A New Year and Old Habits 1-2-16

Today being the weekend and the weather looking decent, i.e. cool, breezy, and dry, we decided to head over to a brocante market in the 16th arr.  This market was about a block from the Radio France building just south of and across the river from the Tour Eiffel.  We've been over here a couple other times but not enough to say that we're real knowledgeable about it.  And after today's visit I can say that we're still not real knowledgeable about it.  We spent about an hour going through a small market but Deb did find another little treasure to add to her collection of Paris seals.
We did come across a really interesting building however, the "Castel Beranger".  Designed by Hector Guimard, the architect who designed so many of the Art Nouveau Metro entrances, around 1890.  It is a mix of styles, primarily Art Nouveau but also some architectural abstraction.  It was nicknamed, Eccentric House by the painter Paul Signac who lived here at one time, but it was also called the Crazy House and the Devil's House by some neighbors.  Be that as it may it was awarded the first prize in Paris building design in 1898.
Since we still had two bridges to cross and they are both right in the middle of town we jumped on a bus and headed over to the Hotel de Ville for lunch at one of our favorite little jewels, Le Trumilou. The sign on their door said that they would be closed through the 1st of January but when we tried to open the door it was partially locked.  People were inside and I rattled the door a few times until one of the staff came to the door and said they were still closed.  I pointed to the door sign but he just shrugged and smiled when I said bad luck for us, so no lunch there today.  We did find a little tea shop around the corner that had a pleasant little lunch offering and not too expensive.
After our lunch we undertook the two bridge crossings both of which took us from the right bank over on to the Ile St. Louis, just east of Notre Dame.  We did spend time walking several of the streets looking in shop windows and enjoying it's intimacy before heading back to the apartment.  It started to rain lightly as we got back and tomorrow is forecast for rain all day.  But all in all we're down to one bridge left to cross, the one furthest south and east inside the peripherique,  But it's right along the tram line so we can get off at one stop walk across the bridge to the next stop and finish out that little goal.

New Years Walk 1-1-16

After last nights eat fest we needed to get out for a little exercise today.  So we walked along the canal down as far as Place de la Republic.  A few days ago we noticed that there were fences going up along the canal St. Martin down along our bus route and we wondered if they might be safety precautions for the New Years celebration.   But today I was looking at some online article on Paris and I found that they are going to drain the canal for a cleanup beginning in January.
They will put a barrier on the locks of our Basin de la Villette to stop any flow at that point.  It is down at Place de la Bataille de Stalingrad, so there will be water next to us all winter but from Stalingrad down to the Seine it will be dry and they will clean it out.  So they have the barriers from there all the way to where it gets covered over at Oberkampf and Richard Lenoir.  I'm looking forward to being a sidewalk superintendent for at least part of the project.
So our walk took us down about half way along the canal, at which point we veered off into the neighborhood just north and east of Place de la Republic.  We were looking for a highly recommended boulangerie which consistently gets good reviews, but of course today being the first it was closed.  Still it's less than 5 minutes walk from our bus route so it will be easy to get to and sample some of the goodies.   It was overcast most of the day and breezy so it was necessary to keep walking to keep our hands and feet warm, but we did sit for a few minutes a couple times and enjoyed to parade of people and animals as well as the birds wheeling overhead.

The Year's End 12-31-15

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!
So it's goodbye 2015 and welcome 2016.  We hope all of our friends and family will have a safe and sane New Years celebration.  We wish you health and happiness for the new year.
Ours was a quiet day followed by dinner at one of our favorite restaurants here in the 19th arr., La Laumiere.   They specialize in seafood and are in the top 1000 restaurants in Paris, not an insignificant feat in a city with over 12000 documented restaurants.  We have gone there ourselves and with our guests and each time the welcome and treatment by the staff have been exceptional.
But today I got out and did a little year end shopping while Deb did a bit of maintenance to the apartment.  We still have 2 months before we return the U.S. so letting things run down is not really an option.  Today was a few bottles of wine, a little fruit, and a box of tea.

Our dinner reservation was a lesson in French and American diplomacy, in order to make a reservation we could go to the website and reserve a table with a deposit equal to half the price of the dinner.  This was two weeks ago.  Of course our credit card won't work here even though we have a chip because we don't also have the 4-digit code to finish the transaction, ours requires a signature.  So I decided to go in person and make the reservation, figuring I could have them charge my card and I could sign right there.  So I walked in and told the maitre'd that we would like a reservation, he asked for my card which I gave him but when he heard I'd need to sign the receipt he said it wouldn't work on the reservation, so I offered cash; nope.  In the end he just said, I'll just make the reservation and don't worry about the deposit and smiled.   I assured him that we would be in the restaurant without fail, he laughed and said no problem.  Damned nasty French attitudes!
Since our dinner reservation wasn't until 8:30 we had all afternoon to kick back and anticipate our dinner.


