Paris Journal 2008
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I thought that leech farm thing would provoke some kind of reaction from members of my family, but so far, nothing. They like to read my journal and so all summer, they have our updates. But I don’t hear from them often enough. Tom and I will move to the other apartment tomorrow. I am looking forward to that very much, although I will miss our friends Carol and Wendy. Carol returns to England today; Wendy goes back to Florida tomorrow. More friends are coming to Paris later this month. John & Linda from Sanibel are in Vienna now and will arrive in Paris on the 16th. Their apartment will be, like ours, in the 6th arrondissement. Wendy called us last night as we started out on our evening stroll. We decided to check out a restaurant in the 7th that Carol and Ron had found when Ron was still here. They had only spotted it; nobody had tried it yet. The place is Chez Pierrot, on rue Amélie. We went, we dined. It was okay, not great, but we had a good time anyway. Chez Pierrot has a well-translated menu in English on display in the front window. When I think about all of our very favorite restaurants in Paris, I am struck by the fact that the very favorite places, by and large, do not have English menus, or if they do, they are not prominently displayed. In fact, in some of our favorite places, we are usually the only English speakers in the entire restaurant. This is true especially this year because, I believe, the total number of English speakers in Paris is down, just like the dollar and the pound. We should have walked over to Le Basilic instead. But after dinner, Carol and Wendy wanted to go look at the Eiffel Tower at night, and Chez Pierrot was more convenient for that purpose. On rue Amélie, I found the American University of Paris’s bookstore. There were a number of books in the window that I would like to read, so I will have to go back there when the store re-opens on September 3. Included in that list is a 2002 book by Thirza Vallois which I do not yet own: Romantic Paris. Another book in the window of that bookstore that I have read is the recent, much-improved translation of The Three Musketeers. I highly recommend this new translation by Richard Pevear. You can buy it by clicking here, or check it out from your local library (the Sanibel library has a copy). Earlier English translations of this fun novel left out the juicy parts – so if you’ve read it before, you still haven’t read it all. Richard not only put the juicy parts back in, but he also has included many fabulous, interesting annotations in this edition. The annotations include information about current-day names of various spots mentioned in the book, including many in Paris. Richard, by the way, is on the faculty of the American University of Paris. Note to our academic/administrative friends: you will notice on that web site for the American University of Paris that they are searching for a new president. Tom says he thinks he will decline the job. However, he says, if they come knocking on the door and the price is right . . . . Seriously, I think Tom is enjoying “retirement” too much. I don’t really call it retirement, because he is still so busy writing textbooks. While he is finishing up Back to the Lake, the editor informs him that it is now time to do a new edition of The Norton Sampler. We liked hearing about Wendy’s and Carol’s interesting day at the Vaux-le-Vicomte chateau yesterday. They enjoyed seeing the very splendid house and garden very much. They did learn that the bus which takes people from the train station in town out to the chateau only operates on weekends. So they had to take a taxi instead. They also noted that there is a candlelight celebration at the chateau on August 17 every year. We may try to see that next year. Another way to go to this chateau, and to the Fontainebleau chateau, all in one day, is to take a shuttle bus from Paris. Here’s information about that. |
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Romantic
Paris by Thirza Vallois is available for
purchase here.
Old-fashioned sign for a fine linen cleaning service on
rue Amélie in the 7th arrondissement. The shop also had an interesting old
steamer trunk in top condition on display in its window.
Wendy and Carol on the rue
de Furstenberg. Go ahead, click on
that link and read about this special place. |
