Napoleon, food, REST, ideas in the shower and love! A collection of ideas on ideas!

Do you truly rest on Sundays?

I do give it a go. I cook. I sit and stare into space, usually on my patio when the sun is shining. But often, I get my best rest in the shower!

My life is driven by research and writing with deadlines ever present in my thinking. So my shower is an intriguing break from it all.

But my characters follow me in there.

You see, I have my next novel to plan so love is on my mind.

Who are these people? What is the heroine's challenge? His? How do they intersect to become a functioning unit for ever and ever? (And there they are—in my shower! I am naked. They are not yet fully formed so it is rather okay.)

My current series, SCARLETT AFFAIRS, addresses the conflict between France from the peace of Amiens in 1802 when Napoleon was one of three Consuls to the Second Restoration in 1816, after he had lost, gone to St. Helena, and the Allies occupied France.

I do take one issue, one tidbit of history and build around it the attempts of France to rule the world—and British and Allied attempts to defeat that.

But ideas come slowly...and when light bulbs go off, the result is a Happy Camper. Me!

Rest ensures I come up with good stuff. But REST is tough to find when you are driven to have that plot right now, please!

REST is a wonderful book which has been my friend for years after hubbie gave it to me for Christmas. Full of stories of writers, inventors and government officials and more who took time to allow their brains to think of nothing. And yet, what they discovered were the answers to their challenges!

Oh, to be Mrs. Astor or Mrs. Vanderbilt...and barter away your daughter!

 

The Gilded Age on HBO has charmed us with its vibrancy, color, fashions and trauma!

Worth of Paris did create the gowns for these mighty matrons and debutantes. These heiresses took Europe by storm with their ambition and their daddy's wealth. Not all were happy with their lots. Nor were  all fathers pleased with their sons-in-law nor with their business success.

To celebrate the richness of the era and the stories we authors love to tell, I have each of my novels in THOSE NOTORIOUS AMERICANS selling for 99 cents this month.

We will meet dukes and princess. Dine with the newly rich in Europe. Meet artists. Dance at the top of the Butte in raucous Montmartre at the Moulin de la Galette. Fall in love and fight to keep the one person worth it all.

Find them all here for sale and on Kindle Unlimited: 

https://amzn.to/3yOzLll

 

A nibble of new newest cherry, LORD ASHLEY'S BEAUTIFUL ALBI!

Excerpt, Lord Ashley’s Beautiful Alibi, All rights reserved, Cerise Deland. Copyright 2024.

“We must stop,” Augustine murmured, though like a besotted girl, she arched her neck to give him greater access. She could not wish him gone—and oh, how she wanted him to stay and give her more of his lips and his arms and the stories of his childhood. Through those brief tales, he had become a boy, a solemn and vital person whom she could trust for the moment, for the task, for her needs. But no more. Not a bit more….

He lingered, his lips on her throat and her shoulder as he seemed to inhale every essence of her. With a small blessing of his open mouth to the hollow of her throat, he drew back.

He took his time, his enchanting ice grey eyes examining her. With deft moves, he fluffed the ruffle at her bodice and pulled down her skirts over her knees.

“Thank you,” she said with a true smile, though she breathed rapidly, in no way recovered from his thrall. “We have done a good job of displaying our interest in each other.”

“Have we?” Ashley’s bass voice was gruff, the question in his voice asking a thousand more things than the obvious. 

She nodded, hiding her gulp. “Yes, just now, two have come to the doors and left.”

“Polite of them,” he said and cupped her cheek. “We cannot go in yet to the salon.”

“No?” Her mind was too full of him, her question too whimsical.

“You are flushed. And I am not fit to face anyone.” His brows rose by little degrees to reach the black shock of hair that had fallen—with her help she was sure,—over his broad brow.

She giggled.

He rolled his eyes and hands on his hips, considered the stars.

“How long do you need?” Lured, she glanced down. My, my. She flashed him a wicked pout.

