A Summer in France: Paris, Week 3–Our First Bucket List

Thanks for coming back to read our travel adventures— A Summer in France: Paris, Week 3. We kicked off the weekend going to flea markets. I’ve posted before about my 3 best flea markets for antiquing in Paris. So I wanted to visit post-Covid to see if they’ve changed.

Marché aux puces de la Porte de Vanves

I’m happy to say the Puces de Vanves is still a great place to shop and spend a morning. It’s open every weekend. Tents filled with all kinds of vintage and antique items align several streets with wide sidewalks. It was a quiet weekend when we visited, so there weren’t crowds of people. This made it fun to rummage through the boxes and around the tables. I’ll be back here again before we leave.

I collect vintage French café au lait bowls which are impossible to find in the US. When I studied in France in the 1980’s, they had these bowls available for coffee every morning and many of the students would dunk their bread and pastry in their coffee to soften them up a bit. It’s a memory I still associate with collecting these. Much to Danny’s dismay, I always grab a few more when I find them for a reasonable price. Over the years, theses bowls have become a bit pricey and very collectible. The first two photos below show what they look like.

King cakes & babies

For our Louisiana friends and family who know that king cakes have a plastic baby hidden inside, you may not know that we borrowed this tradition from France. Originally, the tradition first began by bakers hiding a dried bean inside the cake. The French word for bean is “fève”. You can learn more about the history of fèves in king cakes here.

In the third photo is a box of hundreds of what are now used as “fèves” to hide inside king cakes. They are actually small porcelain figures and objects in every imaginable theme, shape and series. Lots of people collect these. I have to admit I have my own set of the little prince series made famous by the book “Le Petit Prince”.

Pop up Flea Market near the Bastille

After lunch we stopped by a one-day antiques, or “brocantes” market, as it’s called in French. These tend to pop up all over town, so I look out for them. There are always lots more goodies to uncover and prices tend to be a lot less than the big flea market.

Bercy Village and the Cour Saint-Émilion

Bercy Village is a shopping area with a paved courtyard lined with white stone warehouses and outdoor patios. The Cour Saint-Émilion is the central street of this area containing 42 restored storehouses registered on the French Historic Monuments list. For more than a century, it was once the largest wine market in the world because it was a tax free alcohol area when Bercy was a village outside of Paris. These stone warehouses are all that remain of the old Bercy wine district.

The story of the decline of this wine district begins in 1860, when the alcohol tax exemption ended. In 1910, the river flooded the storehouses and this area eventually became abandoned. The city later took over this area. Today, they have converted these storehouses into boutiques and restaurants. You’ll also notice the old rail tracks in the center of the pavement in the last photo. There’s even a Harry Potter store and cafe.

We scheduled a “day off” today to relax and hangout at the apartment. It’s the 5th public holiday in France this month—Pentecost Monday. We had lunch and dinner at home on the terrace, restocked our wine and food at the supermarket and watched movies on tv.

Dinner with friends

We are hosting dinner for our friends from Santa Fe, NM, Keith and Sharon this evening. Sharon and I worked together many years before she retired. We visited them in the south of France earlier this trip, but can’t wait to see them again. After they arrived, we walked to the Eiffel Tower and down the charming street of Rue Cler.

You may have heard of Rue Cler if you’re a fan of Rick Steve’s travel show and books. It’s a typical Parisian neighborhood street with bustling shops, markets and cafes. It’s perfect for picnic shopping while stopping at the cheese store, butcher, bakery, and chocolate shops to complete your meal. We ended the evening with a nice dinner on our terrace, but Keith and Sharon had an early flight to Houston in the morning. So, a short visit, but wishing you both safe travels back home.

A Day in Montmartre

Danny and I spent the day wandering around the Montmartre area today. I mentioned this area in my last post Paris Week 2 when we enjoyed a show at the Moulin Rouge. I thought I’d take you on a tour of the sites. Montmartre is on a hill and the tallest point in Paris at over 400 feet. It’s known for being vibrant, bohemian, artsy and filled with cafés, bars and boutiques.

Getting there

The most central metro stop in Montmartre is Abbesses. It’s also the deepest metro station in Paris, we learned this the hard way last week when we had to climb 120 feet and 176 steps up a spiral staircase to reach the street! This equates to walking up 9-10 stories. However, we did have nice murals to look at on the walls when we stopped to breathe periodically. When we finally arrived at the top out of breath, then we looked over in the corner and guess what we see? Dang it, who knew there is also an elevator?

The other thing to note about the Abbesses station is that it’s only one of two stations remaining with an original Art Nouveau metal and glass entrance designed in 1900. Returning to this station today, you bet we used that elevator.

Just outside the metro station in a small park is the wall of “I Love You”. This art piece includes the phrase I Love You written 311 times in 250 languages. You’ll find it in English a couple tiles above my cap.

Since Montmartre is on a hill, we’ll be going up and down lots of stairs, but the views peeking between the buildings are great.

Sacré Cœur

Perhaps the most famous site at the very top of the hill is the Basilica of Sacré Cœur. Construction began in 1875 and overlooks the entire city. In spite of the overcast morning, you can see quite far away in the distance.

