The days are flying by now and we’ve less than a week left to enjoy our time here.  Much has happened since I last wrote — I’m not sure where to begin.  Probably the best place is what we did yesterday and then I’ll work my way back.   I’m going to give it a little theme… Armenian Happenings in Paris.

A couple of days ago when we were on our way to meet friends in the 13th for lunch, as we were coming down a very long flight of stairs from the elevated metro #6, George saw a young boy with a tee shirt that said, “ARMENIA”.  George yelled out, “Inch bes es?” which means ‘how are you?” The boy and the two men he was with turned and came toward us and what followed was fairly typical among Armenians on such a random meeting.  Conversation was in Armenian — they speak French but no English — Hellos — who are you? where are you from? What are you doing here?  How can we help you? Do you need anything?… and then, “You must come home with us, my wife will want to meet you.”   It is a good thing we had a lunch date, otherwise we would have been carried off to their home.  (Do you see any resemblances?)

We did go on to have a great time with our cyclist friends (they cylcled from Paris to South Africa). We ate outdoors, vegan food, and had nearly 3 hours of good conversation.  Now, getting back to the Armenian theme, there are a couple of good sources for Armenian food (made by Armenians in Paris) and sold in grocery shops.  One place is Hratchian Brothers, in the 9th, but it is a bit far for us.  Closer to home we found a Middle Eastern grocery that has delicious delicacies and excellent bread.

Apricot jelly from Armenia to die for, and lavash — lavash bread to rival the best.

Yesterday was April 24 — the day Armenians commemorate the Armenian Genocide.  It is the day that the Ottoman Turks rounded up 250 of our leaders — writers, poets, musicians, clergy, political thinkers, professors and leading businessmen and murdered them.   Gomidas, whose statue is below, was one of those arrested.  He was a priest, composer and ethno-musician who gathered Armenian songs from villages in the countryside and annotated them.  He was imprisoned, but not murdered.  He lost his mind, however, given what he saw and died in Paris where he is buried.  Every year the Armenian community of Paris gathers here, at his statue, for the April 24th commemoration.  Usually the President of France comes to address the crowd.  We’ve heard Holland and Sarkozy here, and we understand that Macron came last year.  Alas — he is in Washington, D.C. this week and so he will miss seeing us!

We are always amazed at the number of young people who come and the fact that they all speak Armenian.  (Those kids on the right are wearing tee shirts of famous Armenian soccer players. The one on the left is wearing a photo of an Armenian hero (from California)  who led the victories during the War of Independence of Karabagh and was killed there.

I approached the woman I’m photographed with above because she was holding a photo I wanted to ask her about.  We were talking and talking — and suddenly we looked at each other and both said, “I know you!”  And we did.  We hadn’t seen each other in a couple of years, but George and I have been working with her sister on a book about the French Foreign Legion and the Armenians who fought in it. She and her husband have a barge docked in the St. Maartin canal (10th) that is a venue of various types of performances — musicians, bands, ethnic music performances — with a cafe/bar. She lives in Paris.

Earlier when we first arrived we headed to the church (where we had never been) for the Armenian mass and there we met another long time friend whom we hadn’t seen in years.

People were swarming in from all sides and the crowd began to swell within the area roped off by the police.  I should add that the location for this event is on the banks of the Seine, in the 8th. and so it is quite beautiful all around.  We had arrived at 4 pm, gone to the church for an hour or so, and now back here at the event location which was to start at 6 p.m.  We knew from past years that the program would last more than an hour and would be mostly in French.  So — what do we do?  We went for dinner!

We know of a brassiere close by that is pretty good and so we went and enjoyed a glass of wine and a light supper with cassis sorbet for dessert. Then walked the short distance back to the event in time to join in the march to the Turkish Embassy.  Well — truth be told — we didn’t make it all the way and headed home on the bus #28 which we had taken to get there.

Our nephews have been here for several days and left yesterday for Normandy.  But, while here, I’ve learned a couple of things…. George and I had been wondering what the orange bikes were that we’ve been seeing around the neighborhood..

We have been seeing these bikes in random locations, without locks and have been wondering what they are.  Our nephew who lives in Berlin filled us in.  Unlike the bikes for rent by the city which are lined up in racks and are grey, these are a private venture.  They are accessed by an app, the code is given that opens the lock (there is one) and you can ride the bike for a small fee for 20 minutes.  Then,,, you just leave the bike where ever you are.  There are electric motor scooters, too, that operate in the same way.  They even have a helmet tucked into a compartment in the scooter.  

Backtracking here a bit in days I do want to give you a little bit more about Paris and what we’ve been doing.  The first day that our nephews were here (with a girlfriend, too) we went to one of our favorite restaurants — Le Récamier — on a side street closed to vehicles, not far from the Bon Marché (department store).  The specialty here is soufflé

We had made reservations but inside was tooo hot and we didn’t want to sit outside since there would be a good chance someone would start smoking and ruin our meal.  We were lucky and got seated between — a covered area where smoking was not allowed, but was not too hot either.   These are the main course soufflés –mushroom, spinach, chicken.  Then we had dessert…. yes, of course, dark chocolate soufflés.  Each soufflé is served with a extra of whatever you are having — one pokes a hole in the middle and pours the extra into it. These are truly decadent and over-the-top delicious.

Before we left owner and chef Gerard Idoux came out and was happy to have a photo taken with us all. We were feeling great having downed two bottles of excellent wine and eaten to our hearts content. 

It was too early to go home and decided to head to Le Marais (the 4th)  — the Jewish quarter of Paris before WWII.  The Shoah Museum is here, though small, is powerful especially as it is set in the Jewish quarter where much of the history recorded took place.   In addition, the memorial to the Martyrs de la Deportation — the 200,000 people deported by Vichy France to Nazi camps — is another site one shouldn’t miss when visiting Paris.  It is behind the Notre Dame and in what were once tombs, not too far from here.

Just as we got to Le Maris and I was pointing out the Pompidou we noticed a placard announcing a free concert at 4 p.m. in the church we were standing in front.  We went in and had a cool one hour of wonderful music — Brahms, Beethoven and Debussy — piano and violin of extraordinary quality.  By the time we finished and walked a bit more, our group was hungry.  We opted for an outdoor cafe, hamburgers (fish burgers for us) before heading home, a light rain falling.  

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