The Bold Soul: A Writer's Life in Paris

Chocolat

On Monday - the one weekday I don't work - Le Garçon and I made a visit to the Musée du Chocolat. OUI! There is a CHOCOLATE MUSEUM in Paris. I didn't know this either, until I spotted a brochure at work on a display of all kinds of "things to do in and around Paris" for our customers to browse before or after their tours with us. I've been waiting for a good time for me and my step-son to go and check it out, and this week we finally went now that he's finished with school for the year. The museum is just near metro Bonne Nouvelle (Lines 8/9) and Strasbourg Saint-Denis (Line 4) in the 10th, not too far from Gare du Nord, on the Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle. It's a small museum but surprisingly well organized. They also have special things for children to do and see while they're there. You start your visit on the ground level with a self-guided exhibit (with text in French, English and Spanish - other languages may be available but you'd have to ask about that) that takes you through the history of chocolate - a history that goes back more... Read more →

View from my lunch table

At the Musée d'Orsay taking a culture break from the media junket for No Love Locks. Once one media outlet gets a fresh angle (in this case, two Americans living in Paris trying to get the city to fix a problem during a big election) then they all jump on the bandwagon. 5 interviews since Monday and more to come. I'm getting a little tired of the Pont des Arts, frankly. So I needed me some REAL art. (That, and a foie gras salad for lunch. I AM French, too, now.) I think I have figured out the secret to getting into the Orsay quickly: go just around 12:30 on a weekday. Most of the tourists and the French are somewhere else getting lunch. There was NO LINE. I zipped right in. First time back in the Orsay since they finished the bulk of their 2-year renovation project. The moved my favorite polar bear statue in the back near a new café area; I didn't like that. But everything else looked pretty great. They redid the area around the other big clock so now the whole room is devoted to it, along with a normal floor and several massive stuffed... Read more →

At Home with Hugo, Part 2

More from my very lovely visit to Victor Hugo's former home in the Place des Vosges. Read more →

At Home with Hugo, Part 1

It is not often in life you have the opportunity to not only walk in the footsteps of one of the greatest writers of all time, but to walk through his former residence. I am finally at home with Victor Hugo! Read more →