A Few of My Favorite Things

There are so many things I like about Paris and I am definitely not ready to leave.  I'm sure Kelly is ready to be home sleeping in his own bed.  Here are a few pictures of some of my favorite Paris things.

Les Invalides and Pont Alexandre III

The Pont Alexandre and Les Invalides

Les Invalides is in our back yard and one of my favorite museums.  It has everything from centuries-old, hand-made, wooden relief maps of cities in France that the kings used to plan their defenses, to Napoleon's stuffed horse, to great exhibits on WW I and II.  And of course it is where Napoleon is buried under that shiny gold dome.  I think the Pont Alexandre III is one of the prettiest bridges with the gold statues.  And of course I like everything in our neighborhood a little bit better than other areas of Paris.

Place de la Concorde
Place de la Concorde is where the guillotine was located during the French Revolution.  It was called the Place de la Revolution back then.  Despite all the cars whizzing around there, it is really a beautiful place. 

Kelly at Place de la Concorde

Place de la Concorde from the Eiffel Tower

There are statues all around the square representing different cities in France.   The statue in the photo with Kelly represents Strasbourg, the capital of the Alsace Lorraine region.  This region went back and forth between Germany and France and was part of France until the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, when it was annexed by Germany.  After the Franco-Prussian War, this statue of a woman was draped in mourning as a reminder of the wrong done to France, until the region became a part of France again after World War I.  The French do love their symbolism.   I also like the Egyptian obelisk, the beautiful street lamps, the fountains, and the view of Les Invalides, the National Assembly and the Eiffel Tower.

James at Place de la Concorde

Place de la Concorde Lamp Post

Eiffel Tower from Place de la Concorde

Café Central on the rue Cler

We have enjoyed going to the Café Central around the corner from us the rue Cler. 

The waiters are always friendly and accommodating.  They have great pizza and French fries.  I love how they serve the fries inside a Russian newspaper in a pewter cup.  And these pictures include my favorite drink in Paris--Orangina.  I am not a soda drinker, but Orangina is not like any other soda.  We drink about a liter or two of it every day.  It is the perfect drink--not too sweet, with some real orange juice and pulp, and it tastes good whether it is chilled or not.  When Kelly and I drove around France for three weeks in 1987, we kept a case in the trunk of our car on the ready.  We can find it at certain stores in the US, but it tastes better, like everything else, in France.

Pizza and French Fries at Café Central

Orangina

Exterminator

When we came to Paris in 2005, we stumbled upon this exterminator shop near Châtelet at the Place St. Opportune.

Andrew at the Exterminator Shop

The shop displays stuffed rats that were caught in the area in 1925.  This shop is in the movie Ratatouille.  The father rat brings his son to the shop to show him the stark reality of what humans do to rats.  Not many people realize that this is an actual place in Paris.

Eiffel Tower and the Seine

What says Paris better than the Eiffel Tower and the Seine?  Kate looks out her bedroom window at the Eiffel Tower.  At night she watches it sparkle every hour on the hour.  There are leaves on the trees in Paris now!

The View from Kate's Window

What can be more perfect than that?  Here are my favorite people on the pedestrian bridge over the Seine. 

Andrew, Kate and Kelly

There is much more I could add to the list, like the nice baker and his wife at the boulangerie on our street, shopping on the rue Cler and Napoleon III's apartments at the Louvre, to name a few.

It will be hard to leave these things behind in Paris.