A Dry Run and Good Idea 12-14-15

I mentioned a few posts back that we are going to Sicily for a week after the end of the year and given my proven track record for a somewhat half-assed approach to maneuvering around we felt that a dry run out to Orly from the apartment would be a good idea.   I've never been to Orly and as usual it's completely simple on paper.
But nothing is simple when you have side issues, and ours are that we have our Navigo passes which allow us to travel throughout the Parisian network of trains, buses, and subways.  Our stated goal was to see how long it actually takes to get out there so that we can plan to be there before our plane leaves.  Also it will allow us to plan for little quirks that are never explicitly stated anywhere but exist in all their glory and will bite you in the tush if you don't know about them.
So the goal was to take the Metro down to connect with the RER (train) that connects to the OrlyVal which is the tram that branches off of the RER directly to the airport.  My electronic planner says that it should take around an hour and we wanted to test it.  Everything proceeded like clockwork right up to the point that we got off the train at Antony and went to get on the OrlyVal.  Turns out that they are not part of the system and require a separate ticket, which is as expensive as the ticket out to Charles De Gaulle airport on the north side.  So that means an additional 50 euros to get the last couple miles.
However the agent at the ticket window mentioned that our passes were completely good on the OrlyBus, a parallel bus connection that branches off the RER.  So that was our first gotcha sort of avoided, but we still weren't at the airport, in fact we had to go back into Paris several stops to Denfert-Rochereau where we could catch the bus.  So we had to time ourselves back to that stop and deduct that time and recommence from there.   We got back to Denfert and found the bus, it was just leaving as we came out of the train station.  So we have a potential up to 15 minute additional wait for the next bus.
We took the next bus and it seems to be very efficient, but there is a potential for heavy traffic congestion, and we were there in 20 minutes.  When we got to the airport we found the gates where our airline loads passengers.  So in about 2 hours we were able to get a pretty good idea of how we need to prepare for the trip.  So we took the bus back to Denfert and determined to walk over to our favorite Italian restaurant for lunch.
The sun had come out and burned off the heavy fog of the morning so it was a pleasant walk.  As we walked along we happened to look across the street and noticed a sign for "convent" created products, when we were in Madrid these little shops turned out to be a great source for cookies baked by the sisters.
So we crossed the street and went in and found quite a large shop selling any number of things that were created by monasteries from around France.  So there were food items, including cookies, liquor, beer, meats, and cheeses among other things.  There were hand made papers, preserves, perfumes (odor of sanctity?), painted porcelains, lots of things.  At the back of the shop there was a sign pointing down the stairs which just had to be explored.  My goodness there were another 4 or 5 rooms in the basement and each was filled with other offerings.
There was even one room with brocante like items that had been donated.  I bought a copper pan-lid really cheaply!  But they also had handmade leather goods, hand woven shawls, hand thrown pottery, and a room of antique linen and handmade lace, which were incredibly inexpensive, beautiful stuff.   So we bought a little bag of pasta as well.
When we finally made it to our restaurant (L'Osteria del Passepartout)  it was late for lunch but they were just as welcoming as if we had showed up precisely at noon.  We have developed quite a warm relationship with the owners and so it's always a treat to have a meal here.  The owner noticed that we had pasta and Deb explained buying it at the shop.  He responded, "Oh, the one down near Porte Royal" so he knew exactly where it was.  He also gave Deb a couple tips on cooking it properly. We mentioned that we were planning to go to Sicily and could they give us any favorite places, but alas nothing was forthcoming.  Ah well, the lunch was just as good as ever.
After lunch we walked over to Place Bastille to catch the Metro back for the apartment.

Sunday Lunch

Almost another Uncle Albert day, i.e. not a bloody thing done, except we did get up the necessary inertia to go to lunch.  However even that got a bit deflected.
We wanted to go to this little seafood bistro that sits in the shadow of the Tour Montparnasse, so Deb looked it up online to make sure that it was open.  So we caught a combination of bus, RER train, and Metro down to a stop nearby and had a 5 minute walk over to the bistro.  When we got there it was shut up tight so either their website is wrong or Deb misinterpreted the days they're closed.  Either way they were closed, but as luck would have it the mother ship restaurant is right next door and they were open.  So it's a lot more elegantly decorated and the prices are somewhat higher, but the alternative was going into a frantic search mode at 2:00pm on Sunday.  So we went in and it ably met our basic requirements.  The owner is a renowned oyster grower from lower Brittany whose has a very good reputation.  He deserves it!
I had a plate of oysters on half-shell for an appetiser while Deb had Calamari frits, both yummy. Then Deb had a poached Cod and I had grilled Lieu for the main course, they were perfectly cooked. Tender and flaky but not dry in any way.   I couldn't resist a Paris-Brest for dessert.
After our lunch we walked back towards the apartment along one of our bus lines looking at the lively shops along the Rue de Rennes, then caught a bus back to the apartment.  There was a specialty chocolate shop that had nice displays, these are chocolate 'Buche de Noel" on offer.

