Paris Journal 2009 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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Like many big
cities, Paris has big prices. The
butcher down the street, for example, charges a whopping 11 euros per kilo
for a roasted chicken. So a chicken
that weighs only about 4.5 pounds is going to cost you over 22 euros, or over
$30. So I don’t buy
my roasted chickens from the butcher down the street. Instead, I buy them at Ed (pronouced eh-day), the deep-discount grocery
owned by Carrefour, for a little over 4 euros, or about $5.75. That’s more like what I’m used to paying. A wonderful
thing about Paris is that there are discount groceries like Ed and Champion
(even Monoprix is sort-of discount) all over the city, even in the middle of
the city. That’s not true
in Manhattan. And I think it isn’t
true in London and most other world-class big cities. We make
breakfast and lunch at home in the apartment, because we are at home, working
at the computers during the day. So
even though we eat out just about every evening, we do need to do some weekly
grocery shopping. It is very
convenient, even though we don’t have a car.
We have a little duffle-bag size cart on wheels that we roll down the
street to Ed. It isn’t even a block
away. If we go at about 3PM, after
working, the store is not crowded and the re-stocking has been
completed. It is almost peaceful. In the store,
we use the little cart as our shopping cart, emptying it at the cashier, and
filling it back up again as the groceries are rung up. Prices are
wonderfully low, for a big city. At
Ed, we basically get everything we need for a week for about 50 euros, or
$70, not including wine. There are a
few items, like high-quality mayonnaise and chocolate that I buy elsewhere,
like Monoprix. For wine, I go
to the Nicolas store, only a block away, and can get a nice supply for the
week for $35 or so. A freshly baked traditional
baguette costs 1.15 euros (or $1.60) at the bakery down the street, but we
don’t buy one every day. We buy a
baguette maybe three times a week. There’s an
attractive fruit and vegetable store around the corner on the rue du
Commerce, but I generally don’t buy there because the food is arranged on
sloping tables right out on the sidewalk where large numbers of passersby are
talking, coughing, sneezing, etc., all day long. The shop allows customers to handle the
fruit, too. No matter how much I’d
wash the fruit, I’d be concerned about all the exposure it has had to nasty
germs. There is great
concern about swine flu expressed in the newspapers here. The fruit and
vegetables at Ed are also cheaper. And
they are certainly very, very good. This
year, we bought strawberries and peaches there that were out of this world,
they were so good. For lunch, I
usually make a salad. I try to be
inventive, and I make my own dressings.
Yesterday, I made a Thai chicken salad with lots of fresh Romaine, cashews,
chicken, diced tomato, and a dressing made by mixing Thai dipping sauce and
olive oil. It was exceptionally good. In the evening,
we went for a walk on the Allée des Cygnes.
A French woman stopped us to ask for directions. We answered her questions. I just love it when that happens!!! Then we called
l’Épopée for a dinner reservation, and stopped there on the way home for a
2-hour superb dining experience. Every time we
eat out, we say “merci” many times.
Basically, I say it every time something is served to me. When plates are removed, I say “merci”
again and make some compliment if the dish had been especially good. I say “merci”
when I buy things, like the daily newspapers, too. The French are
very polite and they always answer me with a French version of “you’re
welcome.” What they say,
99 percent of the time, at least here in Paris, is “de rien” or “du
rien.” Every once in a long while they
say “je vous en prie.” Jim H. wrote to
say that “de rien” is déclassée, and that it is more correct to say “je vous
en prie.” I checked every dictionary
we have, and I don’t find that assertion.
All I know is
what I hear, which is “de rien” and “du rien.” The few times I’ve heard “je vous en prie”
have been when I’ve been thanking someone for something beyond the
usual. For example, when I had
something laminated at the local print shop and also was given a lot of help
making many copies there, I was vociferous in my “merci’s.” I was then repaid with a “je vous en
prie.” That was nice, I must admit. |
Friday, July 17, 2009
I
don’t mind this kind of cute graffiti because it doesn’t mark gang turf or
make implied threats. However, it does
encourage bad graffiti by simply making the statement that graffiti is
tolerated here. (And notice that
someone let their little dog provide real dog poop on the sidewalk here.)
A plaque declaring that a building on the avenue de la
Motte-Picquet was the property of the Future of the Proletariat Civil
Society, whose business office is on the rue Notre Dame de Nazareth outside
Paris in the 73rd department of France. “Proletariat” is a word you just don’t see
much anymore. |
