Lundi - Monday

Monday was a beautiful day in Paris! We started on a nice ride up the Rue de Rivoli, to the Champs Elysees, around the Arc de Triomphe onto the Avenue of the Grand Army out to the edge of Paris by Bois de Bolongne to meet up with a contact, Andrew, who is a US citizen working for Reuters in the La Defense area. A nice lunch and talking about cycling and riding in Paris and outlying areas. Ric's on-bike video camera, on its maiden voyage, popped off the mounting from the pounding on the pave, crashed to the ground, got rolled over and died. Man! That was SO unfortunate. Not a single frame of our rides through Paris to be documents!!

Off to our first stop, the Art Nouveau Metro station! It stands quietly in a nice area, looking just spectacular! One of only two of the larger original of these entrances I was able to locate. Next we rolled down the east side of the Bois and we saw a massive 70s building. Stopping, I saw a small park to Claude Debussy, including a wonderful Art Deco monument! Small wonders everywhere you turn! Proceeding into the picturesque neighborhood west of the Bois, heading to Rue Mallot-Stevens – a small street with fantastic Art Deco apartmenet building, designed by Mallot-Stevens. To see them in person, not pictures in a book was exhilarating!

Ric was always just ahead, planning the next stop from my “list of wishes”. Square du Docteur Blanche, a private way that lead to Le Coubusier’s famous home, now the Foundation headquarters. Totally stripped of all ornamentation! Clean, straightforward. A startling sight put in perspective of the time it was designed.

What is so cool was being busy street, turning onto a small street and the quieteness is startling! You would never expect this in a city.

Next the amazing Castel Beranger, not even a mile away. Pre-dating the Corbusier house, this exuberant 1898 Art Nouveau building was amazing to see. However, I had NO clue the lobby was over the top! Copper ceiling, 3 dimensional walls, Nouveau art glass, wow!!! There was a workman in the lobby, carefully painting small areas in restoration. Then, I turned around and was stunned by the wonderful Art Deco building across the street!! A conservatory named for Francis Poulanc, one of my FAVORITE composers! Wow. Amazing! Everywhere you turn.....

Palais de Chaillot was next. The Art Deco pavilion opposite the Tour Eiffel. The fountains were all on, people hanging out everywhere and walking in the wading pool. There are so many placed to hang out in Paris it is amazing. There were some kids doing amazing and scary rollerblading stunts.

A wonderful ride through charming neighborhoods, stopping at the oldest church I’ve ever been in. 1630? It was hard to tell the age from the many plaques.

Past The Conciergie where Marie Antionette and others were imprisoned. Haggen-Daz near Notre Dame, the bells ringing over the crowds and plaza. Quite heavenly! The masses of tourists were not. Pushing and rushing, to get to the next thing. Ack!

We turned south, heading to see the first metal casting of the Statue of Liberty, nestled in Jardin de Luxembourg. When you see the park and know it is old and visited by Parisians for decades and decades, it is really amazing it is not trampled to death. We sat under the soaring linden tree near the statue and talked of all sights we had seen and other things.

We headed back, looking for Le Maison du Chocolat. The first location was in the lower level of the Louvre. We rode through the inner courtyard. Wow. The other Maison de Chocolat was near Palais Garnier and after the usual up-this-street-down-that-street, with the streets changing names frequently, just blocks later, a new name, making navigation very interesting! That Maison was FERME!! Closed. LOL.

Back to the now large room at the top of the hotel – classic French beamed ceiling, toile wallpaper, 2 sets of French windows that open to Paris and fresh air! So wonderful!

A dinner at Salon de The Capucine Cafe near the closed Le Maison de Chocolat on Rue Madeline proved just lovely, with a very nice African waitress who loved helping me with my French. The maitre’d gave me the French menu as I have greeting them and all in French. He smiled broadly and had a twinkle in his eyes as he did so. After enjoying VERY good foi gras, veal in an amazing sauce, duck you could not believe, crème boule and a medium size bottle of wine of a lovely white, French of course, we retired for the day! Wow. So many wonders and marvels!!