Paris Journal 2007

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Hollyhocks in front of the Eiffel tower. I don’t know why I took this photo of a dead fish floating in the Seine. Perhaps because it is not normal.

Wednesday, July 11 Two days ago, just before we met Alan and Deb for dinner at Le Tire Bouchon, Tom and I went for one of our favorite walks, down the avenue Félix Faure and through the Parc André Citroën. We wandered up and down, back and forth, throughout the entire park. Never have we seen it with so few people. The cool weather is the reason. This is a favorite hot-weather spot, in part because of the park’s dancing water fountain in which children are allowed to play (click here to see a web page with photo of the fountain at the bottom). The other reason is that the park offers many cool, shady places in its gardens along its two sides, especially the side to the northeast. That’s where we were when it started raining. We had our umbrellas, and we reached a protected place in an enchanted little forest, beneath a weeping cherry tree. What a beautiful, mesmerizing place! We had this wonderland to ourselves for a while. Alain Provost and Gilles Clément should be very proud of their design for this park. We saw Patricia again yesterday evening when we went over to pick up the key to that apartment. Two of her children came up to us to give us hugs and kisses! That was so sweet. They must understand that we are part of the reason they will have a vacation at the beach on Sanibel. Our friend Erhard writes from Stockholm where he and his wife Maree are staying for the summer. Their experience is very different because Maree has relatives there, and she is re-learning her native Swedish. Like us, however, they are protesting over-inflated European currency by refusing to eat out so often in restaurants. (Take that, European Commission!) The chicken dish I mentioned the other day turned out very well. I did “chicken out” on the use of butter, opting for olive oil instead. Some of the chicken went into the next day’s luncheon salad, made with mache (a very light, delicate lettuce that I dearly love and have difficulty finding in Florida), white peaches, and a lemon dressing. Check this out: mache, also known as lamb’s lettuce, is anti-stress, anti-fatigue and chock full of vitamins. Last night, I made a successful pasta dish with my own tomato sauce (involving much garlic) and merguez sausage. This sausage is popular in North Africa, and hence it is popular in France. This merguez was made with both lamb and beef, although merguez can be made with just one or the other. All merguez contains red chili peppers. (Did you know that all chili peppers came from South America originally? Not from Europe, and not from Africa.) Paprika and sumac are other important ingredients in merguez. It is a fine sausage, not a gross sausage, if you know what I mean. ←Previous Next→

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