Beale Street at Night

We return to Beale Street as the sun sets and find that we now need to show identification and pay an entrance fee to get onto the street.  Our IDs are scanned, we pay, and we enter.

Twilight on Beale Street

We stop for an initial drink at the Rum Boogie Cafe while the band is setting up in the venue.

Rum Boogie Cafe

Band setting up

As the sun sets, the crowd grows and the street comes to life.

Street comes to life

We head over to B. B. King's Blues Club and settle in for some great blues (and a drink or two).

B. B. King's Blues Club

Back out on the street, everyhting is lit up as people continue to enter the street and pick a club for their music.

Leaving Beale Street

Art on the Street in Memphis

As we walk around Memphis, we find lots of  fabulous street art on buildings, walls, fences, utility boxes, and tram stations.  Here are a few that we caught on camera.

Memphis art on the street

Arriving in Memphis, Tennessee

We arrive in Memphis and check into our hotel downtown, with a great rooftop view of the Mississippi River.  Memphis is the second largest city in Tennessee and the fifth largest in the Southeastern United States.

The first European explorers came to the Memphis area in 1541 and modern Memphis was established in 1819.  With its location on the Mississippi and the nearby cotton plantations, Memphis quickly grew to be, for a while, the largest city in the South in the mid 1800s.  Entering the 20th century, Memphis became one of the largest world markets for cotton and lumber.

We're here for a weekend and start to explore.

Hotel rooftop

Rooftop views

Leaving the hotel, we wander down Main Street, along the trolley tracks and old, updated buildings.

Main Street

Trolley station

A few blocks down Main Street, we come on Beale Street, 1.8 miles (2.9 km) of blues clubs and restaurants, a major tourist attraction in Memphis.  In the mid-1800s, Beale street housed shops of merchants who traded goods with the ships on the nearby Mississippi River.  Travelling musicians would play on the street and, by the early 1800s, clubs, restaurants, and shops emerged as recreational and cultural centers for the blues musicians.  Beale Street fell on hard times in the mid-1900s, but was redeveloped to preserve its history, cultural, and physical presence.  The result is now a major tourist destination.

Beale Street (quiet during the day)

B. B. King Blues Club

Other Beale Street stops

Leaving Beale Street, to return in the evening, we walk over to the Mississippi River and along the water a bit.

View of the Mississippi

We start to wonder where we'll dine tonight, but we do know that we're coming back to Beale Street to hear some blues!

Dinners in Paris

We can't close the blog on this trip without mentioning dinners in Paris!  But, first, an aperitif on our hotel room balcony.

Aperitif

Our first dinner in Paris at La Mascotte, we start with an eclectic mixture of 6 escargot, foccacia, onion soup (gratinee a l'ognon), and confit de canard.

Dinner

On our return to Paris, we return to La Mascotte, where we have almost the same dinner, starting with the house foie gras, followed by 6 escargots, onion soup, and duck confit.

Accompanying dinner

A full table

Our next dinner is at our favorite duck restaurant in Paris:  Il était une Oie dans le Sud-ouest, where we start with foie gras (mi-cuit), followed by duck salad and margret de canard.

Menu, foie gras

Duck salad

Margret de canard

After dinner, we retire to our room and sit on our balcony observing the city around us.

View from our balcony at night

We never tire of Pairs and will keep on coming back!