“Hours, if you keep that up! You may not have had lovers, darling, but you’ve learned how to entice a man!”

BUY LINK:  https://www.amazon.com/Ashleys-Beautiful-Alibi-Scarlett-Affairs-ebook/dp/B0CSTSTYNQ

Want to visit Malmaison? Paris? Josephine's court?

In my new series, SCARLETT AFFAIRS, I give you the excitement of falling in love during the tumultuous time when Europe was awash in revolutions and the rise of one unknown man to power shook the Continent and the foundations of every other country.

Sweeping you from London to Paris, I am tickled to take you to Malmaison and the problems of navigating Josephine and Bonaparte’s court. The intrigues of spies, ambassadors, merchants, military men and the women who loved and aided them create a canvas of actual events that shaped the fate of millions. 

Over the years of Bonaparte’s rise and reign, espionage agents of all nationalities tried to stop him. Many failed. Like the attempt in LORD ASHLEY’S BEAUTIFUL ABLIBI to abduct Bonaparte in June 1800. A few succeeded easily, like the attempt of the British government to plant agents throughout the Continent during the peace of the Treaty of Amiens. 

Some of these events were documented, like the abduction of the duc d’Engien. Others still remain mysteries, such as the identity of the mysterious English woman who for decades sent thousands of coded secrets home to London. And the lady who stole documents from Talleyrand in Vienna during the Congress of 1814.

In SCARLETT AFFAIRS, I take you to those cities and towns that live in our history books—and palaces and streets I have walked. They are places that exude their own charm—and hold for the people of that time secrets and challenges for agents of all countries. 

You will go to the tunnels beneath Compiègne and to the palace where Napoleon met his second wife and within minutes escorted her to their bedroom. You will go to Reims, where kings were crowned, and enter the caverns of St. Denis in Paris where they were buried. You will go to the church in Varennes where gendarmes captured Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and sent to Paris to die. You will go to Baden where a greedy German margrave sold out his subjects to Bonaparte for land and money. You will track Bonaparte and his aide Caulaincourt as they race away from Moscow and are tracked by agents all the way to Paris.

 

I will also take you to other seemingly insignificant places that really existed. A public bath house, the smelly abattoir of Montmartre, then south to the huge fortress of Amboise and the vineyards of the Loire. To Verdun where the citadel becomes the prison for hundreds of British trapped inside France by the wily new emperor.

A panoply of stories, the series will be a rich discovery of the challenges of fighting an enemy while falllng in love with one irresistible person. I hope you enjoy them all, from this first search for a missing friend, to the action-adventure of saving an entire family from death, to the rewards of stealing Bonaparte’s gold and more. Through each story, one man and woman will try to save the world from a despot—and save each other and the love they treasure above all else.

Today's Bon bon: What's the fun of research? Finding what's real NOW from then!

Today I bring you two pictures of two things that make me smile.

Both come from a combo of my research and my travel.

Ready?

Here is a picture of a street in London and a series of shops. I took this picture on a lark in 2017. This picture is of Berry Brothers and Rudd, Wine Merchants. This is on the same street as a hatter, or milliner, Lock and Company, which I wanted to know more about. Why? Because Lock has made hats for men and women for hundreds of years and I just wanted to see the store for myself. On a whim, I took a pix of Berry Brothers.

Then, in 2023, I wanted to create a merchant company headed by a woman and I wanted 'the feel' of a real merchant. Lo and behold, as I searched my photos one day, I spied this one—and took them as my feeling for a merchant family.

Caulaincourt's wife, Adrienne, who was also a friend of Josephine.

Then for many years, my husband and I have vacationed in Paris. Renting the same apartment every year in Montmartre, we reside on Rue Caulaincourt.

One day it occurred to me that the name was so very familiar. Did I know someone named Caulaincourt? Where was it I had heard the name? Or read it?

On the way from the apartment to the Metro one day, I happened to look up at the street sign. "General and Diplomat" said the sign.

