Paris apartment

We are staying in an Airbnb apartment in the Marais district.  It has a well appointed living room, spacious bedroom and bathroom with heated towel rack.

Our block is guarded by 3 soldiers (we think French Foreign Legion) during the day. We think they are guarding a Jewish school across from our apartment.  We felt very safe.  

There are a number of bakeries, delis, grocery stores, bars and restaurants nearby.   The food supply nearby was so appealing that we ate in the apartment 5 out of 6 dinners and all breakfasts.  

The front of our Airbnb apartment in the Marais

A quaint pedestrian alley filled with shops & restaurants

Galleries Lafayette food section

Dinner at home - ribs, potatoes & ratatouille

Light lunch at home - bread, quiche lorraine & chocolate torte

Memorial at Republic Square near our apartment

A nice salad at a local restaurant

Crepe & salad

Stainless steel balls in Jardin du Palais Royal

Nov 27 Normandy beaches

Today was devoted to the Normandy beaches via a 2 hour bus ride each way.   Although we visited this area years ago, it was informative to see the area with a tour guide. We saw how the Allied army built a major harbor at the beach town of Aromanche in a few days during the height of the war. The harbor was critical to supplying the push that started at the Normandy beaches. We also visited the American cemetery above Utah Beach.  Although we had seen the cemetery before, the number of burial markers is still staggering, especially when you see that the dates were all within about a week of each other. I enjoyed the greenery of the countryside in the area and was surprised by the emptiness of the villages during this off season.

 American Cemetery @ Utah Beach

 German bunker

 Marge shooting a sculpture on one of the beaches

Impressions of Paris

Paris is Marge's favorite place, but for me, there are pluses and minuses.  

Minuses:
   Smokers: We have seen more smokers than I have seen in years. They apparently can't smoke in public buildings, so they congregate in front of buildings so as you walk by some buildings you walk through a cloud of smoke.  A number of times there have been smokers walking in front of us, making us walk in a cloud of smoke, which is really bothersome.

  Crowds: Despite the recent terrorist shootings, there are crowds in the shopping areas, so we had to continually dodge others. I much prefer more rural/smaller towns & cities.

Pluses:
  Patiseries: Normally I just window shop at bakeries, even in Paris where high caloric sweets are a high art.  At both of the places we stayed at during this trip, there was a nearby patisserie with innumerable sweets that tasted as good as they looked.  It took a lot of willpower to limit myself to 1 treat each day.

Patiserie near our Airbnb apartment

  Bike helmet: While we were in a coffee shop, resting during a long walk, I saw a bike messenger wearing a nice looking helmet with a feature I have never seen anywhere- a built in flip up visor that would obviate wearing the cumbersome clip on sun glasses I normally wear for sun protection.  Using google, I researched it and found a bike shop that had it in stock. Although it was very expensive, with Marge's encouragement, I bought it.  

Casco Speedairo Helmet

  Christmas Decorations: Since we were in Paris in the early part of December, we checked out the decorations at the big Galleries Lafayette store.  

One of many display windows

Multi-Story Christmas Tree

  Gehry museum: Although I'm not a fan of museums, I do like museums designed by Frank Gehry.  They are like big modern, shiny sculptures.   We saw one of his latest creations, the Luis Vuitton Foundation museum (which has been open for about a year) during the first part of this trip.

New Frank Gehry Museum