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Place Gambetta has this standard tourist sign pointing to places where they might have come from.
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Saw this beautiful dress in one of the nearby shops. (Oddly, the same chain has a store here in Harvard Square.)
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Loved the name of the shop.
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This was a real person who would move occasionally. I have no idea how he supported himself.
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Loved this ad in a pharmacie.
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At the end of the northbound tram route upriver, were several buildings with neat brickwork.
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In the plaza in front of the Opera is a very strange sculpture of a face that changes when viewed from different angles.
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The Silver Wine-Press, a fancy restaurant. Why there is a silver lobster on their logo, I cannot imagine.
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At one of the cute shops near the Notre Dame church, Ms T decided to buy a hat or two.
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She tried on a zillion, finally bought two, one for rain and one for shine. Pretty nice ones, too.
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Across from the hat shop was this one with some interesting linens, like the table cover with many holes to let the undercloth show through.
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And these wonderful printed cloths.
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Then Nan took us to an amazing cheese shop. This shop is famous for its selection. I counted a mere 93 different cheeses, but I probably missed a few.
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The shop's logo has a cow, a sheep, and a goat dancing together, the sources of all the raw materials.
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If every you are in Bordeaux, go to Jean d'Alos and try five or ten of their goodies.
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The only thing better than cheese, was chocolate. This chocolatier had some extremely creative designs.
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Near the Opera was this bronze model of the major buildings in the neighborhood.
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The Opera had a large display of costumes and props from their many productions. Here, a cornucopia of scripts.
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Another artsy display, a pile of letters.
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As one looks up, it appears that a workman has fallen through the floor above.
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The entrance to the exhibit, "Through the Looking Glass," is through the White Rabbit's hole, naturally.
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The upstairs hallway is unbelievably ornate. Gold everything.
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Versailles is just like this, only bigger.
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The middle of the floor is this mirrored sculpture that reflects all the gold above.
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Above all the windows and doors are portraits of the many composers of operas performed here.
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Oh, there's the other half of that workman who fell through the floor.
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The exhibits contained dozens of costumes for various roles.
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This was the coat for one of the Red Queen's courtiers, the three of hearts.
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The seating of the Opera has an orchestra and three levels of balconies and boxes.
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The stage itself was rather small. I don't think you can do grand opera on that stage.
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Then we went over to the Bar a Vin wine bar to taste some of the local delicacies.
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This is a lovely bar, and the wine is extremely reasonably priced. It is subsidized by the Bordeaux wine industry as good public relations. Look at all those glasses waiting to be filled with yummy wine.
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This is really a beautiful little bar, on Saturday afternoon, it was quiet and serene, but Nan says it gets boisterous at Happy Hour.
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There were three walls like this, room dividers filled with bottles. I assume that this was not just for show.
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A map of the vineyards of the area.
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And then we got on the TGV to Paris. Three and a half hours, much of it at high speed.
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We stayed at this very nice little hotel right on the Place de la Madeleine.
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The hotel was recently remodeled but still had some old touches like these exposed beams.
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The view out our window. This is the back end of the Madeleine church. The Place de la Concorde is three or four blocks away. Nice neighborhood.
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Our room had a cute little balcony with a table and two chairs. Really small, though.
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Bev is having her morning coffee on the balcony. Actually, she is in the room. Only the cup of coffee will fit on the little balcony.
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Walking around near the Musee d'Orsay, we saw tepees on the quay by the Seine. No clue why.
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Thomas Jefferson is revered in France almost as much as in the U.S. There are statues and other memorials all over the place.
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One of the many Seine bridges that has become a victim of tourists.
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This bridge is one of several in Paris on which people have begun to attach locks. The locks started as symbols of strength against terrorism, then morphed into symbols of love.
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Problem: the weight of the thousands of locks has caused structural problems on some of the bridges. On at least one, the locks are cut off and removed every night.
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This is the Musee d'Orsay, formerly a railway station, now one of the finest museums of modern art.
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The facade of the museum-nee-station is fabulously ornate. Among the carvings are the names of dozens of cities that the rails connected.