And I knew! 

This was General Caulaincourt who was Napoleon Bonaparte's aide de camp, and friend. This was the man whom Bonaparte sent to Karlsruhe in Baden, a German duchy, to secretly take into France the Duc d'Enghien. Ever after, Caulaincourt hated that Napoleon had tricked him into thinking he would do naught to the heir to the Bourbon throne.

But in fact, Napoleon had the young duc hurried to the fortress of Vincennes where he was quickly shot one bright morning in a trench. Caulaincourt never forgot nor forgave his master the terrible blight this was upon his conscience. 

Napoleon also sent Caulaincourt to Moscow to negotiate treaties. This was the man who warned Bonaparte not to invade Russia. This was the man who accompanied Napoleon alone on the emperor's flight from Moscow to Paris in his desperate attempt to get back to Paris before the news of the devastating defeat of the French army in that cold land.

Tombe Caulaincourt, Pere-Lachaise

Here is that noble fellow, Armand Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt. A noble aide who was very badly treated by Napoleon and who died a few years after his emperor, in 1827. He is buried in Pere-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Shopping in Napoleon's Empire meant you were treated to shop signs of great beauty!

Napoleonic era shop signs were not only colorful but told stories of their offerings for the illiterate. 

Here at top: THE GREAT VICTOR’S TOBACCONIST shop was posted outside a shop selling, of course, tobacco. Taking notice of Napoleon's recent victories in Italian city-states, the owner added reference to him. We wonder how well his sales did!

Here below: The shop called THE EVE OF AUSTERLITZ tries a different tactic in that it is a a wine shop in celebration of Napoleon’s victory. 

This sign is for a food merchant whose customer is clearly enjoying his meal. This shop was for the shop CORCELLET, located in 104 Palais-Royal!

Today's bon bon: Emily in Paris and Those Notorious Americans, now and then!

Buy Link to series: https://amzn.to/3yOzLll

Emily in Paris is my newest rage on Netflix! And she is SUPERB! I adore the scenery, most of it in Paris. (You learn French by watching!) The views of Montmartre are yummy!

In every book in my family saga, THOSE NOTORIOUS AMERICANS, we see Paris as it was in the age of Monet and Renoir, the dancers of the cancan, and the glorious fashions.

In RAVISHING CAMILLE, we go to a joint exhibition of Duc de Remy, my Rodin-like sculptor hero, and Claude Monet. Rodin and Monet did really have a joint exhibit in 1889! In RAVISHING CAMILLE, I changed it to be a few months earlier!

https://books2read.com/u/bMRvzG

NEW VIDEO! Like vids to learn about new books, new authors? Try this one for my series THOSE NOTORIOUS AMERICANS!

   THIS MARVELOUS VIDEO has been in the works for a long time! Promoting all the novels in my family saga of the Gilded Age, this video is a wonderful composition of concept, covers, stills and video clips.
   Where did they come from?

• I wrote the script.
• I purchased the video clips from wonderful PERIOD IMAGES!
• I bought the stills from a stock art company.
• And sent them all to my producer!

   I hope you will now want to read all the books in this series! Available on Amazon, KOBO, NOOK and iTunes, this series begins with the first generation of robber baron Killian Hanniford's family.
   Each story is different, each incorporates historical detail pertinent to the romances. The theme—money can buy anything—works in all the plots but in different ways.
   WILD LILY stars Killian's oldest daughter who sails to Europe with him for the fun of it, definitely not for a husband.
   DARING WIDOW features Killian's niece. A widow who wishes never to tie herself to any man, Marianne is a talented artist. When she meets a famous sculptor (think Rodin!), she is tempted to love him and leave him. But can she?
   SWEET SIREN features Killian himself. Older than your average romance hero, he is nonetheless a charming character. Too bad he cannot seem to charm one woman who enchants him anyway!
   SCANDALOUS HEIRESS stars Killian's youngest daughter. Ada finds herself in love with a widower who needs no wife and no complications in his life. When he falls in love with her anyway, he must choose to save her...or himself. Can he find happiness? And can she love a man whom she ruins?
   RAVISHING CAMILLE, to come out this winter, is the last of the first generation to find happiness. She's a wild child, forever in love with one man who tells himself he needs no entanglements to any woman, least of all to the one who has enchanted him for years.

