Europe isn’t quite as fast off the mark for signs of Christmas as the States. It wasn’t until last week that I started seeing Christmas decorations for sale in the stores and I am just starting to see windows decorated for Christmas. They turned on the holiday lights on the trees lining the Champs Elysees a few days ago so I guess I will have to get in gear and put up a few things in our place. Maurice wants a tree this year. I wouldn’t mind doing without one, being the Scrooge that I am, but I guess I will have to do more this year than just buy a poinsettia like I did last year. Anyway, here are a few photos recently taken around Paris.

They did this last year around the Place Vendome area-put up chandeliers of plastic that look like glass from a distance.

Not exactly a Christmas color, and I think it may be permanent but I like it.

Laudaree Tea Shops are known for their windows. Usually the decorations are in pastel colors but for Christmas they are going more elegant looking with black, red and gold.

I like it!

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These photos aren’t on my street, but a few blocks from there. I’m amazed by the architecture that was done in Paris right before WWI, mostly in the Arch Nouveau fashion. I really like it.

These happy faces grace one building

A noble lion guards a door

Such a feminine decoration

A closeup of her face-look, she even has a dimple in her chin!

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A friend and I made our way on a cold Saturday afternoon to a brocante right off of Republique near rue de Temple. It turned out to be huge, circling around a square and a covered market and up and down streets. It was one of the best that I’ve seen in a long time.

This was the covered market with some of the many stalls around it.

I’m always attracted to old keys. Some of these were centuries old.

I was taking photos of glasses for sale when the vendor said, “Take a photo of me too.” which I did. I think I could have had a date for dinner that night if I’d wanted.

There is always food for sale. These all smelled so good, especially with the onions frying in the middle.

Candied apples called Pomme d’amour-apples of love.

Isn’t this a cute dog? Her name is Maggie and she is owned by two Americans who were there for a television show. It turns out that Maggie is Maggie the Wonder Dog with her own website at www.maggiethewonderdog.com where you can see videos of such shows as Jay Leno and also some adorable photos. She was very sleepy when we saw her sitting in a cafe at the table with her owners and mostly slept. Jesse, her owner, said she taught herself, somehow, how to count and do math. Pretty incredible and, really, I think the most interesting celebrity I’ve ever met, the cutest for sure.

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We spent the night at Maurice’s daughter’s apartment as they were going to sand our floors. We were gone all of the next day too so they could stain the floors expecting to be able to stay in our apartment that night.

In the meantime, I was with a friend working on a project (more on that later) and we went out into the really suddenly cold afternoon to check out a few used furniture shops. We found, to our dismay, that one we both used to like to go to, was closed. Without much hope, we found another little shop and went in. I was looking for a small dining room table, one of those where you can fold down the ends so not as much room is taken, and didn’t find any. I was quite taken with a really lovely bookcase but what caught my eye was two chairs, with soft tapestry material in tones of gold and tawny green. They were probably from the 60’s and probably hadn’t been redone since then because you could see where part of the backs had faded from the sun and they were in a type of Louis XIII style, the store owner said, and I just liked them. We have been looking at new chairs but not only were they all really expensive, but brown leather seems to be the style right now and I wanted soft and comfy. The price was right-and it included delivery which warms my heart as we have no elevator in our building and I didn’t want to have to carry them up myself-and I got Maurice to the shop to check them out and now they are ours, to be delivered on Wednesday.

So, I stopped to pick up some delicious Italian food to go from a shop near my friend and arrived home to find that, yes, the floor was done but that two bookcases, the kitchen table and two chairs, our couch and various other things were piled in our kitchen so they could work on the floor. I couldn’t even get to the microwave or refrigerator. I stuck the food out on the window sill as it is in the 30’s. Tomorrow they are supposed to cover the floors with plastic so they can paint and when that is done, they will then varnish the floors which I guess means another night elsewhere. I opened our closet and can’t enter it as it is full of buckets and all sorts of things they use to work and I know that all of our clothing is probably covered with dust. The bathroom has several filthy pieces of wood in it leaning against the wall. Maurice wanted to go back to his daughter’s for the night but I just couldn’t face the metro trip back carrying my back pack again.

The Empty living room-the floors aren’t this dark

We were sitting there in our dusty bedroom-they didn’t seal the door-when Maurice’s son called. He was going to IKEA. He has a car and it is difficult to get there without one as it is in the suburbs. It was 8 PM and I was beat but we went anyway. I saw several chairs much cheaper than what we paid for our two but without that patina and graciousness of something really well designed. We ordered a wall unit for our TV and also to hold books, etc. and it will be delivered. I really wanted a rug to put in our new living room. At this point it was getting close to closing time-IKEA actually stays open until 10PM two nights a week here, a miracle, and Maurice was antsy to go check out and wouldn’t stay to help me pick out a rug. He didn’t want to get one then but I knew if we didn’t get something then that it would be ages, if ever, before I got the chance to buy one. Anyway, I found a nice blue one, not what I really wanted but I was out of energy. I thought there was a sign saying it was 99 Euros, about the average price of the rugs there, and Maurice’s son helped me drag it to the counter. After we checked out Maurice said, “Do you how much that rug cost?” Well, it was 299 Euros! We had one of those fun little arguments, of course, by the checkout counter. I told him to go back and get a refund but we didn’t, so now I do have my rug and I hope I really like it once it is spread out.

This is my kitchen

So now I am hoping the guys will spread the plastic and empty our kitchen so we can at least make coffee or open the refrigerator. The end is in sight and they seem to really be moving right along. They aren’t disappearing for days at a time as they did on our last renovation and I’m thinking that maybe this group won’t be declaring bankruptcy either.

Here are a few photos of the renovation-some old ones showing the before and some of what’s happening now.

This is a look into what was our bedroom-the master bedroom.

This is a sort of blurry shot of the orginal living room which then became our guest bedroom and which will now be the only remaining bedroom, ours.

The wall with the painting on it is the one which is coming down. By the way, most of this furniture in the photo ended up in Provence. Just the couch and TV table stayed.

The wall is now down. You can see the gray line on the floor where it used to be and our old door leaning against the wall.

They hung a huge sheet of plastic to keep the dust out of the kitchen so we could still use it. Did it work? Not really but I guess there is less dust than there could have been.

Maurice and I are now going to get out and find some new furniture. I have always found the decorating a home sucks up money like a sponge.

To get out of the apartment while the noisy and dusty renovations were underway, I took off on a cold day to just walk around. I was gone all day and, because of the metro strike, spent most of the time walking. I did get on metro line 1 and it was almost scary as people were really pushing to get on the trains even though they were full. They just forced themselves in and somehow the doors were able to close although the conductor had to make several announcements at each stop to get clear of the doors as they sometimes couldn’t shut. In any case, I got as far as Tuleries and got off. It was really cold but the sky was blue and a frosty sun was shining and it was nice to be outside.

There are signs saying keep off the grass but these birds, I think they are seagulls, can’t read. I wonder why they picked this particular section of the park for their nap?

A Wallace Fountain providing drinkable water. You don’t see many of them working during the cold months.

I even made it up to Montmartre. How would you like to climb these stairs everyday?

The sun sets before 5 PM these days. I went into a cafe to sit down, warm up and have a cup of tea and got to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle at 6 PM through the cafe’s window. You can see the lights of the cafe reflected in the window that I was taking the photo through.