The All of It: i'm never going to catch up!

In less than 48 hours we'll be on our way home and I still have 10 days of reporting to do. I'm never going to be able to give each of those days its due so I'm just going to lay out a bunch of pictures with minimal editorial comment. Enjoy!

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2016
Went over to our old nabe to the street market. We like it best because it's human sized.

Le Panthéon,just up the hill from the market

Some of the goodies in this little market. Everything is SO tempting.

Traditional tarte aux pommes

Coq au Vin in a jar!

I wish I knew a little girl who would
wear one of these beautifully smocked dresses.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2016
We discovered a new museum right in our neighborhood: La Musée des Arts et Métiers (The Museum of Design and Invention). What a fantastic place! All kinds of machines, gadgets, tools beautifully housed in an huge old church. And Sunday is "free museum" day so the place was full of wide-eyed and curious kids. And it's a perfect place for them. It reminded me somewhat of the Exploratorium in San Francisco. We wandered around for a couple of hours looking at the remarkable collection of incredibly complex machines that are now done by robots!

Car frame of Paul Arzen's L'Oeuf (the egg)

Photo of L'Oeuf on the road. There was also a video of this little car negotiating the traffic on Paris streets! Makes the Smnartie look like a tank.

early printing press with auto paper feed

hand pump sewing machine with inlaid Mother of Pearl decorations

remember this? note different keyboard lettering arrangement

early mechanical dolls. heads nod, arms move up and down

mock-up of Statue of Liberty

cable suspended from ceiling for . . .

Foucault's Pendulum

I will definitely come to this museum again. There's so much to see and most of it is very meticulous and needs some serious contemplation.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2016
The great mussels hunt is on! In 2013 we stumbled on a fantastic little rest in the 6eme where we had THE best mussels anywhere, anytime. But where is it? We walked all over the place trying to find it but alas, we couldn't. We retraced our steps as we remembered them from that rainy day when we just came upon the spot with a big sandwich board outside advertising MOULES! So we gave up and headed to a place on rue Jacob where I had my one-and-only steak frites. Very tasty, and that dipping sauce for the frites was nice and spicy.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2016
Today we went up to the Musée Marmottan, the home of many of Monet's paintings, including "Impression, soleil levant" which literally glows in the dim light of its showplace. I like seeing the waterlily paintings here rather than at l'Orangerie because they're smaller and the space is more intimate. They're equally as beautiful but you get them in smaller bites. Just one viewer's opinion.

Back to La Republique and a delicious out-to-lunch at Leon of Brussels for mussels. And boy, were they ever good, washed down with a Belgian beer, Affligem.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2016
I think we took today off. I've consulted my photos but don't come up with anything. So let's just say we did laundry, read, napped, whatever. So here's a photo of something you can buy in our neighborhood pâtisserie: it's a brioche bomb, stuffed with chocolate and raisins. Probably 200 gms. carbs, which is why I look but don't eat!

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2016
The Richard Lenior market was on the menu for this morning. I wanted to do a couple of things there plus check out their prepared foods. There os a stall that sells beautiful paella and I thought it might be a good idea for dinner. Alas, no. But the flowers were beautiful, the sun was out, the market wasn't too busy and it was just nice to be out and about.

first pomegranate of the season

Late Thursday afternoon we went over to the 4th to a little art gallery opening for three artists from San Francisco. L'Oeil Ouvert. It was quite fun; met all three artists, chatted them up, looked at the show that was pretty well attended. It's in a rather out-of-the-way spot down a short side street but, as is often the case, is in the midst of two or three other galleries, an Irish pub, a fabulous fabric store (who knows about these treasures??) and a couple of tiny restaurants.