The Hambury Palace

Paul and I have taken a most agreeable little one bedroom apartment for this trip. The Hambury Palace Apartments are brand-spanking new. We have been watching the building being built over the last few years, and this year a unit became available for rent, so we jumped on it. We like it when everything’s new…

The apartment building is actually two buildings, there is a small, “square” shaped one to the west, and a larger “L” shaped on that wraps around the 2 sides of the smaller one, (to the north and east) creating an entry courtyard. They have placed a wonderful group of mature palms in the courtyard, and the design allows the breeze to blow through and keep the area cool.

Our apartment, D31b (strange number…) is on the reverse of the “L” building (ie, we don’t have a sea view). I don’t mind not having the view, as it means we have not had to run the air conditioning (the front of the building faces south over the Mediterranean). We have an excellent mountain view that is dotted with various turn-of-the-century villas and modern apartments – and if we look way up the mountainside, we can see a small section of the A8, the main costal highway between Nice and the Italian border.

We have a nice entry foyer in the apartment, with the bathroom just off it and a huge closet. The main room has the kitchen/dining/living area and the bedroom is to the east side, again featuring ample closet and storage space. Most of the width of the apartment has a terrace that I actually sit on to write this blog (I get the best 3G signal out there). The apartment is completely decorated in white on white, with a lovely neutral hardwood floor and wood accents. I sort of fancy it as a modern twist on art deco.

We have found our groove here again after a few days, and last night I had my best sleeping night since arriving (it just takes a while to get caught up on the right time). We need to get shopping for groceries tomorrow, as Friday everything will be closed (and everything is always closed on Sunday – which this week is Easter). If we don’t shop tomorrow, the grocery store will be bedlam on Thursday!

I all ready have way more photos than I can post. Weather is persistently 70 degrees with clear sunshine to light clouds. I make a very public apology to Paul for that. I was convinced we were coming too early in the season for such nice weather!

The First Few Days.....

Greetings everyone, from the sunny French Riviera!

We’ve been here for a few days now and I’m glad to report that things are going swimmingly! We had a great flight over on Air France. We arrived early in Paris due to strong tail winds. This, combined with improvements (yes, actual improvements) in the security sector of CDG airport meant we had to wait for quite a while for our connection. Both legs of the flights were wonderfully uneventful (although there was quite a lot of turbulence from Toronto to Paris!).

We arrived in Menton on the 15^th and I was lucky to not be too jet-lagged. Even Paul commented that he wasn’t over-tired (have we mastered the art of air travel?). We spent the night in our usual hotel – the Hotel Napoleon (www.napoleon-menton.com), and then took our apartment on Saturday the 16^th – in the brand new Hambury Palace apartment. For those in the know – the 16^th was indeed also my Birthday.

Paul actually forgot – and it wasn’t until we were in the grocery store and he was telling me what he wanted me to make him for supper that I reminded him that it was “my special day.” After some suitable back-peddling, he suggested we go to my favourite restaurant for supper. TRAGEDY! Soto le Stelle (Sur le etoiles) is no more L! There is a beautiful new restaurant there now (which we want to come back and try). So we headed off for the Breton creperie. We both had a terrific crepe for supper (with some brut cider to wash it down with). For dessert came the most amazing Birthday crepe – stuffed with black cherries and chantilly cream, finished with a meringue cookie – delicious!

I spent a good portion of today working with the folks at SFR (Society France Radio) to get my internet up and running. I now have 3G all over France and can surf the net ANYWHERE in the country! The nice girl at the office even wished me a happy belated birthday!

Anyway – lots to tell all ready – but I don’t want this to be a mundane forum of just day to day events, so I’ll sign off for now. Looking forward to what the next 4 weeks hold! Oh yes – weather is sunny and warm, all the time. Sigh.

