Barbara Cooley's Paris Journal 2008

Paris Journal 2008

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Yesterday evening, we went for a walk on the peaceful Allée des Cygnes, stopping on the way home for a delicious dinner at Oh Duo. (See restaurant recommendations.)

Madame Valero at the restaurant recognized us immediately, greeted us warmly, asked about hurricanes in Florida (there are none, thankfully), and noticed my Obama button with a smile. I gave her a thumbs up, and Tom gave her a friendly fist bump.

A new item this year on the menu is a special, three-course fixed price dinner for only €21. There are no choices with this menu. It consists of a starter course of goat cheese in a flaky pastry, accompanied by a little salad of mixed greens in a light vinaigrette. The main course is Scottish salmon, poached perfectly, with a potato purée. The dessert is Tom’s favorite: a fine little apple tart with a bit of carmelized topping. So, of course, Tom had to order this dinner.

My starter course was a Carpaccio of cold, smoked haddock, accompanied by thin slices of pear and a nice little shredded spinach salad with a flavorful vinaigrette. The three or four main flavors present were powerful and complimentary, making this dish actually pretty exciting.

The special of the day was magret de canard (duck breast) prepared with tiny figs and homemade pasta with a light cream sauce. That’s what I simply had to order. The cost for my two courses was €26.

I did not order dessert, but I sure enjoyed watching Tom eat his.

During dinner, Monsieur Valero came out just to greet us and to shake hands.

Walking home, we noticed that the weather was just a bit cooler. The whole evening was Paris perfect. Great weather for walking, nice scenery, and delicious food.

When we arrived home, my little cell phone (which I don’t carry often enough) was beeping. Somebody had called me! There was no voicemail, but the number of the missed call was there, so I called it back. The ensuing conversation went like this, in English:

Me: Hello, this is Barbara Cooley. Did someone at this number try to call me?

Other person, a woman with a deep voice and a thick French accent: Uh, yeah. I would like to talk with another people.

Me: Oh, you dialed the wrong number?

Other person: Uh, yeah.

Me: That’s okay. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Her use of the word “people” instead of “person” is puzzling, because “personne” is a commonly used word in French.

Oh well. This short conversation makes me feel better about my slow, hesitating French.

Back to the Allée des Cygnes . . . .

All of the grass, such as it is, has been sprayed and killed on the Allée. This, we think, means that the lovely island is about to get a long-overdue landscaping job. We love the trees on the Allée, and the location away from automobile traffic. But the weeds and grass are an unusual exception to the rule for Paris parks. Paris parks are generally beautiful gardens that are impeccably maintained.

As far as I can tell, there is no water/plumbing on the Allée. This is probably why there are no gardens on it. That would also explain why so many of the Allée’s trees sickened, and some died, in the heat wave of 2003. Some new trees were planted in the aftermath of that deadly summer, and they have lived, probably because a watering truck has visited them often enough.

I’m thrilled at the prospect of green grass and flowers on the Allée. And maybe there will even be a drinking fountain and restrooms down at the end of the island where the stunning Statue of Liberty stands. Oh, and there could even be trash receptacles! Wouldn’t that be grand?

Of course such landscaping work would not take place in July or August. But maybe it could start in September. We shall see.

I remember that when Jean-Pierre and I were talking about everything we love about Paris as we rode in his taxi into the elegant 16^th arrondissement, we both emphatically stated that Paris has so many trees for a big, busy city. Jean-Pierre said he cannot understand why so many people say Paris doesn’t have any trees. That’s just nonsense. People who say that haven’t been to Paris’s many parks, tree-lined avenues and boulevards, and places like the Allée des Cygnes.

In fact, there are so many trees in the Champ de Mars that much of it is useless for watching the Bastille Day fireworks. Much of the Tuileries is a regimented forest, except for the sculpture garden up near the Louvre. The Luxembourg gardens is a veritable arboretum. It would be difficult to find many parks in the world with more beautiful trees than the park at Bercy.

Any helicopter view of Paris reveals trees everywhere. There are neighborhood parks with rows of mature, manicured chestnut trees scattered generously throughout the city. We have such a park just down the street from us, on the rue du Commerce.

A paper published by the International Symposium on Urban Tree Health, by J.L. Clement, G. Burban, C. Lohou, J.L. Leca, and M. Jequel, tells us that Paris trees do have a problem, and they need our help with it. The problem is underground termites of the Reticulitermes genus. According to the paper, these bugs:

“are found in buildings in several urban areas in France. Recently these insects have begun to attack trees in Paris. This paper describes a joint effort to control this problem by the Paris City Council, the CNRS [National Center for Scientific Research in France], and the DowElanco Company. A technique was successfully developed and used to exterminate termites and protect urban trees which constitute a precious part of the Parisian heritage. The technique is completely safe for the population and the environment.”

You can read the full text of the paper online at

http://www.actahort.org/members/showpdf?booknrarnr=496_20 .