There was a surprise market/brocante right out front today. Mostly junk, but still fun. Then off to the Independent Vignerons semi annual wine tasting. 100s of small producer offer their wines for tasting and for sale at reasonable prices. Léopoldine was stocking up and knew how it all worked, but tasted some chamapagne, some Bordeaux and some Burgunday. After a little over an hour of tasting headed to lunch, which happened to be GF pizza! Then it was back for a nap before meeting Sharon and Darren for dinner. Weather went into some pretty serious rain for awhile, but cleared up by the end of dinner.

Headed out to try a new to me Gluten Free bakery. Not sure how I missed this as they have multiple locations, including one about to open just around the corner. Anyway, found the closes open Copain and bought a few things to try and they were quite good. Then after some grocery and cheese shopping it was off to the Hotel de La Marine, to check that out. Restored apartments in a large building just off the Seine with good narration. From there, off to Les Invalides, which actually has three separate museums. I decided to save those for another day and walked the grounds. Stopped by the Rodin for a quick walk around the gardens. After lunch at a local bistro in the 7th, Tried to get into the Pinault, La Bourse, but they kept people waiting outside forever and then there were 30 school kids all with backpacks trying to get through the 2 person security check point and not being well handled. I think this is the second time in row I’ve walked from that museum, which although the building is cool is not very good anyway. Definitely not going to renew that membership if I can’t ever get in. Reminds me of being at CDG, not a pleasant experience. Back to the apartment for awhile and then to dinner at CC house. Cheese was well received! Raining now but not very cold. Lots of tents set up in front of the St. Paul area, so must be some kind of fair or market going on tomorrow. Lily generously gave me some tickets to the independent producers wine festival tomorrow, and event that happens twice per year. Will meet Léopoldine there, she know the terroir!

Today was an incredibly full day. Went to meet June P, another Francophile who belongs to the same facebook groups that I do, for coffee. Then to meet Yolanda Robins a realtor here who helps Americans with French real estate issues. From there, lunch at Cafe Charlot then to see an apartment in the 12th. 12th floor with a huge deck and great views, definitely a possible. After that, back home then, to see a studio in the 4th that was just listed then to meet Lily H., of Je T’aime, me neither blog for an apero, then off to Atelier Joel Robuchon for dinner with Léopoldine. Excellent meal if pricey! Luckily Mario Andretti was driving the bus home and made it back in record time!

Headed out to find a couple of sections of the Petite Ceinture this morning. Beautiful day and much warmer than it has been. Mid 50s to into the 60s by afternoon. The Petite Ceinture was a train track that encircled Paris from 1877 to 1883. Eventually replaced by the Peripherique, the highway around the city. Old section have been converted to walking paths, but unfortunately they have not been well linked together, resulting in sections here and there around the city. This trip I went to do the sections in the 17th arr and 18th arr. Find them and getting access is always a little tricky and in this case, mainly walked on the road above as access was largely closed off. Made for a good exploration though. Then saw a post about a restaurant that did BBQ and had an American out for 2 years teaching them how to do it, so that was lunch, Melt is the place, in Oberkampf area and it was good. After some more walking around back to the apartment for some downtime and then out for an apero and bite to eat before calling it an early night.

Early start again today, made it to the Orsay museum just slightly after 9:00am which is before the museum opens up to the general public at 9:30am. I have the annual membership so get to go in early and have the place pretty much to myself for the first half hour. Went up to the 5th floor, to visit the classics. Then it was off to the meet one of the realtors for a look at a couple of apartments. First one was just down the street from where I am now, generally great location but the bed was in a cubby hole and that just wouldn’t work for me. Number 2 was over near the Bastille, and was interesting but had a major slope to the floor, also not really workable. Then off to meet another realtor with Ile St. Louis possibility. This one was quite nice but had very low ceilings and an even lower central beam. He had one other listing, out of my price range but since we were right there, we looked at it, ground floor, which would not be desirable on Ile St. Louis. Oh well, early days for looking at possibilities.

