Tags
acrobats, Bastille, Chez Louisette, Cour Saint-Émilion, flea market, Lézard Café, Marais, Marché aux Puce, meals, Metro, Montorgueil, Parc de Bercy, Paris, Place des Vosges, Promenade plantée, rue Montorgueil, Saint-Ouen, Seine, singers, street acrobats, street performers, Yunpeng
Last year and again this year Yunpeng visited me for a weekend. He is originally from China but is working on his PhD in bioinformatics at a university in Bergen, Norway. It has been quite cold there but fortunately we had nice weather for his visit to Paris. Here are some of the highlights.
Just down the street from my place we saw a troupe of Brazilian acrobats setting up for their performance. I asked permission to take a photo, but then got invited to join in the picture.
Bob bonding with Brazilian street acrobats on rue Montorgueil.
One of the acrobats took a short video of an acrobat jumping over our arms.
Friday evening we had dinner at Lézard café, which I had enjoyed in prior years. This year the welcome was chilly and the service was simply terrible. The food was ok, but mostly pre-made. The crowd was young and attractive but I don’t think I’ll be going back any time soon.
On Saturday we had a picnic in the Place des Vosges, then took a stroll along the Promenade Plantée, which follows a disused railway line from near Place de la Bastille. The first half is elevated and the second half is below grade, with occasional bridges.
Yunpeng in the bamboo grove of the Promenade Plantée.
Bob and Yunpeng at the reflecting pool on the Promenade Plantée.
We continued on to the Cour Saint-Emilion shopping area to have gelato, where we saw several fine soul singers giving samples of their work to promote an upcoming concert.
A soul singer at the Cour Saint-Emilion mesmerizes a young fan.
We then strolled through the Parc de Bercy, then across the Seine on a graceful footbridge.
Bob in the rose garden of the Parc de Bercy (wearing Yunpeng’s stylish hat).
We strolled across this graceful foot bridge and had a drink at this lively riverbank bar.
I was impressed by all the multi-cultural options at this place, but we ate dinner at a Malaysian place instead.
I was impressed by the multi-cultural cuisine offered by this place: Indian, Middle Eastern, American, Italian, Bretonne.
We took the 14 métro line home. Like the 1, the 14 is fully automated so there is a big window in front where the driver would otherwise be. I was finally able to capture a video of the view from the front of the train as it goes through the tunnel and pulls into a station.
That evening we went to a remarkable dance bar that Antoine had recommended: Tango, in the Arts et Métiers neighborhood. The decor and ambiance is straight out of the 1950s. Very accomplished couples — mostly but not all same-sex — danced to music from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. Many others, like ourselves, just looked on and sipped their drinks. We didn’t stay too late, but it was clearly the kind of place where it would be easy to strike up a conversation with people at a neighboring booth.
On Sunday we slept in, then had lunch at a local fish place I had first tried with Matt and Chris, La Criée.
Yunpeng with his lunch at La Criée.
Then we took the métro up to the Marché aux Puce (flea market) at Saint-Ouen.
A rainbow display of teapots at the Saint-Ouen flea market.
I steered us to a drink at Chez Louisette, where a soulful singer did not disappoint.
A soulful singer at Chez Louisette in the Saint-Ouen flea market.
Yunpeng headed home on Monday after a lovely weekend.
