Paris, 17 April 2012

The weather today was not good, not good at all.  Wind, rain and a high of eight degrees.  What is there to do in such conditions?  Well, how about a visit to a book-store followed by a leisurely lunch?

The wonderful complex of bookshops, Gibert Joseph, is located on the left bank of the Seine in the heart of the university precinct or Latin Quarter. The main book shop  is five stories of wall to wall books.   Every time we have visited there it has been full of people buying everything from the most serious books to hard-bound "comic" books which, by the way, can be very sophisticated. The French are great readers and seem to be able to read almost anywhere.

Gibert Joseph

After a long browse and some purchases we wandered down to the dozens of restaurants that are found near Place Michel.  A pleasant three course lunch with a starter, main course and desert cost ten euros. 

After lunch with the rain steadily increasing and the temperature dropping we caught the bus back to Montmartre and home where we enjoyed coffee and a quiet afternoon.  In the apartment, we have a nice flatscreen television with access to the BBC, Sky News, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg and CNBC.  All the news at the moment seems to be about the Norwegian mass murder and we have had detailed coverage of the first day from inside the court room.  Today was the second day and coverage was more restricted.  We were wondering if the Norwegian case is covered in such detail in Australia and in the United States.

Paris, 16 April 2012

place de la Concorde

Monday morning and we have been here a week.  So, what did we do this morning?  We got up.  Now stop laughing.  It has taken a while, but we have gotten into the swing of things here.  Get up, have your croissant and grand creme and then do your shopping in a leisurely way.  That is exactly what we did this morning.  After all, we discovered we were out of Roquefort cheese and that is one of the basic food groups in our Paris household.

After lunch we went to a brilliant Modigliani exhibition at the Pinacotheque de Paris in the Place de la Madeleine.

Advertisement for the Exhibition

Modigliani is a fascinating figure. His use of drink and drugs from about 1914 onward may have been his way of masking the symptoms of his advanced tuberculosis.  A social creature,he sought the company of artists such as Utrillo and Soutine, both of whose work is on display at the exhibition. In late 1917 he had his first and only one-man exhibition.  His nudes so scandalised the Paris police chief that the exhibition was closed within hours of its opening.

The work which made the greatest impression on Bruce is called Fillette en bleu (1918).

Fillette en bleu

After some time at the gallery we wandered around the Place de la Madeleine looking at all the places where the rich and famous dine and purchase their chocolates and caviar such as Fauchon, Hediard and Cafe Prunier. We finished the afternoon with a stroll down the rue Royale, looking into the windows of Dior, Gucci and all of the big name shops.  Then past Maxim's to Concorde and on to the Metro and home.

Fauchon

Hediard

Prunier

Maxim's

Paris, 15 April 2012

Sunday is a family day when people get together for a meal.  Lots of little shops and markets cater for this. It is actually quite a busy time for the bistros and the cafes where groups often arrive at around 10.00 in the morning and don't finish until 3.00 PM.

We went down to our local market, but it was nothing compared to the one we visited yesterday. In our garden in Hobart we have two lilac bushes which we have nurtured for several years but they never produce more than a couple of blooms.  In our local market today there were a number of Gypsys with arms full of lilacs for sale.  We always wonder where they come from, but we buy them anyway.  Today we bought two bunches for five euros which look like this.

Lilacs

Their magnificent perfume will fill the flat for several days.  We are looking forward to the mugets or Lily of the Valley which should be on sale in just a few weeks.

It was cold here today with the temperature struggling to reach eight degrees.

Paris, 14 April 2012

We've noticed over the past few days, as well as on previous visits, that the French seem to have a love affair with fast food.  But being French, their definition of fast food goes well beyond MacDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Because most kitchens in their apartments have little more than a small refrigerator, a two burner cooker and a microwave, it is difficult, if not impossible, to make anything very complicated. Therefore, take-away, takes on a whole new dimension. Not only are barbecued chickens and quiches available, there are roasted joints of beef and pork, even whole baby sucking pig.  Quiches, of course, there are in great variety, but there is also beouf bourginion, paella, curries and fish dishes.

A visit this morning to the market in Avenue President Wilson in the 16th arrondissment brought together all the sights, sounds and smells of baked goods, cooked foods and fresh fish as well as flowers from the many stalls.  Paris is a feast for the senses and the sense of smell is often overwhelming.

Cooked Meats

Paella

Fish Dishes

Escargots

Roasting Chicken, Beef and sucking Pig

Beouf Bourginion

Paris, 13 April 2012

We had a bit of a late start today, but when we finally got going we walked to the funicular and rode it to the top of Montmartre where one finds the Place du Tertre.  The "deaf" girls are still there trying to get you to sign a "petition" and give them some money (minimum 20 Euro).  It's amazing how well they understand when you tell them, in French, to "buzz off."  Nearby stands the man who is "supervising."  While he may not be prostituting the girls, the resemblance between him and a pimp is far from coincidental. 

We wound our way around the artists on the Place du Tertre to the Café Sabot Rouge where we like to sit and drink coffee as the world goes by.  Virginia has her Grand Creme and I have my Espresso.  Just across from us is probably the best silhouette cutter on the square.  This, of course, is our opinion, honed over several years of observation. Once he has his first customer and other passers-by stop to watch him, he has a steady trade.  Since it only takes him about five minutes to cut the silhouette, and the cost is twenty euros, one would have to think he does quite well. His skill is absolutely amazing.  With nothing but a scissors and his eyes he can produce a portrait so accurate that onlookers will burst into spontaneous applause.

