Place de Vosges, Paris...

sarkin · Post by **sarkin** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 4:51 pm

We met a lovely woman at lunch one day at a tapas restaurant in the Marais, a very interesting area of Paris - in that area I also did my only shopping. As a New Yorker, I have plenty of well-stocked department stores with the "usual suspects" and would have been happy not to shop at all, despite the sales, but found a tiny store and wound up buying a couple of things (and even met the designer, who told me to try something I hadn't noticed, and which was perfect - or as my husband said 'super-mignon'!).

Our tapas-dining friend recommended a visit to the Place de Vosges, one of the oldest squares in Paris. (Hard not to dream of which charming roofline you'd most like to dwell beneath!) While my husband Robert, nephew Anthony and niece Olivia napped on the grass, I finally managed to have a really good heart-to-heart with my brother (under the clipped allees of linden trees). Robert snapped this shot of me with Olivia sitting by the fountain - I wish you could see her better, she's the cutest!

In that neighborhood, we also visited the Shoah/Holocaust memorial. My cousin was there in April, and had sent photos of our family's name on the memorial wall, but it was extraordinarily moving to be with my brother and his kids and to see those names in person. Our family came from Poland, not France - but we believe those names belong to distant relations, whose branch of the family had earlier left Poland for France. I have been in email contact with a Parisian who shares our surname, but he was away during our visit.

I think the better photos were my brother's - but he's back in Sweden, and it's much easier to nag my darlin' at home

Next time... I'm bringing my own camera, and then I'll have no one else to blame when I'm too busy soaking in the scenery to remember snap enough pictures. Our SIL is the best at this, so I hope to have a few photos of the Whole Crew, perhaps from our delightful boat ride on the Seine...

Love,
Sara

p.s. - the SpellCheck here is pretty good! I should use it more often (I used to be the queen of perfect spelling, typing, and grammar, and I'm blaming my current error-prone nature on MC, rather than aging...).

Gloria · Post by **Gloria** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 5:21 pm

I love reading about your Paris experiences! The picture is so serene - I can just imagine being there.

Thanks for sharing the additional memories!

Gloria

dgshelton · Post by **dgshelton** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 6:44 pm

Sara - Thank you for sharing your trip to Paris with us! The picture is beautiful. The colors are so vibrant...would that be because it's Paris or because of the great camera/photographer? It will be a long time before I am able to go to Paris. My husband and I have talked about going when our youngest is out of college...he just turned 11, so it will be a while. Until then, I will live vicariously through you. Your description of your travels was a delight to read. You are a terrific writer!

Hugs,

barbaranoela · Post by **barbaranoela** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 7:21 pm

Sara----what a wonderful post----I almost felt like I was there with U guys~~~~

The picture is just perfect-----
Thank U so much for sharing your travels===

:bigbighug:

Barbara

harma · Post by **harma** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 12:07 am

Hi Sara, great to read about your Paris adventures, I know the Marais, it's my favorite part of Paris too (feels a bit like a village in huge city). Also it's always great to get tips of place to go to, from locals, you see places you normally would miss.

Merci en au revoir (and here my french knowledge stops more or less

)

harma

Sheila · Post by **Sheila** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 7:46 am

I love reading your reports from your Paris trip. Thank you for sharing with us. My husband bought me a brand new, very special camera for my birthday.

I'm the one who never remembers to take pictures and when I do take them I usually cut off heads etc. Anyway, when we went to Alaska I only touched the camera to take pictures of him. He does a good job but then I have to look at pictures of what interested him. We have a lot of pictures of sea planes and fishing boats. With all of that beautiful scenery, it looks as if we were interested in purchasing either a plane or a boat.

I'm looking forward to hearing more about your Paris trip. Paris keeps moving up my bucket list, the more I read.
Sheila

MaggieRedwings · Post by **MaggieRedwings** » Tue Jul 05, 2011 5:59 am

Thanks for sharing your travels with us Sara.

Feel like I was right there with you. In fact, I wish I was.

Love, Maggie

sarkin · Post by **sarkin** » Tue Jul 05, 2011 9:12 am

Thank you all for your sweet notes. Sheila, that is hilarious about the camera. My husband also bought me a wonderful camera, and I wish I had sat down and forced myself to really learn to use it. I have somewhat improved, but I use it infrequently enough that I never get all the way past the learning curve. (Maybe if I had enough pictures of planes and boats - or my husband's version of that - I would get motivated!) I've been meaning to sign up for a 'get to know your camera' workshop, going to go to that NOW.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Paris. (That seems pretty dumb, considering that it is one of the premier tourist destinations on earth.) Don't tell the Parisians I said this, but... somewhat like Brooklyn, it's a great city that's composed of small pockets. So instead of feeling overwhelmed, you get to know it in manageable, neighborhood-sized bites. And, like Brooklyn, you wind up having distinct preferences that make you feel like an insider - you prefer one little cafe over another, you feel that one little offbeat neighborhood is more your style than the other, and even with the Big Tourist Attractions, you find something to respond to that's not the obvious thing.

Having said all that, I don't suppose I have convinced anyone to make Brooklyn a destination, and that is truly a shame!

Love,
Sara

Sheila · Post by **Sheila** » Tue Jul 05, 2011 11:35 am

Hello Sara,
My first husband was born in Brooklyn and took me to see the area his family lived in. Can't remember the name of the neighborhood right off the top of my head. It was lovely and completely destroyed my preconceived notions about living in the big city. My college roommate is Syrian and I went home with her a few weekends to the Syrian/Oriental rug area of Brooklyn. Wow, was that impressive. This is back around 1960, practically prehistoric, but I'm sure it is still beautiful. Being a native Long Islander, I'm a suburban "girl" at heart but I do understand the concept of small areas of a city being an intimate neighborhood for those living there. As I get older, living in a city could be more attractive but I think it would have to be a pretty small city. I love quiet and quiet just isn't possible in a city, is it?

My terrific new camera does wonderful things but I'll never learn them. Don't have the patience and hate reading directions. It's got more openings, gizmos that go in and out, extra cables etc than I can count.

I'm waiting for the next chapter of "Sara goes to Paris". You are a good story-teller and it's fun to travel vicariously with you and your family.

Sheila

sarkin · Post by **sarkin** » Tue Jul 05, 2011 12:43 pm

I think it's hard to find true quiet even in a lot of 'burbs these days... It's amazing what a difference it makes being on a busy vs. a quiet street, or even in the back of the building vs. the front. My folks spent their last years in Brooklyn - their friends thought they were insane, but it was wonderful for them. They could walk out the door to run errands, they met people in the local restaurants, they enjoyed meeting dogs and children and people of all ages.

I'll try to get some photos from my brother, who took the most/best... and thanks,

Sara