We visit an entirely new tower 7-7-15

I've been reading about the 'Tour Jean-sans-Peur' on various sites, it's a 15th century tower that was built by the Duke of Burgundy.  Jean sans Peur was a nickname of the time meaning 'Fearless Jean' however the duke built it as a defensive tower so obviously he feared something.  And he should have since he assassinated his cousin the Duke of Orleans, but then every family has it's ups and downs. Anyway he then ascended to the regency of France, until he in his turn was assassinated by the late Duke of Orleans supporters.   His tower has survived and it's now a national heritage site, and very interesting indeed.  It is not terribly large as the interior rooms are about 12 by 20 feet in area with a circular staircase at one end,  The kitchen is located in the basement and the Duke's chamber is on the top floor just below the attic.

We did learn the derivation of a French word (Copain, a word to denote a neighbor) it came from the medieval practice of baking bread into a two lobe configuration which at a feast would be shared by two people sitting next to one another.




What was most interesting to both Deb and I were the mason's marks in the various stone blocks.  In medieval times most of the stonemasons worked on a piece-rate basis and got paid by the number of stone blocks they supplied to the building.  So in order to be sure of being paid properly for their work they marked each stone with their unique mark (of course nobody ever thought of rustling stones I'm sure) but at the end of the day the project supervisor would go through and count the number of blocks supplied by each worker and that would be tallied to their credit.  I don't know whether they were paid daily or not.  Anyway one of the ways that they know that the tower is original is the mason's marks that are very low down in the first courses and also appear in the courses at the top of the building.  It became a treasure hunt to find marks throughout the building.


We then had lunch nearby and then headed back to the apartment to watch the unfolding of the Tour de France.
I'm rooting for T J Van Garderen but frankly I'm not sure he he'll be able to match the attacks of the anointed few, Froome, Contador, Nibali, and Quintana.  Time will tell.

We continue our Louvre adventure 7-6-15

Today it looked like it would be hot again so we started early and headed for the Louvre. Our goal much like our visits to the Prado 2 years ago was to see a couple rooms before it became really crowded and hot and then head back to the apartment.
We entered through the Lion Doors at the west end of the Louvre where there are almost never any lines, and today was no different.   Our goal today was to see the Spanish paintings in the gallery which we've passed through several times without the chance to really look at the paintings. In all it was the visit of about 2 hours in which we looked at Spanish and Italian paintings and very enjoyable.
We took the Metro back to the apartment since our bus was not due for almost half an hour and by then we could almost be home.  We spent the afternoon watching the tour and enjoying a bit of cool in the apartment.
Tomorrow we see a medieval tower that is free to Louvre members as a bonus for being subscribers.

In my continuing repurposed angels series I give you the Angel of the dithering horses

A break in the heat - along the canal 7-5-15

Well today when we woke up the sky was overcast and it was, dare I say it, cool.  Our resolve in this heat has been to try to get out earlier and head back to the apartment before it gets too hot.  So today we decided to walk along the canal.  We were walking down towards, La Ronde, which is a large round building at the south end of the Basin de la Villette and the beginning of the locks leading down to the Seine at the Arsenal.
We no sooner got to Rue Crimee than we came across what turned out to be a marche brocante, an unexpected bonus for getting out on a walk.  Plus it stretched all the way down to La Ronde, so we both got our walk in but we had the fun of trying to "fleece the natives" again.  This is a great pastime as it allows us to just saunter aimlessly but also to observe and interact with local people in friendly verbal exchanges.






  Yesterday I was looking at a medal depicting the coat of arms of Paris and showed it to Deb to see if it had any appeal.  She didn't much care for it and so I told the dealer that I didn't want it. He lowered the price but I still said no and that she didn't like it, his response, "Women make all the decisions" somewhat disgustedly.  A trap to avoid is when a dealer gives you a price and you say no, he lowers it, you say no, then he says "how much will you offer?" if you respond to that other than no, you have committed to buying it, at least in his mind.  Doing it in French is a challenge!

