Paris Journal 2009 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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We have both apartments now, but
the one in the 15th is not inhabitable in this heat. Nevertheless, I had to go over there
yesterday to get our second key from Maria, the cleaning lady, who had been
hired to clean windows during the beginning of our time there. It was a long, hot walk over
there, at the hottest time of day, and I swear I could feel the bad ozone
filling my lungs. It just felt like I
could not get enough air to breathe, which is a highly unusual situation for
me. The apartment in the 6th
stays much cooler during hot spells.
Thank heavens we have it now.
Normally, we would not, at this time of the summer. If I’d taken the metro, the air
quality would not have been better.
According to yesterday’s newspaper, it would have been worse. It seems that many of the major air intakes
for the metro are in high-traffic areas on the streets, so that the auto
exhaust, in particular nitrogen dioxide (dioxide
d’azote in French, in case you’re wondering) and fine particulates, are sucked
into the metro and becomes a bit more concentrated there. However, the levels of pollution in the
metros do not exceed the public-health-danger level, according to the Airparif authorities. Back to my walk – yesterday, at
about the time I was walking, Airparif says there was an alarming level of
bad ozone -- 215
μg/m3 -- whew! Too much exposure to this can affect the
elasticity of your blood vessels – a bad thing for people with high blood
pressure. So I finally met Maria the
cleaning lady (as opposed to Maria the gardienne, whom I’ve known for many
years). Both Maria’s are from
Portugal, and all three of us are about the same age, I’m guessing. I apologized to Maria the cleaning lady,
whom I addressed as “Madame Maria” since we do not know each other well, for
my slow French. She replied that her
French wasn’t good either. However, I
found her far easier to understand than Maria the gardienne. C’est la vie. We chatted for a while, and Madame Maria
informed me that she had watered the plants on the balcony. I could have hugged her for that, because
that is quite a chore in this heat. The apartment was hotter than
blazes, but I think it was even hotter outside. So after Maria left, I just sat still in the
living room and read the two issues of the International Herald Tribune that were there. Tom finally arrived about an hour and a
half later. He brought the French
newspaper, so we read for a while and then headed out for dinner at La
Gauloise, one of our longtime favorites.
La Gauloise was good, but not
great. The mood of the wait staff was
a bit somber. Restaurants are having a
particularly tough time in this economy.
The restaurant tax, which is built into the prices, has been dropped
from 19 percent to 5.5 percent, and the restaurants are supposed to be
lowering their prices, especially if they display the logo for the
tax-reduction program. La Gauloise was displaying the
logo, but I did not see any reduction of prices. I was simply thankful that they had not
RAISED prices, as seems to have happened every single year since we’ve been
coming to Paris for the summer. I had a gazpacho which was very
smooth and good, but nobody’s gazpacho can match what I recently had at the
café in the Musée Branly. I followed that up with supreme de volaille, a roasted chicken
breast served with its own juice and accompanied by several nice, small white
potatoes. Tom had the filet de truite (trout) which came with lots of nice capers. Ah, we do love capers. The trout looked like salmon, except the
skin was different. Tom said he
thought it was farm raised. I think
he’s right. Here’s an example of
farm-raised trout that is red because it eats shrimp, crabs, and
crayfish. Tom’s little white potatoes had
been boiled. Mine were, too, but mine
had been followed up with some browning with butter in a hot oven. Don’t worry that Tom had no
green or red vegetables. For lunch,
I’ve been fixing big salads with lots of nice, soft green lettuce, tomatoes,
and a little chicken with a dressing made from tapenade, mayonnaise, and a
bit of water. After dinner, we walked back
home to the 6th. The air
was a bit cooler. A couple of things strike me in
reflecting back on yesterday’s walk over to the 15th. First, the lack of traffic. It was as though I was walking over there
on a Sunday, but it was mid-afternoon on Thursday. Parisian vacations have barely begun. I wonder where all the extra cars have gone? It is the economy, I guess. Second, I experienced one of my
favorite happenings in all our time spent in Paris. A lady stopped me to ask for
directions! I just love it when this
happens. I understood her, answered
her in French, and surprised her because when I opened my mouth, it was
obvious that I’m American (or maybe English or Canadian) AND I actually knew
the answer, without hesitation! Oh, I
cannot tell you how much I love it when this happens. She was looking for the rue
d’Éstrées. I’d just come from there,
and it was still visible across the barren moonscape of the Place de Fontenoy
which is behind the École Militaire. I
repeated the name of the street, and said in French that it is that street,
there, gesturing with my hand that it was across the Place, on a
diagonal. She said “en oblique?” And I said “oui.” So I learned how to say on a diagonal, or
on an angle. “En oblique.” Voila! She thanked me, and I said “du
rien” (it’s nothing), and we both went
on our ways. Thankfully, the weather is
cooling off, starting today. Because
of the construction noise during the day at the apartment in the 6th,
we may move over to the apartment in the 15th, when it cools
down. The construction noise is coming
from an endless renovation of the Hotel Récamier, with whom we share a common
wall. The work was supposed to be
completed months ago, but it continues, and continues. It is quiet here in the 6th at
night, but during the day, all day (from 7:30AM to 10PM), the hammering,
drilling, chiseling, etc., continues and continues. We’ve had plenty of noise
problems in the 15th in past years. That’s life in the city, especially when
streets, sidewalks, and buildings are being improved. The traffic noise that we can get in the 15th
is annoying. Paris needs to enact a no
honking rule like New York has. It
would be wonderful if they did. (That
kind of traffic noise is not an issue at the apartment in the 6th.) We are very comfortable here in
the 6th. There is plenty of
room for all of our things, and there is plenty of room to move around. The apartment in the 15th is
larger, but generally does not feel that way to us. Dan and Mary will be arriving on
July 11, and we will have to sort this out, who in the family will stay where,
and who will work where, etc. I’m just
happy that we have the options afforded by having the two apartments. One way or the other, our family will make
it work. Sign
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Friday, July 3, 2009
I
particularly like the coining on this Haussmannian building on rue de
l’Université in the 7th arrondissement.
Silver
owl objects in an antique shop in the 7th arrondissement.
Chocolate
notes and a bar showing the Eiffel tower juxtaposed with the Pont Alexandre
III, in the window of a shop on the rue de l’Université.
Here’s
the backside of the Citroën I showed you the other day.
The
amount of dog shit on the sidewalk in Paris is now no different than it is in
New York. That is to say, it is
occasionally there, but it isn’t so pervasive as it once was. |