What to eat? How? When in Rome, Paris or London, partaking of dinner parties was a ritual fit to burst your buttons! European dining rooms that inspire!

Formal Dining Room at Malmaison where Josephine entertained
before and after Napoleon divorced her.

 If you were invited to a dinner party in the nineteenth century, you would have to be on your manners and either starving or terribly polite!

Why?

The meal was hours-long. The service slow and measured. The servants ready to deliver your every need. And the portions to the numerous courses were hearty.

Here are a few of my pictures of houses and dining rooms I adore. In them, kings and queens, emperors and generals ate, laughed and decided the fate of millions of others.
Shall we talk about an average evening and the menu?

Oh, let's!

First, do let out your corset an inch. You're going to need the room to breathe.
Second, roll back your long gloves, darling. No getting those dirty. Just put them in your lap after you've been assisted in your chair by a footman.
Third, remember to sit ramrod straight as your third governess taught you and please do not crush your bustle!
Fourth, you should know which fork or spoon to begin with. Your fourth governess taught you that, remember? Yes, that's right, the soup spoon is the big bowled one.
Remember your nanny's instructions about soup? "Like a ship upon the sea, I scoop my soup away from me!" Good.
That other one above your serving plate? It's for the cream, or shall we say, the ice, later. Hmm. Right.
Fish fork? Tiny, ugly thing. Unmistakeable.
Dinner fork, you'll know right off. Knife too.
Butter knife, ditto.

Now as we begin remember we speak only to the one gentleman on our right. He gets to chat you up for half the meal. If he has not cultivated the art of conversation at teatime with his granny, you must pick up his slack. He needs his bit of talk and you are his to enchant or vice versa, if he is lacking. This means you may well need to be well versed in botany, architecture or archeology, bugs, worms or coal mining. While it is best not to display an understanding of stocks and bonds, it is useful (in your future life as a duchess, etc etc.) to understand farming, goats and sheep, sale thereof, grassland availability on your property, weather patterns. All of this helps immensely when in need of sound dinner conversation.

On to the menu.
First Service:
   Potages (Soup) 
      For example: Consomme or  Puree
   Poisson (Fish)
      Any type: roasted, grilled, sauteed, fried or souped
   Entrees:
      Chicken, Beef or Lamb in any cut or form
   Larger Service:
       Venison
        Beef roast, etc
Second Service:
     Roti:
         Vegetable with meat, fish, protein
     Entremets:
          Salad
           Fruit
           Gateau of fruit (baked, custard, etc with fruit)
      Cheese      
Now you can see that you have eaten your way through your corset and volunteer to walk home! The meal was truly heavy. Furthermore, we have now learned that many of the well-to-do in this era suffered from obesity, too few vegetables in their diet and too much protein. The added sugar in desserts did not help make them any healthier. To be so, one had to be selective in portions and in the types of foods consumed.
       As for me, I am happy to have access to fresh fruits and vegetables, fresher meals and fish, all of which is deemed safe before it is stocked in our groceries!

(And yes, all of these photographs are mine!)

Napoleon and Josephine's gold plate, minted for him at Sevres China Factory and given to Josephine's son,
Eugene after her death. Thereafter it was owned by a family in Russia until recently when the French Government
bought it back to display here.

Dining room in Palais Imperial at Compiegne, France set for Emperor Napoleon III and his wife.

A bit different, oui? The servants' dining hall in Vaux le Vicomte south of Paris!

Vive la difference! This is the owners' dining room (set with only half a table) in Vaux le Vicomte!

