Gay Paris We visit Paris often. CLICK HERE to see photos from exciting past experiences!
Sunday
Parking in Paris proved surprisingly easy on a Sunday morning in August. We checked into the hotel, where, strangely, they knew my name when I walked in, and Nick found a free parking space on the street where we left the Bearmobile for the whole of our stay. We ate a wonderful brunch at Pain au Quotidien, a favourite spot from our last visit, and then walked across the Seine into the Latin Quarter, visiting Shakespeare and Company books, featured in our recent favourite films Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. We were keen to get to the Musée de Cluny, where the set of late-15th century tapestries that make up La Dame à la Licorn (The Lady and the Unicorn) are hung. As I mentioned earlier, we listened to the recording of Tracy Chevalier's book about the tapestries, and it was fantastic to see them up close after gaining so much insight. We inspected the representations of the five senses, noticed that the weavers had something of a bunny fixation, and imagined the characters from our book featured in the works.
After some afternoon MecZone fun, we scaled the steps of Monmartre, where we heard some amazing modern organ music playing inside. We went to the artists' square, which was packed with summer tourists (one taller than Nick, another bingo target) and had a crepe while listening to a woman play Bolero on her violin. We walked all the way back to the Marais area and were given free focaccia by a guy in the Jewish area who was about to close for the night.
Monday
Using our On Foot Guides Paris Walks book, we enjoyed a couple of walks, taking in the areas of St Germain and Luxembourg, and our own Isle St Louis. We saw the oldest restaurant in Paris, La Petite Chaise, dating from 1680 and photographed the "well hung" metal Centaur at the heart of the fashion enclave Carrefour de la Croix Rouge. Nick was photographed outside Foucault's former residence, and I ate a chocolate truffle outside Gertrude Stein's old place. The Jardin du Luxembourg was a delight with it's fountains and flowers, and we were inspired by the artwork, which included silhouettes of children flying through the trees. We had lunch at the Café´de la Marie, a haunt of students in Place St Sulpice. We ate the city's "most delicious ice cream" at Berthillon on the Ile St Louis, and enjoyed shopping along it's shaded streets. That afternoon we returned to the Maris area, where I bought the Dieux du Stade rugby book and we had drinks at a Latin American restaurant on Rue des Archives. We returned there later that evening for a huge meal including guacamole, a Cornish pasty-like dish, and a wonderful baked cornmeal concoction with chicken, mushrooms, and "an olive." We finished our evening at the Full Metal Club.
Tuesday
Our final full day in Paris was a delight. We did another walking tour, from the Palais Royal, with its multi-level striped pillars to Beaubourg. We were excited to purchase our lead Christmas tree and bathers from Les Drapeaux de France and Nick got a cute, red stripy Tin Tin shirt there. We took the lift in the sprawling La Samaritaine department store to experience a sweeping (and free) view of the city of Paris and then had lunch, surrounded by shirtless sunbathers, in the Jardin des Halles. I had my photo taken with the giant stone head sculpture outside St Eustache church. When we finished our tour, we recreated a favourite cinematic moment from Before Sunset, by taking a boat trip that took us to the Eiffel Tower and back past our Ile St Louis. We then bought gourmet picnic provisions, including champagne, fresh bread, cheeses, salami, Chinese spring rolls, and nut tarts to eat on our bench at sunset. We stopped for a drink at the busy Le Cox bar for a beer before returning to our hotel for a sleep.
As usual, we spotted lots of cute men in France. Click the picture below to see them all!
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