Posted By Paul Parker on Mar 17, 2018 | 6 comments

I am so excited to be back in Paris settled in my favorite neighborhood in Saint Germain des Pres. My apartment is in the heart of the Buci market at 4, rue de Buci. I like “quaint” like the next person, but in a “nice place to visit, but I would not want to live there” kind of way. I love the excitement and the energy of my neighborhood and if someone says they know of an apartment on a quiet little street only 4 blocks from here, I am thinking, why do you want me to have to walk those 4 blocks? You should know that my apartment is through a doorway back a bit off an interior courtyard and it is very quiet, but I always carry earplugs just in case. The bad news is the 1st picture below is the view from one of my windows, but the good news is the next picture from the doorway that leads to that courtyard.

There are literally hundreds of restaurants, fromageries (cheese), charcuteries (meat), patisseries (pastry) and art galleries within blocks of my apartment and the Seine is only 2 blocks north. I should clarify that when I say my apartment, I mean just for 5 weeks. I found it on my favorite website, VRBO.com.

Fromagerie – Cheese anyone?

Charcuterie

I am settled in and the fridge and the cupboards are stocked, I dropped off some dry-cleaning and did a little laundry.  I am so excited about the adventures to come in the next 5 weeks. The vernissage (opening) for the incredible Salon du Dessin, the opulent vernissage for Art Paris Art Fair in the Grand Palais (Google it), the vernissage for the Paris Antique Book and Print Fair and most of all I am excited about the train trip to the south to St Remy, Arles, Aix, Saint Tropez and Nice to the land where Van Gogh, Cezanne, Matisse, Chagall, Seurat and others spent time and did some of their best work. I will end with day trips to Auvers to visit Van Gogh’s grave and the nearby wheat fields he loved and painted so well, but I will save the journey to Giverny until the last. I want to give Monsieur Monet’s flowers a chance to bloom. I hope you will follow me.

I will leave you with a picture I took out of the window of the Musee d’Orsay right after I arrived. That is the Basilica Sacra-Coeur on the hill in Montmartre off in the distance. Don’t forget to click on the pictures to blow them up. That evening at Musee d’Orsay will be a blog to come soon.