A couple of days ago we re-visited St-Germain and made it a point to spend some time at the Luxembourg Gardens. By far, it was the most beautiful of the large public gardens we have seen in Paris. In the Gardens is a large palatial building that is the home of the French Senate. Originally, it was built in 1611 as a palace for Marie de Medici, the widow of King Henri IV. She asked that it be modeled after Florence's Pitti Palace, and that it have extensive Fl...

Yesterday, we went back to St-Germain to see more of this very beautiful district of Paris. There are famous sidewalk cafes like Les Deux Magots (pictured on this page) and Cafe De Flore (in our photos). Brasserie Lipp is in a prominent position on Blvd. St-Germain and it was frequented by Ernest Hemingway and other authors back in the 1920s. The beautiful St-Germain Des Pres church is visible from all of these cafes and restaurants. A few blocks away, we fou...

The other day, we walked across the Seine to St-Germain (pronounced something like "Sen Jurmen"), in the 6th Arrondissement. It is very quaint, with many narrow cobblestone streets and lots of nice, small shops-- the type you often see in French paintings and posters. It is an expensive area with high prices and very high rents. We had lunch at a sidewalk cafe, bought macarons at a fantastic candy/chocolate shop, Un Dimanche A Paris (which means "Sunday in Paris"...