Christmas 2005: I invited my niece Sarah to accompany me on a trip to Paris where her 4 years of high school French would be put to test. She applied for her passport and the reservations were made. Our flight was on IcelandAir out of Minneapolis/St Paul which departs and returns only on Thursdays. My bank account would only allow 1 weeks stay, even though it would have been great to stay longer. Hotel reservations were made to stay at the same hotel I was in two years ago, The Familia Hotel in the Latin Quartier. This was Sarah’s first airplane flight and only my second. At that time the US dollar to Euro was $1=1.29€  

Thursday, April 27 2006: Sarah’s husband Aaron drove us to the airport late in the afternoon. We were planning on doing some serious shopping so we nested a smaller suitcase inside the larger one. We packed quite light knowing if there was something we needed we could buy it in Paris.

The flight left MSP for a brief layover in Reykjvik, Iceland at 6am the following morning. The Leif Eriksson International Airport at Keflavik, Iceland is very small and so easy to get around. The place was nearly empty at 6am. This is literally in the middle of no where. After an hour and a half layover we were on our connecting flight to Paris which arrived at CDG about 1pm Friday. 

 Friday, April 28: We took a taxi (it seemed more like a limo as it was a Mercedes-Benz) to the hotel on the left bank which cost 75€ ($94.00) for the 35 minute trip. We checked in with Marc at the hotel and decided to wander about the neighborhood and go down to the Seine.

 The view northwest on rue de Ecoles. There is a little triangular park where the flowers and tree are. At this corner is the Pharmacia and the street below the park is rue Saint-Victor. There is a laundro-mat (laverie) just down the block.

It was a very chilly Saturday evening with a 2 hour wait until we actually got inside the first elevator to go up the Eiffel Tower. There were hundreds and hundreds of people inside and the lines were so long to go back down we took the stairs about a third of the way. About 11pm golden lights illuminated the structure in a dazzling display. Then we walked from the Eiffel down the quai and found a Metro stop just after midnight. We arrived back at the hotel at 12:30am with sore feet, both of us exhausted. 

 GREAT THING ABOUT PARIS #1 - walking around the city at midnight and feeling safer than I do in my own city.

Sunday, April 31: it was cloudy and rained most of the day, many of the stores are closed on Sundays. We stayed in the hotel room and watched crazy German VH1 type music videos on TV. All the commercials were for cell phone ring tones.  Oooo, Tobias! Better a rainy day in Paris than a rainy one back in Minneapolis.

Monday was May Day and many places were closed also. We took the metro to the Champs Elysees and walked up the north side of the boulevard. We would come back tomorrow when the stores were open. It was a mostly cloudy day.

Tuesday, May 2: It was a gorgeous, sunny afternoon as we sat on a stairway at rue Montorgueil next to St. Eustace Church. Here we shared a gelato from a place down the street called Deliziefollie and it was scrumptious! We walked rue de Rivoli, Ste Chapelle and Champs Elysees, and then rue Monge near the hotel.

rue Montorgueil

A Dixieland jazz band right in the heart of Paris! They were playing “When The Saints Go Marching In” when we walked by and these old guys attracted quite a crowd. This was on the Pont Saint-Louis bridge near Notre Dame.

Later that day we wandered and browsed the shops in the 5th arrondisement, a several blocks area around the hotel, including rue Monge. Then we took the Batobus to the Eiffel Tower and walked through the Champs de Mars. It was a lovely evening as we walked, trying to find a Metro station without a map. After making our way back to the Familia we grabbed a bite to eat and sat at the little park across from the hotel as the sun set. We covered a lot of ground today.

Late Wednesday morning, May 3, we took the bus (67) to the Place Pigalle at Montmartre, then went up to Sacre Coeur via the funicular. Lit a few candles for Mom and Dad in the church then wandered about the neighborhood down below. Sarah scored incredibly cheap, stylish  clothes and shoes and we both bought more souvenirs to bring home.

