Paris Journal 2012 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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Keeping a web site, and writing a blog, comes with a burden of social responsibility. Even writing reviews on sites such as TripAdvisor carries such a burden. Think before you write, because those reviews, blog entries, and web pages are out there for a long time. I wince sometimes when I read what people write about small businesses on TripAdvisor. As my friend Marty says, any restaurant can have an off night. Any hotel can experience something that is beyond their control that inconveniences their guests. Airlines that might normally operate acceptably well can be thrown into a tizzy by an employee who unexpectedly goes nuts. A taxi driver who is usually a saint can finally be brought to the end of his rope by a series of bad customers in one day. When I read a bad review on TripAdvisor, I look around to see if other reviewers had similar or related complaints about a business. Also, I look at the word choices and grammar used by the reviewer, and I decide, based on that, whether or not this is a person I’d want to listen to if I met them. On TripAdvisor, I did complain about the Hertz rental operation at the end of the summer last year, at the Miami airport, when we returned from France. What they were doing was so outrageously bad that we rented from Enterprise instead. When we passed through that car rental counter area in early July, it appeared that Hertz had addressed the problem. We shall see, when we return. And if they have improved, I’ll write a revised review. I am and always have been very careful about what I write in this journal, which I call a “journal” instead of a “blog” because I started it before the word “blog” was invented. Really, I did. A Japanese blogger or two (or three?) have written very favorably about the restaurant Cristal de Sel, where we dined last night. So about a third of the tables were occupied by Japanese couples, and a Japanese family. Both servers worked hard at explaining the menu to the Japanese couple seated at the table next to us. The young Japanese man in that couple took notes in a pretty little blank journal book that he carried with him. We were surprised that the menu, which is not extensive, had not changed following the summer vacation. That’s when many restaurants change their menus, even if they only do so once a year. So the croustillant de gambas was still offered, and Tom had that as a starter. It is an excellent example of fried jumbo shrimp. I ordered the crab cannelloni, which was stuffed with an amazing amount of unadulterated crab (i.e., no breadcrumb filler whatsoever). The sauce was intensively cucumber. For dessert, Tom had the excellent apple aumoniere (pastry sack). The caramel sauce with that dessert is especially good. The service was excellent; the young men who run this restaurant are gentle, friendly, and kind. Normally, at this time of year, we see lots of locals getting together at restaurants, having just returned from vacation. They gab excitedly about what they did, where they went, how much fun it was. We didn’t see much of that last night, but there were about four or five tables occupied by French people. Other than the Japanese, who rely on their English when in Europe, the only other English speakers at the restaurant were a couple of young Australian men who were clearly on vacation. Surprisingly, most of the business seemed to be from tourists! That is often the case, of course, over in the 6th arrondissement, where we will be moving in about a week. I talked on the phone yesterday with our friend Elisabeth, who is over in the 6th, and we discussed this major difference between that neighborhood and this one, in the 15th. Here, we are usually around mostly real French people. There, in the 6th, it is amazing how much English one hears spoken in the streets! Of course, there are English speakers who have historically done some very nice things in Paris. The Wallace fountains are one example. Another is the Jardin du Ranelagh, which has its roots in a place called “Le Petit Ranelagh,” a hall for ballroom dancing named after an Irish lord who created a public dance hall of great renown in London. The French thought this was a great idea, and so a Frenchman named Morisan decided to create a similar place for the people of Paris in 1774. Then Baron Haussmann took over, and turned it into a great public park in 1860. A masterpiece in this park is the statue of the writer La Fontaine, created by the sculptor Corréia (1984). Other amenities in this park, in addition to all of its magnificent trees, include free WIFI and a puppet theatre. The puppet theatre, however, is closed in August. Ah, August in Paris. When we walked down the rue du Commerce last night, we could feel the end of August approaching. The street was abuzz with people’s conversations. Parisians where walking briskly, in a hurry to dinner at home or with friends. The Commerce Café was so populated and animated that it seemed to exude electricity. The calmness of August is slipping away, and the wave of the rentrée is upon us.
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Saturday, August 25, 2012
The
Musée Marmottan
Monet.
Cute
billboard near RadioFrance, urging people to
breathe, smile, and slow down on the road during vacation time, because “On
the road, we are all fragile!”
The
statue of La Fountaine in the Jardin
du Ranelagh.
Flowers
in the Square of the Writers/Fighters who Died for France.
Stone
flower urn on the rue de Boulainvilliers. |
