Wednesday December 4, 2019
I arrived in Paris late yesterday after a five-hour delay due to wintry weather in New York. Fortunately I had arranged with the hotel for a car to pick me up at the airport and I was easily transported to my hotel. I slept soundly last night and awoke late this morning.
The 16 Century Church of St. Eustache:
It was a gorgeous crisp and clear day; temperature in the high 30s. I walked to the new shopping center nearby to purchase a SIM-card for my telephone.
The new Westfield Forum des Halles replaced the famous medieval Les Halles which had been a market place since the eleventh century. Les Halles was demolished in 1971 and replaced by the modern multi-level mostly-below-ground shopping center which was completed in 2018.
This is also the location of the Gare de Chatelet – Les Halles, one of the busiest rail stations in Paris because many of the Metro lines converge there. One of my goals for the day was to shop for Provencal fabric so I took the #4 Metro to the Barbes Rochechouart station.
It was fun to leave the tourist centre of Paris and shop among local people. Dreyfus and Reine are the two huge fabric stores which sell all kinds of materials, notions, and accessories. There were many smaller fabric stores along the side streets.
Les Coupons means remnants or smaller pieces of fabric usually three meters or less. There was a huge variety of fabrics from haute couture to brocades to cheap imports. It was fun to browse in several shops.
The shops are located at the foot of Montmartre so I had a great view of Sacre Coeur on top of the hill.
I wasn’t planning to visit the church so I took the Metro back to the center of Paris. I went to the Arc de Triomphe at the center of Place Charles de Gaulle formerly known as Place de l’Etoile.
It was such a beautiful day, I decided to walk down the entire length of the famous Avenue des Champs Elysees. I stopped for a cup of hot tea somewhere along the avenue. I sat outside under a heated canopy and watched the parade of tourists pass by.
I continued all the way to the Place de la Concorde and took a photo of the Obelisque de Louxor which dominates the traffic circle. We visited Luxor in Egypt last February and saw its twin Obelisk at the entrance to the Temple.
Days are short in Paris in December and the sun cast a warm glow on the beautiful Fountain of the Rivers which represents the Rhone and Rhine Rivers. The figures represent the main harvests of France: wheat, grapes, flowers, and fruit.
It was a fun day in Paris!!