Paris Journal 2011 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com

Photos and thoughts about Paris

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Other than the funny, brief discussions we had with the Eiffel Tower vendors, nobody has tried to speak a word of English with us since the elegant little man in Restaurant Paul last Sunday. In this part of town, the 15^th arrondissement, I think that people are used to the idea of Americans who speak French, because numerous Americans working in Paris choose to live here. The 15^th is the largest arrondissement, both in geography and population. There is at least one private, bilingual school in its midst. There is another one nearby, I believe, in the 7^th arrondissement. The property taxes are lower than in the 6^th, 7^th, or 16^th. And there are lots of families with kids here, and plenty of parks with playgrounds. So if you are a young, American family in Paris, this is a good place to live. We broke our walking up into two parts of the day yesterday. At mid-day, we walked for a little over an hour to the end of the Allée des Cygnes and back, stopping for groceries at the Carrefour City on avenue Emile Zola. There was a waiting line at the only cash register that was open, so we were pleased when one of the clerks who’d been stocking shelves walked by us and invited us to the other cash register, which he opened. Of course a French man stepped in front of us. We didn’t care, because we were not in such a hurry as he was. As it turns out, this rudeness on his part just gave us a little more time to watch what was happening just inside the front door. Three cops and a security guard were vigorously questioning two men who held plastic grocery bags full of tall cans of beer. We were able to understand some of the rapidfire French well enough to realize that one of the men had used, or tried to use, a fake or stolen credit card to pay for the beer. The accused was sitting on a low counter and one of the cops was hammering him with questions, barely even waiting for answers. The accused couldn’t really answer because the very large, scary friend who was with him was doing all the talking, and in a surprisingly aggressive, loud manner. Two of the cops he was dealing with were big men; not as big as he was, however. One of the cops was a petite blonde woman. She stood off to the side and let the big guys go at it. Verbally, that is. Our cashier was quite distracted by all this, and it took him a long time to ring up and bag our order. He also could not be bothered to press the right button on his cash register to get the machine to process our chip-less American credit card. Tom just paid in cash, which he put down on the very large American Express decal on the counter. Hmmmm. One of the big cops began to question the accused about whether or not he even had enough money to eat. The accused had no cash in the wallet, which may not have even belonged to him, we realized. Surely he was about to spend the night in jail, where he’d be given something to eat, free of charge. Sort of. We exited while all the commotion was still going on, and Tom commented that the man was stupid to use the card in a store like Carrefour where there was a security guard. Stupid, too, because one of the 15^th’s police substations is right across the street, in one of the Beaugrenelle buildings. The security guard had no problem getting the cops there, pronto. Tom noticed that one of the big cops was some kind of sergeant. He wasn’t taking any grief from anyone, even the big, scary looking friend of the accused. The timing of our walk was good, not just because of this drama that we witnessed, but also because we weren’t rained upon. In the afternoon, as we watched an extremely exciting stage of the Tour de France on TV, two downpours happened. Speaking of the Tour de France, Thomas Voeckler, the French rider who was surprisingly still in the yellow jersey yesterday, looks to me like he could be the son of the American actor, Robin Williams. Look at his face sometime. Don’t you agree? In the evening, we went out walking again, over into the 7^th arrondissement, where we dined at Le Bourbon, on that stately and quiet square in front of the National Assembly on the rue de l’Université. The restaurant has completely changed again – new owners, new menu, etc. I must update my restaurant recommendations page soon. The last time I did that was in 2009. Two years is a long time in the life of restaurants in Paris. Tom had the beef Carpaccio with green salad and I had the lamb chops with green beans. It was all good, light, and prepared correctly. As we walked home, the sun had just set and the sky was softly colorful. Today we’ll watch the exciting time trial stage of the Tour. Tom thinks the Australian rider, Cadel Evans, can win the Tour because he is such a good time-trialer. On va voir. Sign my guestbook. View my guestbook. Note: For addresses & phone numbers of restaurants in this journal, click here.

Saturday, July 23, 2011 The Eiffel Tower after dinner last night. This beautiful horse pulls carriages that take tourists around in the Champ de Mars area. Here, in front of the Military School, his staff protects him from traffic as she prepares to guide him into his trailer at the end of the day. I suppose that boat owners have to take what they can get when it comes to a place to tie up on the Seine in Paris, but I’d prefer one of the ports with trees, like this one, the Port de Suffren. Major construction is happening at Beaugrenelle, the commercial district that we walk through to get to the Allée des Cygnes. Beneath these cranes, on each side of the rue Linois, are giant pits where buildings have been demolished, and new ones will be built. ← Previous Next →