After seeing the Eiffel Tower, walking and walking, seeing the Rodin Museum, then doing the boat tour of the River Seine, we were really tired. We headed back to the hotel for some much-needed sleep (remember that we had been woken by the hotel’s alarm before 6 a.m.!). We had a refreshing nap, then went down to the concierge and asked about a good restaurant within walking distance. Curtis was in the mood for Indian food which sounded good to me… being a vegetarian and not a big experimenter with food, I pushed myself out of my comfort zone on this trip. We ate at New Balaal, a small but beautiful Indian restaurant where we were seated and immediately served champagne upon sitting… which I then immediately and quite accidentally dumped all over the china and table. ::huge embarrassment ensues:: My meal was delicious… I had a lentil dish and naan… yummy. After dinner, we decided to just walk around the 9th arrondissement and take pictures.
Parisian Graffiti
This vivid graffiti door was immediately across from the New Balaal restaurant (in fact, you can almost see the restaurant’s lettering in the window reflection). I always wonder how the taggers get away with spraying without getting caught.
Specials
Le Café Zéphyr was a charming street cafe… the specials written on the mirror caught my eye and I got a selfie to boot. Love the Parisian umbrella on top of the mirror. It was raining earlier in the day! You can see all the cigarette butts on the sidewalk, we were in a less touristy area so it wasn’t quite as clean.
Metro Entrance
I really wanted to ride the subway but my husband, my world traveling businessman, once got lost in NYC on their subway system and has since refused to ride another. So we took cabs everywhere. I did manage to talk Curtis into at least going down into the metro entrance. Subway tile lines the hallway behind posters for local shows.
Cheese Naan
This is the area where we ended up the night before when we got the artisanal gelato at Amorino… across the street was this Greek/French/Italian place called Cheese Naan. This one guy was out front the entire time. Most of the restaurants have these barkers out front to entice people in.
Night Life
This was a really busy urban area, right down from Cheese Naan. I was trying to be surreptitious and not get noticed as I was photographing but you can see one of the guys looking right at me!
BNP Paribas
Another beautiful building on a side street in Paris. At first I thought this was a church, it looks like a church, doesn’t it? Well I put BNP Paribas into Google, and it’s actually a bank! I wish our banks were this pretty in America. Look at the carvings and statues. There’s a small group of people walking in the lower right, you can get a sense of the scale.
20 Pietons Priorite
Pedestrians get priority on this small street. I love the row of motorcycles that line the right side that then turn into bicycles near the back. The street lamps in Paris cast a very yellow glow on everything.
Flower Angel
We stumbled on this long wall of poster type of advertisements, one plastered on top of another. But it’s the door, the hand-drawn angel sitting on top of a flower, that made me snap this image. Who drew this and why?
Busy Night
This section where we were wandering near our hotel did not have any tourist attractions, yet it was incredibly busy and rich with night life. It was so fun to people-watch and to listen to the French conversations.
Blvd de Bonne Nouvelle
Much like Austin, the streets of Paris have more than one name depending on where you were located. We were still on the main Haussman Boulevard, but here it was called the Boulevard de Bonne Nouvelle. I like how these signs look up on the buildings.
Zeab Was Here
More Parisian graffiti… who is Zeab? I enjoyed perusing the posters for upcoming shows but my favorite part of this image is the pink Pac-Man ghost in the lower right… love the fangs too!
Oh!
Just as we were finishing up our beautiful day, I took one last picture… I have no idea what this store is (I even tried Googling) but I love the art work plaque and the name of the store. Oh! Yes it is Oh! so beautiful…
I have so appreciated the kind comments so far about our trip to Paris. We have one day left and it’s my favorite. The Louvre and Notre Dame, oh my. Thanks for looking!
