Our Hostel

Our little group of artists continued disbanding on Thursday morning, as several more headed for home.  Kim, Joan and Vera returned to Boston, and Karen and Lizz to Los Angeles.  And then there were 8.  After having a yummy breakfast at the hostel of corn flakes and cocoa puffs, French style, of course, we did a little exploring in the neighborhood.

Laura and Julie in front of the Hostel chalkboard

It was just a short walk to get to a large number of steps that led us up to Sacre Coeur, and a spectacular view.  Along the way, I liked this photo I snapped on the street of a man admiring a lovely French woman.

A fashionable French woman catches the eye of an admirer

Sacre Coeur

As usual, there was gorgeous architecture everywhere, and I liked this building detail below.

Many awesome sculptural building details

We returned to our hostel and checked out around 11:00, hailing a taxi for the second part of our adventure in St. Germain.  The traffic was crazy and the ride thrilling, especially when the Eiffel Tower came into view.

Interesting clock scultpture in central Paris

The Eiffel Tower comes into view

Lani, Laura, Lynn and I checked into our hotel in St. Germain, the Hotel Le Clement, and then headed right off to the Musee D'Orsay, where the plan was to meet up with the others (Iren, Julie, Karla, and Cate) at 12:30.  When we got there, we had a pleasant surprise because the museum was free that day because of the train strike.  We were really hungry and 4 of us ended up having lunch in the dining room at the museum.  Consequently, our little group ended up disbanding, and I spent a wonderful afternoon exploring the Musee D'Orsay, and then St. Germain, with Cate.

Detail of restaurant ceiling at the Musee D'Orsay

We discovered that St. Germain is an area filled with galleries, and this one had some art that we especially took a liking to.

One of the many nice galleries in St. Germain

A favorite story that Cate and I told later was about our visit to Laduree, the famous macaroon shop on Rue Bonaparte.  The cookies are so colorful that they are a veritable feast for the senses.  You can't help but want to take a picture.  And as soon as you do, someone comes up to you and says "madame, no photos please".  Groan.  Then once we bought our macaroons, we went to sit down at a little table in the next room.  The same woman came up to us and told us we couldn't sit there, because it was only for patrons that were dining in.  Groan.  But no matter how rude they were to us, we just could not resist getting  back into line and getting MORE macaroons.  At about 1 euro a piece.  They were that good!

Going through the line for a second time at Laduree

There are a lot of nice bookstores in this area, but our very favorite was right down the street on Rue Bonaparte, called Librairie F. De Nobele.  They had wonderful art books in a variety of different languages, and Cate ended up buying a book that she truly treasured.

Art Bookstore in St. Germain

Strolling back towards the hotel there was a lot of fun window shopping.  I loved this display for men's leather goods where even the name of the store was embossed in leather.

Even the word "Berluti" was in leather in this gorgeous men's window display

We were pretty tired from a full day of walking, first in the morning in Montmartre, and then the afternoon in St. Germain.  Cate and I met up with Laura, Lani and Lynn and had dinner near the hotel, where I had a surprisingly delicious chicken and mashed potatoes, along with a well earned glass of wine.  Cate went back to the hotel she was staying at in East Paris, and the other 4 of us headed back to the Hotel Le Clement, for a good night's sleep in preparation for our last full day in Paris.

Absolutely delicious chicken and mashed potatoes, French style

The place I will call home for Thursday and Friday night