So today's walk featured the 14th arr. and walked us through several beautiful little streets that were associated with famous artists in French history. Some only by name and others by the fact that they lived in houses in the streets. Our route over to the area today was the Metro because it got us so close to the start of the walk.
Our walk began in a square facing the Mairee of the 14th arr. that is fronted with a small but appealing little park and area where they were holding an open air market, the produce, meat, and seafood stall had very fresh offering and the food stalls all had lines. We walked through but didn't shop. We stopped in the park and sat for a couple minutes reading the details of the walk and watched a man and his young son kick a ball back and forth, sort of a precursor to soccer. The youngster must have been around 3 or 4 but his foot coordination was very good. The park's flower beds were fully in bloom with autumn flowers. But we had a walk ahead so we left after a few minutes.
Our first destination was called Adrienne Villas and is a gated square with houses surrounding a small park. The houses are all named after artists and architects of France. The gate was closed and locked but a woman was leaving and opened the gate so we let ourselves in. This is often an acceptable action and unless you're challenged you walk right in, which is what we did. The villas sit right next to the busiest street in the arrondissement but behind the gate it is very quiet and peaceful. The square is a combination of detached homes and apartments all very nicely kept up. So a few minutes walking there and back on to the trail. |
| Villa Halles Crescent |
We left the square and walked down a block or two and turned off the road into a quiet street where we walked back to a T junction and took a left. Looking for another of the "villas" which are streets that are little enclaves of houses that are still single family houses or houses that have been converted into a couple apartments, but none more that about 3 stories high. Some are gated and some are not and access is hit or miss as I described above. The next one was closed and nobody coming out so we walked a few steps beyond to see the crescent of homes that were open to the street and form the outer edge to the villas that were locked. A very delightful group of small homes that looked very much like a crescent one might see in London. The houses set back from the street with a parking area for the owners and small gardens in the front. as we sat and read about it a gentleman walked by and as I was taking a picture, asked where we were from. So we told him and explained that we were walking the neighborhood looking at places of interest from our book. He turned out to be a resident of one of the houses and interested in the history of the area. So he told us a bit about the crescent which followed what we had read. Marcel Duchamp had lived with his mistress in one of them at one point and then later had lived in another just a couple houses removed. The woman who lived in the first Duchamp house came out and verified that indeed he had lived there with his mistress, who owned it. At that point another woman came up and the man and she began talking and then we all talked about another two houses where some celebrated singers had lived. 
We chatted on a bit and then the woman said there was a little Vietnamese restaurant close by and they were going there for lunch and asked if we would like to accompany them, We were flustered but happily accepted whereupon the woman said would we like to see her apartment, just across the street. How can you say no to a charming woman? So the man went to get a table at the restaurant and we walked across the street to see her apartment. She has the top floor of the building and at least part of the floor below. But we went to the top floor where she has a kitchen, a sitting room, and a living room where she hold concerts on a regular basis. Many comfortable sitting areas where a grand piano dominates the room. She is a true lover of music and has season tickets to the philharmonic orchestra next to us at Villette. She also has a group of friends that accompany her to the concerts to tune of 20 or so. We are now on her invitation list for the next concert and also have an invitation to an art opening of her companion next Thursday night.We left the apartment and went to the restaurant to meet the man who was already eating due to a prior meeting he had to attend. But we sat and had a very nice conversation about travel and where each of us had been. Both of them had been to the U.S. at least three times and visited a number of cities. As we talked it came out that in addition to the house in Paris he and his wife have two additional houses in Brittany, and the woman has another house somewhere in France as well, true Parisians. I would have guessed ages at perhaps early 70's but it turned out that he was 80 and she was 78, wow what energy and joie de vivre. It's really a pity that the Parisians are so cold and stand-offish otherwise we would have been drafted into the family.
After the interruption for lunch, we continued our walk and walked several more "villa" streets. In one we saw the house that Henry Miller lived in when he was writing "Tropic of Cancer", about his life in Paris of the 30's along with Anais Nin. In another was located the house of Seurat in te appropriately named Villa Seurat. 
At the end of the tour we sat in the Parc Montsouris and just watched people enjoy the parks for several minutes before heading back to the apartment, to watch rugby of course. South Africa roughs up Argentina, but Argentina is game throughout. Too many penalties for Argentina that South Africa effectively exploited.
Well this sounds like a perfect day.
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