So we spent the afternoon with a bottle of Taittinger "Prestige Rose" and a bit of reflection of the past year.  So much has gone on for us, so many new opportunities and experiences.   A cold and windy early spring, followed by early flowers. So many visitors that the summer virtually flew by.  A bright and cool fall followed by a, thus far, cool and relatively dry early winter.  
We have one more planned trip, to Sicily, in January for a bit of the sunny south.  Then February comes and we're down to weeks.  Doesn't your heart go out to us, with only two months left?  More time than most people would get to spend on a trip anywhere, in their lifetime?   In the meantime we'll keep you up to date on all our adventures and hope that you get enjoyment from our musings.

The Musee d'Archeologie Nationale 12-30-15

Today was our return trip out to St. Germaine-en-Laye, our first trip was to the atelier of Maurice Dennis.  When we went the first time we really enjoyed the town and we used the national archeological museum as an excuse to return.


It is housed in a chateau reconstructed by Francois I in 1539 repairing an earlier reconstruction by Charles V after the Black Prince burned it in 1347.  So it is pure Renaissance except for the chapel which was built as a prototype for Saint Chapel in Paris.  It was also the first resting place for the "Crown of Thorns" relic before that was moved to Saint Chapel.
The museum is not terribly large but it has marvelous exhibits of  relics from prehistory up through the middle ages.  It covers the cave art, paleolithic, bronze, and iron age eras with objects of art and domestic usage as well as weaponry.

One outstanding piece is considered to be the earliest portrait of a woman in existence, from 22000 bc, The "woman from Brassempouy".   Less than 2" tall it is exquisite.



 Each epoch grouped together so that a person can "walk" through history by moving from room to room.  It ends with a series of videos that highlight various digs that have been undertaken by the museum throughout France.

Two Days of Bridges 12-28,12-29-15

The last two days have been spent pursuing one of Deb's pet projects, that of walking across all the bridges in Paris.  There are reputed to be 37 bridges in Paris proper, but I'm sure it includes some metro/railway bridges.  Those can't be walked across without incurring some wrath on the part of the local authorities.  Up to two days ago we'd walked across almost all the bridges in the central area, although there are two yet to be conquered.   But we also had a passel of them out on the edges waiting for us to wander across, so yesterday and the day before we made it a priority.   There were a couple of other attractions for us that were conveniently close to the areas, so we decided to visit them and make a tour of the bridges close by.

On Monday we went to an area in the southeast corner called Bercy, to a series of reclaimed wine warehouse buildings that have been converted into shops and restaurants, it's quite charming if somewhat devoid of the feel of the wine warehouses.  
And somewhat like Larimer Square in Denver it's surrounded by modern buildings.  It does have some relief in the form of a park directly to the north which gives some green space on one edge.  So we wandered through the village and into the park. About mid-park a street leading to one of the unconquered bridges crosses the park and the Seine so we exited and walked across the bridge.  
The Pont de Tolbiac is a modern bridge without much character but that's not the point. From there we walked in a little green space next to the river up to the Pont Simone de Beauvoir.  This green space borders the Bibliotheque Nationale de France which consists of four large towers surrounding a sunken courtyard.  It is quite controversial due to it's architecture and is either loved or hated by the Parisians, no middle ground.  
At the northern end of the bibliotheque is the pont Simone de Beauvoir and it is a beautiful pedestrian bridge, much like a braided strand it has an interwoven span that allows one to walk to either from quay to quay or from the raised edge of the plaza of the bibliotheque to an embankment above the roadway next to the Seine. Or you can walk from the lower to higher or vice versa, it is one of the most beautiful bridges in Paris in my opinion. So we walked across it twice, lower to upper and then upper to lower.

Again we walked along the quay down the Seine to the Pont de Bercy.  It is a combination bridge allowing cars and pedestrians as well as an elevated train bridge across the river, done in a partial Romanesque style it is also a lovely bridge.   
It was getting later in the day when we crossed so we didn't pause too much but pushed on down the river along the opposite quay to the Pont Charles De Gaulle another modern bridge modern but without much visual charm.  That put an end to our day and we caught our Metro back to the apartment.

Yesterday, Tuesday, I had a dentist appointment that took us up into the northwest of town to the 17th arr. After the appointment we decided that we would notch up some of the bridges in the south west of the city which were as yet un-defiled.  But first we took time to go for lunch at a restaurant we had found a few months back near the dentist office.  Coincidentally it is near an apartment which we used during one of our exchanges several years ago.  It is called la p'tite Cuisine, on rue Poncelet and it is definitely a keeper.  Both Deb and I had salads for a first course, very fresh and palate cleansing, followed by a blanquette de veau for Deb, while I had a risotto with crevettes and cepes. After our first visit we agreed we should come back and this second visit only reaffirmed our decision, it was delicious.  We shared a pichet of white wine from Quincey which matched delightfully with our dishes.

