Paris 2019, SHOES!

Okay, what is this obsession with European shoes?  I don't know, I just know that I often can't help myself and I march up to people with "ParDONE!" and motion to their shoes and then to my camera.  They seem pleased when they realize that I appear to be harmless and just want to photograph their shoes.  Most of the time I can convince them to "pose", but not always.  Sometimes I just sneak a picture ... but that's not as much fun as asking outright.  I enjoy the facial expression as it goes from surprise to uncertainty to amusement to pride (obviously they think I think that they have good taste, unless they suspect that I'm making fun -- which I'm not.

But, seriously, are these cute or what?!

Caught on the Metro, she never suspected I got a shot.  I remember she had on a cute jacket, but the shoes reminded me of Lori so I focused on her shoes.

We're at Les Halles wandering around one of the Christmas Markets when these two darling girls approached and I knew I had to have a shot of these boots!  The one on the left immediately went into a shoe pose and I had to instruct the girl on the right to follow suit.  Great!

White tennies in Paris?  Unheard of, except this year it's a real thing.  I particularly liked these.

Her coat and shoes matched!  Yikes, she was weary at first and then she seemed pleased.  I wanted to get a picture of her coat as well, but she only barely allowed me to photograph her shoes.

And then there was impossibly handsome HIM.  No way was he going to pose his shoes, but I HAD to get this shot.  Great shoes, not so great attitude.

These cuties (and the rest) were spied on one Metro or another, so didn't have to go through rejection for these pics.  Really like this pair because of the velcro!

I've never seen high top checkered tennies.  I've only seen Vans where you can special order them.  These really spoke to me.

 These look so comfortable.  But really liked who chic her overall look was, check out the slacks with the bottom touch.  So cute.

And these.  Eek!  They zip up the middle of the front!  Poor dear I wanted to tackle her and rip off those boots.  Just love them!

Paris 2019, Day 6

This morning we were off bright and early to catch the opening of the final Christmas Market at Abbesses.  Egad, it opens at 10 and only 4 stalls were open by 10:30!  They arise late, eat late, go to bed late ... and all I want to do is shop the markets!  Well, we bought close to nothing this entire trip.  Only thing I drooled over was the 650 euro purse.  But, heck, the key chain wasn't included, so it just wasn't worth it.  How, I ask you, could she even say that with a straight face?  Bought a few trinkets, some pepper (of course), but really, nothing of consequence.  I may yet go back to La Defense and get that Yak scarf -- I hear it's pretty cold in Prescott!

So we decided to go to Bastille and look around (we have a card for that).  Nope, changed our mind, got off at the Tuilleries and walked.  Sharon said, "Let's walk around the Tuilleries then down along the Seine to see if the street vendors are open, we can grab something to drink along the way and get back on the Metro to the Bastille.  Great plans ... rarely get followed.

This ferris wheel is located at the Tuilleries Christmas Market.  It is impossibly high.  Sharon asked me if I wanted to go aboard.  Yea, no thank you!  My stomach churned at the very thought of it.

 There are so many ponds and fountains along the Tuilleries.  Strangely enough this pond smelled bad, but it is sure beautiful.  If you look down first you see the Egyptian plinth in the middle of "Concorde" and beyond it the Arch de Triumph and beyond that La Defense (the giant Arch).  Directly behind us is the smaller replica Arch:

I love how we just "left turn" in the middle of a great plan ... when the urge strikes.  So we didn't do that, instead we wandered along the river, stopped at a bench to rest a bit and people watch, continued on until we both spied a Crepe restaurant and called for a stop.  Sharon wanted a crepe fromage (cheese) and I was interested in a tomato salad (and vin rouge).  Nice lite lunch, great people watching and generally a nice rest from the bitter cold.

Continuing on along the Seine, we stopped frequently trying to purchase those small oil paintings of various locations in and around Paris.  But the price has doubled since the first time we bought them.  Drat!  I'm just to cheap to pay 15 euro for something I paid 7 for just two years ago.  Let's all sing like the birdies do:  cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap!

Sharon is a nut for the architecture and insisted on taking my picture in front of this building.  For once, I'm having a good hair day (thanks, Jen!).

