Week IV, School

Main entrance, Alliance Francaise

I was off in Italy for four of these days, so that's not in the scope of this blog.  Carolee settled into studying at the Alliance Francaise in the sixth arrondissement, and decompressed by walking home, about three miles.  It became a sort of adventure to wind back along different routes.

Our local bistro

About this time our neighborhood Bistro opened.  We had watched some amazingly fast renovation at this site, just around the corner from us.

Church of St Sulpice & fountain

Dragon Sculpture on Rue de Rennes

Bizarre sculpture by Delacroix Museum

She exploited her ample opportunity to explore the 6th arrondissement, familiarly called St-Germain des Pres.

Facade of Opera Garnier

Glass dome of Galeries Lafayette, again

American flag bikini for sale

The next day it was off to the Opera and Galeries Lafayette, where she found American flag bikinis for sale

Jews for Jesus

Sideswiped by emergency vehicle

The next exploration took her to the eastern end of the Promenade Plantee, where she found massive modern apartment blocks, one wrapped interestingly around the Promenade.  Returning through the streets she found an interesting office, and viewed the hazards of parking a bicycle next to the ambulance emergency exit of the St-Antoine hospital.

Studio of Camille Claudel, Rodin's model & mistress

Hotel de Ville

Roller bladers, some needing exercise

Another trip home took her along the north side of the Ile St Louis, where she found a plaque dedicated to Camille Claudel.  Past the Hotel de Ville she encountered, contrary to any expectation, a team of roller bladers.
The following two days were turned into a nervous nightmare when I missed my flight back from Venice and was unable to communicate with Carolee by email thanks to an outrageous dereliction of duty by my provider, AT&T.  Yes, we should have had a backup communication plan.  The cost of a same day flight being a bit high, $840 for a one-hour flight, I returned by train, arriving Sunday just before midnight.  A nightmare for Carolee, and hardly a great experience for me.

Legionaires at Luxembourg Garden

Cafe de Flore

Brasserie Lipp

Les Deux Magots

Explorations of the sixth resumed.  We happened on some costumed dignitaries on their way out from the Luxembourg Gardens.  Later we photographed the famous cafes along the Blvd St-Germain, which the existentialists made famous 60 years ago.  Fearing the prices, we took our expresso further down the boulevard.  We might as well have done it: we learned later that it was a mere $6.40 for a coffee, two dollars less than what we saw charged at the Cafe de le Paix near the Opera Garnier.

Champagne in the Firemen's courtyard.

This week ended on the eve of Bastille Day (actually only called the 14th of July [le quatorze juillet] here), and we checked the papers and went off to the local Fireman's Ball (Bal des Pompiers) with free admission and free music.  As we had seen everywhere else, pretty much anyone, young or old, came for the fun.  Drinks were sold and we were eventually rewarded with music from a very professional but very loud band.  We were out of there before people really started dancing.