We were up rather early this day as we were doing a tour at 10am. I ended up finally getting a crepe on that morning from a tiny food stand and it was incredible! Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish it all (about 3/4) because bees were literally attacking the crepe so I had to chuck it. I'm not lying when I say I've thought about this crepe many times after our trip, haha.
One of our most favorite things we did while in Paris was the Black walking tour through Le Paris Noir. It was recommended to me by a reader and I’m so glad she did! The tour is led by Kevi Donat and he is extremely knowledgeable. There are three tours to choose from and we chose the tour of The Right Bank. Our tour began in front of the Moulin Rouge and ended in Little Africa. Little Africa you might ask. I know, I didn't even know a Little Africa existed in Paris until we did the tour.
From Kevi's words, "Pigalle and “Little Africa” takes place in three iconic working-class neighbourhoods, showing much about the evolution of immigration in the city. If Pigalle and Montmartre are now internationally known for their nightlife, La Goutte d’Or with its African community is a fascinating example of contemporary diversity in Paris. Between gentrification and immigration it could be a case study of the emergence of an Afropean culture in France".
The only shots I took during our tour below:
When we were in Little Africa I was so tempted to take pictures as it reminded me so much of parts in Ghana but Kevi advised that the people who live there do not like pictures being taken there as many of them are worried about immigration, etc. Due to this, I do not have any pictures to share of Little Africa. However, if you do happen to be in Paris I highly recommend that you do this tour. It was fascinating to find out how jazz was introduced to Paris by Black Americans. We gained new knowledge about how Black Americans were recruited or maybe better word is accepted by France to fight in WWI and WWII. The reasoning being that America did not want blacks fighting Germans because they were whites and blacks could not kill whites even if they were the enemy. The Germans were still far superior even if they were the enemy. France basically said, you want to kill our enemy, you can join our war. We learned about the Harlem Fighters and I need to get a little more information about them in my spare time as it was such awesome information to receive.
There is so much more information that I could share but I just wanted to share some tidbits because we both enjoyed the tour!
After the tour we went to the Louvre but little did we know that it is closed on Tuesdays! No Mona Lisa for us, boo hoo! Another excuse to return to Paris. We did have some fun taking pictures in front of the Louvre which was almost as good. Almost.
Pit stops throughout the day (this one at Rouge Bis) and when I tell you that this is the most refreshing drink.
I can't even tell you how many of these I had while in Paris. So yum!
After that we went to Musée Rodin and that was a wonderful experience.
This was another museum that was not crazy busy so we were able to enjoy all the art at our own leisure.
Sean will forever crack me up ♥
The garden
After that we walked around a bit and then headed back to our hotel to get ready for dinner.
We had dinner at Le Récamier per the recommendation of another awesome reader and I enjoyed an amazing souflee.
Can you guess what Sean had? If you said crème brulee you would be right!
After dinner, we went bar hopping again, like the night before. It was our favorite thing to do in the evenings when we were in Paris. We had drinks at several places but I can’t recall them all right now.
We did return to Au Père Louis to end our night and when our eyes could remain open no longer we called it a night.
Off to bed we went, happy about another incredible day in Paris.
I sound like a broken record but these pictures are beautiful. Is that red top from target www?
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, your broken record sounds good, haha. No, I actually got that top last year from Free People. I went to see if they are still selling it and no luck. But if Target has a similar one, def. get it! I think it's such a flattering top.
DeleteI'm not a big crepe fan ... I've tried them a few times and they are just NOT my jam, but I'm sure in Paris they're delicious.
ReplyDeleteI knew there was a lot of Africans or those of African descent living in Pairs, I adore that there is a little Africa there. I need to look up the WWII history too.
Off-Topic of Paris- I recently found out that black American soldiers fathered thousands of children with German mothers (as well as English and Italian), but that the German government forced a lot of the German mothers to give up their biracial children and stuffed them in orphanages where they were abused, some of the soldiers wanted to marry the mothers of these children, but of course the US Army wouldn't allow it. A lot of the children were adopted about black military families in the US. It's all very sad- you'll have too look up "Brown Babies WW2" - well only if you want to be angry and sad, lol. I was HEART broken. It's amazing how much history is swept under the rug. All we learned about in school was "Yay Hitler is dead and we helped saved the Jews" nevermind what they did to innocent children, women, and not to mention what we did to people of Asian descent. ....... I got way off topic.
Anyway, beautiful pictures as always- I love your recaps of Paris.
Believe me when I say that you have not had a crepe. I thought I had then I had one in France ... seriously incredible!
DeleteI knew that as well but had no idea about Little Africa. All the Paris guides I've read and none ever mentioned it. It's not as glamorous as all the other parts so maybe that's why.
OMG, that makes me so sick. But I'm not surprised one bit. Those poor babies. Breaks my heart the trauma that so many people have suffered due to pure hate. It's an important topic so I'm glad you went off of it.
Thank you! It has been fun to recap!