Bonjour Baron Haussmann & Daisy

 Have you wondered what goes on behind the grand doorways of Paris?

 Yesterday I entered

 And found out

 I was meeting a friend of a friend, Daisy

 The moment I entered I felt like a Second Empire grande dame.

 I lift my petticoats or I'll trip on the stairway, ahem

 

 Daisy's background is in Art History, so she filled me in on the architecture. The building is of course classic Baron Haussmann. Once all private apartments it's now a corporate headquarters. Still the remaining original details are exquisite

 Lovely curved shapes repeated over and over on windows, mirror frames, doorways creating a sense of classic balance

 The white-washed ceiling reliefs were formerly painted full-color.

Off to lunch, we lift our petticoats as we go.

What a stairway!

 Through the inner doors

 And out the front door. If you don't know where to look for the door buzzer, you could be a prisoner here for life. I can think of worse things...

Off to another grand building for an Italian buffet

 La vie est belle non?

 Bonjour Baron Haussmann!

Il Fait Froid!

Pieplate said yesterday...We'll be in Paris in quinze jours, and we're hoping that the temperatures will be up a bit.

What's the weather report on the ground?

When you start learning French,

one of the first sentences you learn is,

"La plume de ma tante est sur la table..."

Well long ago it used to be so.

Then you learned how to say,

"Il fait beau" The weather is fine. This trip in Paris, il fait FROID! Il pluie! ! ! B E A U C O U P ! It also used to be that starving artists in Paris... (something I can't claim to be for sure) Would now and then throw themselves out the windows of their unheated garrets... (something I'm not about to do for sure!) But I surely wish I'd brought my long johns (if I had any...) La Louvre is nicely heated by the way.. Inside anyway... Mustn't grumble about Paris grey skies... After all I AM in Paris. Now repeat after me: "La plume de ma tante est sur la table."