Christmas Program 12-12-15

Today was a pretty quiet day after yesterday, we went to a brocante market down in the 16th arr. near the Parc des Princes, where the Paris St. Germain football club holds their soccer matches.  It's also very near the Roland Garros stadium where the French Open tennis tournament is held each year.  It's in a suburb subsumed by Paris called Auteuil which was a haunt of the impressionist painters during the latter part of the 19th century.  A very posh district of Paris, very upscale.  We took the metro down to the Porte St. Cloud station and after getting out found the market and then cruised through it. Our idea was to see the market, get a bit of lunch and then go to the Candlelight Christmas Concert given at the American Church in Paris. So that's what we did, but we were a bit pressed at the end because lunch pushed in to our commute time back to the church.
The church was built around 1831 and was the first protestant American church built outside the U.S. and has been pretty influential in the life of ex-pat Americans since then.  There was a line outside waiting to pass through security, which has become an everyday part of Parisian life now.  Anyway we got into the church and our tickets to the peanut gallery didn't give us saved seats so we ended up sitting on long benches in one of the side aisles.  But no matter, since it was a choir concert the view was secondary anyway.  Our thanks to Mel Preusser for suggesting it as a fun holiday activity.  The choirs were very good and it ended with a sing-along of about 5 carols that almost everyone knows, although with a twist as some of the carols were also sung in French.
After the concert we walked back along the quais on the left bank to our bus stop near the Louvre for the ride home. Very mild night so the walk was a pleasure as we could look in shop windows all along the route.
People get on the bus with all kinds of crazy things but tonight was a first, at Republique a young woman, who couldn't have weighed over 110, carried a Sousaphone aboard. The bell was detached but she just laid everything on the floor and people were very careful about not stepping on it.  She got off at our stop and we wondered what she must have been doing at Place de la Republique.

Our 3rd or 4th Bus Trip, Ever 12-11-15

We took advantage of our Louvre membership to take a trip out to the only satellite Louvre museum in France, in Lens.  It's about a 3hr trip by bus from Paris all on divided highway, once you get out to the Peripherique.  Lens is a former coal mining town which really hit hard times when the mines were closed in the 70's so the museum is a big deal.
We were musing on the number of bus trips we've taken, where the bus is a non-public form of mass transport and we came up with less than 5 since we've been married. Whether that's good or bad depends on you point of view but we've never been overly attracted to that type of travel.  The day was cold and cloudy throughout with short periods of rain so a bus was a luxury this time.
Be that as it may, we met the bus at 8:30 this morning next to the Louvre and had probably between 35 and 45 people, not all seats were filled but every row had at least 2 of the 4 seats filled.  Pretty much people like us, either retired or a day off and, members of the Louvre along with 2 docents who were our group leaders.  They didn't do much more than shepard us on and off the bus and give us the necessary ground rules for the museum visit.   It was funny because we stopped at one point along the way at a rest stop and all went in for a toilet break and snacks.  When we reloaded they went through a three peat on head count and finally resorted to a roll call to make sure nobody was left behind.  I think we must have had a bad count to begin with, but hey they're museum docents not grade school teachers.  I can only image the uproar if someone was left behind.
So we arrived just before noon and decided that we would get a bit of lunch before seeing any of the exhibitions.  There are two choices and we took the cafeteria over the sit-down restaurant in the interest of time.  We were instructed to meet at the cloakroom for a 3:30 retrieval of coats and a 3:45 departure back to Paris.
Luckily the museum is not vast like the Louvre but it has a very nice sort of  "survey" of  objects that are not deemed essential to the Louvre's Paris operations but are nonetheless noteworthy.  So you can see artwork from about 5000 BCE up to the time of Napoleon in basically one large room.  I really like the setup because a gaze across the room allows you to anticipate a bit of what you're going to see, and also preps you for the entire process.   Sculptures are either in glass cases (for the smalls) or free standing with lots of space around them to view from all angles.  The paintings are on free standing walls with presentations on both sides and sometimes the ends.  The room is quite large but not overwhelming and can be easily seen in a hour or so, if you don't listen to all of the audioguide presentations.  The audioguides are very well done and worth the price if you want to get more in-depth discussion on a specific piece.
There were two separate temporary exhibits currently displayed as well.  The first was a depiction of Ovid's "Metamorphoses" through the eyes of artists beginning in the Renaissance and up through Picasso.  With about 30 paintings and sculptures it was quite intimate and fun.
The second was more ambitious and dealt with the "Fete Gallants" which were championed by Madame de Pompadour, and featured primarily the works of Watteau, Boucher, and Fragonard, with other pieces displayed by other artists as well.  One of the fun features of this exhibit was the display of theatrical costumes from the period.  Evidently costumes of this age are very rare and the curators had to prevail upon the museum in Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic to get a representative sampling, so it was fun to see things from the town which we visited in October.
After getting my coat I went outside to take pictures of the mine dumps that dominate the skyline just south of the town, they look like pyramids in the mist.
After the visit we loaded on to the bus and had quite a rapid trip back to Paris arriving about 45 minutes earlier than forecast.  I guess the traffic, which seemed heavy to me, was not as bad as they had thought.  So we made it back to the apartment earlier as well.

