Maybe a Guinguette Weekend 8-8-15

Our goal for today was to go down to the Marche de Vanves, in the Southwest corner of the city.  It is an every weekend market with pretty much the same vendors every week, but it's fun to see what new things they may have brought to sell.  We haven't been there for several weeks and it was a nice day so we boarded the Metro and Tram to make our way down.  Sometime back I went to an auction and on a whim bought a print.  Cheap, but fun for the focus of a bit of research.  It was printed under the auspices of a man named Cadart in the late 1800's.  Not really exclusive stuff but interesting nonetheless because of his attempts to bring fine art to the masses.  There were at least two vendors specializing in etchings and prints and neither of them have ever heard of Cadart, so it looks like an interesting area to pursue.   If we find more than one print we may try to give a little presentation to our print club when we return, we'll see.   None were to be discovered today.

But after the market we continued on the tram down to the terminus, at the Pont du Garigliano, and over to Guinguette La Javelle for lunch.  We discovered it a few weeks ago as well and since we were in the neighborhood it seemed like a good choice.  You may remember, or not, that it is basically an outdoor space on a quai next to the Seine, filled with tables.   There is an open air bar where one can buy drinks, wine, beer, and sodas, and each day there are two featured food trucks that setup at one end where one can purchase food.  Today was a burger truck and another truck featuring Moroccan fare.  

Since I've not had a burger since we arrived we settled on those, mine was based on a black pepper sauce (au poivre) and Deb's was focused on a spicy mayonnaise sauce.  They had all the trimmings; lettuce, tomato, cheese, grilled onions, etc. and are served with frites.  I got us the medium pichet of red wine and another of water and we sat waterside to have a leisurely lunch.  Deb favors making this a Saturday ritual as long as the weather cooperates.   

After lunch we wandered over to the Parc Andre Citroen, this is the park we were headed for last time when we were waylaid by the guinguette La Javelle.   This park is formerly an industrial site where munitions and then automobiles were manufactured.  After it was abandoned the city developed this park for neighbors in this section of town.  If today was an indicator then this park likely gets quite a lot of usage.  

There are many water features in the park but I think due to the water restrictions in place for the canicule (heat wave) many have been turned off.  Still they have a circulating channel surrounding a large grass field and fountains at one end where children can play in the jets of water, they also have a small cascade at one corner of the park where one can sit between two walls of water falling over textured surfaces.

Tomorrow the plan is to go to another guinguette further out in the countryside, we'll see as rain is forecast and it may be too muddy for the suggested walk.