Had a very full day today, was up early hoping to get into Notre Dame before the crowds. That did in fact work and at 8:30am after walking through the rat maze went in with no lines whatsoever. It is very clean and bright inside, but amazingly you can still smell a smoke/burned smell. After that a brief stop back to the apartment and then took the train from Gare de Lyon out to Fountainbleau, 40minutes, and a bus from that station to the Chateau. This is an amazing chateau. In most Chateaus you visit, it is a series of large, usually empty or near empty stone rooms, which makes the interior not very interesting. In this case, every room is completely restored, and there are many! After a doing the walk through, I walked in to the town and found a place for lunch. Then a stroll and bus ride back to the train station and back to Paris.

Started the day with a trip to the Sunday Bastille market. This is a big market with a lot of things from food to clothing etc. It was cold enough that I finally bought a scarf, nice, partly cashmere and only 10 Euros! It did help me stay warm! Then went off to see if I could find one of the properties over by pl. de Nation. Found the general area but did not find the specific building. After that, a quick metro ride to the Marche D’Aligre and then some oysters at the Baron Rouge. Back to the apartment for some downtime and then over to St.Germaine for a glass at Deux Magots and a bite at Avant Comptoir.

It was chilly this morning….headed out to Le Peloton for a coffee and the over to Notre Dame hoping to walk in without a reservation. Website only shows availabiliity for 3 days and all sold out, 10,000-15,0000 per day!!! When I go there, it was a crazy rat maze of people everywhere and given the temperature, I wasn’t going to stand around. So, off to Rue Mouffetard Saturday market for some oysters, and then I found an outstanding roast chicken place in the 5th that does Portuguese Piri Piri chicken, called Nossa, truly tasty and spicy! Then a quick bus over to the 12th for the March d’Aligre one of my favorites, with a follow up stop at Le Baron Rouge. Realtor across the street had an interesting looking unit that had 33 sq meters interior, a 30 sq meter terrace, a parking space and 12th floor with elevator. Could well be worth looking at. Headed over to Rue Montorgueil for dinner and settled on some Risotto at Rocher de Cancale. Always thought it was a tourist spot, but they were on the ball and the food was good.

Not too much to report today. Mainly some housekeeping for the apartment. Quite chilly out with temp in the 30s and off an on sunny/cloudy. Headed over to BHV to buy light bulbs to replace a strobing LED in the living room. Then, our new smart lock is being a little inconsistent, so made contact with the locksmith who will come over at some point. After that headed over to Ile St. Louis for a bit of lunch, delicious pumpkin soup some Escargot and small salad. Then started calling in at realty offices. Unlike the USA there is no centralized data base of things for sale, each agency represents their own units. I stopped in at three different places, looked at one small unit and have appointments on Tuesday to see a few others that look promising. The one I looked at was a definite no. Ile St. Louis would be good as it is very central and I have friends who live there. It is also considered very desirable with prices ranging from 14,000-40,000 per Sq Meter! I took the bus over the the Petit Palais, which has some art on display, but there was a line out the door and it was too cold for me to want to stand around, so will do that another time. Hotel La Marine was ‘exceptionally closed’ for an event, so that didn’t work either. Had such a fun time at the Avant Comptoir last night that I went back. A few small things and that did it for dinner, then to Deux Magots, which has just reopened after 2 months of remodeling. They had live music going on, so that was fun.

A smooth trip on the TGV to Paris from Lille, just over an hour. Then took a bus from Gare du Nord to near the apartment. All good with the apartment, and spend some time getting a few supplies and generally getting situated. Dinner at L’Avant Comptoir du Mer followed by a little more next dood at the Comptoir du Terre. Some guys from the south of France immediately adopted me on walking in the door and shared wine and general good humor. All in all an excellent evening. Weather is quite variable with occasional showers an dis generally chilly. By some miracle I have the heat working at the apartment so that is at least comfortable. Got some wash done and have basic supplies in.