The Pump Room in Bath, England!
Do go for a full cream tea, music, atmosphere and warm mineral water from the spring!

Cerise went to #Paris! It's #research #champagne #chocolate #France #romance and my Pictures!

Yes, dahlinks, I went off to Paris!

USA's 100th Anniversary of WWI
http://www.worldwar1centennial.org

Drop me a comment here about what you'd bring back!
Champagne?
Chocolate?
A French comte or marquis?
All of the above???
Sigh.
Me, too.
Here are a few of my pictures from trips past!
And here's a hint: Sign up for my newsletter for more info here:  http://eepurl.com/bZ6xkj

Mr. DeLand and I at a chateau along the River Marne
when we spent two and a half weeks trailing the American Expeditionary Forces battle lines of 1917-1918.
Did you realize that the 100th anniversary of American involvement in WWI occurs now?

Center Hall in Opera Garnier, Paris!

Josephine's Malmaison in Parisian countryside, her dining room!

This charming church is in Varennes, France (near Verdun) where the French king, Louis XVI and his wife
Marie Antoinette and their two children took refuge in 1791. Sadly, they were caught by the villagers
and returned to Paris where they died at the guillotine.

Once the House of Worth stood in this #7 Rue de la Paix near the Opera Garner in Paris!

Cathedral of St. Peter on fashionable Rue di Rivoli in Paris

A night at the opera/ A chance for seduction! #Paris

Grand Hall, Opera Garnier, Paris

I went to Paris for research and had to take in the Opera Garnier!
I start a new series, THOSE NOTORIOUS AMERICANS, October 17 with a novel starring a family of brash, bold American beauties and eligible robber barons.
Every American heiress had to have a wardrobe fit for a princess or duchess or whatever ancient title she could grab. So she went to Paris. Her papa spent tens of thousands on a complete wardrobe for her from lingerie to tea gowns to evening gowns and many many chapeaus! He also hired French or English ladies, impoverished as they were, to educate their young misses in everything from how to curtsy to how to use a fish fork.
These impressionable young ladies went to cafes, the races and soirees galore.

Detail, Grand Hall, Opera Garnier, Paris

While there, they also had their nights at the opera. The Opera Garnier, to be precise. In my first novel in the series, WILD LILY, our heroine and her entire family go to an evening at this ornate example of Belle Epoch architecture. They sit in a box. (I did.) They sip champagne in the refreshment room. (I went but did not sip.) They escaped to the balcony for an assignation or more. (I went with Mr. DeLand out onto the balcony but we were quite modest at 3 in the afternoon!)

There were explicit rules about how to arrive, when and why and what a lady might and might not do at the opera. I've incorporated all my research for you...and added a bit of risqué elements to entertain you!

Draperies at entrance to Grand Hall,
Opera Garnier

And not only in the first book do we go to the opera. But in the second book in the series as well. There I treat you to a Frenchman you won't be able to resist. Neither can my American widow who wanted only one night of pleasure...and gets much more than she bargained for!
This second in the series is not yet titled, but you can look for it early in January!

Enjoy the rest of my pictures! I adored this lavish theatre and I hope you will too!

Interior of the theatre.

Grand Circle, entrance to private boxes,
Opera Garnier, Paris

Grand staircase, Opera Garnier, Paris

Detail, Grand Staircase, Opera Garnier,
Paris

Red velvet chair, private box, Opera Garnier 

3 Sites to see in #Paris if you love #Georgian and #Regency #romance!

We authors of historical romances love to do our research in those locations that bring the period and the people to life. Most often for Regency or Georgian Romance authors and readers, we travel around England, Scotland or Ireland.

But Paris has much to offer too for someone who wants to soak up the atmosphere of the period when Prince of Wales was Regent and Britain was at war with Napoleon. What could those places be?

Entrance to Malmaison

Part of Josephine's toilette.

