Paris, France, April 24 and 25, 2013

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Helen in our living room in Philadelphia
 

Planning for this trip began a couple of years ago when we received an offer for a house exchange from Helene Schmit, who lives in Paris, just a few steps (well, 150, all up, to be exact, we found out) from Sacre Cour on Montmarte.  We finally were able to arrange the exchange with Helene, who arrived in Philadelphia on Monday, April 22. 

Sacre Cour and some of those 150 steps!

We met her at the airport, took her on a tour of Philadelphia, including flatbread pizza and beer at Earth + Bread Brewery in the Mount Airy neighborhood (an appropriate choice for Earth Day, we thought).  The next day, after Dane gave her a walking tour of Center City to orient her, we left for the airport and our flight to Paris, which was blessedly uneventful other than an hour delay in departing from Philadelphia due to a long queue of planes waiting for takeoff, probably due to FAA cutbacks because of the federal budget sequestration.  Write your representatives-this will only get worse! 

We arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport nearly on time the next morning in spite of our late departure from Philadelphia.  Helene had kindly bought us train tickets so we found our way to Gare du Nord, and from there a taxi up the hill of Montmarte to Helene's charming apartment on Rue Paul Albert. 

Helene's comfortable sitting room where we spent a lot of time.
 

After getting settled, we took a self-guided walking tour of Montmarte, complete with hordes of tourists, as it was a beautiful, warm sunny spring day. 

There's even a very small winery on Montmarte, an oasis of greenery.

We had a wonderful late lunch at the café just across from Helene's apartment, L'ete en Pente Douce, (Lapin Chasseur and Salade Nicoise) then a welcome nap to make up for the short night we had during our flight.  Then we  did some exploring of Helene's neighborhood, finding the boulangerie, boucherie, and Carrefour grocery store and Chateau Rouge Metro stop. 

We enjoyed a late night snack at the café just downstairs from us Le Botak Café, where we shared a terrine de chevre with honey lightly drizzled over the top, and a terrine foie de volaille, (poultry) both on nice beds of greens.  A glass of chardonnay for Joan and a French beer for Dane ensured that we would sleep well.

 But those 150 stairs beckoned so once more we climbed to Sacre Cour to enjoy the nighttime view, which was lovely, and we found Montmarte much less crowded than during the daytime, but still lively. 

Thursday, April 25

Because we bought 6-day Museum Passes at the airport yesterday, we began using them today, choosing the Musee d'Orsay for our first visit. 

Fabulous impressionist art in a creatively adapted train station.

We enjoyed a late lunch at the museum's second floor restaurant, where Joan had the supremes de volaille with delicious pasta, and Dane had cheese and spinach ravioli. 

After spending several hours exploring every nook and cranny of the museum, we walked through Saint-Germain-de-Pres and found Mariage Freres tea shop and salon de the.  Of course we had to have afternoon tea, complete with a selection of sweets. 

After that delicious treat, more walking was necessary, so we crossed the Seine to see Notre Dame and then on to Ile St. Louis, where we found Jardin Barye, named in honor of the sculptor Antoine Louis Barye, who created our own Rittenhouse Square's most famous statue, Lion Crushing a Serpent.  By this time it was 8 pm, and we'd enjoyed a long sunny day on our feet, so it was time to retrace our steps to the Cite Metro station, one of the wonderful Art Nouveau entrances, where we caught a metro back to Montmarte and our comfortable apartment. We're sure we will sleep well tonight!