Shopping Paris Observations:

If you went to Paris on a budget like mine, you’d find things are very expensive there. Restaurant meals, however simple, will cost you at least $20.00 per person. A 12 ounce bottle of Coca-Cola will cost you €3, about $3.60. All candy bars start at €1, about $1.25. They have this awesome candy bar called the Mars Delight which is not available in the US but it has been available in Europe for 2 years. I bought several packages of them. Lu brand cookies are quite INexpensive and they have dozens of varieties. Most cost under €2 a box. Sarah and I brought home lots of boxes of cookies as gifts.

A fresh streetside crepe will set you back about $2.50. Have it filled with applesauce and cinnamon or  Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread and bananas for $3.50. They sell wine and liquor in every little street market (“alimentation”) and grocery store (Champion, Monoprix) as cheap as €3 a bottle. I brought home a bottle of Asti (Italian sparkling wine) that cost me just over $5.75 and it was delicious! The brand was Villa Veroni. The grocery stores all smell like rotting produce and seafood. Yuck!

There is no Monoprix store on rue de Rivoli like one guide book listed. It is now the H&M store where Sarah snagged a few trendy bargains. The only Monoprix we found was on the Champs Elysees. It’s like a Kohls or Marshall Fields upstairs (not Target as the guide book said,) very limited on its seasonal junior/misses apparel, has higher priced cosmetics than at home (Bourjois was to be the big bargain and I could buy that at home at Sephora) and has a grocery store in the lower level. In Paris they use mostly powder laundry detergent, not much available in liquid, and I never saw dryer fabric softener sheets. I bought a tube of tooth paste (Signal brand) that is anise flavored, how weird. A bottle of Head and Shoulders shampoo will cost you about $8.00. They carry mostly Garnier hair products. I bought bottles of Gliss Sublim Intense Shampoo and conditioner (they call it simply “apres-shampooing”) by Schwarzkopf which is a German brand sold only in Europe. Salons in the US carry the Schwarzkopf Igora professional line. I purchased 2 cans of Rexona aerosol antiperspirant/deodorant and the fragrances are great. Not available in the US, its made by Unilever who markets Degree, and it is apparently the largest selling brand in the world. 

The Champion grocery store is on rue Monge, just down from the Cardinal Lemoine metro stop. Rue Monge has a lot of interesting shops. There was a second hand clothing store that was literally wall to wall with heaps of used garments and shoes on the floor. The shop was at capacity with 4 persons inside it, then a lady tries to come in with her dog. Even though it was overcrowded and full of fire code and safety violations, Sarah bought a pair of cute jeans here. Need a challenge? Find a single shoe in the pile and then hope it’s mate is in there too, none of them were attached. 

GREAT THING ABOUT PARIS #3 -  the public squares, piazzas, places and gardins. There are so many public gathering places and locales of architectural interest in foreign cities that we don’t have here at home.

The carrousel at Ste Chapelle

Sarah hanging out with a  few guys on the street. I don’t recall exactly where this was but think it was near the Champs Elysees. Monday May 1, 2006.

We walked and shopped until we were exhausted at days end.

My Baedeker’s 1892 tour guide book of Paris that I picked up at a Cancer Society garage sale for $1.50

Cheers! I loved this Asti that I bought at the grocery store for 5€ a bottle. Drank one at the hotel and brought one home.

I made this sterling silver charm bracelet with charms of Italy and Paris: Eiffel tower, Arc de Triomphe, PARIS, Romes colosseum and Michelangelo’s David. Also a passport, jet airplane, floral heart and heart and home. All parts (charms and bracelet) were purchased on eBay. The bracelet makes a pretty tinkling noise like wind chimes. I have since added a fleur de lis and Leaning Tower of Pisa and took off the glass dangles.

Take a peek inside at the pages of my altered journal:

I randomly stamped ink blocks on the pages to add color. I cut a string and button envelope to fit and decorated it with a torn BasicGrey paper then stamped the word ‘receipts’ (byStampin’ Up! but I lost the letter “p” and used my old Jody Poesy typewriter stamp instead.) I stamped on the other side billets and recus (tickets and receipts.) The pages are decorated with photographs and postcards. The font used in this book is Sandy Text from Hallmark.