Subject: Last Sunday in Paris |
Greetings!
We've just returned from an all too short week in France. For the first time ever we rented a modest apartment, in Menton. I recommend the experience highly. It's so comforting to have the amenities of home! Anyway, this trip involved spending a night in Paris. We've spent time there before, and didn't make particular plans for the 24 hour span that we were there. Still, remarkable things happen. Last Sunday we left our hotel in the Place de Republique and walked out to 24 celcius! The main traffic arteries were crippled with thousands of rollerbladers! Later in the day we walked past Notre Dame just as Palm Sunday services were ending. We couldn't enter, but the doors were open. The service ended and the clergy exited by the front doors. Now, perhaps I can offer a useful tip. We hadn't planned where we would eat, and none of the places in the Latin Quarter looked at all attractive to us. We wandered back to the Place du Chatelet; tentatively to pick up the metro. Instead we chanced on *Au Trappiste* at 4,rue Saint-Denis. It's specialty is beer on draft..they had at least 20. We tried two excellent French ones. The patrons seemed largely local. The preferred dishes were definitely huge plates of mussels, and chips! However they did have a more complete menu, and their creme caramel looked quite inticing.. I doubt that we could have made a better,(rather inexpensive)choice in that neighbourhood. By the way, a question for the group. A large 30 or more story skyscaper is going up within a sightline of Place du Chatelet. It seems terribly out of place, and am I wrong in thinking that Paris has a restriction on building height? Regards from chilly but sunny Southern Ontario, Alan |