April 2016 - France

April 30, 2016

It was unusually colder this week with lows in the 30's. We mostly hung around the boat working on boat projects. Number #1 being the installation of our new autopilot. Time consuming but worthwhile chore done. Al also organized and re-ran some wiring in the nav station. We met some former cruisers renting an apartment near Nation yesterday. We visited their apartment and went to dinner at Chez Prosper near Place de la Nation. Good food, great atmosphere. The restaurant was elbow to elbow packed with the young 30's crowd out for dinner. The French tend to pack as many 20" square tables as they can into a very small space:-) We have another month in Paris before we begin cruising for the summer. Busy trying to find a place to leave Artemis in August when we come home and at the same time find an easy way (time and money) to get to an airport. There is a Contemporary Art Festival lining the streets above the marina this week that we plan to walk through today.

France | Paris | Jardin des Tuileries | Spring flowers and flowering trees

France | Paris | Bois de Vincennes | Lac Daumesnil

April 25, 2016

Springtime in Paris is so beautiful. There are so many different kinds of flowering trees and shrubs. The gardens are in bloom and the Parisians are out enjoying the lovely weather. Most have a long lunch hour so you see them sunning in the parks, running or just walking at mid day. The cafe terraces are full well into the evening as people stop for coffee or Happy Hour on their way home from work. We've enjoyed several classical recitals this week finding some new venues to enjoy. (Cathedrale Ste Croix - des- Armeniens, St. Philippe du Roule, and Espace George Bernonos) Al and I both walked the Promenade Plantee to Bois Vincennes and enjoyed Lac Daumesnil. We discovered the new zoo that just opened last year and plan to go back another day to visit. Busy with some boat projects. Al got some wiring done and made some new cockpit throw cushions. We've developed a Sunday tradition of going to mass, walking about Paris and having a nice restaurant lunch. We enjoyed Pere & Fils and returned on a second Sunday. This week we happened on a great find Chartier Restaurant. In 1896 it started as a soup kitchen seating 330 in a belle epoque dining room. We happened upon it at 1130 so decided to give it a try. Great atmosphere with family style seating (shared tables), good food/wine, and best of all relatively inexpensive. Good thing we arrived early as the restaurant was full with a very long line waiting to be seated when we left around 1300. We've enjoyed long walks almost daily.

France| Paris| Promenade Plantee | walking and biking from Bastille to Bois de Vincennes

France | Paris | Promenade de Plantee | Jardin de Reuilly | One of many small gardens

April 14, 2016

Yesterday Al and I went to see Paris Story an hour long movie about the history of Paris. Then we visited Palais Garnier but chose not to do a tour as the auditorium was closed for a rehearsal. We'll come back another day. Today Al and I gave Artemis a much needed bath. Then we had a wonderful sausage/egg/cheese galette at the Bastille Market followed by a yummy Nutella crepe. We found some pretty azalea plants that just had to come home to Artemis. Al is still recuperating from a bad cold so I went on a two hour walk on Promenade du Plantee. I nearly made it the 4.5 km to Bois de Vincennes when the skies began to look threatening so I headed back to Artemis. Beautiful walking and bicycle paths. The gardeners were busy planting spring flowers. Lots of pretty little gardens and benches along the way.

France | Paris | Musee du Louvre | Al in Cour Napoleon and Pyramid Main Entrance |

Monday April 11, 2016

Busy week in Paris. We went to hear violinist at the Louvre then walked as far as Argentine Metro stop above Arc de Triomphe. Found the UBoat marine store we were searching for but it is out of business. Nice walk anyway. We had a Yacht Club BQ Thursday night and a group of college music students entertained us with pop music. Saturday we took the metro to another Marine Store Accastillage Diffusion and found the drinking water filter we were looking for and some new control lines for the new Garhauer traveler. We walked to a little park for a picnic and watched the caretaker hand feed the nesting swans in captivity. Sunday after mass we visited Musee Jacquemart-Andre. Excellent old mansion museum and they have a special exhibition "L'Atelier En Plein Air" of Impressionist painters in Normandy seaside. We enjoyed and excellent lunch and bottle of wine at Pere & Fils on rue de Montmartre. Today we began our sewing projects. We tackled the cockpit enclosure first. We needed new vinyl in the side curtains. Tomorrow we plan to finish that project.

