Paris Journal 2009 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com

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Yesterday it was warm and humid in Paris, so we weren’t too disappointed when the restaurant that we wanted to go to said they couldn’t take us until 9PM and that we’d be out on the terrace. We were supposed to have thunderstorms in the evening, so I was mildly concerned about being outside, but the storms were delayed. Most restaurants are not air conditioned, of course, so outside was the place to be. The restaurant was L’Epi Dupin, near the Bon Marché department store. We wanted to take Dan and Mary there so they could experience Really Good Modern French Food at Decent Prices. L’Epi Dupin is one of those three-course fixed-price (33 euros) places, so you have to be hungry, but at least the portions are small so that you don’t have to waste any food. Every day, the menu changes, so it is presented on a blackboard. There are four to six choices for each course. The food is creative, and flavors are full, not too subdued. Mary, especially, loved the dinner there. I always love to eat there. Before dinner, on our way over to the apartment to get Dan and Mary, I stopped at the Grand Épicerie at Bon Marché to buy a few items that aren’t easily or always found in the regular grocerie stores. Last year, I was sure I’d seen Splenda there. But this year, all the stores only seem to carry one artificial sweetener, called Candarel, which is aspartame (Nutrasweet). I don’t like the chemical taste of aspartame, so I’m making a mental note right now to bring a summer’s supply of Splenda with me next year. If you’re coming to Paris this summer and you want to make me really happy, bring me some little yellow packets of Splenda. I saw something in the French newspaper last week about a call for removing aspartame from the market, too, so I guess that soon there may be no artificial sweetener in France. Sounds like another plot by Big Sugar to me. After dinner, we walked back to the apartment in the 15^th. There was still no rain, and the Eiffel Tower looked stunningly beautiful as usual, with its sparkling lights on a clear night. Today, the weather is a bit cooler; Jim and Maddy have arrived from Boston after a harrowing change of itinerary by Air France. So they were pretty wound up upon arrival, in spite of jet lag. Now they’re crashing here in the apartment. Later we’ll go to lunch and watch the Tour afterwards. This evening, they take a train from the Gare de Lyon to the south of France to visit friends, and to get aboard their houseboat to start their summer adventures. Jim just pointed out to us that our friend’s nephew, Christian Vande Velde, is back in the top ten in the overall standings of the Tour. He’s at number ten, while his Garmin team mate, Wiggins, is number three. Of course, Contador and Armstrong with Astana are numbers 1 and 2 still. Today’s stage should be pretty interesting. It is quite mountainous. Yesterday, Jens Voigt crashed as he descended the second mountain in the stage. It was a spectacular fall. To us, it appeared that something went wrong with his bicycle. The news accounts today are conflicted on that point. He fell such that the full weight of his body and bike landed all on his right elbow. He skidded on the pavement for some distance, face down. His face is badly bruised, and he was knocked unconscious but regained consciousness before being taken to the hospital. This year’s Tour is over for him, according to reporters. Another news topic that has interested me this summer has been the fate of Rachida Dati. She was President Sarkozy’s Justice Minister until January 2009. She’s controversial because she’s young (43), glamorous, unmarried, and she had a child then returned to work within five days. French women don’t approve of that. Rachida also refuses to name the father of the child. In the past, there had been rumors about romance between Rachida and Sarko. Reportedly, she took the new baby to see Sarko just a few days after it was born. Reportedly, he agreed to be the baby’s godfather. Reportedly, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy resented Rachida calling Sarko early every morning. Yet President Sarkozy fired Rachida, and now she’s a new member of the European Union Parliament. She’s also been mayor of the 7^th arrondissement of Paris (our favorite place for walking) since March 2008. Now it seems that she may run for Bertrand Delanoe’s job as mayor of Paris! Her liabilities, according to media reports, are said to be problems with her “management skills, extravagant lifestyle, departmental overspending and perceived incompetence.” Rachida had a Moroccan father and an Algerian mother, so her presence in high levels of government has been seen as a good sign of hope for other ambitious young professionals of North African descent. She’s stylish, too. Her favorite designer is Christian Dior. I’m going to be following the news stories about her, for sure. Here’s a link to some photos of Rachida. Sign my guestbook. View my guestbook. ← Previous Next →

Wednesday, July 22, 2009 A view of the somber St. Sulpice church from the rue Palatine. This golden lizard is part of the decorations on and around the Pont Alexandre III, my favorite Paris bridge, in the 7^th arrondissement where the youthful Rachida Dati is mayor. We found a bookstore on the rue de Seine that has many lovely, big art books in English. It’s name is Fischbacher, and it is located at number 33.