We went back to the apartment early afternoon and watched the Tour de France on television, which I hope to do almost everyday.  These are two former winners of the TdF who are Dutch,

Thoughts on a "garage sale" 7-4-15

A few of Deb's thoughts from a neighborhood "garage sale"
***We've mentioned before that each little community of Paris seems to schedule a summer sale. These are a combination of private sellers clearing out closets and dealers making a living. The quality of sellers and goods varies widely, with some of the sales being high-end antique fairs and some showing  goods barely above trash level (but, to be fair, priced accordingly.) Things are so expensive in Paris, that most folks are happy to find a bargain. And of course, Warren and I are addicted to looking.
***Accordingly, we set off this morning for a sale in a nearby neighborhood. As Warren mentioned, we're adapting our schedules to the summer heat and the Tour de France, and are getting out earlier in the morning and spending hot afternoons avidly watching the Tour. We'd been enjoying the luxury of avoiding morning rush hours but the heat will lure us out earlier.
***After a short walk, and a climb over an iron railroad bridge (with my grumpy knees nagging) we found the sale, spread over several blocks, and started our stroll. It's fun to see what people have and to visit with the sellers. At this sale, there were lots of clothes to be had - vibrant colored new things from African and Indian dealers and lots of second-hand things  from private sellers. After years of Colorado garage-saling, I'm amazed at the prices used clothes bring here. People tend to take good care of their clothes and to choose carefully due to limited closet space. It's amusing to see folks carefully trying on things over their other clothes and asking for mirrors and opinions. And then the bargaining begins...
***Speaking of clothes, there are many neighbors of African extraction in our neighborhood, and the women's outfits are a continual delight to me. They look like brilliant tropical flowers walking the streets. I don't know enough to recognize the ethnic groups, but many of the women wear ornately wrapped headscarves that match their long, brilliantly colored dresses .Often they have a shawl in a complimentary, but not matching pattern. Their color-sense and pattern mixing is a delight. Sometimes they will have embroidered rhinestones or spangles of some sort that sparkle in the sun. Against their dark skins the effect is stunning. I never tire of seeing them moving gracefully around the quartier.
*** I was the victim of a pickpocketing attempt this morning from an African neighbor. She must have been about 6 months old and was dozing off on her mom's back in the swath of  cloth that her mom was using as a "baby carrier". Her little starfish hand came out and grasped my bag strap which startled me, and then her, when I looked around. She gave me a sleepy smile as I disengaged her tiny hand, and her mom apologized profusely. Ah, crime is everywhere here...
***I do think, though, that a bunch of the perfume that is for sale in these garage sales is suspect. The prices are just too good to be true.
***Other things for sale - used and new tools of every sort, ditto cell phones and computer stuff. And most of all toys and kids' stuff. Neverendingly amusing to see kids just stopped in their tracks by all the choices from some other kid's closet. You have to watch carefully where you are stepping to not trip over some little shopper who will be squatting on the sidewalk, oblivious of anyone else, going through a box of model cars, one by one. And the chance to get children's clothing at a better price is a big draw, since the kids so often outgrow things before wearing them out.
***Other things for sale - beautiful books, and books in general, which also sell at what seem like high prices to me, but the French have always loved books, and have some of the healthiest publishing businesses in the world. Wish my French reading skills were better, but all the special literary tenses are daunting to me... I can barely cope with the basic tenses I need for everyday use. When I'm speaking, everything I ever knew about appropriate verb usage seems to dribble out my ears. Fortunately, people are kind and patient. Since most people speak more than one language, they know how hard it is.
***And of course, no gathering here would be complete without special food. You couldn't possible come to any sort of public event without the possibility of eating something (ignoring the fact that there were several bistros and such open on each corner) so there was a tent with folks grilling marguez sausages and making couscouses of various types and selling pieces of homemade cakes and tarts. The smell of the grilling sausages was enough to make a person swoon. Unfortunately, so was the heat, so we heading back for cold Rose wine and sausages of our own and lots of chilled fruit. I'm gobbling apricots as fast as I can, knowing that the season will soon be over.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY to all our friends back in the U.S.