Musee Arts Decoratif 12-10-15

The Louvre sponsored a free day today to the Museum of  Decorative Arts which is housed in the north-west wing of the Louvre.  The main exhibition was to showcase the current trends in Korean design and traditional arts.  We saw some really top flight examples of pottery, furniture design, and metal work among the many exhibits, and of course there were many other things which did not connect with us at all.
After seeing that exhibition we decided to visit the permanent collection again.  We started with a small collection of works by Dubuffet who donated his works when a friend was the director of the museum.

The first several rooms cover decorative arts from the Renaissance up through the 18th century with several rooms that have been constructed to be representative of tastes during each period.  Some quite impressive and others completely over the top and claustrophobic to our modern eyes.

The last time we were here we got through about 80 percent of the museum but we got chased out of the last 20 percent containing the art nouveau and art deco sections because the museum was closing. Today we got to have a closer look at that last 20 percent.

Tomorrow we're taking a Louvre field trip up to Lens to see the Louvre satellite museum.   Lens is a former coal mining region of France up close to the Belgian border and has been very depressed with the closing of the coal mining, so we're eager to see how this has impacted the area.

Deb's Observations on French Social Life 12-9-15

Comments from Deb:
*In response to some questions about our evening out at a concert at a French lady's apartment, I'll try to answer some of your queries. There were about 40 people there and we sat on a variety of chairs, folding and otherwise in the L-shaped front room/dining room of her apartment. There was a grand piano in one corner of the room and the singer stood near the piano. The audience was arranged in two wings at a 90 degree angle to each other with the piano at the apex.
*Yup, we were the only "furriners" there, and as usual we were in over our heads. French good manners require that you circulate at gatherings, and particularly that you visit with any newcomers or lesser known guests. So that meant a bunch of very well meaning people attempting to make conversation with a pair of severely language handicapped Americans. Warren is utterly intrepid and ended up in a spirited political debate with a vehement blonde. The French adore political (and other) disputations and intensity is expected. I was simultaneously involved in a lively discussion of the Palestinian situation and the American viewpoint on a solution, a topic about which I was spectacularly unequipped, both linguistically and factually. I only remember needed vocabulary with a lag of several hours... One of our original acquaintances, Renault, commented quietly "Good luck. Hope you make it out alive" as he left me to my fate.
*On the question "what were they wearing?" - The ladies wore almost entirely black, white and grey, with just an occasional touch of red on a couple. Very understated - well cut pants, cashmere sweaters, interesting jackets or blazers. Virtually no discernable makeup. Unobtrusive but luxe gold, touches of platinum, discrete gems. I stood out as an etrangere since I wore a turquoise linen shirt and matching wool sweater with navy silk pants, and Zuni mosaic earrings and bracelet. Absolutely outrageous color choice on my part...
*The lady's apartment is decorated in understated modern, with attractive artwork and a few discretely beautiful antiques and textiles (a spectacular oriental silk tapestry for one.) The apartment is arranged on two floors. We were on the "public" floor, with the bedrooms and private spaces on the floor below. This is a very traditional Parisian arrangement, but in this case in a quite modern building.
*For me the most appealing parts of the apartment are the beautiful garden terraces on both floors. They've been designed into garden "rooms" with various pines, deciduous trees and flower boxes now planted with winter-blooming flowers like cyclemen. She has a white heritage rose trellis blooming in December! The terraces look to be about the size of the apartment itself. They're just charming. One of the other guests, who lives on a lower floor, commented that the whole building is proud of these terraces and that they've been featured in three magazine spreads. I can believe it.