As you climb the steps to go up to Sacré Cœur, if you look to the right you’ll see the “sinking” house. It’s not really sinking, but is actually an optical illusion due to the high slant of the hill and the slope of the street behind it. The more you tilt your camera, the more it appears to sink. Though not a tourist attraction, it’s a quirky thing to see.

Place du Tertre

Place du Tertre, a quaint square near the church, is filled with artists and places to eat and drink. The square bustles with activity and many people get their portraits painted here.

Historical bars, restaurants, streets and sculptures

There are many bars, cafés and restaurants made popular by famous artists, painters, singers and authors who used to frequent them are still open today. The narrow, winding and hilly streets are filled with charm and the storefronts are beautifully decorated.

You’ll notice one street below (Rue de l’Abreuvoir) with a couple taking their wedding photos and the church dome in the background. This location is quite famous due to the number of movies and tv episodes which are filmed here.

There are also two bronze sculptures in the area. The first is a sculpture of Dalila, probably the most famous French-Italian singer and actress selling 100+ million records worldwide. She lived in Paris and sadly committed suicide at 54 years old. Yes, her bust is shiny brass compared to the rest of the sculpture. It’s believed to be good luck to rub her breasts as you walk by. The second sculpture is based on a famous book, “Le Passe-Muraille”. It’s about a man who can walk through walls. His left hand is very shiny as people love to take photos while grasping this hand pretending to help pull him out of the wall…tourists will do anything for a photo.

The last remaining operational vineyard

The Vineyard of Montmartre is the last remaining vineyard in operation since created in 1933. Although not open to the public, this small plot of land produces only about 1,500 bottles a year. The vineyard is owned by the city so all proceeds go to charity.

We always make time to enjoy lunch outdoors with wine to rest from the busy day. After all, we’d hate to miss a meal, especially in France.

The windmills

Our final stop in Montmartre is to see the only two surviving windmills of the 30 that once stood on the hill. The Blute-Fin Windmill (1622) is still functioning and is now part of a private home. Unfortunately, I could only get the top of it in the photo from where I stood. The second one, Radet Windmill (1717), is now part of a restaurant. There is a third windmill on the Moulin Rouge, but it’s just decorative and not part of the original 30.

Jardin du Luxembourg

Since the Jardin du Luxembourg is Danny’s favorite garden in Paris, we decided to spend some time there today and have a picnic. It’s centrally located near the Latin Quarter and spans about 57 acres. Marie de Medicis, the widow of King Henry IV, created it in 1612 as her new residence. There are lots of people out today enjoying the beautiful weather.

Welcome home…to a “hot locksmith”

In a previous post, More Funny Travel Mishaps, I shared a story about a “hot cop” incident we experienced a number of years ago from one of Danny’s rental car wrecks. Now, I get to add one about a “hot locksmith”.

To our surprise, we returned home from our picnic to find a very attractive young man with beautiful blue eyes sitting on the entry floor of our apartment working on the front door. The door had been taken apart and dozens of bolts, screws and other pieces lay on the ground. Smiling brightly, he greeted us with a hello and welcome home. Of course I must admit we do enjoy handsome, friendly surprises.

What happened?

The housekeeper walked in from the terrace and explained that the owner’s daughter had her car broken into this afternoon and unfortunately her iPad, ID and keys were stolen. She was concerned about the security risk since the thief had the keys and the address to the apartment from her ID so she immediately contacted a locksmith to replace the lock. The housekeeper was there to supervise until the owner could arrive.

I guess we should have asked his name, but the one we gave him is more fun. We chatted with the “hot locksmith” for quite some time. Actually, over 5 hours as he worked to replace the entire door locking mechanism. You can see in the first photo that the apartment is fitted with an electronic steel door that looks like a bank vault. He was in no hurry to finish the job, we are in France after all, and we were happy for him to stay and chat with us. He is very interested in traveling to the US, but unfortunately none of our doors at home need repair. When he finished the job, he asked for the vacuum cleaner. Not only handsome, but cleans up after himself…a winning combination!

Le Marché aux Puces de Paris Saint-Ouen

This flea market is simply known as Les Puces and is the largest antique market in the world, dating back to the 1870s. It includes about 15 markets, 3,000 vendors located over 20 acres and about 5 million shoppers visit each year. Many dealers are very upscale with prices far outside my budget. But it’s always fun to poke around, as you’ll never know what you’ll find. There are plenty of areas where you’ll find smaller items more reasonably priced, but it’s a hunt. You can wander around the streets and alleys all day here.

More friends in town

Eileen and Steve are in Paris for a few days after their river cruise. I went to high school with Eileen and she worked with Danny as a flight attendant years ago, so we all go back quite a few years. We met them at their hotel and brought them to Sacré Cœur on their first metro ride. After a nice lunch, we headed to Galeries Lafayette for a quick look at the department store’s beautiful dome ceiling and stained glass shopping area and then back to our apartment for a visit. They had tickets for a tour to go up the Eiffel Tower, so we walked them to their meeting point. It was great to see them again.

It’s been quite a busy week, so I hope you enjoyed Summer in France: Paris, Week 3 with us. There’s more to come next week, but sadly it’s our last week in Paris before we fly back home to Houston. Our time here has flown by so quickly.