I Prefer Paris

Door of the Month: 46 rue de Vaugirard

This door is a paradox: old & bold on the exterior and steel & modern on the interior. I love the steel gray lacquer color on the front door and the intricate iron work on the gate with the magnifying glass. The mixed use building is across the street from the Luxembourg Gardens.

46 rue Vaugirard
Metro: St. Sulpice or Odeon

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: 16 rue de Louvre

I pass this fabulous door across the street from the Louvre all the time on my way to the gym and finally remembered to bring my camera last week.

The extravagant door of wrought iron embellished with brass trim, is in one of those grand style Belle Époque buildings from 1912.Besides the door, the ornate, sculpted flowers decorating the archway and the inlay of mosaic flowers above the second floor windows add to the divine eye candy.

16 rue de Louvre, off of rue de Rivoli, 1st arr.
Metro: Louvre Rivoli

I want to thank Monica Welsh, one of my Eye Prefer Paris Tour clients, for writing such a nice and warm review on her travel blog about the tour we did two weeks ago. We did a special all day tour, which she appropriately called Shop till you Drop, of contemporary galleries in the Marais and shops in the Palais Royal and rue St. Honore with her cool husband Sean and sweet teenage daughter Molly. Click here to read.

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: 6 rue Mandar

I discovered this Dijon mustard with a hint of green lacquered door while walking through the first arr., near Les Halles, with my former tour clients, now friends, Barbara Major and Paul Kaehler.

Rue Mandar is off the rue Montorgueil, one of the liveliest and best-known food streets in Paris. We passed an old-fashioned neighborhood hardware shop and in the window I spotted a simple Melita drip coffee pot, the kind with the filter on top where you pour the water through. After three years of having a N’Espresso machine and dealing with the inconvenience of always replacing the pods, I was craving good ol’ drip coffee. Barbara said, “I love hardware shops” so we went in. I happily picked out my coffee pot and Barbara practically grabbed it out of my hand and insisted on buying it for me as a gift. I was so touched by her generous gesture. I now think of Barbara every day when I make my morning brew.

We toured the rest of the neighborhood, finding a new, very tasty chocolate shop, perused the racks of some of the fashion shops on Etienne Marcel, and went to the famous kitchenware shop A. Simon.

I was so inspired by how rich the area was with things to see and experience, I decided to make it a tour destination on my Eye Prefer Paris Tours. I would love to show you this colorful neighborhood that many times is overlooked or unknown to visitors. Just ask for the Etienne Marcel/rue Montorgueil tour.

6 rue Mandar, 2nd arr
Metro: Etienne Marcel, Les Halles

I’d like to thank my good friend Elizabeth Topper, for the touching and heart felt post on her blog www.apreslebeep.blogspot.com about my tours and me. Elizabeth is a very talented and successful textile designer who lives in Los Angeles and Paris. We met last year when she emailed me saying how impressed she was with my blog and wanted to meet me while she was here. We became fast and furious friends (as she said on her post) and I am delighted she is here for the summer.

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:Goddesses & Mermaids on Cité Malesherbes

It’s a doubleheader this month. I found these door goddesses and mermaids on my wonderful adventure with my clients last month on the Cité Malesherbes near Pigalle. I especially love the exquisite detailing on the mermaid and on the shell above her.

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

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

Door of the Month: 17 rue Delambre

The Door of the Month is already a hit and I received many encouraging and enthusiastic comments.

There is an embarrassment of riches of Paris doors, and I could probably do the door of the day or the week and still have plenty of material, but I don’t want to spoil you. You’ll have to just wait once a month.

This month’s it’s a glass door with rich fire engine red enamel paint over the fancy ironwork at 17 rue Delambre, Montparnasse. These are typical doors in many of the Belle Époque buildings constructed between the 1890s and the 1910’s, and the doors match the ornate architecture of the building.

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

New Monthly Feature: Door of the Month

All right, I know you’ve all lost sleep wondering what was going to replace the Metro Station of the Month feature. Well, here it is:
The Door of the Month.

Another one of my favorite things about Paris is the beautiful, amazing doors everywhere. From Montmartre to Montparnasse, there is an almost endless array of doors in all shapes, sizes and colors. Whether it’s the original 17th century natural wood ones with black iron hardware, highly lacquered ones with vibrant colors of bottle green, periwinkle and brick red or the extravagant ironwork on the Belle époque ones, I love them all.

This month’s door is located at 12 rue de Beaune, in the 7th arr. I like the two finely sculpted faces, especially the detailing of the large mustache of the one on the right side. The intricate open ironwork against the rich brown of the doors is simply gorgeous.

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