Paris in November

My best friend from college Pamela and I arrived in Paris on Saturday morning November 18! The minute we stepped out into the airport it smelled like France...can’t actually describe this mixture of perfume, strong coffee, baking bread and a tiny bit of cigarette smoke but if I had a mask on and was asked what city I had just arrived in I would know.
We stayed in a little studio not far from place de la Bastille on rue Castex.

La rue Saint Antoine around the corner from our studio is a really active street with small shops, cafes, restaurants etc. and it was so nice to mingle with all the bustling on the nice wide sidewalk.

We wanted to get right onto French time zone so we dropped off our suitcases and then went out for a stroll around the neighborhood.

I love peeking into gated gardens like this one...

This  is the entrance to a new little grocery store called Bien. Those are string shopping bags (made in France) hanging on the wall. 

Here's the inside...

We stopped on the Place des Voges nearby to have a delicious hot chocolate at Carette. The cafe has wonderful pastries and food and we were lucky to get a spot outside under the arches with a heater going. It was great watching the people in the cafe and going by. We saw lots of plush fur...jackets, coats, scarves etc. In all kinds of colors too. Pink was very popular.

Pamela is looking dreamy eyed here...we were cozy under the heat lamps and starting to feel the time difference a bit.

We headed back to our street via the Hotel de Sully which has a very lovely garden which connects to the Place de Voges and a great bookstore and gift shop.

We had our first Paris dinner across the street. The little restaurant was cozy and since we hadn't really eaten much since we got off the plane we had the plat du jour before we headed back to our studio and to bed.

 A sign in the restaurant wanted to know what we were thinking about...

 I couldn't resist this photo up into some very interesting looking apartments on rue St. Antoine with ceiling beams and decorations.

These holiday lit "macarons" we standing outside the door of the neighborhood Le Nôtre pastry shop.

It was time to get to bed so we stayed on Paris time! So magical to be in Paris!

Bonne nuit. More next time now that I can finally get my photos to cooperate.

à bientôt!