I Prefer Paris

Sundays with Polly & Richard

I am pleased to announce another fabulous monthly feature.
Are you ready? It’s Sundays with Polly and Richard.

My friend, fellow blogger, and Paris adventure cohort Polly, aka Polly Vous Francais, and I have inadvertently started a Sunday ritual. A few months back we casually met for lunch on a random Sunday and after that, we made it our day to meet. One of us thinks of an exhibit or cultural event or even some area to discover that we haven’t been to before and also include a nice, leisurely lunch. We both thought it would be interesting to write about our experience each time and see what our unique viewpoints would be after both seeing the same thing. Polly has a curious, quick mind like mine and is always pointing out the clever and the unusual in the things she sees. We even went so far as planning on somebody videotaping us and making a new spin on those nauseating morning talk shows in the U.S. Something like this:

Richard: Hi!!! I’m Richard and this is Polly !!! Polly, what day is it?
Polly: It’s Sunday, with Polly and Richard, silly!!!!!!

Ok, maybe not that corny. We’ll work on that. We can wear berets, horizontal striped T-shirts with bandanas around our necks, and speak English with bad phony French accents, like in the 50’s sitcoms (Think Lucy in Paris). It’ goes without saying, cheesy accordion music will play in the background.

Last Sunday we went to the Pierre Paulin: Design in Power exhibit at Les Manufactures de Gobelins. Pierre Paulin is one of the most prolific and innovative furniture designers of the 20th century. He turned 80 last year and after 6 decades he is still going strong, designing for Artifort. The magnificent and ornate Belle Epoque style building built in 1912 is the perfect backdrop for Paulin’s Jetsons-like futuristic furniture.

The main floor had tasteful but not very innovative pieces but what made it so intriguing was each piece had a mirror under it to see the intricate details of the base, while it reflected the mirrored ceiling above. It was a challenge not to get dizzy from the optical illusion and photo taking was tricky. Below is a failed attempt to capture a photo, marred by the top of my balding head, squinting into the camera. Upstairs was the meat of the exhibit with Paulin’s signature modern low-slung upholstered chairs and sofas. A long, red, white, and blue swirl couch and four armless club chairs in orange & yellow on a gorgeous 18th century tapestry were the standouts.

Lunch was hearty salads at Le Canon des Gobelins, a cheerful, corner café on the Boulevard Arago across from the museum. Vincent and my friend Rosemary joined us and we talked at length about the ongoing challenge of the day-to-day dealings with the idiosyncratic French customs and culture.

It was the perfect spring day, with brilliant sunshine and a cool , sweet smelling breeze. Afterwards we walked through an undiscovered park named Square Rene LaVall. A triangle of luscious dark pink tulips flanked by blue wildflowers surrounded by lemon yellow blossoms made it clear that spring was shouting “I’m finally here!” Wisteria, which I rarely ever saw in the U.S., was thriving on the outside fence. Very unlike Paris, modern, 60’s style buildings surrounded the park and a 32 story hi-rise with a roof top pool (quite an anomaly for Paris) that Polly had Google mapped and was curious to see, cast its long shadow.

We ended the day at a café with some long cool drinks before Polly ran off to a glamorous cocktail party. I look forward to more adventurous Sundays with Polly and hope you do too.

Sorry there’s no photo of us: the absent minded dynamic duo forgot to take one.

Now read what Polly had to say about our Sunday.
http://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2008/04/sundays-with-richard-and-polly.html

Polly's Dream Condo with a Swimming Pool on the Roof

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Cité Malesherbes: My Adventure with Benjamin & Cassie

My tour clients Benjamin Brown and his wife Cassie are the cutest, sweetest couple you ever want to meet. They are on a romantic vacation for two weeks, as they are celebrating Cassie’s 30th birthday, and are touring France and Italy, the first time in Europe for Cassie. Even in Benjamin’s email before the tour, he sounded like the nicest guy, with the enthusiasm and excitement of a kid traveling to a foreign land for the first time.

