It is really wonderful to be in Paris again, albeit very briefly - but by design, this time! Coming here unexpectedly in October made me remember how very easy it is to get on a train in London and be here in a couple of hours ... So here's the view from my small, convenient, warm (important) and comfortable hotel near the Gare du Nord - by the Marché Saint Quentin - as you can see, a World Cup game is playing on a huge screen in a window opposite;
from where I went on a long walk down to the Marais (looking for a shop selling fabric bags - a much loved bag came from there and was stolen out of my car some years back - of course the shop is gone ...) - but I passed the Cirque d'Hiver, one of my favorite buildings (built in 1852);
saw some great shop windows (a shame I've already designed and ordered my Christmas card for this year - maybe I can save up this image for next year?);
and came back up the Boulevard de Magenta to have dinner at a brasserie very close to the hotel - only the market between them. This was a brasserie that belonged in an American rom com set in Paris; a fantasy version of a brasserie; the kind of neighborhood joint one dreams about stumbling upon, with fresh Normandy oysters being shucked from their crate outside when one ordered them; beaming service; excellent wine (in a little carafe, invisible here - let me reassure anyone who doesn't recognise the shape of a French water bottle that that is, indeed, water), and so on. Great to be back, even if outdoors it is very chilly.
No comments:
Post a Comment