On one of our last days in Paris, we boarded one of the Seine cruise boats -- Bateaux Mouches -- at the Pont de l'Alma. It seems rather the touristy thing to do, but we highly recommend it. Skip the meal, take the regular cruise. We really enjoyed it. Watch the slide show. You can click on the photos to make them larger.

Los Gatos is an active Town all year long, but during the Holiday Season things kick up a notch. 2nd Saturdays 2nd Saturday events continue right through December. Upcoming dates are: October 10th, November 14th and December 12th. Check out all the details , including special offers and entertainment. Come on downtown and have some fun! Society Dog Howling Halloween! Join dog lovers from all over the valley for Society Dog's Howling Halloween 2009, a Trick-or-Treat Extravaganza for Your Dog! Downtown Los Gatos, Saturday, October 24, 5:00 - 6:30 p.m. Ribbon Awards for the Dogs dressed in the Best Costumes! Limited to one well-behaved dog per person! A Ghoulish Gala This sponsored event will be donating a portion of its proceeds to the Silicon Valley Humane Society. Festivities start at 7pm on Friday, October 30th, at the Los Gatos Opera House. Dancing, "freaky food" along with Costume and Spooky Display Contests. Fantasy of Lights Come celebrate the 10th Anniversar...

How could we travel to Paris and not investigate the world of French ribbon? Well we couldn't. We visited, browsed, and purchased our way through a number of Paris ribbon shops in several different districts. Just as we found that Paris paper shops sold a lot of Italian paper, so too do the Paris ribbon shops sell ribbon from around the world. The word to look for is mercerie (a dealer in textiles and fabrics, especially velvet, silks and other fine fabrics). Our favorite was a shop whose roots go back to the mid-1800s. Ultramod (3 et 4, rue de Choiseul, 2e, Metro: Quatre September or Opera) is actually two storefronts on the rue de Choiseul just beyond the Passage Choiseul. The Mercerie is just loaded with new and vintage ribbon and trim. The shelves are stacked to the ceiling and there's more in the back! Everything is displayed on old shelves, in vintage boxes and inside antique display cases. You can feel the history in this shop. It's easy to imagine what i...

The Musee des Arts et Metiers (60, rue Reaumur, 3e, Metro: Arts-et-Metiers) is a lesser known museum in the heart of le Marais that was created in 1794 by Father Gregoire as "a warehouse for new and useful inventions." The museum's brochure welcomes the visitor with this clever entreaty to walk "in the footsteps of inventors and adventurers of progress, in search of unique scientific and technical heritage..." The museum is home to every type of scientific and engineering marvel from the 16th century to the present. On display are actual instruments, models and recreations from Arsenius' 1567 astrolabe to a 1996 high tech fireman's helmet. While much of the museum is "just so much technology", I was grabbed by the beautiful designs of the ancient instruments, the simplicity of old engineering models and the workmanship of the scale models and reproductions. And there is a whole room dedicated to automatons -- those glorious clockwork mecha...

Just beyond le Marais is the Bastille district and further out the Oberkampf district. These areas continue the energy and interest of the Marais, but are a bit more shabby. We stumbled (almost literally) across this little village of brocantes on rue du Marche Popincourt and rue Ternaux, side streets off rue Oberkampf and rue de Nemours, in the 11th district (Metro: Oberkampf/Parmentier). There are 8 or 10 little shops in this "village". We gathered in a number of nice finds at Belle Laurette, La Garconniere and Alasinglinglin. The other shops have pretty interesting stuff as well, so it's definitely worth checking out this area. Here's a blog that has more information on this little area. Further out we walked up to Entre Temps (12, Place du Guignier, 20e) which is a delightful little shop run by Manon Godfrin and Dominique Vervaet. They have quite a selection of paper products, sewing collectibles and various objects of art, all in a tiny shop. They told ...

We discovered this museum years ago when it had a spectacular Lalique jewelry exhibit, and just had to come back. We were not disappointed. The Musee des Arts Decoratifs is actually three museums under one roof located in one of the wings of the Louvre (107, rue de Rivoli, 1e). It covers decorative arts from the Middle Ages to the present day and its tag line is very appropriate -- the beautiful in the useful! On this visit we checked out two of the three museums: Musee de la Mode (Fashion and Textiles) and Musee des Arts Decoratifs (general decorative arts). We did not make it up to the Musee de la Publicite (advertising and posters), partially because the main exhibit was posters by Toulouse-Lautrec, whom we love, but had just seen a large, expansive collection of his work in the states. In the Musee de la Mode there was a fantastic exhibit of the dresses and accessories of Madeleine Vionnet. The exhibit featured gowns and coats from the 20s and 30s. Vionnet started her il...

We put on our hiking shoes (figuratively) and headed out for the highest part of Paris - Montmartre. Now, this neighborhood atop a 130m hill in the 18th district, is always bustling and crowded (even more so on weekends). Oui , it is touristy. Oui , it is crowded. Oui , it is a feast for the eyes and imagination. Here you will find Lapin Agile (22, Rue des Saules, 18e), a Montmartre cabaret made famous by its raucous past and by Pablo Picasso's 1905 oil painting At the Lapin Agile. Across the street is the only vineyard inside the city of Paris. Not far away is the Cabaret Moulin Rouge (82, Boulevard de Clichy, 18e), famous for the can-can and subject of so many posters by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Up the hill a bit more is the extremley busy Place du Tertre. This is Paris tourist heaven! Artists on the square, restaurants for people watching and souvenir stores all selling the same things! Have some fun. Grab a street-side table, have lunch and take in the sites and a...