Blvd. St. Germain

Last year our blog was titled “Paris Our Way” because a) we were staying in Paris the entire time, except for the occasional day trip to see Giverny, Versailles, or Reims, and b) when we travel, we like to march to the beat of our own drummer.  This year follows b), but not a).  We are starting in the City of Light, to be sure, and will be back here in a couple of weeks, but in between, we’ll be road-tripping through the west and south, starting near the English channel and later having a peek at the Mediterranean.  We hope you’ll follow along.  Today was just a partial day, since we didn’t arrive at our apartment until about 2:00 pm, after having had no sleep at all on the unusually bumpy ride over.

When we travel, we have a pretty well set division of labor: I do the manly things like book trains, planes, and automobiles, and Anita does the girly-girl stuff like figure out where to sleep and what to see.  I believe you’ll agree with me that she does her job admirably.  For instance, our first apartment (found via airbnb.com) is on Blvd. St. Germain, one of the oldest streets on the left bank in the area Victor Hugo describes as “l’Université” since we are not far from the center of the universities in old Paris. The doorway to our apartment for our first two nights in Paris is here, next door to a menswear shop with some pretty well-known names on the awning 

under some pretty well-done wrought iron balconies

and opening onto a very stately entrance.

The rest of the neighborhood’s not too shabby, either.  About a five-minute walk away is Odette, a tiny cafe at the end of a little street whose name I should probably have written down.

At the end of a long day, you can sit at one of Odette’s tables, sip your coffee, and ponder the “Grand Lady” herself peeking back through the leaves at you.   

And if you’re lucky, you might catch a glimpse of a typical French gentleman strolling home with his cane, baguette and who knows what else in his shopping bag for dinner.

And so ends day one.  I am posting this from the sidewalk in front of Starbuck's, down the Blvd. St. Germain from our apartment.  The sun has just set, it's about 10:00 pm, and all is right with our world; we hope the same for you.