And Now for Something New, a day focused on food! 8-3-15

Since we arrived here we have made going to see La Grande Epicerie one of our goals.  So only 6 months later we finally made it.  It is part of the Bon Marche flagship store located in the 7th west of St. Germain des Pres and very close to what used to be our favorite restaurant in Paris, Le Recamier, but is no longer in business.  We passed by the store a few weeks back on one of our walks but it was a Sunday and thus it was closed.  It is one of the premier market shopping experiences in Paris by reputation and I must say it's quite a nice place to visit.   We started out by having lunch in the little cafe in the basement. The appetiser, a riff on tomatoes and burrata, was only mediocre because the tomatoes were barely ripe.  One would think that a French cafe, in a store that hypes it's fresh vegetables, would have a better selection.  But the plats were very yummy, I had a pave which is a small thick rectangular steak, and was cooked just the red juicy way I prefer while Deb had a filet of Dorade, a french fish and it was nicely prepared as well.

After lunch we wandered throughout the store and were quite impressed with it's offerings.  They bring in fresh produce, poultry, and meat from all over France, but they also have offerings from all over the world.  They had both Coors Light and Budweiser in the beer section, of course they also had Budvar Budweiser from the Czech republic as well.   The beers from the U.S. and Mexico are tres cher (expensive) here.   Overall I would venture to say that anyone who enjoys going to a big Whole Foods store in the U.S. would be comfortable here.  
The big difference would be the depth of selection, where WF might have two products, the Grande Epicerie will have 20 to choose from.  And the lower level aside from the cafe is devoted exclusively to wine and spirits, good stuff.

It was another hot day today so we left the air conditioned store and immediately headed for the small park that fronts the building so sit in the shade and acclimatize for the trip home.  A young woman was sunning herself on one of the benches, very chic in her black shift and combat boots, but hey it's Paris.  It's a pretty easy hop with one transfer on the Metro so in a little over 30 minutes we were walking to the apartment.

We had a warm evening to sit on deck and admire the night views.  We also were awakened in the night with a couple energetic rain storms which cooled things off very nicely.

Is that the Fat Lady? 8-2-15

Today being Sunday we decided a more leisurely pace was indicated so Deb put together a little picnic and we made our way down to the Tuileries for a lunch in the shade.   Our timing on the bus was good so we had only a short wait to board and in no time we decamped at the Eastern end of the Louvre.  We made our way through the arches and through the courtyards and into the Tuileries.

As one passes the Arch du Carrousel there are two flanking little areas that are raised above the street level and in each raised area are a border of trees with benches under them so that there is shade to be had throughout the day.  When we arrived many of the shaded benches were taken while the ones in the sun were deserted, so we shared a shady bench with a woman and read until another shady bench was available at which point we moved to our own bench.   We sat for a while reading and then took our pastoral repast (lunch),  sandwiches, wine, and fruit, perfect for a warm day.
There are a number of crows that hang out around this area and they are fun to watch when someone offers them a bit of food, one will be walking around soliciting and if it gets an offering suddenly there are 12 or 15 buddies that are hanging out with him.  I succumbed with a bit of bread and had a good time watching the interactions as they jockied for the food.

After a while an Asian woman came wandering through looking for a place to eat lunch and we offered her one end of our bench.  That started a conversation and we found that she was a citizen of France and had lived here for over 40 years.  Her family is Chinese and had lived in Cambodia, during the Pol Pot regime her parents sent her to boarding school in Paris and she has lived here ever since.   Sadly most of her family perished at the hands of Pol Pot.   She married a Frenchman and has a son of about 25 years old.   She has travelled in the U.S. and has been to California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Colorado.   She works as a tour guide for Chinese tourists and helps them to adjust to French culture.  A lovely person.
After our lunch and visit with Phang, we walked further into the gardens and found another shady spot to sit and read,  interestingly we seemed to be surrounded by Brits, it sounded more like Hyde Park than Paris.  The people watching is really interesting, people in every costume imaginable from just about any ethnic group you could imagine.

A little later we decided to go and tour the Opera Garnier building, a masterpiece of Rococo excess. Completely over the top, there doesn't appear to be a single expanse that is not decorated in some manner or other.  We were able to visit quite a large portion of the public area including the actual theater itself, but nothing backstage.  They have an interesting picture gallery and library, where set designs and musical books are displayed along with portraits of prominent personnages associated with the opera house.  We are resolved to get tickets and see some performance(s) this fall when the season begins again, just for the experience.  And of course, to see the Fat Lady Sing.

