Paris Journal 2010 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com

Photos and thoughts about Paris

Sign my guestbook. View my guestbook. 2009 Paris Journal ← Previous Next → ← Go back to the beginning

Progress is being made. Tom has completed the table of contents for the new edition of Back to the Lake. I helped him figure out the best way to send all the proposed new material for the new edition to the publisher in New York. We feel good about all this, and are ready to reward ourselves with a little vacation in Munich. We’ll leave on Saturday, so expect a gap in this journal next week. Last night, we walked over to the 6^th arrondissement to meet Carol, Ron, Elisabeth and Ron for drinks and hors d’oeuvres. Carol and Ron provided the hors d’oeuvres, which were beautiful, and also some Salers cheese – my favorite. We’d made a dinner reservation at A La Petite Chaise, so we all walked over there (click on the link above to read the history of this place in French – or here for English, but it isn’t quite as good or detailed). One of the longtime servers there greeted me warmly as I entered, said “bonsoir,” and explained that we’d reserved for six people. As soon as he heard our name, he remembered us. Ah, the name. All these years, until this past week or so, I have insisted on using the proper pronunciation of our last name when making reservations, etc., in France. The name is, of course, pronounced KOOL-ee, with the accent on the first syllable and a definite eeeee sound at the end. But the French cannot seem to say it that way or hear it that way. To them, our name is koo-lay, with no accented syllable, the “l” attached to the second syllable, and the last syllable with a long “a” sound, not an “eeee” sound. But about a week ago, I just gave up. It is easier to pronounce it their way, and then they have an easier time spelling it or understanding it when I spell it for them or say it to them. Tom followed suit. He now says koo-lay, too, when speaking to a French person. The next thing you know, I’ll be saying “Barbara” the way they do (baw-baw-wrah), which I really don’t care for but hey, c’est la vie. Some Anglo-Saxon names suffer much more than ours in the French language. For example, the cyclist Tyler Hamilton’s name comes out as “tee-lar ah-meel-ton.” No kidding. The sportcasters do try, and they do pretty well with some names, like Lance Armstrong. The only way they mess that one up is that they do not put the accent on the first syllable of his last name. Dinner was a success. Five of us started with kir royales, and several of us had the escargots for a starter course. I think a couple of us had gazpacho instead. Four of us ordered the delicious lamb chops, and two had steak au poivre. The main courses were served with the restaurant’s wonderful version of scalloped potatoes, and a tasty purée of, I believe, celery root. For dessert, Tom had the wickedly rich dark chocolate flourless cake, and two of us had the white chocolate mousse with a dark chocolate sauce. We lingered for a while, chatting and laughing, after dinner, and then it was time to go home. Tom and I walked back, and didn’t arrive at the apartment until a bit after 11:30PM. I was sooooo tired! The weather today is absolutely beautiful, and the water pressure in our building is all normal again. It is nice to be clean and to have clean laundry. Oh, the things we take for granted! Back to A La Petite Chaise’s history – it mentions the famous French detective Eugène François Vidocq, and the fact that he made several important arrests at La Petite Chaise. Read about him on Wikipedia. He has a most unusual background for a cop. Ron B. and Carol have read/are reading a book called Les Parisens which includes a story about Vidocq, so they were interested in this historical tidbit. It sounds like a good book, and I look forward to reading it in September. And finally, to nail down a loose detail from the August 11 entry, I’ve consulted with one of you faithful readers and we agree, the flowers in question on the middle of that page are most likely rudbeckia, in the coneflower and black-eyed susan family. Sign my guestbook. View my guestbook. Note: For addresses & phone numbers of restaurants in this journal, click here.

Thursday, August 19, 2010 Ron, Carol, Tom, me, Ron and Elisabeth having a good time in the center of the upstairs dining room at La Petite Chaise, the oldest restaurant in Paris. The moon shining over Les Invalides and its topiary garden. ← Previous Next →