Hahahaha!  I can't fathom what's inside, I started sharing my thoughts and Sharon was like:  Stop it!  So I'll just leave you with this picture and you can make up your own mind!

Along the way I spotted a woman with great shoes.  I asked her if I could take a picture of her shoes.  She looked at me like maybe I was a lunatic (maybe I am).  I told her that she wasn't any fun and for that she would not make it into my shoe blog.  She didn't speak English.  Too bad for her!  I've got a great shoe photo collection going, blog to be published tomorrow evening.  She blew it!

This is new street art that I'm seeing everywhere.  This is the first series I saw, but individually this stuff is everywhere.  We saw it yesterday at the Louis Vuitton shop and today along the Seine.  I particularly like this series.

More walking until we came across a frontal view of Notre Dame:

What you see off to the far right is a crane which takes "parts" from a smaller transport (which you can't see in this picture and moves it up or down depending on what the people in the transport want or need.  Love this view of the cathedral.

We crossed, played around in the flower shops and then separated.  Sharon wanted to see Saint Chapelle again and I was ready to return home.  How nice that we've been there enough that we both feel comfortable separating when we feel the need to do different things.  Sharon says she is not a good navigator but she has had no problems doing her own thing when I'm ready to do something else.  So glad we travel well together.

Now back in the room, chilling.  Thinking about Japanese tonight ... right across the street.  Vietnamese last night, Italian the night before, we've never been this adventurous before!

Turned out we went back to the Vietnamese place for ravioli soup ... which was delicious.  Sharon was speculating about the ravioli filling.  Don't tell me, I don't want to know.  Just know that it was very good, a very mild spice and it was hot -- warmed my bones.  Yum.

Headed to the barn, tomorrow is our last day.  It's been a great trip and I'm ready to return to the states. 

Hugs,
S & S

Paris 2019, Day 5

Another lazy, rainy day.  Supposed to experience a high temp of 39 degrees.  Yes, Barb, it's mighty cold here in December!

After our usual breakfast (today my egg was perfect!) we decided to visit the street everyone raves about and is the star of Instagram.  Rue Cremieux.  Okay, it's a cute street but nothing like was I had envisioned.

The street is blocked at each end, you can only ride your bike or scooter to your home.  These tiny homes (I understand that they are all one bedroom residences) are colorfully painted with lush trees and greenery along the sidewalk; the owners obviously take pride in their little lane.

As we walked down the lane we approached this:

How much fun the painters must have had!

As you see, it's a short lane but so sweet.  We did not stand in front of a door and take a selfie which the neighbors find abhorrent and have petitioned the city to put gates on either end of the street to stop the tourists from doing just that.  So I'm glad we got to see it before we were locked out.  The few people on the street this morning were walking down the center, politely taking pictures but not peering into windows or interfering with the residence's privacy.

This street is so sweet, even the closed restaurant windows are beautifully painted:

Back on the Metro to window shop in our neighborhood.  Hello, it's Sunday and everything is closed.  No matter, we can still look at the real estate ads in the windows.  One bedroom flats are around 1 to 1.5 million euros!  Nope, can't afford to live here.

So back to the room for a cup of tea and rest up.

I checked Amazon for this tea.  No dice.  Lori!  Mommy wants!  I swipe a few from the breakfast room every morning to have in the room during the day/evening.  Sure warms my bones.

Decided not to take the hop on/hop off bus tonight as it's just too darned cold.  We'll take the metro to Trocadero to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up and whatever else we can see.

My father had a saying: "It was colder than a witches tit."  Now how he knew how to compare the weather to a witches anatomy is beyond me, but by golly after tonight I tend to agree with him.  Sharon and I have been wearing our scarves around the neck, leaving our ears unprotected.  Until tonight.  I would never have survived the open air bus (our original plan), it's currently 38 degrees, brutally cold.  We stood at the Trocadero for only a few minutes then it was time to go back to our neighborhood for Vietnamese food (a restaurant two doors from our hotel). 

 

It was just beautiful from across the Seine.  Neither of us had ever seen it lit up at night, quite the scene!

So nice to get back to our neighborhood and have a delightful meal with our warm hotel just right over there!  Time to settle in.  Pleasant dreams, more tomorrow!