Paris, October 2018

After a whirlwind time in Lincoln, back and forth to the Cape, home and family, we finally boarded our United flights to Newark and then to Paris. I’m not sure we’ll do that again, because Newark is much to busy a hub. Flights in and out were delayed and thus we were sitting around waiting because air traffic control had too much on their radar. Finally we boarded and all went well. Arrival at Charles De Gaulle was easy – though over one hour late, our bags were on the carrousel, a taxi was available, but then it was stop and go all the way out of the airport, through Paris and home.   As I always say, just reporting, not complaining…. And probably all of these are of little interest, but simply to say that by the time we arrived into our apartment we collapsed.

The weather has been good –sunny, warmish, and with a cool breeze. We made every effort to get into the sun to reset our internal clocks, but it has been difficult. Jetlagged we’ve been up most of the night and then sleeping in, or as one says in French, “J’ai fait la grasse matinee” (accent is missing). I’ve recently learned this expression thus felt compelled to slip it in! Jetlag has been so bad that we even missed our coveted market day on Saturday morning.  I did manage later in the day to go out a bit to buy some bread from our local bakery (Our neighbors had stocked our refrig with staples enough for a few days.  All we needed was bread). As you can see more than bread is sold here.

I resisted the other goodies and I didn’t want to look like a tourist taking photos of everything — as I waited on line for my bread. But when I was outside I couldn’t resist taking photo of these gigantic eclairs, filled I’m sure with delicious custard.  Figs are in season and can be seen here decorating the cake and tarts. This boulangerie/patisserie is quite small with little room inside for customers. By the time I had my bread and left, the line was out the door.

I walked along the sunnyside of the street and noticed for the first time the beautiful ironwork on this building which I’ve passed many times.

The blue door and the blue painted ironwork are unusual for Paris.  You can see from the shadows that it is late afternoon.

The next day we headed to the 11th for dinner with Sarah and Scott, our friends who bicycled from Paris to South Africa (Yes — that’s what they did taking other transportation to cross bodies of water such as the Dardanelles!).  They bicycle all over Paris without trepidation.  But for us, getting to the 11th was well out of our comfort zone, despite it being an up and coming arrondissement with new trendy restaurants — none of which we’ve tried. We went, however,  to try out a new Japanese vegan restaurant. (You read it right)… It took  45 minutes to get there — line #6 to Etoile and from there #2 , 21 stops to Courconnes.

Using the metro is easier than figuring out buses , just follow the arrows.  Walking and stairs are required, however.  Fortunately, despite our groans and moans, we can still manage.

We asked directions when we got out and walked about 7 minutes to the restaurant.  For the first time we saw shops that sell the garments for Moslem women.  One after the other — there were shops with head scarves, veils, long garments — hijabs. Some were quite elegant with sparkling embroidery.  (no photos taken)

The cuscine at Toutofu was delicious — the specialty being tofu (made on the premises), as well as noodles of rice and wheat.  We had lentils with tofu, and a noodle dish, but the best was the pancake of mushrooms and leeks.  We’d go back but it was too difficult and long to get there.  We circled back by metro in the opposite direction which was much better – thus we completed a huge loop around Paris that evening.  

Another form of transportation, new since we were here last, is the electric scooter accessed by scanning the barcode on the handle –and off you go.  Leave the scooter where ever you want, pick it up whenever you want.  Lots of people are using them.

We could have used one of these the next day.  It was Monday and we headed to Rue Cler to get provisions for a dinner we were planning — fresh pasta with real Parmagiano-Reggiano cheese.  I found a nice recipe for aglio olio, with slowly simmered sliced garlic in oil but I needed the real parmagiano to make it special.  The cheese shop we frequent is closed on Mondays, so we hoped to find one on Rue Cler.  We did,  but our fish store was closed and thus we headed to Picards for the frozen stuff — second best.  We got directions to the closest Picards (famous all over France), and when we finished our shopping, we had apparently lost track of how far we had walked from Rue Cler.  As navigator, I made a few turns here and there, and before we knew it we were lost!  Yikes… for the first time in many years — we were lost in Paris and not all that far from home (maybe a mile or so).  and in our own arrondissement.  I’d forgotten that the back streets between the boulevards here were pie-shaped and criss-crossed — down one does not lead directly to the next one.  Well — we discovered a number of lovely shops while we worked our way out of the maze.  This one was especially wonderful with bridal gowns, and ballet-like dresses for young girls.  Gorgeous!   By the time we reached home (having taken Bus #28 for the last bit) we walked over 3 miles.

Yesterday was George’s birthday.  We celebrated with our neighbors with a fun fun dinner at a new local restaurant.  But during the day we headed to Paris’ Lost and Found which is in the arrondissement next to ours (fortunately), the 15th.  It was a short bus ride to retrieve the wallet of a friend who had had his pocket picked when last in Paris more than a month ago.  The wallet was found, and he received an official letter giving him 3 months within which to claim it, along with instructions on how to do so.  We were armed with the necessary documents and with my passport in hand, we accomplished the task.  Just outside of the station house was a big park edged with this beautiful hedge with bright red berries — almost like a holly. 

Dinner with friends at night.  What a night — we laughed so so hard at one funny story after another.  But the funniest was this:   earlier our friend Caroline had written to suggest the perhaps George and I would like to have a night out ‘en amoureux’… I wrote back and said no… we’d love to go the 5 of us (all speak wonderful English, including their daughter).  So after we left the restaurant, and a bit giddy from the bottle of champagne we’d consumed, I said something about ‘en amoureux’ but my friend looked at me wondering what I was talking about.  It seems that the way I pronounced ‘amoureux’ it came out to mean ‘a codfish’.  Well, they couldn’t stop laughing and no matter what I did, I couldn’t get it right… “romantic time” turned into ‘a codfish”… I still can’t say it…. but I won’t stop trying. !!