Since they seemed to have a sense for adventure, I did a tour a little outside the norm. First we visited the Palais Royal, then the Bibliotechque Nationale to see the incredible Sophie Calle show, ambled through some of the shopping passages in the 9th. Arr. and finally to rue des Matyrs, a wonderful food shop street near Pigalle. At the end of the street we came upon a voie privé (a gated, private street) named Cité Malesherbes, which had the most intriguing houses. As we peered through the massive, black wrought iron gates, a man punched in a code on the keypad and entered. The door closed slowly, and with a mischievous grin on her face, Cassie said” C’mon, let’s go in”. I was as game as she was, so just as the gate was about to close, we slipped through.

Once on the inside, we explored the quiet, stately voie prive with its distinctive and unusual architecture. Unlike most Parisian blocks where the buildings are more or less the same architectural style with little variation, there was a mélange of styles and periods from classic Haussmann to Swiss chalet to Italian style villa with colorful tiles and carvings. I researched the web for more information about this fascinating street and didn’t come up with much. Johnny Hallyday, France’s answer to Elvis Presley, was born at #12 in 1943 and after Johnny moved out the French Socialist Party Headquarters moved in.

Like the expression the teacher is always learning from his/her students, the Paris tour guide is always learning new things from their clients. Thanks Benjamin and Cassie for our wonderful adventure.

Cité Malesherbes- off rue de Matyrs, 9th arr.
Metro: Pigalle or Notre Dame de Lorette

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Fractional Ownership:How to Make the Paris Dream Come True

Tour clients are always asking me about how they would go about buying or renting an apartment here. Like me before I moved here, they dream of having an apartment in Paris. I recently found out that there is a way to own an apartment without the hassle of dealing with the French real estate system, which can be treacherous sometimes.

It’s called fractional ownership and is similar to a time-share, except that fractional owners actually own a proportional share of the title of the property. You purchase a four-week ownership per year (or more weeks if you like) and it can be a fixed time or flexible, depending on what kind of plan you buy into. The newly renovated, luxurious apartments come with amenities like dishwasher, washer & dryer, gourmet kitchen stocked with food & wine before you arrive if you wish, secured storage, concierge services, air conditioning and a laptop computer. They are located in upscale, residential, and central neighborhoods including the 6th, 7th, or 4th arr.

There are two companies I highly recommend that specialize in fractional ownership and I have met the owners. The first is Fractional Paris and right now they are offering ownership at 7 rue Mahler in the Marais, right across the street from moi. The property is a meticulously renovated, well-appointed two-bedroom apartment that sleeps six with a private terrace and two full bathrooms.

The other company is Paris Pied a Terre, owned by Walid and Charla Halabi. Right now they are offering three properties, a one, two, or three bedroom apartment located in the 6th and 7th arr. The décor is sleek, modern but homey and no expense has been spared in the renovation.

Price start at $142,000 for a one-bedroom, 1/12th share (one month). Ownership is expressly designed for investors outside of France.

The best reason of all to purchase a fractional ownership apartment in Paris is so you can take an Eye Prefer Paris Tour at least once a year with me. If that’s not a good enough incentive, I don’t know what is.

http://www.fractionalparis.com- Ask for Laura
in France: 01 72 77 00 39, or 06 78 91 84 53, from the US: 917-779-9950
http://www.parispiedaterre.com- Ask for Walid +33-(0) 631170303

Please tell them Richard from Eye Prefer Paris sent you.

If you buy this one, please invite me for a glass of Champagne

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Mirella: Wedding Cake Dresses

I pass by these shop windows all the time and I am astonished by the extravagance of the dresses in the window. I’m not sure who wears these creations, but it has to be a certain kind of bride that can carry it off. To me, they look more like wedding cakes with swirls of white butter cream. Not sure what the black cocktail number is. Maybe for a dark, wicked bridesmaid?