*Several people asked if we found Parisians cold. The conversation led to the differences between French and American friendship patterns. I told them that I find that the French are more reserved initially but make deeper, more involved, longer lasting friendships. To my mind, Americans are friendly and open, but often relationships are more transitory, perhaps because of our lifestyle of moving so frequently. People was highly surprised at our having lived so long in Denver, and one commented that perhaps we "weren't really American."
*And lastly, on the topic of friendliness, one of the expat bloggers I read who lives in one of the downtown arrondissements was bemoaning the fact that after 18 months none of his local vendors seem to recognize him. I'm bemoaning just the opposite. I'm wishing for simple, monosyllabic, curt responses to questions. Instead, I get lovely, convoluted, complex responses that I can't follow. At our baker's, I wanted to ask how long in advance I need to order a Buche de Noel, the traditional Christmas cake in the shape of a log. I wanted a simple response like "3 days, or a week or a month." Instead I got a mutlti-sentence statement that caused some laughter in the people behind me in line, and then a cheery discussion between them and the baker, while I stood there clueless. It finished with several suggestions of what kind I should order, and people pointing at things in the cases and obviously offering me suggestions. And I still have no idea when I should order. I'll try the question again when it's just me and his wife at the shop. I can write it down if I have to. And make her do the same.

Orsay can you see 12-8-15

Today was forecast for a rainy afternoon which pointed us in the direction of an indoors sort of day. Towards that end we decided to take a visit to the Musee D'Orsay, all the times we've been there together it has been quite busy so we were hoping for fewer visitors.  Getting to D'Orsay is more complex than the Louvre because it's across the Seine and consequently involves more transfers either on the Metro or on a bus. Deb solved the problem nicely by saying that we should go to the Christmas choir concert at the American Church which is over by the Eiffel Tower.   It became an easier trip because it only took one transfer to get us within a 5 minute walk of the church.  So we walked along the Seine and went first to the church, bought our tickets for Saturday night, and then walked another 10 minutes down the the D'Orsay.
When we got to the museum there was a line snaking out into the courtyard with people standing under umbrellas due to the light rain.  But since we have a membership we go to the other line and walk right in.  So it was busy, but not horribly overcrowded.  We started out looking for a specific Rosa Bonheur painting of farmers using oxen to plow a field, but in the process came across 3 other rooms of objects that we'd not seen before.  That was kind of surprising given that we have been in this same section several other times, but it turned out that some of the rooms had been closed for renovation and had only recently re-opened.
They covered decorative items from the 3rd empire, that of Napoleon III, and had some very beautiful cabinets, porcelains, silver, and furniture from that period which overlapped the beginning of Victoria's reign in England and culminated with his abdication after the battle of Sedan in 1870.
But I digress, we couldn't find the Rosa Bonheur painting immediately so we headed up to the 5th floor to see the changes to the Impressionist rooms which I'd seen while Deb was in Denver.  When we got up there it was pretty busy so we walked through and into the restaurant behind the clock face on the top floor.  We had a little lunch of curried chicken pot pie for Deb and a risotto with Cepe mushrooms for me, along with a couple glasses of rose Champagne (after all it is the holiday season) and then a bit of dessert (rum babas).
Then we went into see the impressionist paintings, but we went through backwards from the main flow visitors so we could sort of control the density of bodies by moving around the rooms based on where people were congregating.   We play a mental game of picking which painting in the room you would take home with you if they were giving one away.  Then you have to say a little something about why that painting, it could be artistic merit or just that you love the painting.  So we worked back through and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
At the beginning of the impressionist rooms is a large painting by one of our favorite Spanish painters, Joaquin Sorolla who we became acquainted with on our stay in Madrid a few years back.  Love that painting.  We did eventually find the Bonheur painting before heading back to the apartment.