{paris in july} farewell paris...

This is a (final) post for Paris in July,

hosted by bookbath and thyme for tea.

Normal book posts will resume soon, but one last look at Paris in July. I've so enjoyed reading the posts and devouring everyone's pictures. This Paris in July was particularly relevant for me, since I was in Paris for a good chunk of the month, but am now, {sad face}, back home and back at work. To finish off an enjoyable month, here are some completely gratuitous and hardly literature-related highlights of my time.

A window at Basilica St Denis

The lovely curvy wall of secondhand books at Merci (the café is excellent)

Jacques Genin - the best lemon tart
I've ever ever ever ever eaten
(the eclair wasn't bad either. A very nice tea-room.)

Tart p*rn

My favourite department store - BHV - is being renovated. 

Even the renovation signs are amusing. 

This is the place to go for your holiday quincaillerie.

I cannot resist prowling the supermarket aisles. 

In the Grand Epicerie, I note that Joël Robuchon
has sold out to the ready meal market (Parmentier de Canard!)

I wish we had crevettes in Australia -
I think they're some sort of scampi?
The best dish I had with them was really simple -
green beans with crevettes at Le Petit Pontoise on the Left Bank.

I could spend all day browsing the butter aisles...

Less so the body part aisle...

Gold ballerinas! 

My shoes were more comfortable but decidedly less stylish.

Goat cheese crisps. (Twisties, if you're Australian)

A book on good manners to read the nieces and nephew.  

A fairytale building near the Marais: 

the Hôtel de Sens (now the Bibliothèque Forney) 

The view from...

...my cup of tea at the Petit Palais. 
Another nice place to sit down. 

Sitting down in Paris seems to have become a priority for me.

This lady could have done with a cup of tea, I suspect (Petit Palais).
Perhaps some ballerinas too.

Across the road: Greeks on the Grand Palais' mosaic frieze.

A myrtille (?bilberry) & violet 
condiment at the mustard shop. Hmmm.

Everyone associates Rue Cambon with Chanel.
I prefer...

Pierre Hermé

Pierre Hermé cakes (from the Rue Bonaparte store).
Clockwise from left: Jasmine; Peaches; Coffee; Rose/Lychee

The Village St Paul brocante was filled with things
too large to bring home. Pity. 

A 2CV. I drove one when I lived in the UK in the 90s. 
You can drive anything after you've driven one of these.

A day at the Jardin des Plantes

It's a really gorgeous oasis over by the Gare Austerlitz 
and includes a zoo, 
where I saw another Australian a long way from home:

Kookaburra in the Paris "Ménagerie".

Danger de morsure! 
I need this on a t-shirt for when I go to cake shops.

And my penultimate day in Paris: I went to the Tuileries...

...and sat under a shady brolly at Le Saut du Loup,
the restaurant of Les Arts Décoratifs

And just after lunch, the final stage of 
the Tour de France came through behind me.

I needed another cup of tea after that 
(Mariage Frères in the Marais)

A ginger cat on my way to do some shopping on the final day. 
(I hate this use of animals by beggars 
tho' at least this bloke is doing something 
for his money even if listening to organ grinding 
is right up there with nails on blackboards)

And one final pastry from Ladurée before I was 
off to the airport (this is a Rose Saint-Honoré). 

I already miss Paris.