Following lunch we walked through the 16th arr. down to Place du Trocadero opposite the Tour Eiffel.  It was a madhouse!  It was almost as crowded as if it were summer, I kind of forgot that it's the Christmas break and people from everywhere must have descended on Paris for the holidays. Hard to reconcile the two distinctly different scenes I've recently observed, right after the attacks here in November, there were less than 100 people below the tower and today there must have been close to 1000, like summer.   Luckily our goal was to walk across the Pont d'Iena which is what we did and then took a hard right away from the crush of people and along the quay.  We saw a minimum of ten 3-cup shell games going and people were being fleeced like lambs while the shills watched for the flics.  
We in the meantime walked down to the Pont Bir-Hakeim, it is another of the older bridges that were created to accommodate cars, pedestrians, and trains on an elevated track again a visually lovely bridge.  
We walked across and then turned around and walked halfway back on the opposite side of the bridge to a stairway leading down to an island in the middle of  the river.  
It is called the Allee des Cygnes, and it is basically a build up barrier separating the left from the right bank of the Seine, likely to facilitate barge traffic.  But down the middle of it is a paved walkway that goes from the Pont Bir-Hakeim to the Pont de Grenelle.  Probably about a quarter mile long it with at it's lower end one of the scale models of the statue of Liberty, which in full scale also graces New York harbor.  We walked along the allee then sat and watched the barges and Bateaux Mouches plying their way along the river.  
We spent a few minutes admiring the statue of Liberty then caught the bus back for the apartment.

So we managed 6 new bridges in the last two days and it leaves us with less than 5 to reach Deb's goal of walking them all.

An Evening with Good Friends 12-27-15

Today was another lovely December day and we didn't waste it.  We have friends coming over in the evening, Woody and Georgia Garnsey.  They are over in Paris with their family; children and grand-children, seeing the best that Paris has to offer at the Christmas season.  But tonight we get them all to ourselves.
We'd been shopping a couple days ago in preparation so Deb's menu didn't require her to go all out in the kitchen preparing something exotic.  Instead we decided that many small offerings would be more suited to the occasion.  A kind of Paris tapas buffet, with many of the treasures of the 19th that are not apparent to citizens of the other arrondissements.   Although, we were in a bicycle shop a few days ago and talking with a young floor person and he mentioned that he lives up here, quite close actually.  So he knew about our cheese shop and some of the other attractions of the area.
But I digress, earlier in the day we left the apartment and walked over to the Parc des Buttes Chaumont to get a little sunshine, fresh air, and exercise.  We took books and read for a while then finished up with a walk around the perimeter of the park.  We know our north end of the park pretty well and even the middle, but we'd never really walked all the way to the southern borders of the park.
  It was very interesting in that there are two buttes (amazing) in the southeastern corner that may actually be the highest points in the park.  They are hidden somewhat by the trees and the curvature of the eastern border.  From the tops there are some very nice views of the city between some of the high buildings, for example Sacre Coeur and the top of the Eiffel Tower.
On the way around we came across some wild parrots roosting in our trees, until today we've only seen them in the forest and down at the south edge of the city.

Getting back to the apartment around 3:00 we (read Deb) finished preparations for our guests, who were due at 5:00.   I walked over to the Metro entrance to meet them and within probably 3 minutes of my arrival they came popping out of the entrance, perfect timing.
We walked back to the apartment to a beautifully presented table thanks to Deb.  After a champagne aperitif and we set to work on the goodies.  Cheeses, escargot, sausages, foie gras, did I mentions champagne?, olives, pates, and cornichons it went on that way for a couple hours with great conversation and many laughs.  Great conversation about previous trials and triumphs in our various travels and towards the end some of the unassuming french dessert treats, macarons, and a frozen buche de noel.  We finished with just a drop of the Armagnac, Calvados, and Angelique (like green Chartreuse).  About 10:30 we all hit the wall, so I walked them back to the Metro and we made plans to meet again in Denver when we return.   Such a satisfying day for us, thanks Woody and Georgia you helped make our holiday season complete.

Boxing Day 12-26-15

Quite a lovely day today, we got out for a walk along our canal.  We walked down to the Rotonde at Stalingrad and then back to the apartment.  We did find a new organic grocery which looks very promising for our shopping so now we have two within easy walking distance.

As we were crossing the canal I noticed that someone had taken the time to chalk a design on the concrete parapet of the stairway and it was very pretty, also a fair amount of work.

Also in my reading I found that Pierre and Marie Curie had conducted much of their research on Radium and radioactivity at a facility in Aubervilliers, which is a suburb probably 2 kilometers from here. That might help explain why we found that she had lived about 10 minutes away from us on Avenue Jean Jaures.  I've been pondering why she would have lived up here virtually since we arrived and now at least I have an idea.