A view of the Arc de Triumph from the side. It was just nice to get another angle as I am so often seeing it from the front. It’s been the stage for a lot of action in the last couple of weeks, first with Veterans Day here in France and the laying of the wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier and then, yesterday, a visit from the newly elected President, Hollande. It poured and his suit was soaked. I saw this on the TV as I wasn’t there in person.

A view of Avenue Daumesnil. This is a line of shops, most having to do with decoration and very high end, that once housed wine. The Promenade Plantee is on top where an old railroad track once ran.

Some McDonald’s in Paris now have a little coffee section and you can even get their macarons. This sign shows a cafe gourmand, a little plate of tiny desserts to go with your coffee which many restaurants now serve.

This was the first iris I saw in bloom on Promenade Plantee. I never see one now without being reminded of Provence. The roses are starting to bloom as well.

She rented an apartment or two in this area. The cafe was under trees and pink blossoms were everywhere.

One of the statues of a Wallace fountain there had been “gussied up”.

A bike in front of a wine store.

Cute flower arrangement at a florist.

The lovely, ageless interior of a boulangerie.

Over one of the entrances.

The interior of the market.

A view of one of the places to eat. Tagine meals seemed to be the most popular along with a Japanese place.

I didn’t get this but thought it looked so colorful.

This was in a nearby street. It’s called a Twizy and it’s just a little wider than a motorcycle and has four wheels.

Love this window.

This lady looked so fashionable with her black outfit with accents of orange.

The garden in the Musee Carnavalet-it’s free by the way.

And there’s a victory angel there as well.

Place des Vosges was full of people enjoying the sun. This is one park where people are allowed on the grass.

The Marriage Freres Tea shop as seen from the door. I like the dark wood there and the scent of many teas that waft out the door.

I seem to see a lot of red velvet couches in restaurants and bars. They always catch my eye.

This is a little street, rue de Tresor, used to be pretty empty of people but they added some really nice flower beds and now all of the cafes along the side are full.

A little blurry, but I like the behind of the dog as it entered the building. It seemed so excited to get inside as dogs often are-excited by just about everything.

Here’s our beach which goes on for quite a while. There’s a paved path higher up as well and we can walk or bike all the way to la Rochelle. We were sort of walking/jogging on the path and then decided to go down to the water where the sand is packed and all of the sudden I had all sorts of energy and we ran for quite a ways. Maybe it’s the ozone in the air.

We drove over to nearby Ile de Re while there which is a fairly popular island with the French. I had never heard of it before. It’s pretty perfect, sort of like Disneyland and full of tourists but still a delight to visit. I spotted this little fishing boat pulling into the little harbor.

And here is yet another lighthouse. They are just so photogenic.

There are donkeys on the island and they are famous for being “dressed” in little pants or culottes as they call them. I wonder who in the world thought this up? This small group of donkeys had little saddles on them for children to have rides.

Elegant door knocker on an elegant door.

There’s a huge beach there called the Plage des Bois which is sort of wild looking. When the tide goes out there are all sorts of tide pools to look at.

There are two light houses there right by the harbor, one red, one green, to guide boats into the narrow opening of the harbor. I just have a thing for light houses. I love the way they look and there is something romantic about guiding ships at night into safety.

Here is what a boat would see as it headed into the harbor. I love these two towers.

An interesting building with a model of an iron ship on the corner. There were a couple of buildings like this with some sort of tiles on the outside maybe covering timber in the building? One day I will find out.

I especially love this scallop shell on a freshly renovated building. So pretty.

The trees at the Palais Royal garden. Look: there are shadows from the sun!

Nothing to do with light but I’m always intrigued with this red velvet couch in a bistro in the Passage Vivienne.

A tea shop in Passage Vivienne with the sun coming in from sky lights up above.

There is all sorts of rod iron in the Palais Royal and most of it has the nice gold spears on top.

I’ve seen this guy all over Paris and even saw him on TV. I guess he has some sort of thing with wheels to move the piano around. He was very good.

This group was at the entrance of the Palais Royal.

This man was singing soprano as you can hear. He was very intense.

This being April and April being a month with unpredictable weather, I’ve been seeing a lot of dark skies and then, suddenly, sunshine. I like dark skies, really-so dramatic. I saw this view when we were at the market at Nation and liked the tower against the gray sky and the green chestnut tree in front.

This was especially dramatic with the sun shining on the white building and the dark sky behind. It was on our block across the street from our apartment building. It poured rain that night.

What better way is there to warm up on a cold, rainy day than with a pot of tea? I loved these little pink metal pots and the tea was good too-bourbon vanilla.

That diet. So, in case anyone was wondering how that Dr. Dukan Diet is going I thought I’d report in. Maurice and I are both now in the 3rd part, the part where the diet is finished and you are in the maintenance phase. In fact, I just couldn’t reach the weight I was supposed to and, after a week, I decided to stop anyway as that seemed to be where my body wanted to be. I was so nervous about putting on weight in part three that I went down to the desired weight. In part three you can now have a piece of fruit each day, two pieces of whole wheat bread and one normal meal a week with a starter, main plate, dessert and wine. Each time we’ve had this we have gained weight the next day which is discouraging. Oh, and one day a week you are back on strictly protein. It’s really hard for me to do this as I start craving the bread and, usually, my apple. I haven’t stayed at my weight that I worked to hard to reach, but sort of hover above it sometimes more, sometimes closer. I’m just hoping that when I am able to eat two normal meals a week that it doesn’t all start coming back. I have to stay on this part three until July 10th (5 days for every one pound lost). I’ll even have to try and eat as I should while I’m in the States which may be difficult. I don’t think Mexican food will do me any favors.

The church in the middle of the square. As you can see, it’s close to raining. We’ve been having a rainy week with more to come.

l’Ecluse is a very good wine bar with the wines all being from Bordeaux.

A shop selling Russian caviar.

There is a new Mariages Freres Tea shop there. They are selling a new tea called dragon as you can see by the window.

Across the square is Fauchon with its pink umbrellas for eating outside.

Fauchon’s almost always has luscious looking lips somewhere in the windows.

A look at some of the dim sum that we ordered from the set menu-six different kinds.

I really liked the rice side dish.

This was really good too-filled with shrimp with a sauce.

Although my birthday is about two weeks past, my friend told the waiter that it was my birthday and they brought out this typical Japanese dessert with a little candle which was sweet. It was a great meal.

There was this nice little, new to me, chocolate store with places all over France. The chef has won a major French award for both his chocolate and his pastries.

They sold chocolate with violet in it.

And something I’ve never seen before, crepes in a jar with armagnac sauce. Yum.

Lenny Kravatz has a sushi type place with lots to go. I had no idea he was into food.

I liked the fresh green of this chestnut tree.

We got a glimpse of Sacre Coeur with the sun shining on it against the dark gray sky. It looked like it was getting ready to pour so I headed home.