Many steps today 8-1-15

Today, being Saturday, we located a Marche Brocante (collectors fair) and took the bus down close to the Paris Observatory.  This one is at the extreme Southern end of the esplanade extending down from the Luxembourg Gardens.  We visited the site when our friend Don was in Paris in July.  This one was smaller than many but still some interesting things to see.  We've decided to see if we can locate some more inexpensive prints put out by Cadart in the late 19th century.  They were an attempt to bring 'fine art' to less affluent citizens of that period and are interesting artifacts of the time.   I ignorantly bought one at a Hotel Drouot auction not long ago and we became interested in them.  No luck today though.   We perused the offerings with limited success, Deb bought a couple spoons to use in the apartment inexpensively.

After our visit we wanted to have lunch, so we looked at the offerings across the street at the Closerie de Lilas, a historic brasserie/restaurant made famous in the 30's by hosting luminaries such as Hemingway.   But we didn't fancy spending 100-200 euros for lunch so we walked up Boulevard Montparnasse towards Gare Montparnasse perusing menus along the way.  By the time we had reached the Tour Montparnasse we decided we would try one of our favorite seafood restaurants,   Of course it was closed for their fermeture annuelle so we had to go to plan B and that is no great hardship.

Just a couple blocks further on is Atelier 102, a small restaurant specializing in risotto, they serve it in probably 15 different varieties, some with seafood, some with meat, and some vegetarian so every taste can be addressed.  And it is much less expensive than our first two investigations.  So we had a delicious little lunch, melon with Jamon Serrano, a risotto with steak, peppers, and mushrooms, and finally a shared Panna Cotta with red fruit.  Couple that with a Cote de Languedoc villages and it makes a satisfying lunch.

After lunch we made our way to the North, up to the Invalides (Napoleon's tomb) and through the grounds to the Seine.  Then over to the Orangerie, a small museum at the Southwest corner of the Tuileries.

This is where, since the early 1900's, Monet's large water lily murals, the Nympheas, have been displayed.  They are in two large rooms and are composed of 8 murals approximately 8 feet tall by from 20 to perhaps 50 feet in length.  They are breathtaking in their composition and serenity. Some of the earliest examples of full on abstraction to be seen I believe, but he added just enough reality to meet the demands of the Parisian eye of that time period.   After an hour or so in these rooms we descended into the lower part of the building to see a fabulous collection of early 20th century impressionist and post impressionist works.   Renoir to Soutine, with a bit of Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, Derain and Laurencin thrown in for good measure.   We will be coming back here for a more indepth visit, since we were booted out by the closing hours.   Great museum and we get in for free because of our Musee D'Orsay membership, Score!

After our visit we took a few minutes to sit in the Tuileries and people watch before heading to our bus to return home.    On the way we had a very nice conversation with a young couple from Madrid who stopped us to ask for directions (HA!) in Spanish, so we ended up spending several minutes in a tri-lingual conversation to help them with answers, lovely people.  We walked quite a fair distance today from the 13th through the 6th and 7th into the 1st arrondissements.

Deb's Six Month Ruminations 7-31-15

Six months already!

*Holy Parisian Cow! We've been here half a year. The time has just evaporated. Yet I look back and we've done so many things that I know we weren't letting any grass grow under our feet. (I'm currently into pastoral motifs.)

*A dear friend, Mary Schreiner, just asked me what we miss, being here. The answer that immediately leapt into my mind is that we miss our friends. Miss just being able to ring you up and go to dinner and spend an evening visiting. Miss knowing what-all you're doing. Thank you a gazillion times for your emails. I love hearing your "voice", however electronic.

*And silly as I'm sure it sounds I miss our cat, Mapie. A house without a cat is soul-less. Elizabeth has been so kind, sending photos of our fur-friend, but I miss patting a furry belly, and miss the thump-thump of her jumping on the bed in the darkness, then a warm purring presence by my side (Warren's purrs are somewhat less euphonious.) Miss her presence and consciousness, especially when I'm puttering with the plants. How can one garden without cat supervision?

*Miss getting books at the library. Books, especially English books, are expensive and not widely available here, and, old codger that I am, I haven't completely adapted to electronic books. Especially for art books. I miss the luxury of getting a dozen books at the library and guiltlessly abandoning any that didn't suit me.

*Miss my yoga class, the discipline and direction of a teacher. I'm sporadic and haphazard in my practice, forgetting many poses.



Warren really misses his bicycling, both the exercise and camaraderie. The biking is one of the areas that certainly didn't work out like we'd thought.

*But overall, that's really all I can think of missing. Perhaps it's because I know this is an interlude. It's not where we live, and soon (much too soon, I'm thinking) we'll be back. So if we miss Mexican food, we make do with spicy Thai. If it's an ordeal to buy a certain bolt, I'm glad it isn't my house and that I only have to deal with trivial home issues here. We're just enjoying the exotic pleasures of being here, trying to drink them in without being totally overwhelmed.

