TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2008

We had our first visit with friends today. Gabrielle Forrest and her daughter, Claire Caines, are in Paris for a week and we arranged to meet them for lunch. Gabrielle, for those of you who know Millburn, is a retired secretary for the public schools and a member of the Millburn Retired Educators. She has been to Paris many times and enjoys coming back. We met them at their hotel and Claire suggested the restaurant at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs which is located next to the Jardin du Carrousel which in turn is next to the Musée du Louvre. The restaurant is called le Saut du Loup which literally means the jump, or leap, of the wolf. It is a very modern style room, but we ate out on the terrace which had marvelous views of the gardens, the Louvre, and even the Eiffel Tower.The menu was very upscale and we enjoyed our lunch. Below is a photo of Alexandria, Claire, and Gabrielle. Also, a view of the gardens.

Before leaving the restaurant, we visited "les toilettes". Have you ever seen a square toilet?



We went into the book store of the museum where we found many books on decorative arts and the also had a large room with all kinds pottery, place settings, vases in modern design. We even would have loved to buy the chair pictured below but it wouldn't have fit in our luggage.



We parted company after the book store and everyone agreed that we had a wonderful lunch and that we enjoyed the company. We wished Gabrielle and Claire a wonderful rest of the week in Paris.

We had a terrible time with buses today. Our #29 bus was "perturbed" due to all kinds of construction and heavy traffic in the Marais. We discovered another, the #20, which was almost as good. This morning, the traffic on the ave Daumesnil was very heavy and slow. Going to lunch, it took over an hour to do a normally 1/2 hour trip. And that was with a very severe detour. The Parisians seem to roll with the punches when the buses are a problem. Since we ate out at noon, we had a light supper in the evening.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15. 2008

We started the day out with nice weather. Lots of sun, but still a bit cool.

We decided to do another concert this afternoon. This one, also, was at the Madeleine. They have three or four concerts there each week. Today's group was the Motettenchor der Technischen Universitat Chemnitz, Germany, conducted by Peter Krone. They did some orchestral pieces, Nathalia Krone, the conductor's daughter we think, sang several solos including a marvelous Missa for one voice by the French composer Jean Langlais. The chorus sang a number of pieces by Mozart, Saint-Saens, Mendelssohn, and Faure. It was a wonderful concert. The chorus and orchestra sang and played very well. But the star of the afternoon was Natalia. She had a very rich mezzo voice that she used to full effect in the Missa.

After the concert we walked to the bus stop and back to our apartment for an evening in.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2008

Today marks the end of four weeks here in Paris. Time is flying by and we are still finding many things to do, excluding laundry and shopping. So many things to see. For instance today we came across a Smart car (a very compact two-seater produced by the Mercedes company and recently introduced in the US) that had parked on a wide boulevard. The space was too small to parallel park so the driver backed into the space. See the picture below. And it fit well. Only in Paris!

Today in the afternoon, we went to a concert at the Madeleine church.

It was a choral concert given by the Choir of the Basilica in Hulst, the Netherlands. They did a very interesting program of choral works, including some that we knew: Mozart, Elgar, Liszt, Purcell and Faure. The singing was very good by the group. There was also a soprano soloist who was superb. The church sponsors many concerts each month, some orchestral, some choral, some soloists (instrumental and vocal).

After the concert we went for a walk before returning to the apartment. We made use of the public toilets at the place de la Madeleine. They are quite exquisite for what they are.

We also passed by a Catholic church that we think was Polish since there was a sign posted on the outside welcoming the Pope to Paris. (Did you know he spent the past four days in France?)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2008

No laundry, no shopping. It does happen every few days. After a late breakfast, we went off to a very fine museum. It is called the Carnavalet and it is located in the Marais not far from the place des Vosges. The museum was a luxury town house of the 16th century, with a typical French center courtyard, and was once home of Madame de Sevigny,who wrote detailed letters to her daughter that tell of Parisian life in the late 17th century. It is the museum of the city of Paris and has exhibitions about the history and culture of the city.

We didn't visit the whole museum since there is so much to see that we limited ourselves to only a few of the sections. The fact that the museum is free allows one to revisit many times. One of the exhibitions we enjoyed particularly was a series of cartoons by the cartoonist, painter, and sculptor Honore Daumier. The cartoons, maybe fifty in all, all dealt with the summer heat and swimming.

There is also a room that has a number of scale models of various neighborhoods and monuments of Paris dating from before 1900. In the same room there were models of old trams, street signs, etc.





Finally, we went out into the gardens which are beautifully done in typical French garden style. The rose bushes were exceptional.






In the evening we went to a very nice small bistrot near the place de la Bastille. It barely had fifteen tables and there were just two men working the front, the boss and an assistant. The meal was lovely, but the service was a little slow since it was one of the first Saturdays after thye summer holidays and people came out in droves. We were there from about 8 pm and left after 10. When we left all of the tables were full, many diners having come in after 9:30. The restaurant was le Bistrot de l'oulette on the rue de Tournelles. They have a bigger, fancier one elsewhere in Paris.