Our Last Day in Paris

Today (Sunday) is our very last day in Paris. Tomorrow morning at 8am our car is picking us up to take us to CDG and then home. I'm looking forward to going home, to see my family and friends and of course my dear little pug dog. Being our last day, we wanted to keep it relaxed and low key. So we headed off for the Tuilleries garden (as mentioned earlier, one of our favourite places in the entire city) and took in the beautiful gardens and statuary. We did a complete turn about and walked home via the rue de Rivoli. We made a pit stop in the Galleries du Louvre antique mall, where we admired much and purchased not (saw a terrific little store that sold only walking sticks!), and sat for a delicious lunch in a nearby cafe. We hopped back on the metro to our apartment and had a some pastries and a nap. For the afternoon, we discovered more of the Ile St Louis. In the St Louis church we discovered the tomb of the Czartorsky family, who, believe it or not, are distantly related to Paul through his father's side of the family! We also visited their town house, the Hotel Lambert. You have to know more about this place - click here to get the scoop. We also discovered the National pastry school (YUM!) and various other surprises. So all in all, a fitting end to a wonderful trip. As an FYI, if you want to track our progress home (our flight leaves Paris at about 11:30am (5:30am Toronto time), you can track our trans-Atlantic progress by going to www.flightaware.com and tracking Air Canada Flight 881.
Au revior Paris.

Un superbe ne fait rien jour

"I can't believe tomorrow's our last day" I said to Paul as we strode along the Rue du Chereche Midi, clutching our chocolats Puyricard bag "It seems like we just got here..." and you know, I think that's the way that it is in Paris. The days seem to go by so quickly. Let's face it every city has its own charm, regardless, you just have to get to know it. I am lucky enough to have been to Paris 11 times now, so although I don't know every street, nook or cranny, I have more than a passing knowledge of where to go, what to do and my likes and dislikes about it.

Today we just spent a lot of time strolling around looking for inspiration. It is easy to find - in the beautiful flowers on display at the florist, the oysters for sale at the poissonerie, in the faces of the children as they ride the ponies in the Jardins de Luxembourg, in the beautiful breads at Max Poilâne, even the giant posters advertising "instant cassoulet" in the metro. If you look, it is there.

I'm pleased to say that we have not really been affected by the demonstrations that have been putting Paris back on the map in recent days. Our secluded little address on the Ile St Louis is surrounded by tourists, not demonstrators. The funny thing is that they are all protesting that the retirement age is going to be raised from 60 to 62. Note that they keep theit minimu 5 weeks holidays.

As the saying goes, some people just don't know how lucky they are.

Parc Monceau & More

Thanks for asking - I did have a better day today!

We headed out this morning to discover the sumptuous area around the Parc Monceau.

The Parc Monceau is an exquisite centrpiece of an elegant second empire district. The park proper is surrounded by streets with opulent mansions that stunningly convey the magnificence in which some Parisians are lucky enough to live in. Our walk took in many of the sites such as the old toll-house and the colonnade (where they were doing a wedding gown photo shoot!), as well as memorials to Chopin and various ruins from demolished Paris buildings.

An unexpected highlight - if not a highlight of this whole trip, was our last minute decision to stop into the the Nissim de Camondo museum, which we happened to be passing. I can't even begin to describe either the architectural magnificence nor the sumptuousness of this hidden Parisian Gem. Its stunning beauty masks the town-house's tragic history, though. Built by one of the wealthiest men in all of Paris, Moïse de Camondo, a Sephardic Jew who's family came to Paris from Spain via Venice and Istanbul, Mr. Camondo, a banker, had two children, Nissim and Beatrice. Nissim was an airman with the French Air Force and was killed in the first world war. Beatrice, who was married and had 2 children, inherited a massive fortune from her father, but really wasn't interested in the house or the exquisite collection amassed by her father, so, in his will Moïse left the house and its contents to the republic, in the name of his beloved son, Nissim. The story only get more tragic. Beatrice, her husband and their two young children, who had settled in Neuilly (a very posh suburb of Paris) were rounded up and met a tragic end in the death camp of Auschwitz, in 1943 or 44. The entire family is now extinct. This story has haunted me now for the day, and will much longer. How such philanthropy, wealth and prestige can be lost to the world through evil is unsettling and alarming.

To know more about the house and its glorious interiors, click here and also here.

We unfortunately didn't see the sun today (no complaints, we've had cloudless skies all the time we've been here!), but the day was a treat anyway. We just grabbed a sandwich from a sandwicherie for lunch and went to a wonderful Japanese restaurant we know on the Rue de Bourgone for supper. Just didn't feel like cooking today!

