Nice entrance

Nice building entrance of an old railway company that merged into the only national railway company we have in France called "SNCF".

Showtime !

That building called "Le Casino de Paris" has nothing to do with a casino. It's a famous Paris theater where yesterday evening I had the great pleasure to see the French version of the musical "Hairspray" that just opened this week.

La Nouvelle Athènes : Gustave Moreau museum

To end the Nouvelle Athènes area theme, here is another beautiful mansion that was the home of paintor Gustave Moreau and is now a museum dedicated to his work. It's a small museum and I must admit I'm not found of his art but it like the place and especially the spiral staircase.

La Nouvelle Athènes 3

We are still in the Nouvelle Athénes area today and more precisely in a place called "Square d'Orléans". This big private courtyard has a great charm and holds very pretty buildings where as you can see on the little pictures, Frédéric Chopin and Georges Sand lived for a few years. It's a place easy to miss as you must enter through a door located at number 80 of the rue Taibout and it's often closed as it is private. I was lucky to find the door open so I can share this with you. 

La Nouvelle Athènes 2

Let's continue our tour in the area of La Nouvelle Athènes with this other nice mansion.

La Nouvelle Athènes

The New Athens is an area located in the 9th arrondissement around the "Rue de la Tour des Dames" near the tiny and gorgeous Place Saint Georges. The name was given by a newspaper in 1823 because of the "greek" mania at that time but honestly there is not much Greek into this area. It has been a place where a lot of famous actresses of that period used to live in beautiful mansions like that one. I will show more of the area these next days. If you're in Paris it's a very nice walk to do in a calm and beautiful area not much known by tourists but really great to wander around.

Mogador theater

French are not very into musicals and so Paris does not offer many shows like in New York, London or Berlin but for the past years there seem to have been a new go for this kind of shows. Here you can see the Mogador theater in the 9th arrondissement which specialized in musicals. They showed Lion King for years and now the big hit is Mamma Mia. The theater itself is splendid and so is the neighborhood as you can see.

Sur les toits de Paris ...

I always like to see cities from above and Paris especially. If you're like me I invite you to watch the beautiful "Paris vu du Ciel" video by photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand on Paris.TV  (click here). It's 15 minutes of fabulous views of Paris seen from above.

Gites de France

Yesterday I was telling you about that pathway where I found the "unusual" door. Here it is with the very nice mansion where Gites de France have their headquarters. You enter this place at the 56 rue Saint Lazare. Don't you feel like wanting to live there ? I do !

Unusual

Yes, that's an unusual door sign in Paris. You would more likely see this in the countryside but not in that pathway in the 9th arrondissement where stands the nice building of the "Gites de France" organization which is a cooperative that regroups more than 50 000 accommodation in France (see website). This side door was so strange with this reversed pot that I could not resists ...

Close up on the Sainte Trinité church tower

In her comment yesterday, "Thirtytwo degrees" was wondering if the clock was correct. As I happened to take a zoom picture of the tower, let's see if there is something wrong. The time was right as it was 3:50 pm when I shot and this close up is a nice opportunity to see the beauty of this tower. What may look different are the clock colors as it's not often seen on churches.

Eglise de la Sainte Trinité

The Church of the "Sainte Trinité" is located in the 9th arrondissement on a nice square called "Place d'Estienne d'Orves" (a name impossible to pronounce if you're not French !). Sorry for the "tourist" picture with the mMétro sign but I kind of liked it !

Green and gold on the Opera roof

This picture would have looked much better with a blue skies but temperatures are rising and rain is back on Paris roofs.

Shopping de Noël aux Grands Magasins

Yes "shopping" is a word curently used by French when they go ... shopping : "je vais faire du shopping" (I am going to do some shopping). Only our Quebec cousins have created a French word for it : magasiner.
So let's do some shopping at what we call " les Grands Magasins" in other words the " big department stores" which for a Parisian mean Le Printemps and Les Galeries Lafayette on the boulevard Haussman. Dont't you think Le Printemps has gorgeous decoration ?

Rendez-vous devant l'Opéra

There are always many people standing in front of the Opera house and they're not only tourist. For Parisians, the place is also a good and often used meeting point to wait for friends who then say " rendez-vous devant l'Opéra".

Les vitrines de Noël

Going to see "les vitrines de Noël des Grands Magasins " ( big department stores Christmas windows) is something a lot of Parisian and suburbans do at this time of year. As you can see they have put a special path for children so they can be at the good hight and away for tall adults. 

Perfumes at the Galeries Lafayette

The perfumes brands do not forget to decorate the top of their both. Dior, Chanel, Guerlain ...

Opera stage door

On the back side of the Palais Garnnier (Paris Opera House) you can find the stage door or "Entrée des artistes" as we say in French. I like the little "tutu" dress hooked on the right window.

La mode c'est vous

"Fashion is you" is the new advertising campaign of the Galeries Lafayette department store. Their windows on the boulevard Haussman are made with models whose heads are mirror so YOU can be the model. And all around the window are pictures of "normal" street people representing fashion. A nice idea !

From the "Printemps" rooftop 2

As promissed here is another shot from the Printemps Roof where you can have a drink with a view ...