we have done with this company. There are no set fees; you pay a tip to the guide at the end of the tour corresponding to how much you enjoyed it. A pretty cool concept that seems to work.

So, then back to our perfume shop.

Oops. Bit of a problem here. As we descend the stairs to the Metro, the train is sitting there, doors wide open, no buzzers sounding, so John leaps on. Kris is a little slower. As the poor wee mite enters the train, the doors close on her. Now usually, you would expect the doors to spring back open. No, this is Paris. The doors try to cut you in tow. And not only that, there were two sets of doors, one of the platform and ne on the train itself. John looks behind him to see this poor squashed thing half in and half out of the train, with the train about to leave. John and a friendly Parisian train passenger grab the doors and force then open. In tumbles Kris, slightly worse for wear. She could have got cut in half, especially if the train had left. I am presuming that his could not have happened but we will not try this again. “Mercy, Monsieur to our helper and off we go to the next stop on our Metro ride. Kris suffers bruising on her arm and a sore big toe, but she is still with us.

Nice chap selling Kris' perfume

On arriving at the perfume business, this time it is open and we meet a very nice chap whom we tell our romantic story to. He brightens up when we say we are there to buy more and, after a wide ranging conversation about Cup du Monde, sailing, New Zealand, perfume etc, Kris gets a rather nice birthday present (On arriving home we find that she has  bought her old perfume not the new version which she had tried. Just as well as otherwise the story would not be anywhere near as good).

Touch of wine post purchase

We simply have to have a glass of wine and a beer at a sidewalk café to celebrate. Things are looking good.

Back to the pub for a freshen up. Kris gets messages that her mum is not too good. Hard to be on the other side of the world and feeling a little out of control. We are sure that she will get good care back in NZ.

John has a desire for Moules frites for dinner so back to Mouffetard to hunt up this delicacy. Believe it or not, it takes quite an effort to find a seller of Moules frites, but, eventually, we find a place and we chow down on a kilo of baby mussels each!!! Yum yum, and another bottle of French Savvy to wash it down with.

Next port of call is some Jazz. This time, it is not the internet

Club Universal

but a pamphlet showing jazz cubs in Paris from the hotel, and guess what? There is a club with free entry at the top of our street. So off we go to Club Universal. Man the jazz was brill!! There was a four piece band who were all brilliant jazz musicians and we really enjoyed their set over two glasses of vin rouge de Bordeaux. The next part of the evening was where the band played and “guest” singers performed; a bit like up market Karaoke!! So, on completion of the set, the old hipsters left the bar for home. By now it was teeming down as we splashed our way like young lovers back to our hotel. To Sleep!