The Elzevir Apartment

The Elzevir Apartment Newsletter - January 2011

2012-01-23T14:56:49Z

Hi All,

Attached is our January 2011 newsletter. We still have some open dates in late February/early March so take advantage of the winter airline rates. After that we’re fully booked until late summer. If you are interested, email us and we'll offer our subscribers a special rate!

Best wishes
Bill & Ineke

The Elzevir Apartment Elzevir Newsletter June 2011

2011-06-25T18:57:45Z

The Elzévir Apartment Newsletter - June 2011
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[Special discount for remaining dates in July / August – July 27 to August 6 :: August 11 to August 18 :: August 25 to September 1]

I just returned from our regular Paris June trip and here are my usual updates on Paris, Le Marais and our apartment. Due to finishing a new fragrance, Ineke unfortunately couldn’t make it :(

In the apartment we moved to the Darty THD (Tres Haut Debit) internet service which includes phone, TV and internet in one. It’s a great addition as it cleans up the desk quite a bit and still provides unlimited international calls, a faster WiFi system and new TV channels.

There is now only one phone and you dial international numbers by “00 + country code + phone number”. Temporarily we won’t have the US number that rings in the apartment until I figure out how to do that with Google Voice. Next, we replaced the stylish but impossible to figure out light switch in the kitchen to a more obvious design that has a separate on/off and dimmer buttons. This small but important change will make everyone, including Alex, much happier!

Also, I know in the past newsletters we mentioned a lot of new additions and I finally retook the living room photo where you can see the end tables, lamps, etc.

First, food-wise in the area, the Meert chocolate is fully open with a great selection of chocolates and a very nice staff. It really adds to the neighborhood and we can almost forget those many years of infinitesimally slow construction after eating one of their treats. We even heard from Alain (Royal Café) that a video was shot for a US station at Meert.

Next, the café “Petit Place” is open and I think I ate there every other day. They have a nice terrace and good prices. Their Onion Soup is excellent and almost a meal in itself (right Cindy!)

Two other restaurants that should be tried on your next trip are Le Carre des Vosges, 15 rue Saint Gilles (in the previous Petite Pamphlet) and Claude Colliot, 40 rue Blancs-Manteaux.

Alex is doing great with his wine tasting classes and runs 2-3 on Saturday and one almost every night. They are in French except when he gets enough people signing up, he has one in English. His good friend Sophie has a English tour to the champagne region that is an all-inclusive day trip to Reims. If you like champagne and are looking for a day trip, you should try it.

In looking through the 3rd arrondissement’s website, I discovered a passage that I hadn’t known about called the “Passage de L’Ancre”. Here is one photo and you can see more when you visit my photo albums from the trip (see the links at the end of the newsletter).

Alain (37 years running the Royal Café) updated me that the Musee Picasso will reopen in 2013 and it be one of the few places in Paris that will then be able to hold “Grand Expositions” which will be exciting to have in the area. There is a major renovation of the Carreau du Temple which will turn it into a concert and activities center (see photos at the end). On Sundays, the Marais has limited traffic and it is great to wander around the streets. While “flaning” through the Marais and stopping at Square Cain, I noticed that the parks now have free WiFi (for 2 hour stretches) so if you have your iPad, etc. you can go into the park and read your eBook. Finally, if you like cars, there was a fantastic exhibition (L’art de L’automobile) at the Musee Arts Decoratifs of a select group of Ralph Lauren’s car collection. The detail in these cars were just amazing to see close-up and it is a definite exposition to see if you are in Paris. You weren’t supposed to take pictures but I snapped a few carefully

Well, that’s it for this trip. Please click on the links to see these photo albums from the trip:

Scenic Pictures from Paris June 2011
Textures from Paris June 2011
Artistic Pictures from Paris June 2011
Reconstruction Carreau du Temple June 2011
London June 2011

and our updated walking tour

Best wishes
Bill, Ineke and Fritz (the Westie)

The Elzevir Apartment Updates

2011-04-10T09:39:45Z

Hi All,

We are just starting to prepare for our regular trip to Paris and received great news from our caviste (Alex) next door. For the past years, he has had a lot of success with his wine tasting events but unfortunately for many they have been in French even though his English is quite good. Starting now he will have them in English!

http://www.cave-elzevir.fr/cours_de_degustation/wine-tasting-courses/wine-tastings-in-paris/

Also, he has organized a regular day trip to Reims for champagne wine tasting

http://www.cave-elzevir.fr/sejours/reims-the-champagne-capitale-and-kings-of-france-coronation-city

We do still have some time open in July and August for those last minute summer plans. Watch for our regular update after our next trip in June.

Best regards
Bill & Ineke

http://www.elzevir.net

February 7 through 18 now open - special discount

2011-01-21T14:58:59Z

Hello

February 7th to 18th is now open and we have a special rate of $200 per night for stays of 7 nights or more. With some of the recent air specials, this is a perfect time to visit Paris in February. Send us an inquiry for more details!

