Seeing Paris
Paris arrondissements, neighborhoods, day trips, museums, monuments, greenery, tours, guides, walks and wheels, cultural places open, closed and renovating
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Walking Tour: Off the Beaten Path in Local Neighborhoods
Colleen’s Take Away: This is a guided walk if you want a Paris strolling moment without pressure to move quickly with April. I recommend this tour because while dodging rain drops, protected by umbrellas, April’s off the beaten track tour was the sunshine of the day. April Pett runs April in Paris Tours. We met at the base of Marianne, the emblematic sculpture of Place de la République. During our tour from 10 am to 1 pm, April intertwined historical anecdotes with her casual air of strolling along Paris streets and boulevards. April’s tour is a combination of busy and side streets. Her strong voice and smile makes it easy…
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Angels of Paris Walking Tour No. 1
During a two-hour walking tour with Rosemary, author of Angels of Paris: An Architectural Tour through the History of Paris, we touched only the top of the angel cake. Full of architectural and Parisian history, each sculpture on the tour has a fascinating tale of double meanings to tell. We could not physically cover all of the stories from her book in one tour. The tour begins at the Saint-Michel fountain and ends at Notre-Dame de Paris, following a course along the edges of the sixth, first and fourth arrondissements. Rosemary told us the tales you find in her book. What better way to hear the tales but from the…
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Rosemary Flannery’s Angels of Paris
How do you view Paris? With an angel on her shoulder, Rosemary Flannery views Paris through angel eyes. Rosemary is the author of the book, "Angels of Paris, an Architectural Tour through the History of Paris". Rosemary wrote the text and took the photos, even if it included carrying a ladder around to get the best angle of an angel. I only recently discovered this book, a little slow on my part, but that shows the timelessness of a subject that dates back....
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Roaring Twenties Paris with Edith
Often it is the Expats who write Paris blogs. Now you can get the true French stories directly from a Parisienne's pen. Her pen name "Edith" comes from Edith Piaf. Both women were born on the same rue de Belleville street, although as Edith says on her Edith's Paris blog, they are not of the same vintage....
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Iconic Paris Walk Along the Seine
Sometimes views only change with the seasons. I had to wonder how many times these same scenes have been photographed over the years. The scenes are iconic and never seem to be boring. We went for a walk along the Seine yesterday between Gare d'Austerlitz and Cathrédale Notre-Dame de Paris. We enjoyed a salad for dinner on the Ile-Saint-Louis with the sun setting. People were lined up at the Batobus* stop for Notre-Dame. Were they all in line for the sunset cruise? Not all could be accommodated, and they waited for the next one.
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Treasure Hunt at Musée d’Orsay
We sat under the lion statue at the Musée d'Orsay counting up our scores: four teams. The four teams: a mother and daughter (12); three teenagers; the aunt and uncle; and two retired flight attendants. The post-hunt questions: "Did you ever find that chair?", "Where did you find Sarah Bernhadt?", "Did you see "The Voyager" statue?, "Wasn't it a fun way to see a museum?" Daisy de Plume scores a winner again with another hour and a half treasure hunt adventure. THATd'Or (Treasure hunt at the d'Orsay) is the newest addition
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Teenagers Visiting Paris
A Canadian journalist asked me how to visit Paris with teenagers. So I found out. Find some steps, a curb or grass to sit on in the afternoon. Bring a skateboard ( or longboard) to Paris and map out a city journey or practice session. Plan a picnic on a quai along the Seine or go on a bike tour. Run around the Louvre on a treasure hunt. Buy manga books or Goth and Lolita-style clothing in the Bastille area. Go shopping at any of the Paris malls or second-hand stores or go to a can-can show or how about that scary mansion in the tenth arrondissement on rue de…
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The Paris Zoo Reopens – An Afternoon Visit
The Paris Zoo (Parc Zoologique de Paris) celebrated its eightieth anniversary with a reopening in June 2014. The six-year closure was necessary to plan renovations. The zoo had never had been renovated or upgraded since 1934.
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Yves Saint Laurent Archives On The Internet
You might think that ball gowns are a thing of the past. In the second half of the 20th century, Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent traveled with the "jet-set", artists, fashionistas and aristocracy in a world alive now in memories and imaginations. In the 1950s and 1960s, this crowd wore the designs of Yves Saint Laurent to château balls. Today, the memories and imaginations are kept digitally alive.