France | Paris| Promenade Plantee-Viaduc des Arts| Entrance to 4.5km walk on viaduc

Tuesday April 5, 2016

Connie and Steve few back to Minnesota early this morning. We did a few jobs aboard Artemis. We walked Promanade Plantes-Viaduc des Arts to Leroy-Merlin hardware store and Lidl grocery store. What a find. It's a great garden walkway on top of the old train viaduc that goes 4.5 km to Vincennes. We picked up a picnic while shopping and walked back on the Promenade and had lunch. Al got his new mainsail traveler installed and I organized some cupboards. It's awfully quiet aboard the Artemis.

France | Paris | Eiffel Tower | Elevator going to top of tower from 2nd level

France | Paris | Eiffel Tower |City view looking up the River Seine Al, Connie and Steve

France | Paris| Champ de Mars | Al, Steve and Connie Eiffel Tower

France | Paris | Eiffel Tower in Spring

Monday, April 4, 2016

We had tickets for tour of the Eiffel Tower today. We first visited the bunker under the Champs du Mars and then the engine room for the tower elevators. Great guide, informative and fun. We road the elevator to the 2nd level and then our guide took us on top of the roof to Le Jules Verne where we had views without the crowds. Back on second level our guide left us and we did our photo shoots and had a picnic lunch. We decided to walk down the 650+ steps so that we could avoid the elevator lines and stop on level 1 for a visit too. After all the walking we've done since Connie and Steve arrived we decided to take the Metro back to the boat. According to Connie's Fitbit we walked over 151 miles while they were here. That averages 7.5 miles a day! I think we'll all be ready for a rest when they go back to Minnesota tomorrow morning.

France | Paris | Jardin du Luxembourg | Sally, Al and Steve

France | Paris | Jardin du Luxembourg | Busy day for sailing

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Mass in English at St. Joseph's Church near the Arc de Triomphe. Then we walked along the river and up St. Germain des Pres to Cafe Maire by St. Sulpice for lunch. It was a beautiful day and no cigerette smokers around so we ate outside. We then visited Luxembourg Gardens. It was a wilder experience for Connie and Steve than their last visit. Music, some flowers, trees budding and lots of people. We managed to find 4 chairs and just sat back and people watched. Very relaxing after the busy weeks we've had. The hard part was getting up and walking back to the boat:-)

France | Versailles | Versailles Gardens |Steve, Connie and Al

Saturday April 2, 2016

Late night but we were up early to catch the train to Versailles this morning. Al and I visited last Fall so we just purchased Garden tickets to view the Musical Fountains. Connie and Steve did the Palaces and gardens. The Musical Extravaganza wasn't much as they were having technical difficulties. We should have asked for our money back as the gardens are normally free.

Friday, April 1, 2016

Beautiful day for another walk exploring Paris with Connie and Steve. This time we left Bastille and walked through Place de Volges through Marais, Hotel de Ville, Les Halles, Palais Garnier (Opera), St. Madeline stopping for a picnic at Jardin Tuileries, then over the River Seine to the Latin Quarter for a crepe. We crossed back over to Notre Dame before returning to the boat to rest up for the Caberet. We had Lido Caberet show and champagne tickets for 2100 so everyone took a nap before dinner. Lido had just updated the costumes and show for 25 million Euros! Fun production! After we walked the Champs Elysees and down to the river so we could see the Eiffel Tower by night. We caught a Metro by Grand Palais as we had all ready put in over 26,000 steps according to Connies "Fitbit" !