Best regards
Bill & Ineke
http://www.elzevir.net

The Elzevir Apartment Elzevir Newsletter Dec 2010

2010-12-23T14:25:49Z

The Elzévir Apartment Newsletter - December 2010
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Photos thanks to Melinda Burgener

Ineke just returned from her very short and extremely busy December trip (unfortunately I couldn't go). The biggest news is the Chocolate store has finally opened!! For our regulars, the snail's pace work at the corner store has been a source of constant wonder, amazement and mystery. Ineke stopped in and bought some Christmas gifts. It is a nice addition to our "coin". Thanks to Melinda for the photos!

We did do a few updates to the apartment including a new table lamp that reflects the same style as the other table lamp (Philippe Starck Miss K Soft):

The next "opening" in the neighborhood will be the new restaurant/bistro on Place the Thorigny just as you exit the apartment to the right. This was the Marco's old cafe and the whole space is being redone by the same owners as Camille. It should be open in the spring. On our June trip, we'll have more pictures, etc. since we'll spend more time in Paris and hopefully somewhere else in Europe.

There are still some open dates in February (7-18), which we’ll offer to our mailing list at a discount. Bonne Annee!

Bill, Ineke and Fritz the Westie

The Elzevir Apartment May 7 to 17 now open

2010-11-07T13:33:11Z

Hi All:

In case anyone looked at our calendar and saw it full in May, we just received a cancellation for May 7 to 17. Let us know if you are interested.

Best regards
Bill & Ineke
http://www.elzevir.net

The Elzevir Apartment Last minute trip to Elzevir . Winter rates in summer!

2010-07-28T13:18:57Z

Hello everyone!

Hope you are having a great summer (or winter for those in the Southern Hemisphere)

We're offering a special on our open 7 days in August (9-16) at our winter rates of $1,800 for 7 days. Minimum stay is five days.

Best regards
Bill & Ineke
http://www.elzevir.net

The Elzevir Apartment Elzevir Newsletter June 2010

2010-07-02T20:03:04Z

The Elzévir Apartment Newsletter - June 2010

Ineke and I just returned from our June trip to Paris, and we wanted to share our travel experiences with you and update you on changes to the Elzevir apartment. Our visit started with five days in Normandy and Brittany, where we made many day trips to public gardens and seaside communities, and performed a press check of the carton for Ineke’s upcoming fragrance to be called Gilded Lily (photo1, photo2). Her cartons are manufactured in a small town called Saint Hilaire du Harcouet on the border of Normandy and Brittany, and we stayed at a hotel called Gue de la Holme with an excellent restaurant that would rival the very top restaurants in the Bay Area. If you would like to see the best photos from the trip, click on these links (Normandie1, Normandie2, Bretagne, Le Manche)). One “souci” was that we encountered our first restaurant that could not accept credit cards without “puces” (chips). The restaurant had a brand new credit card machine and although this was the only such instance on our entire trip, we have heard that Americans can expect this to happen more and more often in the future as the non-chip credit card machines are slowly phased out. Hopefully US card companies will start issuing cards with chips or some financial group like American Express will offer cards with chips that you can refill online.

After Normandie, we drove back to Paris to return the car and were greeted by ten days of very warm temperatures. As usual, we updated our walk around the neighborhood (link) and a lot has changed in one year. There are many new stores and restaurants in the neighborhood including an upscale salon du thé called Carette overlooking the Place des Vosges. We met with a lot of friends including several from San Francisco that happened to be in Paris at the same time. For anyone coming in the near future, there is an excellent retrospective on Willy Ronis at the Musée de la Monnaie that was very inspirational for those of us who enjoy photography. We mastered the Velib bike rental system this time and only got stuck one time going from stand to stand trying to find an open spot to return the bikes. In Paris, they’ve added many “contre-sens” bike lanes that allow one to go more safely against traffic. Even on the major streets we saw an increased respect for bicycles. Unfortunately, the Velib system still requires a card with a chip in it, which is only available so far on some American Express cards.

Among our various dinners, we’d have to say that the one at Chez Julien (1 rue du pont Louis-Philippe) stood out as outstanding. A combination of eating out on a quiet terrace during a warm evening, great food and fun friends was hard to beat. Chez Julien was renovated by the prolific Costes brothers a couple of years ago, and we found out that they also are responsible for two other favorites in the neighborhood, Chez Janou and Café du Marché. We discovered a way to make reservations (parisbestrestaurants.com) on-line similar to Opentable.com in the US, which could be very useful for those of you who worry about speaking French on the telephone. Another good dinner was on Ile de Jatte at the Le Petit Poucet. Ile de la Jatte is a leafy, pleasant island in the Seine on the west side of Paris with three notable restaurants, but it is not accessible by public transport unfortunately. Le Pousset has a nice outdoor terrace, and the temperature and humidity on Ile de la Jatte are more comfortable than central Paris on those really hot and humid days.

For those interested in my best photos from this trip, click here for Fete de la Musique and here for Paris photos.

We added a few updates to the apartment including a new stereo that lets you plug in your iPod, new end tables, an improved reading lamp on one of the end tables, some new dishes and flatware. Also, there were a few new additions to our “library” by very kind guests who leave books behind for others.

There are still some open dates in August, which we’ll offer to our mailing list at a discount. With the euro at its lowest in awhile, the prices seem much more reasonable than in past years. Meilleurs salutations!