Greetings to everyone, and hi to the folks from Singapore and Ukraine who logged in to see my postings!

Beautiful day – what a disappointment!

We’ve had flawless days for the whole trip, and that trend continued today. I have to tell you, though, the whole day turned out to be a bit of a disappointment.

Now, I know everything is relative – boo hoo, Fred was disappointed in Paris, my heart weeps… but bear with me.

We decided to do one of my most favourite things, which was take the Batou-Bus cruise on the Seine River. We started out doing so and managed to catch one that was all ready moored, so things started off pretty smoothly. We went around to the Grand Palais in order to finally see the Monet exhibit.

What a mistake.

This exhibit is the largest collection (over 200 works) ever assembled in one place. We ended up lining up for over TWO HOURS (from 11am to 1pm) just to GET IN and see the show. We were lucky that there were some Americans and a British person with us, and between the 5 of us we had a nice conversation. I kept saying to Paul – this sign says “It’s a 2 hour wait from this sign to get in,” but he just sort of kept ignoring me, so we inched along and inched along, in order to pay to get in and view the exhibit. The exhibit was impressive, and I was pleased to see works from both the Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Gallery in Ottawa included… but you know what – 200 works is just too darned big. It took hours to view it properly ( we like to take the audio guide to get the most out of the exhibit, so it takes longer to view). So, at 4 o’clock, and without any lunch we broke our rule about not eating out at places we don’t know, and stopped into a nearby café for some thing to eat and drink. I had a sandwich with some French fries and Paul had a pizza slice. We shared a half bottle of wine and some water – and the bill came to 40E – or 56 Canadian dollars. I HATE paying through the nose for mediocre food, and this epitomized it. NEVER AGAIN!

Despite the late time, we walked back to the banks of the Seine and hopped back on the Batou bus with a view to doing nothing other than getting back to our stop (Notre Dame) and getting back into our apartment. After enjoying the tour including a stop at the base of the Eiffel Tower, somewhere around the St Germain des Pres stop, something went wrong with the motor on the bus and it spewed out a MASSIVE cloud of black diesel fumes laced with soot which – you guessed it – landed all over my jacket (the windows were open because of the nice weather) which is now plastered with smudged black soot.

We hadn’t laid in any groceries for our supper, so I kindly let Paul stay at home while I headed out to a traiteur to get something in for our supper.

Of course, he didn’t like what I brought home (note – he didn’t go out and get it himself).

I’m calling it a day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

At least “Master Chef” France is on TV tonight.

A Beautiful Tackiness?

I was enthused (and thankful) when folks wrote to tell me that they were indeed reading my blog. Thanks so much! I didn’t know it, but I have a little “status” area where I can go and get the stats on my blog. Believe it or not, I have readers from Canada, the United States, France, Japan, South Africa, the Middle East… you name it! Hurrah! Hello to all of you no matter where you are and what time of day it is.

Today started off cool and grey, but by the afternoon all was well again.

We headed out to go to the Museé Maillot to see the Treasures of the Medici’s exhibit. It was a breathtaking collection of some of the finest possessions of this renowned family; DaVinci sculptures, Rubens paintings, magnificent objet d’art, tracing the 400 years of Medici’s, including 2 Queens of France and 2 Popes, amongst this most notable of families. I wish we were permitted to take photos L

Along the way we managed to see them shooting a film on the quay just below the end of our street. We also passed some fishermen trying their luck. They made for interesting photographs.

Now, on a more serious note, its time to ask… has Paris gone tacky?

I guess to ask such a question, one needs to define the parameters of what comprises such – and that on its own leaves so much room for argument that it’s not even funny. It just seems such a juxtaposition here where so much work goes into, say, designing a street light lamp post, that the same culture has created aprons that say “Paris” with tits poking out (admittedly, ample, firm ones), plastic statues of Degas sculptures and hookers on the rue St Dennis & Place Pigalle (would anyone actually buy one of those and take them home – and put it where?), and fluffy pink Eiffel Towers with faces on them – all purveyed next door to a tattoo parlour.

But then again, I suppose I have my own cross to bear, never mind the citizen of Paris!