Krik's Picks

There are many reasons why my wife and I keep coming back to Paris. One of them is the immense variety of things to see and do there. Every time we return, we have a list of favorite places to see and things to do. But we also have a companion list of new things to visit and do. Ossip Zadkine, a sculptor's self-portrait.  The itinerary for our October trip included a pair of small museums that we'd read about -  Musee Zadkine  and the  Musee d'Art et d'Historie du Judaisme . (Both, by the way, are recommended by a French blogger who I follow. Her name is Clotilde   Dusoulier. She calls her blog Chocolate & Zucchini .) Our plan was to go to Zadkine first. It's located close to the Luxembourg Gardens and only a few blocks from the hotel where we stayed. This fit our plan of old and new nicely, since the Gardens are on our must-visit list. So on a bright Monday morning, after getting checked into  our hotel, we strolled across the Gardens to find t...

We all make compromises with loved ones, right? I don't know if visiting a cemetery would have been high on my list of things to do in Paris. But my wife really wanted to. So on an overcast and blustery day in mid-October, we trekked across town to the gates of the Pere Lachaise Cemetery.   My first suggestion - learn from our mistake. Don't walk. Take a taxi or public transportation. It was a long walk, 2.5 miles, from our hotel near the Pantheon . It wasn't a bad walk, but the neighborhoods were not particularly scenic. It was nice to see some of the neighborhoods outside of the tourist center of Paris. And, for that matter, it didn't take too much longer than public transportation. It took us around 45 minutes to walk it. The shortest public transit route took 31 minutes (according to Google Maps) and required a transfer. But if you do decide to walk, remember - when you get there, all you're going to be doing is walking around some more.  My wife had a list of g...