First, I offer up the delights of Josephine's home south of Paris in the current suburbs. Malmaison (available by the Metro) is a term that really derives from the terms meaning "bad house' from the period when the Vikings raided through here and destroyed all in their path. The house, built a few decades before the Bonapartes purchased it, is a jewel of perfection of this period. Surrounded by

The back of Josephine's salon.

Josephine's rose gardens and the rest of her beautifully landscaped lawns, the house is lovingingly maintained today by the State. Most of the decor and the furnishings are original to the period if not the house per se and the audio tour (which you must take!) describes the uses Josephine put to the house. The card room, for example, is a small—very small—room, almost a closet. But the empress loved it for its intimacy and warmth. The salon which still holds her harp and her pianoforte contains much of her private art collection as well as furniture. You can almost see the dignitaries conversing, drinking tea or wine, remarking on the politics of the day. Her bedroom where she died is quite stunning in its rich canopy. Most alluring is her toilette, small, the walls swathed in cotton and linens to increase the warmth. Often when she bathed and dressed, Josephine took three hours!

Napoleon's private bedchamber.

A visit to the Cathedral of Saint Denis on the northern tip of Paris (and available by the Metro) is a trip to acquaint you with the horrors of the French Revolution and the Terror, the counter influence on the British mindset during the wars of that period.  Saint Denis is the church in which most of the kings and queens of France and their children are buried.  I say most of them because many are indeed buried elsewhere. However, once you've entered and admired this church, the first gothic cathedral in France and its architecture, and once you've admired the enormous number of sarcophagi of various French monarchs and their families, a visit to the crypt is what you're really after. Here you will find the plaque on the wall which is all that remains of that noted monarch, Louis XIV. It is ironic to find his burial place in such a barren place. But walk further into the center of the crypt and here you see only a huge flat black granite stone covering a very deep pit. This is the marker for the burial plot of those aristocrats of the ancien regime who died by the guillotine during the Revolution and most numerously the Terror. Their bones were collected from various churchyards and from the Conciergerie (on the Isle de France) where they were interred after execution. This tragedy of their deaths by violent means is the very horror that outraged the British, many of whom were their relatives. This slaughter of the nobility is what the British sought to avoid for themselves. While they spent significant national treasure attempting to defeat the various regimes that succeeded the Bourbons, including the emperor Napoleon, they were attempting to ensure not only their own survival, the continuance of their economic system, but also their naval power around the world.

The dining room in Malmaison

Chantilly lies north of Compiegne, and to get here you must buy a train ticket for roughly $11.00 at Gare du Nord to travel beyond the Metro line. But you will adore the easy walk from the train station (1.5 miles) and the ambiance of the forest and the town. The first owners of the chateau were the Montmorency family of soldiers and diplomats. Rising to prominence during the reign of Francis I, Anne du Montmorency ( a man) made his name serving the king. Later, cousins to the Bourbon monarchs, the Princes Conde became owners of the chateau. With landscape designed by the famous gardener Andre Le Notre, the grounds are sumptuous in the Baroque manner. Even the stables are lavish in their appointments. What is notable here are the decor and furnishings much of which dates from the Bourbon Restoration of 1815 when the nephew of the newly restored Louis XVIII and his brother Charles X was granted the property. There his descendants remained until the 1880s when they could not longer pay the taxes and turned the building over to the government.

Louis XIV plaque in crypt of Saint Denis

Life size gisants of praying Louis XVI and his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette in chapel of Saint Denis

Chateau Chantilly: View of the stable block and riding academy.

Walter view of Chantilly

Salon with murals commemorating the Fronde led by the Grand Conde.

A portion of the music room with harp.

+N.B. All the photographs are mine.

Cerise went to #Paris and shares 5 FAB.U.LOUS FREE things to do there!

You know I love to share my travels, especially to Paris and soon (be still my heart) to England and Bath!

But for Paris, ah, ma cherie, I have good news for you!

Aside from spending money, the best thing to do in Paris is spend time!

