Hotel:
Less than 5 minutes walk from the Gare du Nord Station we arrived at our hotel Londres & d'Anvers. This typical Parisian building offered us a modern, cosy room and a tastefull breakfast for only 36 € a night.
Night Tourists:
After checking in, we dropped our luggage in room 104, took our cameras and behaved like 100 % pure tourists. As the Eifel tower is still the global icon of France, we wanted to see it..at night. It seems that the night-time light display is protected under copyright by a kind of French Sabam organisation. What means that it is no longer legal to publish contemporary photographs of the tower at night without permission in France and some other countries... but they can't forbid panaroma pictures.. so here are some night sceneries of Paris where the Eifel Tower is on it.. by accident..
From this really touristy scene we crossed the Seine and walked to 'l Arc de Triomphe, but as the night was getting colder, we decided to stop acting like a tourist and go for a drink nearby the hotel neighbourhood. Next to the Canal St. Martin there were some nice bars, but we were actually looking for cafe Bonnie which we could not find first, so we entered l'Atmosphere. An unpretensious cosy bar, where a lot of locals go to. When we walked back to the hotel we passed Cafe Bonnie.. we were in love .. such a cool and nice bar!! But the nightlife of pubs and bars ends at 2am.. so we went back to the hotel.
Bonjour Amélie
Montmartre..the hill of Paris.. where artists gathered and cabarts opened their doors and which was the setting of the film Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain. On the internet I found a walk through Montmartre passing all the places where Amélie has been. The print out of this walk was let's say not totally corect... if we had to go to the right there was written, go to the left... but we made our own tour in Montmartre.
I took my Yashica with me, still had some dia film on it, but as the film was finished it got stuck in the camera and by opening the camera I probably ruined all my photos.. arrrgh.. My second film still needs to be develloped and lucky Jin.with.her.Canon took some nice shots as a souvenir!
Café des 2 Moulins
Hip Paris scene
The hip, trendy and alternative scene of Paris is situated in Le Marais. This lovely quartir is besides the major center of the Paris Jewish community, a neighbourhood with a growing gay presence. In the narrow streets and picturesque squares we saw many cosy bars, shops, restaurants... We spent the whole afternoon in this fascinating quarter.
Bird on the wire.. a nice Parisian boutique
Pick Clop's .. restauarant - bar with kitch decoration and music .. I love it!
Centre Pompidou
As it was a nice evening, not as cold as the day before we just bought a panorama ticket for the centre Pompidou.
Quartier Mouffetard
All tourist guides lead you to Quartier Latin to have a dinner or drink, but we just crossed it as we were not aware this was the Latin quarter.. We walked further and bumped into the Sorbonne University.. where was this Latin thing quarter thing.. a police man helped us out but recommended the Quartier Mouffetard, a common place but for local people. Sounds great..so we followed his explanation: go back, first to the right and first right again... Quartier Mouffetard: small streets with little bars and restaurants and pricey drinks!!! I drank a pina colada cocktail for 9,5 €... I drank it really really slowly so I enjoyed my almost 10 euro drink!
Last 10 hours in Paris
As we already walked like half a marathon, we wanted a relaxed Sunday. In the morning we went visiting some Flea markets in the North of Paris called les Puces. On the streets along the way we almost buyed comfy "real" converse shoes for 30 €, but we resisted it.. discipline we had!
Les Puces covers 7 hectares and is the largest antiques market in the world.. it might be.. but as it was sunny outside and it was lunch time we took the metro to the Canal area.
Lunch at Cafe Bonnie would be great.. but it was closed. So we went back to l'Atmosphere and had a nice Salad for 10 €.
The last hours in Paris we walked next to the Canal, relaxed in the sunshine, enjoyed a drink at the many cosy bistro-bars, ...
Paris, j'aime!
From this really touristy scene we crossed the Seine and walked to 'l Arc de Triomphe, but as the night was getting colder, we decided to stop acting like a tourist and go for a drink nearby the hotel neighbourhood. Next to the Canal St. Martin there were some nice bars, but we were actually looking for cafe Bonnie which we could not find first, so we entered l'Atmosphere. An unpretensious cosy bar, where a lot of locals go to. When we walked back to the hotel we passed Cafe Bonnie.. we were in love .. such a cool and nice bar!! But the nightlife of pubs and bars ends at 2am.. so we went back to the hotel.Bonjour Amélie
Montmartre..the hill of Paris.. where artists gathered and cabarts opened their doors and which was the setting of the film Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain. On the internet I found a walk through Montmartre passing all the places where Amélie has been. The print out of this walk was let's say not totally corect... if we had to go to the right there was written, go to the left... but we made our own tour in Montmartre.
I took my Yashica with me, still had some dia film on it, but as the film was finished it got stuck in the camera and by opening the camera I probably ruined all my photos.. arrrgh.. My second film still needs to be develloped and lucky Jin.with.her.Canon took some nice shots as a souvenir!
Café des 2 MoulinsHip Paris scene
The hip, trendy and alternative scene of Paris is situated in Le Marais. This lovely quartir is besides the major center of the Paris Jewish community, a neighbourhood with a growing gay presence. In the narrow streets and picturesque squares we saw many cosy bars, shops, restaurants... We spent the whole afternoon in this fascinating quarter.
Bird on the wire.. a nice Parisian boutique
Pick Clop's .. restauarant - bar with kitch decoration and music .. I love it!
Centre PompidouAs it was a nice evening, not as cold as the day before we just bought a panorama ticket for the centre Pompidou.
Quartier Mouffetard
All tourist guides lead you to Quartier Latin to have a dinner or drink, but we just crossed it as we were not aware this was the Latin quarter.. We walked further and bumped into the Sorbonne University.. where was this Latin thing quarter thing.. a police man helped us out but recommended the Quartier Mouffetard, a common place but for local people. Sounds great..so we followed his explanation: go back, first to the right and first right again... Quartier Mouffetard: small streets with little bars and restaurants and pricey drinks!!! I drank a pina colada cocktail for 9,5 €... I drank it really really slowly so I enjoyed my almost 10 euro drink!
Last 10 hours in Paris
As we already walked like half a marathon, we wanted a relaxed Sunday. In the morning we went visiting some Flea markets in the North of Paris called les Puces. On the streets along the way we almost buyed comfy "real" converse shoes for 30 €, but we resisted it.. discipline we had!
Les Puces covers 7 hectares and is the largest antiques market in the world.. it might be.. but as it was sunny outside and it was lunch time we took the metro to the Canal area.
Lunch at Cafe Bonnie would be great.. but it was closed. So we went back to l'Atmosphere and had a nice Salad for 10 €.
The last hours in Paris we walked next to the Canal, relaxed in the sunshine, enjoyed a drink at the many cosy bistro-bars, ...
Paris, j'aime!