I went on their website www.mirella.fr and found a whole world of wedding fantasy dresses with names like Jasmin, Magnolia, Amelia, Tulipe, Mimosa, Nuance, and Hortensia. Let’s just say if you saw a bride coming down the aisle in a get-up like this, you would never forget her.

Mirella
23 rue du Roi du Sicile, 4th arr.
Tel. 01.43.38.04.00
Metro: St. Paul

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Meredith Mullins Monthly Photo Feature

They say if you don't like the Paris weather, wait five minutes. The changes are sudden, like bursts of energy. Showers, then clear bright sun, then both--when you take a sunny walk in the rain, looking over each shoulder for the inevitable rainbow.

It has rained a lot in Paris lately. But it seems to fit--poetic and romantic. And, as Longfellow said, "if it's raining, all you can do is let it rain."

As for me, I take a moment to seek out the beautiful light, the glistening reflections, and the fleeting figures dancing between the raindrops.

Meredith Mullins is an internationally exhibited American photographer, currently living in Paris. Visit www.meredithmullins.artspan.com to see more of the Paris images. Her award-winning book, In A Paris Moment (click here to order), and her 2008 Paris Calendar can be ordered online or in bookstores throughout the U.S.Original photographs are available directly through the artist.

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Wallace Fountains

Wallace Fountains

I’ve seen these ornate drinking fountains decorated with green goddesses all over Paris and recently learned their history.

They are called Wallace fountains, named after Sir Richard Wallace, a British philanthropist who donated 50 of them to the city in 1872. (An additional 36 fountains were later installed by the city.) The destruction of many of the aqueducts in the city by the Franco-Prussian War and the uprising of the Paris Commune left the poor without access to free drinking water. Wallace designed them and collaborated with sculptor Charles-Auguste Lebourg to have them built. The goddesses represent Simplicity, Temperance, Charity, and Goodness. At one time the fountain had a tin cup to scoop or drink the water with but for sanitary reasons they have been removed. You can fill your water bottle or refresh your face with a splash of the fresh water blessed by the goddesses during the spring and summer (the water is shut off from November to February).

The one below is on the Allee de Justes in the 4th arr. off rue Pont Louis Philippe.

Happy drinking!

For more information and a list of the locations, click here.

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Parisian of the Month: Jonathan Buckles

The Pavillon de la Reine is a beautiful, small gem of a four-star hotel on one of the loveliest squares in Paris, the Place de Vosges. It’s always a stop on my Marais tours and whenever I show it to clients, not only are they amazed by the stunning surroundings, but also the gracious and friendly concierge Jonathan Buckles charms them.

Jonathan Buckles is the concierge on Mondays through Wednesdays and I met him for a chat after work last week in the elegant and cozy lobby with dark wood beams and a fireplace. Jonathan is quite tall, over six feet, and is a striking presence in his uniform of a royal blue waistcoat, navy blue vest with gold buttons and crisp white shirt with a shimmering, orange tie. His ruddy cheeks and pale skin are a give away that he is English and he was born in Ashford, England to a French mother and English father. He lived in Ipswich until the family moved to Marly le Roi, a suburb of Paris, when he was 10 years old. When he was 15, he moved to Paris and has always lived in the 8th arr. He took a year off to live in Costa Rica and is fluent in French, English, and Spanish.

He started his hotel career at 18 as a bellboy at The Ritz Hotel, followed by a stint as a bellman and later behind the reception desk at the George V, then made his way to the Pavillon de la Reine, having now worked there for the last 18 months.

His favorite part of the job is speaking to the guests and hearing them share their stories from around the globe, which he considers like traveling the world without ever moving from behind his desk. Many of the guests have become friends and have invited him to visit when they returned home. The majority is from the U.S., England and Italy and some have fallen in love with the Marais so much, that they have enlisted Jonathan to assist them in buying apartments in the neighborhood. The secret to his popularity is being a good host and treating people like they were guests in his own home.

