24 Hours: Paris (Terri and Finn’s European Adventure Day 6)

This was quite a day. It was our first full day in Paris after arriving by train from Valance the previous day (see Day 5)

Finn went climbing at a local climbing gym with their friend Somerset which was a great way to start their day but also meant we got a late start. I caught up on email while Finn was gone, enjoying the lovely terrace.

When we were finally ready to get out and about, we exited the apartment building gates, and mistakenly turned right when we should have gone left. Totally my fault. My sense of direction is pretty lousy which is pretty funny given that I am a helicopter pilot and have to navigate from the sky.

We ended up on the So Ouest area of Paris. The good news was that we’d never been in this area of Paris before.

The bad news was that we couldn’t find a good place to eat lunch. We walked on busy streets and overpasses, struggling to find something familiar or even charming. We were not happy campers. And it was getting hot.

We hadn’t eaten enough breakfast because we hadn’t yet made it to the grocery store. My friend Terry had left some yogurt and we had some cookies we’d purchased somewhere along the way which, along with three espressos made up my breakfast. Finn might have had a yogurt. Or Finn might have gotten a croissant when out climbing.

This was not enough to sustain us as we searched for a restaurant. Eventually we found Monsieur Madame on Avenue des Ternes. It might be a chain but lunch was still really good.

There’s something so satisfying and truly civilized about having lunch with wine while people watching, and ending with an espresso.

We talked to the server, Philippe, in French at first, switching to English after he found out we were from California. For what it’s worth, my French isn’t great but it’s good enough to show that I’m really trying. I think a lot of people in France tolerated the way I butchered their language.

The server (who may also have been the manager) proceeded to tell us how much he likes California (and Las Vegas), went into great detail about his road trips with and without his now 19 year old daughter, and to prove his devotion, rolled up his sleeve and showed us a tattooed outline of California on his left forearm. He also made sure to tell me he was divorced. We were very close in age.

After lunch we crossed the busy Ternes intersection seeking smaller side streets as we made our way to Parc Monceau, our favorite neighborhood park which happens to be in the 8th arr. very near the 17th arr. Our goal was to get to a restaurant near the Republique metro stop on Boulevard -Saint Martin where we were meeting two of my friends, Imene and Lara, for drinks after 4 PM.

Parc Monceau is a beautiful park with lots of trees, crushed stone paths, large green spaces, a carousel, and even a small lake. It’s very family friendly. When we did our home exchange in 2013 in the 17th, we spent a lot of time at this park since it was less than a mile from the apartment.

Finn struggled to remember the park where they spent quite a bit of time hanging out in trees reading books with our other child Adam. Sigh.

We realized that we were running short on time and we were not going to be able to walk to the restaurant so we hopped on the metro arriving at Le Pachyderme (yes, the elephant) for drinks with Imene and Lara.

I met Imene (in blue in the center) in 2018 during my investor visit to Paris (and later Estonia, Nice, and Berlin returning to Paris before heading back to California).

After going to TechStars Paris, the gal I met with suggested I meet Imene and made an intro. We got together for coffee before I left Paris and agreed to meet when I was back in Paris at the end of my trip.

The following September she brought a group of women founders to a conference I was speaking at. While they were in Silicon Valley, I threw a cocktail reception in their honor, at our home, to introduce them to other investors, founders and friends, and we’ve been friends ever since.

I met Lara through Clubhouse, the audio social app that was popular during the pandemic. She and I hosted a virtual co-working room every day for about five months. Imene was a part of it too. Imene would open the room in the morning Paris time. Lara would pick up a few hours later, and I, being on California time, would pick it up a few hours later giving us pretty broad time coverage for so many of us struggling to find motivation to work between August 2020 and January 2021.

Lara was on her way to a wedding in Lebanon and had a few hours during her 2 day layover so we were able to meet in Paris. So fortuitous. I love this story and them.

We got completely lost in the Republique metro station causing us to be a few minutes late. I still can’t believe we couldn’t read the signs properly. It’s a huge, underground metro station.

After a few drinks, Lara left with some friends and Imene lead us to a local, hip spot for a dinner in the Canal Saint-Martin neighborhood which had great energy. After dinner we said goodbye to Imene and made our way, by bus, back to Terry’s apartment.

While Finn is very comfortable taking the bus everywhere, my bus experience has been limited to the big yellow ones that we rode before seatbelts on buses were a thing. Needless to say that on this trip, I grew much more comfortable with this form of public transportation.

The next day we got a late start and headed out to lunch after the same breakfast of champions from the day before (yogurt, cookies, and espresso). It was going to be a hot one so we both carried the fans we’d picked up in L’Isle sur la Sorgue the previous Sunday.

We turned left outside of the apartment gates this time and walked toward the Wagram metro stop. We saw empty tables at Le Bouquet perfectly situated on the corner of a very entertaining intersection.

Lunch and service were so good that we went back a few days later. It had recently changed hands and reopened with a new chef. The food was creative, fresh and well worth every penny.

There was a Monoprix across the street and we both were in desparate need of some of a hair product to manage our curls and some basic groceries so we popped in. Finn quickly got distracted by the the tea selection.

Meanwhile, I was ogling the jam and honey selection.

We looked for mustard since we’d heard about the shortage and expected to see empty shelves but there were plenty of mustard options to choose from.

Imene had told us about the La Grand Mosquee in Paris and given that this day was supposed to be really hot, we decided to take refuge in one of France’s largest mosques as neither of us had ever been to one. We really wanted to drink sweet, mint tea in the mosque cafe.

More about that tomorrow in Day 7 of Terri and Finn’s European Adventure.

Terri Hanson Mead is the multi-award winning author of Piloting Your Life, Managing Partner of Solutions2Projects, LLC, and an advocate for women through all of her platforms including YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and this blog. Terri is the mother of two college aged kids, is based in Redwood City, CA and in her spare time, loves to travel, cook, play tennis, and fly helicopters around the San Francisco Bay Area, especially under the Golden Gate Bridge.