A Taste of Paris: Saturday on the Seine

This is how it starts: a Saturday on the Seine, on the car-free former Pompidou Expressway… early, while the bobos and partiers still sleep…

We scurry along, dodging bikes and scooters and skaters… and make it to the Pont des Arts, everyone's favorite footbridge, especially when no one else is on it!

The closer she gets, the better they look!

closer

Closer

Ca y est, an embrace!

A Saturday on the Seine isn't complete unless you meet friends on the Pont des Arts then walk west toward the Eiffel Tower or Palais de Tokyo… and stop for a coffee… at one of the more scenic cafes in town…

 

The views aren't bad. They make up for the pretty lousy coffee served at the Palais de Tokyo's outdoor cafe.

Randal and David admire the catalogue of A Window on the Sky by Alison Harris

But isn't the coffee nearly always pretty lousy in Paris? Yep, though I could take you to a dozen places with great artisanally roasted beans and great brews, or good imported Italian coffee namely Illy… but French corporate coffee? Yuck!

The Eiffel Tower on one side, the colonnade of the Palais de Tokyo on the other, with the weekly Saturday outdoor market going strong… not a bad backdrop for selling fruits and vegetables, non? That's the Palais Galliera behind, by the way, half hidden by the cars and junk, it's now the fashion museum… very fashionable!

And on the way home… flags waving (gosh, look, it's also red, white and blue!) from fantastical futuristic buildings now over a century old…

And now take a gander at those geese!

Oops, not geese–swans! Like true Parisians they are swanning around, showing their plumes, getting in the way of river traffic… and also like real Parisians they are hybrid birds–i.e. culture vultures… heading to the Musee d'Orsay to see the Cezanne exhibition… only in Paris!

Duck! It' a goose, no, a swan! Where's Lida?

On the Seine, on a Saturday, with a gorgeous sky overhead, and a girl in a red hat strolling by providing that spot of color to drag the eye down to earth…

Bonne continuation, and come see A Taste of Paris  (yours truly) on book tour in Oct/Nov! Here's a link to the schedule, and here's the cover of the book you know and love already, even though it hasn't been released yet!

Please order from your favorite local indie! Mine include Book Passage, Rakestraw Books, Mrs. Dalloways, McNally Jackson, Politics & Prose, Curious Iguana, Harvard Bookstore… or on-line from IndieBound