I asked Jonathan what was the most unusual request he ever had from a guest, and he told me it was making elaborate and extremely detailed arrangements for a wedding proposal. It involved shipping furniture from the U.S. to place in Butte Chaumont Park for the first half of the proposal, then having the bride to be whisked away in a specific car, blindfolded so she didn’t know where she was going, and timing it so that she would arrive just in time to see the sparkle lights go off on the hour.

The hotel has had its share of celebrity clients who like the home-like ambiance and low- key feel to it. A top French fashion designer lived in one of the suites for two years.

Jonathan prides himself on knowing all best restaurants, shops and sites to see in the Marais and all over Paris.

Below are some of his Marais recommendations.

Restaurants
Carre des Vosges- 15 rue St. Gilles
Gaspard de la Nuit- 6 rue de Tournelles
L’Ambrosie-9 Place des Vosges
La Enoteca- 25 rue St. Charles
Chez Janou- 2 rue Roger Verlomme

Sites/ Streets
Rue de Rosiers
Vieille de Temple
Franc Bourgeois
Hotel Sully
Cognac-Jay Museum
Place St. Catherine
Village St. Paul
Rue Louis en l’Ile

Shops
Ted Baker-20 Rue Francs Bourgeois
The Red Wheelbarrow- 22 rue St. Paul
Florence Finkelsztajn- 24 rue des Ecouffes
Jamin Puech- 68 Rue Vieille du Temple
Exceptions Gourmand- 4 Place du Marché Sainte Catherine

Pavillon de la Reine
28 Place des Vosges, 3 arr.
Tel. 01 40 29 19 19
www.pavillondelareine.com

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

You CAN Be Too Thin- It’s Against the Law!

The French government is challenging part of the old adage “You can never be too rich or too thin”.

In an attempt to crack down on anorexia, French lawmakers are looking to punish websites that encourage and advise anorexics on how to starve. (One tells you how to survive on literally an apple a day). Recommending fines of up to 45,000 euros and three-year prison sentences for offenders who encourage “extreme thinness”(what the hell does that mean? Talk about vague. Or maybe Vogue), the French government is serious about promoting healthy body images of women. The bill would make it illegal to "provoke a person to seek excessive weight loss by encouraging prolonged nutritional deprivation that would have the effect of exposing them to risk of death or directly compromise health." There has been a worldwide movement to curb images of too thin women after Brazilian model Nan Carolina Reston died of anorexia related causes in 2006. If the law were passed it would be the strongest of its kind anywhere in the world.

The good news is now when you visit France, you don’t have to feel guilty about having too much rich food or pastries.

Now that too thin is against the law, I can concentrate on the never too rich part of the adage. Please book your tour today or send me money (euros, please!) so I can keep up.

More on this story

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Cheap, Quick Eats: Pat's Hot Dogs

You can’t get a quicker or cheaper lunch then a hot dog. Pats’ Hot Dog is the cutest, little hole-in-the-wall serving le chien chaud smothered with onions and mustard or ketchup. At 2.50 euros, it’s the best food buy in town. Pat also serves another American classic, spaghetti, and tops it with Neopolitan or Roquefort sauce for only 3 euros. Wash it down with a Coke or Orangina for 1.30 euros, and lunch is under 5 euros.

Pat’s Hot Dog
Rue de roi de Sicile, between rue Vieille du Temple & Bourg Tibourg,4th
Metro: Hotel de Ville

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com

Door of the Month: 11 rue Pont Louis Philippe

I love the color of this door because its vibrant green reminds me of spring, along with the floral pattern on the ironwork.

11 rue Pont Louis Philippe, 4th arr.
Metro: Hotel de Ville

I am pleased as punch to announce the launch of Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I will personally be leading. The Eye Prefer Paris Tour
includes many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes & food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks, and much more.

I look forward to meeting you on my tours and it will be my pleasure and delight to show you my insiders Paris.

Check it out at www.eyepreferparistours.com