I Prefer Paris

My Secret Garden

There’s a hidden rose garden in the Marais that I keep a secret and only show on my tours. I frequently visit and in the spring it changes weekly, sometimes daily. The weather has been glorious for the last week: sunny, warm with a cool, pleasant breeze, and not a cloud in the sky. I hadn’t been in a about a week and on Sunday, when I was showing it to my clients, I gasped. Suddenly, all the closed buds that had stubbornly held out for sunshine, had burst wide open. In all the times I’d had been here, I had never seen so many in bloom at the same time. The wild vines were overflowing with outrageous roses in the most stunning colors that nature could only make, almost looking fake in their perfection. Of course the smell was deliriously intoxicating. Here are some photos and even though I think they look great, it pales by comparison to experiencing them live. So now you have to take one of my tours if you want to see my secret garden.

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

Courtyard Delight

I went to my dentist yesterday for a painful experience, cleaning my teeth, and left with a pleasant one, finding a lovely new courtyard in his building. The dentist’s office is in a residential 18th century building next to the Etienne Marcel metro station, bordering the commercial Les Halles area. The building is pretty non-descript from the outside but once inside there is the quaintest courtyard with a country setting. A private terrase is surrounded by bottle green iron fence festooned with the lushest ivy. Around the rest of the courtyard were window boxes in bloom and flowering potted plants. A young woman was feverishly planting away and I can see the plants and flowers were her pride and joy. I love discovering new finds like this and I always tell my tour clients some of the most beautiful Paris sites are the ones hidden behind the big doors in these courtyards.

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

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

April in Paris

I am back from my blogging siesta and in the Paris fold again.

It’s April in Paris and although the weather is still iffy, there was a burst of spring the other day in the lovely park surrounding Notre Dame and on the Ile St. Louis. Flowers were showing off their brilliant colors, trees were blossoming their abundant blossoms, and love was in the air.

Love is in the air

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

Best of EPP:Geranium Boxes in the 16th Arr.

I'm taking a blogging siesta for a few weeks and posting some of my favorite and your favorite former posts. Enjoy, and will have all new posts starting again on Monday, April 14.

I have a thing for Parisian geranium boxes.

I was in the upscale 16th Arr. the other day, which was like a ghost town because all the residents are on vacances. It was a great opportunity to roam the streets and take photos of the La Belle Époque style apartment buildings, rich with ornate architectural details. The terraces of the buildings flowed with an over abundance of the purest white, the rosiest pink, and cartoon red geraniums. The dates of when the buildings were built, between the 1890’s and the early 1900’s, are subtly etched on the façade. Most of the photos were taken on Ave. Victor Hugo and its side streets, between Place Victor Hugo and the Arc de Triomphe.



Some great examples of the period iron work

Maison Prunier at 16 ave. Victor Hugo, is one of the top seafood and caviar restaurants in Paris with Art Deco mosaics dating from the 1930's.

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

 

Birdman of Montparnasse

I was in the Montparnasse cemetery the other day while doing some research for a new Eye Prefer Paris tour. Although not as famous or as flashy as Pere Lachaise, Montparnasse cemetery is the resting place for France’s intellectual and artistic elite. Simone Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre share a tombstone, and others buried there include poet Charles Baudelaire, playwright Samuel Beckett, sculptor Constantin Brancusi, photographer Brassai, writer Margaret Duras, film director Jacques Demy, singer Serge Gainsbourg, actress Jean Seberg, and writer Susan Sontag.

While walking along the serene paths in the cemetery on a humid, gray Thursday, this brilliant flash of mirrors and iron appeared in between the sobering, stone tombstones. On the bottom it said “A mon amis Jacques, un oiseau quai s’est envolé trop tot” (To my friend Jacques, a bird that flew away too soon”). My research didn’t find who Jacques was, but the sculptor was Jean Tinguely, who was famous for his collaborations with Yves Klein and Niki de Saint Phalle.

I also found a most peculiar website: www.findagrave.com, with links such as famous grave search, claim to fame, and search 21 million grave records. To show your support, you can shop at the grave store where you can buy T-shirts, travel mugs, baseball caps, and greeting cards with the Find a Grave logo and a photo of a tombstone on them.

Montparnasse Cemetery
3 boulevard Edgar-Quinet, 14th arr.
Metro station: Raspail

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

Girl with an Orange

I found another small pretty square, Gabriel Pierné, close to the Honore Champion one I discovered last month. What struck and amused me was the beautiful ebony statue of a young girl holding an orange. I imagine the orange was placed as a joke, but somehow the bright orange against the black was a photo waiting to be taken. The statue is of Carolina, sculpted by Marcello Tomassi in 1968. Gabriel Pierné (1863-1937} was a French romantic classical composer.

Square Gabriel Pierné
Rue Mazarine & rue de Seine,6th arr.
Metro: St. Germain, Mabillon

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

It Might as Well Be Spring

It has been warm and balmy, the last few days with temps in the high 40's. However, its been gray for so many days on end, I've lost track. I walked by this lovely little square that looked liked a vision of spring with it's flower beds popping like technicolor against the pale gray hue of Paris. The statue is of Voltaire, sculpted by Léon Drivie, and the square is named after Honore Champion, librarian and editor, who founded Éditions Honoré Champion, a publishing house specializing in scientific works. The square was erected in 1947 and is on Quai Malaquais, where rue de Seine & rue Mazarine meet, on the left bank.

Press News
Eye Prefer Paris Tours have been written about in French Magazine, an excellent glossy travel magazine out of England. Here's the link and click where it says Secret Paris, to blow it up.

January Special:All tours are 160 euros instead of 175 euros

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

Geranium Boxes in the 16th Arr.

I have a thing for Parisian geranium boxes.

I was in the upscale 16th Arr. the other day, which was like a ghost town because all the residents are on vacances. It was a great opportunity to roam the streets and take photos of the La Belle Époque style apartment buildings, rich with ornate architectural details. The terraces of the buildings flowed with an over abundance of the purest white, the rosiest pink, and cartoon red geraniums. The dates of when the buildings were built, between the 1890’s and the early 1900’s, are subtly etched on the façade. Most of the photos were taken on Ave. Victor Hugo and its side streets, between Place Victor Hugo and the Arc de Triomphe.



Some great examples of the period iron work

Maison Prunier at 16 ave. Victor Hugo, is one of the top seafood and caviar restaurants in Paris with Art Deco mosaics dating from the 1930's.

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