Trip to France- Paris, Provence, Cote d'Azure and Corsica. September 1-20,2025 : Part 1

It’s been a while since I put my fingers on the key pad to do a blog post. It seems back and forths between LA and Stamford hardly merit a mention which is what we’ve been doing  lately. But the genesis for this trip actually came from a conversation in Bergen, Norway, in 2024, our last major journey, with Jay & Esta Feinsod, our perennial travel buddies. Our Ponant cruise in the Norwegian fjiords had ended, and of course Ponant was trying to entice us on yet another journey for two couples who aren’t big cruisers. But the Feinsod’s 60th anniversary was coming up in 2025 and the discount would only happen if we committed while still on board, so we settled on a Ponant cruise on a sailing ship along the coast of Corsica. Betsey had always wanted to go to Corsica but not drive on their windy roads. Hence, this cruise was the solution.

Beyond the cruise as the raison d’etre of the trip, we went our separate ways. For the Feinsod’s who had never been to Sicily, that was their option. For the Selkowitz’s it would be Paris, Provence, and Nice where we would rendezvous with the Feinsod’s and board our boat.

Paris

Traffic is the boa constrictor of so many cities. After a smooth flight we creeped for two

hours into Paris during rush hour, past graffiti-scarred noise-barrier walls, to our hotel—Saint Andre des Artes on the left bank.  In our search for the perfect Paris hotel we have rarely if ever stayed in the same hotel twice. No surprise, our room wasn’t ready at 10:30am so we headed out for a neighborhood walk which took us to the Musee D’Orsay. This is my favorite museum in Paris, a triumph of re-invention. The once-train station was teeming with visitors, making it challenging to appreciate the masterpieces inside. We headed back to our hotel to wait for the room to be ready falling asleep on our feet.

As it turns out this hotel gets good marks (thanks Celestielle). The room is a decent size for Paris, has good lighting and closet/drawer space, and, most important, a very good shower. We had a nap and shower and headed to dinner at La Maison du Jardin. It was delicious and the walk back to the hotel reminded us how beautiful this city is and how full of nightlife activity, at least here on the Left Bank.

Our first full day in Paris was chock full of activity. First, a comment on what seems different since our last visit, a long eight years ago. Paris has become a bicycle city which has both positive and negative implications. I recalled that the Mayor wanted to make Paris a very bicycle-friendly city, and she has. There are bike lanes and tons of bikers. The bad news is the French are crazy bike riders. They race down the streets with abandon, often endangering anyone who happens to be in the way. I think it’s worse than NYC., It’s a shame because it gives bikers and biking a bad name.

But I digress. First order of the day was a tour of Notre Dame. We had pre-ordered a guided tour and were waiting in the plaza in front and started talking to another couple. Turns out they were from Stamford! Dawn and Bob Fogle. We didn’t know them, but they knew of us as she worked at the Stamford JCC, and he golfs with our friend Kerrin Behrend. Such a small world. At any rate Notre Dame is beautiful. So awesome to see it as it was in 1345 when it was originally completed. On the inside it’s stunning with gleaming chandeliers along the nave, the original stain glass windows that survived the fire and have been cleaned, and the wooden pulpit which survived the fire but has burn marks. They are still working on the rear exterior, but what has been done to authentically restore the church is so impressive.

From there we strolled over to the right bank, enjoyed a little patisserie and wandered through the  Samaritaine department store whose interior has been beautifully restored. It was enough to walk the aisles admiring the restoration and avoiding paying thousands of dollars for any of the merchandise. We stopped for lunch at a sidewalk cafe on the way to the Picasso Museum which has also been renovated since our last visit. To be honest, I don’t get Picasso. I can respect his creativity and inventiveness but don’t love most of his works. Having already walked almost four miles thus far today, we taxied back to our hotel for some rest.

Dinner was a real treat. One of the main reasons we wanted to come to Paris was to visit with a former client and friends—Ghislain and Catherine de Vogue. He is of the Moet family and we’ve been long distance friends for more than 25 years. He is 92 and she is 91 and recently recovered from cancer. They are in remarkably good shape and quite sharp. So it was special to see them for dinner and have champagne (of course) in their exquisite apartment on the Seine looking to Notre Dame. We had dinner at Le Bistro de Paris and talked for hours about politics, family, and life. It was a wonderful visit and we felt very lucky to have spent time with them.

Our last day in Paris was half over before it started. Thanks to a little chemistry we both slept until noon—unheard of. We finally bestirred ourselves and walked a block to have omelet

lunches, and then the rain came. Good thing we had our new rain jackets bought on our recent trip to Boulder. They came in handy as we made our way to Fabrice, Betsey’s favorite store in Paris where some new earrings awaited. Because the rain was coming down heavily, we stopped at a Patisserie for my first pan au chocolate of the trip. With the sun out we wandered along left bank streets into the Luxembourg gardens which did not disappoint. Then back to our hotel to deal with some Verizon internet issues which have hopefully been solved.

We headed to the Marais district for dinner with our nephews Sol and David. They are great. They live in Paris and are successful creative directors represented by a production company here in Paris. We hadn’t seen them in quite a while and it was fun to catch up. We dined at Derrière, a very good sort of funky restaurant and talked for hours.

One thing has not changed in Paris. Smoking- except vaping has been added to the mix. A lot of it going on, including on restaurant patios which is annoying to say the least. I don’t get vaping—holding a machine to your lips and letting smoke out like a dragon. Very unbecoming and not sexy like we used to think smoking was. And the tattoos. All over the place and all over the body. I guess that’s something France has in common with the US. Unfortunate. French people are very big on very small dogs. They take them everywhere and adore them. They are on trains, in hotels, restaurants, and all over the streets. Fortunately, they do pick up after their dogs now.