I had lunch with my friend, Isabelle on Saturday. We met about a block from the Porte St. Denis, shown here. Duh...I never even thought to get a photo of Isabelle or the beautiful restaurant where we ate. I can show you the Julien here, but alas, no photo of Isabelle...guess I'll just have to make another trip to Paris, huh? Lunch was yummy, the ambiance of the restaurant felt very Parisian. The neighborhood around the Porte was very lively...full of ethnic peoples and markets. After lunch Isabelle took me on a tour of 'passages' narrow covered streets lined with wonderful shops.
These passages are not particularly easy to find. Even Isabelle had to break open her map book once to make sure we were headed the right wa
y.
y.We discovered shops for toys, old books, art, miniatures, canes, pipes...anything you can think of...as well as restaurants, chocolate shops, and wine shops.
We ended our tour of passages at the Palais Royale where there was a long line snaking around the courtyard. It was 'patrimony weekend' when many of the buildings in Paris are open free to public admission, Many people were taking advantage of this special weekend to view buildings not usually open for touring. Outside the Palais grounds we came upon one of my favorite Paris sights...street musicians. Isabelle told me that not only do these performing groups need special permits to be able to perform on the street, but that they also have to audition before being allowed to do this. This group of string musicians was playing lovely classical music.
1 comment:
I was in that area too!! Saw the street performers, they were brilliant.
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