Too blinkin hot 7-2 & 7-3-15

It has been above 90 degrees here for the last several days and at night only just a bit cooler, so we have not been out except to shop for food after returning from La Rochelle.  So things are thin on the ground and we have nothing to report.   We will venture out tomorrow the 4th in the morning to look around just a little and then beat it back to the apartment in order to view the beginning of the Tour de France bicycle race.  
We've talked and decided that we need to adjust our habits for a while until we get more adjusted, so we'll try to get our early and then wait out the heat indoors.   We get a cross breeze in the apartment but frankly it remains cooler if we just shut things up.  Stay tuned.

A day in La Rochelle and a lovely dinner 7-1-16

After talking with Mollie we established that Don, Charlie, Michael, and she were going sailing for a few hours in the morning when it was likely to be a bit cooler and then would be returning a bit later then they would contact us with a place to meet for dinner.   So we spent the morning doing a bit of a walking tour of the city center and had a lovely lunch in a square that very much reminded us of a square in Madrid or Venice.  It was away from the major traffic patterns of the town and therefore quiet. It's very scenic and inviting.

It also turned out to have a really good little restaurant where we ate a quite good lunch.  There was a historic plaque giving the history and I expected it to be the site of many interesting historical facts. But ha-ha, it turned out to have been created in 1971 when several dilapidated buildings were torn down to create the square. After lunch we headed back to the hotel for a couple hours of cool rest; while there we got a text with the details for our dinner meeting. So we headed to the City Aquarium before meeting everyone for dinner.  The heat had abated some so it wasn't sweltering like yesterday, still hot though.
Wow, what a nice aquarium in La Rochelle, many displays with mini ecologies for sea around Western France and branching out to the French administered territories around the world.  We had a leisurely visit and then took a water taxi over to the inner harbor to meet Don and company for dinner.  

We made our first face to face acquaintance with Mollie and Charlie, whom we felt we already knew through Don's stories and descriptions and it was completely delightful.  We also met Michael for the first time and were regaled with fun and interesting sailing tales. Another outstanding seafood dinner followed and a general all around good time.  We finished dinner about 10:45 and had to push off to get to the hotel by 11:00 before the night shift buttoned things up for the night.   We missed it by about 10 minutes but luckily the desk person was still finishing up and we got in without any problems.

Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire - La Rochelle 6-29-15

Today we left Paris for La Rochelle to meet with Don's Irish travelling companions, Mollie, her daughter Charlie, and their friend Michael.  Michael has a boat lying at anchor in a slip in La Rochelle and Mollie and Charlie came down from Ireland to meet Michael to do a little sailing.  So Don and we took the train out to meet them.   It has been hot in Paris as you likely may know and we were really looking forward to being on the coast with the accompanying winds to cool things down. But wouldn't you know it we arrived and it was much hotter there than in Paris, when we headed back to our hotel at 3:00pm (by Taxi!) the thermometer was registering 42c degrees which is just over 107f degrees.  This is NOT supposed to be happening!  

With my usual efficiency I mistakenly booked our hotel at a different one than the one where Don was staying. They were not able to move us over even though they are the same chain and even have almost the same name, Kyriad City Center, however in small print Don's says "at Les Minimes" and I didn't notice that little killer when I booked.   Anyway we dropped our bag at our hotel and then took Don over to his hotel to get him checked in, after which we walked over to a small restaurant sitting next to the harbor and had lunch.  We walked around a bit but it was so hot we decided to go back to our hotels and try to get together later in the day when Mollie and Charlie arrived in town.  All things being equal, they had some problems finding where they needed to be and it was after 7:00pm when I got a text that they had arrived and were with Don.  We were concerned about Don and the heat and when I called his hotel he did not answer, so a bit of anxiety for us.  We finally talked with Mollie and established that he tried to call us but wasn't using the country code for France, and my phone won't work for numbers out of France (BAHHH!!).  We decided to get together tomorrow for dinner and that ended our night out in the heat.

For the record, La Rochelle is a beautiful city, at least in the medieval center of town.