Yesterday we took a nice long walk since we’re still in pound shedding mode and we’ve been trying to walk as much as we can. This also helps getting off of the couch on weekends which takes up a good deal of time! As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before it was a long, dark, cold winter and this spring was nice for a few weeks, but then got cold again. In nature’s cruel way, the sunny days have been while I’ve been in the office and the dark, rainy days have been on the weekends. This has been the running complaint of Parisians lately. The standard French vacation is to save most of it up for nice weather and use ¾ of it in the nice months (and ¼ in the winter for a beach getaway and/or skiing) so, many people have taken a week off already.
Yesterday was probably one of the nicest Saturdays in many months so we took to the streets. We hadn’t been to Jardin de Luxembourg yet and so we decided to walk there. There’s a good chance we may have to leave soon, so I’ve been more inspired to get off my butt and soak in as much Paris as I can.
It took us a good hour and a half to walk over to the river, under the Eiffel Tower and through the length of the Champ de Mars. We took a wicked detour to find this recommended restaurant called Le Père Claude which supposedly serves a tasty plate of frog’s legs. It’s high time to eat some frog! We’ve been here for a year and a half already! Since the map which Aimee had carefully drawn by hand as to its whereabouts was left at home, we had to move on. It was no big whoop as we just wanted to look at the menu. We saw this cool car (4 of them actually.) Allegedly it's an Ariel Atom and doesn't seem like a bad way to drive around Paris, except that you'll probably not get the chance to exceed 30mph.
It was a fun walk and we finally got to the park. It was packed. There were tons of people just hanging around on the park chairs which most people were using 2 or 3 of each. 1) butt 2) feet 3) stuff. It was a little rude considering there were so many people there, but after walking past a couple of old statues, a couple of weird art exhibits, past an impromptu kid soccer game on a makeshift field and some big, tall dudes playing an aggressive game of ½ court basketball, we made it to the center of the park. (And, a couple just got up and we got some chairs to relax on.)
Rather impressive! Lots of people just hanging out and reading, chatting and letting their kids run around. The central pond was in heavy use by these little sailboats. They worked out a lot better than I expected. There was some decent wind and I guess when you rent a boat, it comes with a long stick which you use to push your boat. With the power of the wind, they actually just keep on going at a decent clip, at which time you start running to the other side of the pond to await your boat for the next push. It seems like a fun way to irritate relaxing ducks.
Sunday – again we get out of the house! It might be a new record! Before we left the house, we both hung out on our terrace for a while and got some sun. My neighbors are fortunate that the terrace has a barrier so that they can’t see the VERY WHITE beached whale I am with just boxer shorts on. I just and hour did wonders. (This is not me, it's Aimee.)
So, the plan for our Sunday walk was to walk to Notre Dame, essentially, to see the pet market that is there on Sundays. Perhaps it’s called the bird market. Rumor has it that normally there are a lot more birds but due to the Avian Flu scare, the numbers are greatly diminished. But, for me, the main attraction was:
Bunnys! Everyone likes bunnies! They sure are cute! They taste pretty good too. I’m not really one of those types that won’t eat a cute animal, just because it’s cute, but frankly, they are no match for a finely roasted chicken. When we first got to Paris, we bought a roasted rabbit and with the leftover I made rabbit stock and then finally, rabbit noodle soup. No offense, bunnies, but chickens taste better.
We were a little bit let down with the size of the pet market, but that’s ok. The whole point was just to walk around and see some stuff that we hadn’t seen before. Which, by the way, on a pedestrian bridge on the way home, was an outdoor painting exhibit. The bridge, oddly enough is called Pont des Arts (Bridge of Arts). The exhibit of Francis Gazeau was nice and the setting was incredible.
As always, more pics on flickr.
Cheers,
-Dennis
Yesterday was probably one of the nicest Saturdays in many months so we took to the streets. We hadn’t been to Jardin de Luxembourg yet and so we decided to walk there. There’s a good chance we may have to leave soon, so I’ve been more inspired to get off my butt and soak in as much Paris as I can.
It took us a good hour and a half to walk over to the river, under the Eiffel Tower and through the length of the Champ de Mars. We took a wicked detour to find this recommended restaurant called Le Père Claude which supposedly serves a tasty plate of frog’s legs. It’s high time to eat some frog! We’ve been here for a year and a half already! Since the map which Aimee had carefully drawn by hand as to its whereabouts was left at home, we had to move on. It was no big whoop as we just wanted to look at the menu. We saw this cool car (4 of them actually.) Allegedly it's an Ariel Atom and doesn't seem like a bad way to drive around Paris, except that you'll probably not get the chance to exceed 30mph.
It was a fun walk and we finally got to the park. It was packed. There were tons of people just hanging around on the park chairs which most people were using 2 or 3 of each. 1) butt 2) feet 3) stuff. It was a little rude considering there were so many people there, but after walking past a couple of old statues, a couple of weird art exhibits, past an impromptu kid soccer game on a makeshift field and some big, tall dudes playing an aggressive game of ½ court basketball, we made it to the center of the park. (And, a couple just got up and we got some chairs to relax on.)
Rather impressive! Lots of people just hanging out and reading, chatting and letting their kids run around. The central pond was in heavy use by these little sailboats. They worked out a lot better than I expected. There was some decent wind and I guess when you rent a boat, it comes with a long stick which you use to push your boat. With the power of the wind, they actually just keep on going at a decent clip, at which time you start running to the other side of the pond to await your boat for the next push. It seems like a fun way to irritate relaxing ducks.
Sunday – again we get out of the house! It might be a new record! Before we left the house, we both hung out on our terrace for a while and got some sun. My neighbors are fortunate that the terrace has a barrier so that they can’t see the VERY WHITE beached whale I am with just boxer shorts on. I just and hour did wonders. (This is not me, it's Aimee.)
So, the plan for our Sunday walk was to walk to Notre Dame, essentially, to see the pet market that is there on Sundays. Perhaps it’s called the bird market. Rumor has it that normally there are a lot more birds but due to the Avian Flu scare, the numbers are greatly diminished. But, for me, the main attraction was:
Bunnys! Everyone likes bunnies! They sure are cute! They taste pretty good too. I’m not really one of those types that won’t eat a cute animal, just because it’s cute, but frankly, they are no match for a finely roasted chicken. When we first got to Paris, we bought a roasted rabbit and with the leftover I made rabbit stock and then finally, rabbit noodle soup. No offense, bunnies, but chickens taste better.
We were a little bit let down with the size of the pet market, but that’s ok. The whole point was just to walk around and see some stuff that we hadn’t seen before. Which, by the way, on a pedestrian bridge on the way home, was an outdoor painting exhibit. The bridge, oddly enough is called Pont des Arts (Bridge of Arts). The exhibit of Francis Gazeau was nice and the setting was incredible.
As always, more pics on flickr.
Cheers,
-Dennis
See our photos on Flickr!
About me
- I'm off2paris
- From Paris, France
- off2paris at wonky point org
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