A long day but a good one.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2008

A nothing special day. The usual routines. We even dined in this evening.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2008

This morning was a bit more laundry and a bit more shopping. It can take three loads of washing here to equal one at home and it is much slower here.

This afternoon, we went up to the area near the Gare Montparnasse, more specifically the avenue du Maine. This is the station that services the western part of the country, notably Brittany. We took the bus there because there was a street "brocante" exhibition. The term translates as second hand or even junk. In fact, there were quite a few antiques dealers there as well as second hand stuff. Used books, old postcards, used kitchen equipment, used silverware, old dishes, etc. We spent about 1 1/2 hours there. To attract families, there was a merry-go-round for little kids, They really enjoyed the rides.

We saw some very interesting items that we would love to have if we were furnishing our own apartment in Paris. Oh, well, maybe one day!

On the way back we passed by the Gare de Lyon near our place. We noticed a very interesting reflexion of the clock tower of the station in an adjoining all glass building. Compare this to the same tower at night.













After dinner in (Alexandria made another one of her delicious lasagnas), we went back to the Gare de Lyon where we sat and had tea and hot chocolate and people-watched. It's amazing to see such a variety of people there.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

A special day today. It's Erwin's birthday. We had timed our stay here so that we would be here for both birthdays. In spite of the day, we still had some laundry to do and a bit of shopping. Afterwards, we went over to the L'Europeen across from the Gare de Lyon. It is one of our favorite places to sit because there are so many interesting people going by. Even the waiter was a bit bizarre, a bit busy and not too well-organized. If you look carefully, you can see Alexandria in the shade next to the potted tree.

The day was a lovely one with lots of sun and a coolish breeze. We went back to the apartment and relaxed for a while before getting ready to go out to dinner.

We had chosen a restaurant that we had wanted to try on an earlier trip here, but they were fully booked for the days we wanted. This time I called on the first day of September, their first day back from summer vacation, and we had no problem.

The restaurant is called "Benoit" and it is near the Paris town hall, It was recently taken over by a chef named Alain Ducasse who is well-known with several fine restaurants in Paris, Monaco, and very recently one New York. It is also called Benoit and only opened in April of this year. The one we went to was owned and run by the same family for almost 100 years. They sold it to Ducasse in 2005.

The restaurant is a very fine example of the typical Parisian bistrot with the banquettes, and spaces behind them for a coat or a package held in by a brass rail. We were seated in a small room with about 10 tables in the corner next to the window. We thought the best table in the room. By the time the tables filled, we noticed that all but one table had English speaking guests. I asked the waiter if we were in the English-speaking room and he told me that there were only a few tables in the entire restaurant that had French speakers. Maybe the French can't afford this type of restaurant, or maybe they eat out more at noon. The items on the menu were not cheap but the food was very good. We had a champagne cocktail as an aperitif. Alexandria started with escargots followed by a fine piece of turbot. I had some excellent foie gras de canard followed by one of the house specialities, the cassoulet. This is a dish with duck (or sometimes goose), pork, sausage, baked in a casserole with white beans. It is really good, but very filling. I ate all the meat and had two servings of the beans with some still left in the casserole. We shared profiteroles for dessert followed by espresso (decaf) and little gourmandises, chocolates and madelaine's. We also enjoyed a half bottle if Saint Joseph, a red wine from Burgundy. We chatted for a while with two women from Chicago and experiences and ideas of things to do and see. We had arrived at 8 pm and didn't leave Benoit until about 10:30.

The only bad part about the evening was we went to several taxi stands (in Paris, you don't normally hail cabs, you go to designated taxi stands) and at each one there were cabs standing but no drivers. We waited but no drivers showed up. We took the Metro back to the apartment which did involve a bit of underground walking and stairs. Other than that, a perfect evening.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2008

Today, we went into the Marais area of Paris. It is on the right bank to the west and north of the place de la Bastille. We have been there on numerous occasions, but we wanted to walk a bit and then at 3 pm, we went to a cafe across from the town hall of the 3rd arrondissement. The first Tuesday of the month, a group of ex-pats, renters like us, and other anglophiles gets together for an afternoon of conversation. It is sponsored by Parler Paris which I have mentioned before. We met some nice people and talked a bit to one couple who bought an apartment here several years ago but only use it a few months of the year. They are interested in renting it so we may go and see it on Saturday..

After the meeting, we went around the corner to a hair dresser (coiffeur) and made an appointment for Alexandria. The place was recommended by someone we had met here. We'll let you know all about it in a few weeks time when she goes.

We walked through the neighborhood back to the bus. When we got home, we found that the gas had not yet been turned back on and wouldn't be until Wednesday morning. This being one of our days to cook in, we had to go out to another neighborhood restaurant called Le Square Trousseau, only a few blocks away. We sat out on the terrace and had a very lovely meal. We had eaten there several years ago and it seemed a bit more pricey than it was then. We did enjoy seeing all the locals out with their dogs for the evening.