Paris, etc Through the Eyes of my iPhone

Some Interesting Finds

How clever.  Happy Halloween!

Does this guy have a crappy job, or what?  That's a brace attached to his back to advertise who knows what.  Poor dude.

Funky metro stop entrance 

Something I love about Paris... stumbling upon a random super-cute alley with lovely little shops.  To top it off there was a Christian Louboutin store at the end of it :)

Cool old building

All the manhole covers are Burberry.  Paris is so fancy.

Awesome lunch with Julie at L'Affriole

A couple weeks ago a movie was being filmed on our street.  I did my best to walk past multiple times looking very Parisian (walking the dog and wearing all black) to see if they would ask me to be an extra.  No such luck.

Remember this hottie?

I think this gentleman has an admirer...

Cool Places my New Little Job Takes Me

Musee d'Orsay

Walking home from Musee d'Orsay because there was no tour to host.  Because they were on strike.  Oh France...

Sculpture pond by the Pompidou Center

Graffiti (or art?) by Pompidou

How the heck do they get up there??

The line at Pompidou that people get to skip when they do the Easy Pass tours I'm hosting. 

The view from the top of Pompidou.  So awesome!

The Louvre at night - gorgeous.

Enjoying the Season

I LOVE Fall!  We've been spending a lot of time outside, taking in the changing season.  We need to soak up the nice weather before it's too cold to venture out!

Last Sunday a group of us braved the chilly evening to catch the first Tower twinkle.  It never gets old.  

Random


For those that we haven't told - we will not be able to come to Houston for the visit we had planned in November.  So sad.  We're planning to come in March now.  We'll be looking forward to seeing everyone then!


Up next on our calendar... Sarah and Ricky coming for a visit!!!!!  Oh, the fun we'll have :)

Bisous!
Maygan

FALLing in Love with Paris

What are Seasons?


It is so cool to live somewhere for once that has actual seasons.  Well, seasons you can depend on.  In Houston we definitely get all four season, you just never know what time of year they will show up (although, you can count on summer being summer!).  


I can recall wearing shorts and a t-shirt on Christmas plenty of times, but freezing my butt off in a little Halloween costume.  Or sweating at a New Years party, then having to break out my heavy coat randomly in March or April.


In Paris, it was like a light switch - October brought Fall weather.  I can't decide what I enjoy more: bright, sunny skies and warm weather, or overcast chilly days that really make you feel like you're in Paris.  This past weekend made me realize that neither is my favorite... Clear, sunny skies, crisp Fall temps, leaves beginning to change color and fall to the ground.  Those are my favorite days!  


Our friends from London, Alana and Jon (well, Jon is from London and Alana is a Texan living in London), were in town.  They couldn't have asked for nicer weather.  We had lunch, strolled the city, went out for drinks and to watch a little college football, had brunch at an American style diner.  Great times!

Jon is rocking that Texas shirt, don't you think?

I just love the ever-changing trees out our front window.

Meeting up with some expats and students living in Paris at The Moose for football...

Meet my friend Christina :)

We went to a diner called Breakfast in America on Sunday afternoon for brunch.  We stuffed our faces.  It wasn't quite a Texas breakfast, but definitely worth waiting for.  Alana and Kyle thought the pancakes where the best in Europe so far.  Jon's doughnut was pretty legit, too!

The line (made up of mostly French people) continued past the picture - about the width of three more buildings.  Think there's a gap in the market for American breakfast?

My New Gig!


Aside from being excited about the change in seasons, I'm also pumped to report that I will be starting a new little part-time job this week.  I'll be working 2-3 days a week at Fat Tire Bike Tours (where Julie works) as a Tour Host for a couple of the museum tours.


Obviously I don't know jack about art.  But, I do know about customer service, so I think it will be great!  Here's how it works... visitors to Paris purchase an Easy Pass tour through Fat Tire to see one of the major sites.  This will allow you to skip the line (which saves you about a million hours over the course of your trip) and have a personal guided tour with a certified guide.  My role will be to meet all the tour-goers outside of the museum, chat with them, get their audio devices so they can hear the guide without having to scream through the museum, accompany them on the tour, grab a coffee or tea with the group after, snap some photos, answer any questions they have, and hopefully have a lot of fun with them in the process.  I'm really looking forward to meeting people from all over the world and just shaking up my days a bit!


The two museums where I will be hosting tours are Musee d'Orsay and The Pompidou.


Julie and I visited Orsay last week to get an idea of how the tour will flow, etc.  The building itself is gorgeous - it was formerly a train station that was built for the World Exhibition in 1900.  

Right after snapping the photo above, Julie leaned on that statue because it was a great photo opp.  We were then tackled by a security guard who told us that not only are you not allowed to touch the artwork (duh, but that was an afterthought), but you also can't take photos in the museum.  Whaaaat?

After touring around and breaking all the rules, we stopped into the restaurant in the museum for a coffee and a salad.  How beautiful is this??

Our uncharacteristically friendly maitre d'

I was too busy keeping an eye on the Gypsy-thieves that were lurking around out front (you never know when I may need to use my crime-fighting skills) to get a photo of the exterior, so I stole this one from a website.  

Bisous!

Maygan