*Among the things I don't miss:

*My asthma. Even though the air here is much dirtier than Denver, my lungs don't recognize this "foreign" dirt and I've had a blessed 6 months without one wheeze, and very few coughs in the morning. What fun!

*Driving as much as I'm used to. All the walking here has just been wonderful. I do have to admit, though, that recourse to a car when you're not up to par is a lovely luxury.

*Watching much TV. We only get news & business channels in English, and they repeat themselves endlessly after about 20 minutes. Watching the French channels taxes our limited language skills and requires concentration. So all in all, we've pretty much eliminated mindless viewing. I did watch an hour of a Harry Potter movie the other evening and it was great sport to be able to figure out almost all of the dialog. Who knew a wand was a "baguette"?

Hear the Slamming of Doors and Closing of Shutters? 7-31-15

Well tomorrow is August 1st, 4 days ago we passed our 6 month anniversary in Paris, tempus fugit!! Deb wanted to continue cleaning so I went out again today, I thought I would go over to the flea market (Marche aux Puces) near Clignancourt and rat around a bit so I grabbed the tram and the bus which encircles the city on the North and West quadrants to get there.

Along the way there is a little park I've seen that has several colorful sculptures surmounting stainless steel pillars they are really fun to see as you come around the corner at the Porte d'Aubervilliers, and so I got of the the tram to explore.  They look to be figures taken from a merry-go-round that have been mounted (rescued?) on the poles to give the little park a whimsical aspect.
After a few minutes of enjoyment I boarded the tram again for the flea market. But when I got there it was only the impromptu sellers that had spread blankets and were trying to sell used clothes, shoes, and odd bits of electronics that were in action.   With two exceptions all the shops were shuttered, in an area perhaps 4 square blocks in size.

Every August a large proportion of Paris, takes flight for vacations out of Paris, the fermeture annuelle (annual closing).   I don't think that all the dealers here will be gone, as many of them live a day to day kind of existence, but I think the market will be drastically cut back.   It will be that way all over the city, things will be closed and tourists will rule for a few weeks.

I meet with my new Doc 7-30-15

I'm going to run out of my prescription meds before the end of this year so before I left I asked my Denver doctor to give me written prescriptions to take along, as I had read that many pharmacies will honor them.   But as a backup I decided to initiate a relationship with a local doctor here, so I made an appointment with an English speaking doctor last week.   I want to have a doctor relationship just in case there would be an emergency some time in the future.  He is located in a very convenient place for us as his office is right along our main busline and only 10 minutes from our subway line.   I took the Metro down to Republic and walked from there as it gave me a chance to see another neighborhood up close and personal.   In the process I found a new passage, Passage Vendome, which I'd never been aware of before.   It has a few business within but by and large it's out of the flow, so a bit rundown.
My doctor's office sits right across the street from a surviving medieval water fountain, not currently working, which we pass all the time and I wanted to see it more closely so I arrived a few minutes early. I edited the pics to minimize the graffiti.














 I also came across an ancient gateway into what is now one of  the national archive buildings. It was built around 1380

by a companion of Du Guesclin, a medieval marshall of France and a very capable field commander during the Hundred Years War.   It was then owned by the Guise family, rabid Catholics, who masterminded the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre killing thousands of Protestants in the 1500's.
My visit with the doctor went very well and we now are aware of each other.  He will happily refill my prescription whenever I require it.   After the appointment I headed back and met Deb at our shopping area to top up our supplies.   Then it was back to the apartment for lunch, some apartment cleaning and laundry, and a very nice dinner on the deck with Deb.

Get Away day - Gail and Peter leave 7-29-15

Today Gail and Peter are leaving to spend the next two weeks in England, they have been with us for about a week and it has been very nice visit.  We always have fun seeing the sites and eating interesting food and we get to catch up. Since they live in California seeing them is more rare than with the rest of the family.

We started the day with a little trip to the wine shop to find some presents for their host in England. Right now each trip out is chancey because our buildings elevator is being serviced again by the company that did the last service, and it's scheduled to continue for another 2 days.  We got lucky and it worked for us when we left to go to the train station where the Eurostar leaves for England so we didn't have to schlep bags down the 7 flights of circular stairs.
 Once we arrived at Gare du Nord getting them to the loading area was very easy as we early in arriving.  We have been here when the line to go through customs is backed up well into the station and winds all around with people waiting to clear.   Things took a grisly tone for Gail and Peter while they were waiting to board the train, when an Egyptian national attempted to stowaway on the top of the train and was electrocuted, he is in critical condition.  It delayed their train by 2 hours while they evacuated the man from the train and took him to the hospital.

We headed home for a quiet afternoon to rest up a bit from the whirlwind of  the last week.