The Elzevir Apartment Newsletter - June 2010

The Elzévir Apartment Newsletter - June 2010

Inspired by Willy Ronis exhibit

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 that love guided tours, we met Richard Nahem who runs a tour company called "Eye Prefer Paris" and Richard knows all the little ins and outs of Paris. Richard goes way beyond the basic sites by taking you around and showing you the the details and stories that you never find easily in guide books. Also, with one of his partners he also has a combined tour and cooking class.

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!