Daumesnil Viaduct and Bon Marché

Thursday morning Sande, Kayla and I set off for the east side of Paris to an area I had never been to before.  There is a viaduct that runs along avenue Daumesnil that has arts and crafts stores inside.  We weren't sure what to expect.  A train used to run across the top of the viaduct from 1859-1969.

Kayla and Jeanene by the Viaduct

We found artisans inside the little shops--one in each arch.  We went in one that housed a metal worker.  Upstairs was the workshop and downstairs were beautiful knobs, vases, sculptures and bowls.  Others shops had furniture, musical instruments, leather work, cross stitching, umbrellas and parasols, frames, jewelry and more.  Here is a sampling of what we found.

Giraffe and Elephant Sculptures

Jars of Beads in the Jewelry Making Shop

Wrought Iron Staircase Railing with Ram's Head

We went up the stairs to see on top of the viaduct.  It has a running path and is planted with trees and shrubs.  There were terraced gardens part way up.

On top of the viaduct

Selfie on the Viaduct

Kayla in the garden

It was pretty hot up there so we didn't stay long.  On our way down, Sande snapped a picture of these signs that had been doctored a bit.

No skateboards or rollerblades
And definitely no dogs--even on a leash

We stumbled upon this interesting door.  In the center below the window was carved a beehive with bees buzzing around.

Beehive on Door

And the corner of this church, Eglise Saint Antoine des Quinze Vingt, looked really cool.

We sat inside the church to rest our feet and cool down a bit.  After more shopping, we decided to take Kayla to the grocery store at the Bon Marché.  I needed more of that good butter at the apartment and Sande wanted to send butter home with Spencer and Kayla tomorrow.


Our favorite butter

Everything is presented so beautifully at the Bon Marché.  Even the eggs are in pretty cartons.  You pick the eggs out of the basket and place them in your carton yourself.

They have areas with food imported from other countries.  We weren't surprised to fine the marshmallows, peanut butter, Karo syrup, and other American food.  But Angry Birds Fruit Gummies?  I don't think I've ever seen those in the US.

The produce was beautiful.  It was arranged on the back of a truck.


Jeanene in the Produce Aisle next to the Truck

Front of the Truck/Fruit Stand

And we loved the packaging on the spices and Maille mustard.  This is a beautiful store and one of our favorite places to shop. 


Spices

More Spices



Green Mustard with Peas and
Pink Mustard with Cherries and Almonds
Maille Moutarde

Kate decided that after two weeks, it was finally time to go to Ladurée for our favorite treat--macarons.  We had waited way too long.  I love the salted caramel ones and especially the rose flavor.  It tastes just like a rose smells and is so light and heavenly.  And the orange flower flavor...I could go on and on.

Laduree Macarons

Ski Krieger arrived in town today and Spencer and Kayla leave tomorrow morning.  So we went to the café below our building--Le Comptoir du Septième--together for dinner.  Ski likes to be adventurous when he goes out to eat and decided steak tartare with a raw egg on top fit the bill.  It wasn't enough that the ground beef was raw.

Ski's steak tartare and potatoes

Sande and I played it a bit safer with a goat cheese on toast drizzled with honey salad.

Kayla went all out with an "Italian" hamburger (it had parmesan cheese).  They do make good burgers at that place.  In France, they eat hamburgers with a knife and fork but Kayla ate hers American style.


Kayla's burger

 


Kayla enjoying that burger

Spencer and Kate at dinner

We walked over to the rue Cler after dinner so the kids could get gelato at Amorino.  It is so refreshing on these hot days.
Speaking of hot days, there is air conditioning in our apartment that we finally turned on yesterday.  It started making very loud banging noises after a bit so I turned it off.  But the intermittent banging noises continued.  All night.  Kate woke up at 3:30 and couldn't go back to sleep so she finally woke us at 4:30.  Her room was hot so Kelly turned her air conditioning back on.  Not only did the banging sounds continue, but her unit started dripping water.  Needless to say it was not a good night!  Richard, the landlord, worked on the units for a couple of hours today and we now have a nice cool apartment sans banging.  Truly a luxury in Paris!