5. Walk along the Seine
Throw the guidebooks away for a day. Especially if that day is sunny. Take the Metro. Walk.
Go to Point Zero, which is a point in front of Notre Dame from which all points in France are measured!

Stroll along the river to admire the vendors with old postcards, prints, paintings, clothing and snacks!
Take pictures and breathe in the Paris air.

Buy an ice, if you must. But inhale the aromas of French roast coffee and baking croissants. Admire the flowers. I've never seen such blooms.

Walk over to the Place des Vosges, ordered built by Henri IV and a favorite place for Parisians today to take a picnic!

Doors at entrance to
Napoleon's Tomb

4. Go to St. Louis's Dome. Walk inside to visit Napoleon Bonaparte's Tomb.

Gives me chills every time I see it.

What a man he must have been.

Be sure to pay homage to General Foch who was the last of four French generals to lead the French military in La Grande Guerre, in the First World War.

Carried by a member of each of the branches of the French military, his coffin denotes the sorrow of the French who suffered enormous the destruction to home and civilians during that first global conflict.

General Foch carried by his French comrades
in Les Invalides

3. Visit the train stations!
I know you think I'm nuts, but really, they are a slice of architectural beauty. My favorite is Gare (pronounced not Gar, as in garage, but Garrrrrrrr) de L'Est. This Station of the East is a beauty opened in 1849 and it retains all the glorious expansive beauty of the Belle Epoch. Look at the fan windows. Admire the wide concourse. Both were innovations in their day.

Now imagine through here traveled millions of French and American soldiers from 1914 to 1919. Why?
The fronts were to the north of Paris for all Entente forces. The American front for the American Expeditionary Forces was to the north and east and the best way to get to them, if not by truck convoy, was by train. Often these train tracks did not couple and forces had to wait for hours for the arrival of another train on an adjoining track. Needless to say, the journey was long and arduous.

The cars, during wartime, were overcrowded, stinky, few seats available, without WCs (bathrooms, to Americans) and without any refreshment or dining cars.

People fled the fighting and the bombs and the invading armies on these trains. Carrying their chickens, their family photo albums, their clothes, millions boarded these trains and fled south. Many never returned. Villages were abandoned to the men fighting with sabers, rifles, flares, chemical gases and cannon.

2.  Take the Metro to Montemarte and walk into the square where you will find dozens of artists selling their wares. 

If walking distances is a challenge, get off the Metro at Lamark and walk up up up the stairs.  Good for the gluts, you see. (Yes, then another set of steps to the square!)

Dart into the many galleries to admire works by contemporary artists.

Walk down the steps toward Rue de Caulingcourt (named after one of Napoleon I's closest friends, ambassador to Russia and famous general). Note The Agile Rabbit on your right where dozens of Impressionist painters and sculptors and writers went nightly to drink and inspire each other!

Stroll along the Rue and walk into a wine shop for your vin. Next door, buy a cheese (dozens to choose from) and a demi baguette. Further along is a fabulous shop whose owner rotisseries chickens and little potatoes in a little roaster right out there on the sidewalk!

Take them all home or to your hotel and feast!

1. Walk along the Champs Elysee and discover Musee D'Orsay, Place de la Concorde and the Tuileries Gardens! 

Pack a lunch to sit in the gardens! Buy a sandwich of brie and ham, a chocolate croissant and coffee and admire what was saved for you by a Nazi general who refused Hitler's order to burn Paris in August 1944. Drop into Laduree and buy scrumptious macaroons.

Sit and imagine you are Marie Antoinette or Josephine or even Napoleon I or his nephew, Napoleon III admiring the view. Yes, on this site there once stood a Tuileries Palace where Marie Antoinette hid from the Revolutionaries and where Josephine bemoaned Napoleon's affairs. Admire what Napoleon saved and improved about Paris which include the bridges that bear his N emblem, river transportation, water availability and many roads into the capital.