Ambling (flaner) the streets of Paris is a favourite pastime of ours, particularly in the area bounded by Boulevard St Germain near le Buci on the left bank and the Louvre across the Seine, and encompassing the Latin Quarter at St Michel through le Citie and onto the Marais. This region is a collage of apartments, narrow streets, grand boulevards, restaurants and side walk cafes, antique book shops, galleries selling works of art some of museum quality, odd shaped historic buildings, churches, hole in the wall creperies, a few Irish style pubs and tucked-away boutique hotels. – The area pulsates with life and activity from mid-morning to the evening when the popular streets are packed with pedestrians and the pavements overflow with outdoor cafes. Street artists ranging from virtuosos to the bizarre perform their art where ever they can collect an audience. On Sundays, the Marais is packed and on Rue des Rosiers in the old Jewish quarter unbelievable queues form for take away Falafels. The Falafels are great value as the pita is over stuffed with various fillings, but I must admit that I much prefer the cheesecake slices from Pitzman in Rue Pavee as a sample of local Jewish […]
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First Things First i) Bought a local Sim card for my mobile from Orange. ii) Renewed our Metro Navigo pass for the month of April at an automatic kiosk (€60) without incident, even though it was two years since we last used the pass. iii) Renewed our Friends of the Louvre year pass (€55 p/pp ; note normal single entry is €12), from their office in the underground passage leading from the central information desk to the Carrousel shopping plaza. The pass is available to all and allows entry to the Louvre through the short queue at the main entrance, at the Port de Lyon entrance, the gate in the Richelieu Passage (for groups and pass-holders) or via the passage on the lower floor of the Carrousel shopping mall on Rue de Rivoli at the Tuileries end of the Louvre (for pass and ticket holders, note: tickets can be bought from the tobacco shop, shop 34, and there is a direct passage from the metro palais royal musee louvre). Both the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay can have very long queues, particularly for those without a prepaid ticket. Tickets can be bought in advance from FNAC, Carrefour, and the national tourist […]
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Getting to Paris from Sydney A quick review of the flights. Sydney to Johannesburg: 14 hrs. On time. Qantas business. Lounge good. Airport check-in, and security went smoothly. On board 747 excellent lie flat beds upstairs with 2, 2 configuration. Food excellent, service excellent. Johannesburg-Heathrow: 11.5hrs. On Time. South African business: lounge: good. Transfer between gates went smoothly. On board A320 with good lie flat beds in 2,2 configuration. Food average. Service good. Heathrow-Orley: 1 hour 20m. British airways economy. Delayed 1 hour. Had to pass through immigration (20min), collect bags, then transfer, from T1 to T5, using a greet and meet transfer taxi (20min), then re-check in (10min). All went smoothly. airline boarding OK. Seating 31″ pitch and service OK. Food: poor. Observation: Orly airport is a dream compared to Charles de Gaule. Time taken after touch down to collecting baggage about 20 min. paris overview This will be our fourth 5 week stay in Paris. The last was September two years ago. (See Paris twitter 1-4). My objective is to improve on the photos I took previously, considering that France has strict publication rules for portraits. (note my top photos are not published on this website as they […]
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