The Silhouette Cutter

After lunch, we went our separate ways.  Bruce went to an exhibition to celebrate the 60th anniversary of that wonderful creation Babar the elephant while Virginia browsed the shops (well what could you expect with a new baby in the family?)

The Delightful Babar

After visiting the exhibition, Bruce wandered through the Tuillerie gardens near the Louvre and took pictures of that wonderful museum and monument.

The Louvre

It looks as if spring may finally have arrived.  We noticed our neighbours proudly replanting their garden which consists of two window boxes.

Spring is in the air

Paris, 12 April 2012

No matter where you go in the world, you always have dirty laundry. We are extraordinarily fortunate that in this flat we have a wonderful Whirlpool (remember, "Guess whose Mum has a Whirlpool") washing machine with a fantastic 1500 per minute spin cycle. As a result, hanging overnight is usually sufficient to dry them completely.

Once we had done our morning chores, we set out to go to Place Saint Michel. We caught the Number 85 bus which wends its way through some of the most scenic and intriguing areas of Paris. The trip takes about 45 minutes to an hour depending on traffic, a journey which taken on the metro would be about fifteen minutes - but without the views. We wandered down to Shakespeare and Co., perhaps the most famous English bookstore in Paris, and then strolled back to the Île de la Cité, an island in the middle of the Seine.

Inside Shakespeare and Co.

Here, we made our way to the place Dauphine. This is a seriously classy section of the city. The triangular Place Dauphine is the second oldest royal square after the place des Vosges and dates from the first decade of the seventeenth century. It is named for the Dauphine, later Louis XIII whose statue can be found at the "pointy end."

The Dauphine

Knowing we probably could not afford the prices at the restaurants there, we picked up a baguette elsewhere and sat on the benches in the square with our picnic lunch enjoying the view. And what a view it is, some of the most picturesque old buildings in Paris.

Then it was back to Place Saint Michel to wander through the alleyways around the Sorbonne. Here, one can find good food at prices that are nothing short of phenomenal. A three course lunch will cost you about ten euro or about $15. But, of course, that doesn't include wine.

Beat that price, if you can!

Since we are going to Bourdeaux in a few weeks, we wanted to check out the place of departure, Gare Montparnasse. Back on a bus - this time Number 96 - which went through some of the swish neighbourhoods on its way to the station. It turned out to be an easy place to get around in , and we found the platform from which our train will depart. Hopefully we will have less trouble than the Granville-Paris express in 1895.

Granville–Paris Express wreck on 22 October 1895. The original Gare de l'Ouest name of the station is visible on the outside of the building.

A long underground hike took us to the Metro where we could catch the Number 12 which had us home in just over 30 minutes.

Paris, 11 April 2012

Today we decided to have our morning coffee at one of the great Paris Institutions, the Angelina tearoom.
 

Named by the Austrian confectioner, Antoine Rumpelmayer, after his daughter in law, the tearoom opened in 1903. Over the years one might find among its clientèle the Parisian aristocracy as well as designers like Coco Chanel and the writer Marcel Proust. It is located at 226 rue de Rivoli, opposite the Tuileries Garden.

Inside Angelina

The Belle Epoque décor combines elegance, charm and refinement. It is easily compared with Café Florian in Venice and the Café Mozart in Vienna. Here we enjoyed coffee and macarons.

Macarons

The Tuileries is Paris' oldest and most lavish garden. Its royal roots stretch to the 16th century, when Marie de Medicis commissioned a palace behind the Louvre. Henry IV and Louis XIV would pursue construction and the palace housed the last monarchs of France, until it was burned down in 1871. The elaborate royal gardens remained.

Today, the symmetrical gardens are the starting point of a walk from the Louvre to the Champs-Elysées, forming what is referred to as the "triumphant line". The gardens feature sculptures by Rodin and Maillol.
Leaving Angelina Tearooms, we walked to W. H. Smith, the English book store on the rue de Rivoli.  On the way we saw something that we didn't understand, but which amused us and gave rise to some speculation.  As you can see, in the picture below, it appears that the police have stopped a woman riding a motor scooter.  On the back she has a clear perspex box in which a dog is sitting.  We wondered whether she had been pulled over on the basis that one cannot have a dog riding as a pillion passenger.

The dog on the motor scooter

And purely as an aside, when we got to W.H. Smith, we were able to get our Vegemite.  Oh Joy, Oh Bliss!!

In the afternoon our entertainment was of a different sort.  In the past we have talked about the way in which illegally parked cars are taken away.  People plead with the police, usually to no avail.  Today, however, we saw a successful plea.  As the police approached to  "ticket" a car, the owner opened the boot and removed a prayer rug.  Placing it immediately behind his vehicle, he fell to his knees and started praying.  The police waited, he prayed.  More waiting saw more prayer and the occasional raised eyes to check on the police.  Finally, the minions of the law left, the prayer rug was packed away and the successful supplicant got into his car and, ticket-less, drove off.

This is a "spectator sport," and an elderly woman, in an apartment across the way, exchanged amused looks and raised eyebrows with us. It may well have been a genuine act of prayer, but whatever the case he was saved a great deal of inconvenience and a substantial fine.