This was my third Paris workshop with Valérie Jardin. I had booked the Hotel Design close to the Sorbonne again and planned to visit the Butte aux Cailles in the 13th Arrondissement to look at the street art there.
Valerie Vaillant recommended this book (commission earned) to me to explore Paris. Do check out her website to see her street photography.
Thursday 23rd January 2025
I had an early start from Farnborough Station to get across London to St Pancras to catch my Eurostar train to Paris and the Gare du Nord.
At the Gare du Nord I headed down to catch the RER train to the Luxembourg Gardens. This is when I had my first glitch of the day. The ticket machines in the corridors have been replaced by machines by tyhe RER ticket office. Instead of being able to feed coins in to get an RER ticket now I had to navigate menus to select the correct ticket.
After a few minutes I gave up and went to the office. Unfortunately only season or TGV tickets were avainbakle there. But a security was called over and asked to help me. Once we reached the machine we were joined by 3 other passengers to watch. The guy did it so fast that I still have no idea what options to chose!.
Hotel Design
From Luxembourg Gardens station I walked along the Bd Saint-Michel until the Rue Soufflot. Then it was a short walk down the Rue Victor Cousin to the Hotel Design. I had asked for a room that overlooked the Sorbonne.
My room this visit was sadly on a lower floor so I could not see the Pantheon over the Sorbonne.
Exploring the 5th
After checking in and dumping my bags I set off to explore the 5th and to find the meeting place where the workshop would start.
On the pavement was a familiar message “Can we still fall in love this summer” from @7soulsdeep.
On the wall of a cafe was this art from Miss.Tic protected by a sheet of plastic, I would see a lot more of her work on Monday in the 13th.
Back on the Bd Saint-Michel I went to the remainder shop and picked up a couple of bottles of Bordeaux wine.
Then from the hotel I walked through the 5th to the church where we would be in the workshop on Sunday morning.
Dinner at the Bombardier
There was a WhatsApp group set up for the workshop and I linked with a fellow attendee and arranged to meet at the Bombardier for dinner. This is THE english pub in Paris with English craft beers, pub food, live sport and pub quizzes. The place was already packed when I arrived early evening.
We were joined on our table by two French guys who urged us to join them in the raucous pub quiz that was going on. We had to recognise artist and song after a short clip was played. Between us we were able recognise American and British tracks from the 70s, 80s and 90s. Our French colleagues filled in the French numbers.
After the tracks began to repeat and the shouting became louder it was apparent that the quiz was more social than serious. If it was possible the pub was by then even more packed with Friday night partying!
At dinner we agreed to meet the next day and explore Paris starting in Montmartre.
The Christmas trees still decorated the plaza in front of the Pantheon.
This is the picture on the wall beside my hotel room.
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