Paris Journal 2008
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What would I do without you
wonderful readers? Lennie from Honolulu wrote to
answer my question about the whereabouts of the restaurant, Le Tire Bouchon: “About Le Tire-Bouchon. It's now located
in the 10eme at 118 rue La Fayette. Bon appetit!” Thank you, Lennie! We will go there soon. We need a push to get us to leave the left
bank, anyway. Dave T. of upstate New York
tells me that the breed of dog featured at the beginning of this
year’s journal is a Great Pyrenees.
He couldn’t quite recall it at first, so he Googled “big white dog” to
retrieve the answer. Isn’t Google
great? Longtime readers by now have
noticed that I start each year’s Paris Journal with a photo of either a dog
or a cat. It started accidentally, and
then I just thought I’d keep it up.
Don’t ask why – there is no reason. Those readers also know that the
reason I call it a journal instead of a blog is that I started writing these
before the word “blog” was concocted. Pam E. from Massachusetts writes
that she likes my photos. I have a new
camera this year. It is an inexpensive
Kodak
EasyShare C713. I use an
inexpensive camera so I won’t have to worry about having it stolen from me as
I wander about. I don’t carry a purse
for that same reason. I only carry the
camera. Bob S. from Fort Lauderdale asks
if we’ve seen the blue Eiffel Tower yet.
Bob, Jean-Pierre told us all about it, and we see the top third of the
blue tower from our kitchen window.
But we’ve been real wimps about catching up on our sleep. Since it stays light until 10:30 or 11, we
are usually settled in at the apartment by the time the tower lights up. I know that we will see a lot of it as the
summer wears on and the days are shorter. For those who haven’t heard, the
Eiffel Tower is now lit up in blue with gold stars to celebrate the fact that
this is now France’s turn to lead the EU.
Sarkozy is the president of the EU for now. We came close to seeing the
entire tower in blue last night. We
started out walking at 6PM, and wandered for three hours or so through the 7th
arrondissement, into the upper part of the 6th. I love walking along the rue St. Dominique
on a Saturday, because the street is calmer than during the week and it is
easier to do some window shopping. The
boutiques along this street are especially appealing. The same is true of the rue de
Grenelle, rue Jacob, and rue de l’Universite, where we also wandered last
night. It was after 9PM when we reached
the Champ de Mars again and of course the tower was not yet lit up. We were tired, hungry and
footsore, so we headed for the Monoprix at the corner of Commerce and Blvd.
de Grenelle before it closed at 10PM. These days, this store is
unbelievably crowded with young people buying last minute party or dinner
items just before 10PM. The lines at
the cash registers stretch all the way down the aisles! I’d say the store is doing well
except that many of these young folks are only buying one or two or three
items. It was after 10 when we left the
store. We’d had a long day – Tom is
actually working on the latest textbook again because of a new item that he
and his editor decided to add to each chapter. (See the
book on Amazon. There it says the
book will be 393 pages; I think it will be almost twice that big.) It had rained most of the day, too. But the evening was nice, cool, and breezy. I did take the time to watch the
end of the first stage of the Tour de France on television on Saturday. The first day is almost always fairly
boring, but the scenery of the French countryside and all those charming
villages always takes my breath away.
I’m a sucker for helicopter views of France. That’s
why I hope I won’t forget to watch “La Carte aux Tresors” on Wednesday
evening. It will feature the
“Bouches-du-Rhone,” south of Marseille.
Stay tuned. Fourth of July Weekend
tidbit: Thomas
Paine, “English by birth, American by adoption, French by decree,” once lived
in a house on rue de l’Odeon in the 5th arrondissement. This plaque (at right) says “He put his
passion for liberty to the service of the French revolution, was a deputy at
the Convention, and wrote The Rights of
Man.” |
Sunday,
July 6, 2008
Bookstore sign in the 6th
arrondissement. The neighborhoods of
the 5th and 6th are concerned about losing so many bookstores
to clothing stores, that they’ve asked the City of Paris to intervene. Saving the bookstores is saving the
character of this area.
This sign indicates that
wi-fi is available in the park that’s called the Arenes de Lutece. Only in Paris would one expect to have
wi-fi in the ruins of a Roman arena.
Fountain at the base of
steps in the rue Rollin. Don’t miss
this spot near the Arenes de Lutece.
There are flowers stretching up the staircase wall, and the street
itself is charming and historic.
Pascal died there; Descartes lived there.
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