Writes of Passage

Paris‘ metro is like NYC subway: one flat fare – €1.90, gets you from A to Z regardless of distance. (NYC fare currently is $3.00, Frankfurt, which is much smaller and less lines but costs €2.75. The exchange rate is about €1 to $1.12) You insert your ticket and voila, you’re in. You don’t need it again, like, to exit.

On a Sunday evening, a few controllers were down, inside, checking our tickets. I was wondering: how? IF I’m in that means I’ve a ticket.

Coincident, I ran into them again on my way to CDG airport. I wondered out loud this time. The nice lady sat next to me said, “you’re suppose to keep the ticket until you exit.”

Learned one more thing.

I then said, “so odd, this is my second time seeing ticket checkers. The first one was last Sunday.”

She said, “the city needs money.”

11 Boulevard Montmartre
75002 Paris, France

I saw this wagon restaurant as I was passing through the passages of Jouffroy & Verdeau. Their entrance is on the boulevard tho.

I love train and have no defense. So we ventured there that evening.

The ambiance is good. Cozy. The service is ok but the food is bland and tasteless. The pasta is half cooked – toooo al dente. The wine is horrible. The bread and butter are good. Then I saw the big bottle on the table, next to the carafe, thinking it must be the olive oil. Ha … it is a spicy oil that tasted like one from Hunan – where Chairman Mao was from. One stone two birds: Italy and Chinese. A pretty good deal, no?

Place de l’Opéra
Paris, France

The old opera house is in the 9th arrondissement. There was a performance but I couldn’t secure any tickets: the decision to come was rather late and the tickets were long gone. Oh, well, next time then.

Bourse vaste old stock exchange, and since 2000 known as Euronext Paris. It has restaurants on site, such as the Spoon.

Biblothèque Nationale @ 58 rue de Richelieu, 75002 Paris is their old national library 国家图书馆, now relocated to BnF. The photo below on the right is from here.

<- Passage Jouffroy
75009 Paris

Jouffroy & Verdeau passages are one of many walkways in Paris, located in 9th district, separated by Rue de la Grange Batelière. It has many shops, book stores, antique, stamps, comic books, restaurants, etc.

85 Boulevard Magenta
75010 Paris, France

Sunday am in Europe, not many businesses open.

This cafe is next to Marché Saint Quentin, that shelters us on a rainy Sunday am. The few patrons around us speak English.

Great coffee in simple but big bright colored cups – love it. The omelette are huge and bit on the dry side. A few slices of white (rather sweet) bread – not baguette tho -:) but no butter is offered (cry cry …)

We walked north on Rue de Saint-Quentin and visited St. Vincent de Paul church.

Square Cavaillé-Coll
75010 Paris, France

After breakfast at P’Tite Bougnate, we walked up on Rue de Saint-Quentin and visited St. Vincent de Paul. Down the street to the left is the Cafe de l’Eglise.

… Modern God, is accepting donation in electric form.

Seen on the Avenue de l’Opéra in Paris. This term or demand isn’t new. If France is out, the EU is over.

Being the big brother isn’t easy, and absorbing their eastern brothers and sisters isn’t easy. Maybe they over extended themselves? Forming the EU isn’t easy either.

German’s two wars had dethroned British dominance in the world. Is the Brexit a payback to the Germans?

Le théâtre musée des Capucines
39 Boulevard des Capucines
75002 Paris, France

My goodness, perfume becomes a hot commodity for the Asians? They don’t even have a habit of using it. The shop at Fragonard Perfume is packed like a refugee camp. Mostly are Indians but a few signs in the small yard are in Chinese only … I’m embarrassed.

The complex of Hôtel national des Invalides – the National Residence of the Invalids is huge. Again, we walked in from the north front, crossing Seine on the Pont Alexandre III (Alexandre III Bridge) from the Grand Palais. Avenue du Maréchal Gallieni leads directly to the complex from Seine. Eiffel Tower can be seen on the right.

The complex has a few sections: the Musée de l’Armée, the military museum of the Army; the Musée des Plans-Reliefs, military models; Musée d’Histoire Contemporaine, contemporary military history (WW II, etc.), and as well as the Dôme des Invalides on the southern side.

The northern facade of the Cour d’honneur – Court of Honor has a relief ^浮雕 of Louis XIV at the top. The courtyard

Musée de l’Armée, the military museum of the Army. Cannons and Saint-Louis-des-Invalides Cathedral.

… and the Dôme des Invalides, where Napoleon resides:

The tomb of Marshal Ferdinand Jean Marie Foch (1851 – 1929) is also there. He was France’s best general during the World War I. He was appointed “Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies” in spring 1918, seven months later, the war was over.