Paris Journal 2010 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com

Photos and thoughts about Paris

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Time flies! I was shocked this morning to realize it is the 13^th, and tomorrow is Quatorze Juillet, aka Bastille Day! There has been talk about cancelling the traditional military parade that we watch on TV every year. Reasons? Budget deficits and pollution. While I realize that these are good reasons, I would surely miss all those helicopter views of Paris, and racing from the TV to the kitchen window to see the military aircraft zoom overhead with blue, white, and red steam streaming behind them. We shall see. On va voir. Yesterday we received our first forwarded mail from Florida. Twelve days is what it seems to take for this service to unfold. And I am so pleased that all three of my wonderful siblings are following this journal. Mom and Dad may be, too, but they forget to let me know. I love them all very much, and think of them often. Yesterday evening, after working during the day, we went out for a pleasant walk down avenue Emile Zola, up rue Linois, past the Statue of Liberty, down the full length of the Allée des Cygnes, along the left bank of the river for a bit, down avenue Charles Floquet past elegant Hausmannian buildings along one side of the Champ de Mars, and down the avenue de la Motte-Picquet to 21 rue d’Ouessant to dine at Le Palais de Raja Maharaja (Tel. 01 43 06 50 39). Indian food seemed to be the right thing to consume, considering that it was Monday and many of the French restaurants were closed because the huge wholesale market outside Paris – Rungis – is closed on Monday. While Le Palais is not on the order of Banani, it does have one thing going for it: this is a place where you can get truly spicy, hot curry and korma sauces Most Indian restaurants in Paris have toned the spiciness way down to suit the delicate, sensitive French palate. On the whole, I like Banani better because it is more elegant and better generally. But when I really want hot and spicy, Le Palais is where I will go. One interesting discovery: Tom noticed on the menu that the onion bhaji appetizer was made with chick pea flour, not wheat flour. So we tried it. It was okay, but I like that dish at Banani much better. Papadums (or papads, or papadams) are also, evidently, not supposed to be made with wheat flour, but with lentil flour. How interesting. When we came home, we sat out on the balcony again as the light faded away. With my care, the balcony’s many plants seem to have survived the worst of the heat, which has mercifully gone away. It is humid now, but much cooler. Yesterday, there was no Tour de France stage. It was a day of rest. The riders really needed it after that grueling, treacherous, exciting and hot day in the Alps on Sunday. In the French news is, of course, that big story having to do with Liliane Bettencourt’s money perhaps going to fund Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign. The press tells us that Liliane is the richest woman in France, and that she also may be (or her staff may be) very adept at tax evasion. I’ve been following this complicated story with great interest, but I have no idea who is telling the truth. So Sarko’s ratings have been tanking, and a beneficiary of that seems to be Marine Le Pen, the daughter of the ultra-conservative politician of the same last name. One pol commented that Marine is better dressed and less vulgar than her father. Both characteristics will help her as a politician, I’m sure. The entire first five pages of Le Parisien yesterday were taken up by the World Cup, which finally ended on Sunday. Boring. A more interesting story followed, giving examples of the thousand or so different fares that can be charged by SNCF for essentially the same train ticket – just as is the case with airlines in the U.S. A French savings bank in the Loire region is in trouble for false advertising. They evidently promised depositors that they could double their money in six years. A family of four vacationing in the Garonne drowned when their canoe capsized. The heat, algae, and not wearing life vests all seemed to be factors in the tragedy. The father of the family is the son of a well-known army corps general who formerly headed up the prestigious cavalry school at Saumur. We usually see riders and horses from this school in the Bastille Day military parade. Six out of ten French people do not have any knowledge of emergency procedures such as CPR. A new bactericide has been invented in a laboratory north of Toulouse to help French hospitals fight the problem of rampant infections. Bluetoo is its name, and it is used to disinfect, clean, and deodorize. Le Parisien did include a 2/3 page story about the replacement of the cap on the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. The tone of the article is one of great concern. I guess they do care about us. And that’s the news from France. Sign my guestbook. View my guestbook.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010 Scenes from our walk down avenue Charles Floquet. ← Previous Next → Note: For addresses & phone numbers of restaurants in this journal, click here.