Paris Journal 2012 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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Tom’s son Dan and our granddaughters Sarah and Olivia are on their way back to their Kentucky home today. For their last night in Paris, they wanted to dine on Indian food. I called Banani and made a reservation. I made the mistake of speaking French with the man who answered the phone. He could barely speak French. It would have been better for us to converse in English. But the restaurant staff had a table for five ready for us when we arrived. The girls marveled at the beauty of Banani’s interior. The servers, too, look good – all dressed semi-formally in black and white. Olivia had balked at the idea of having to walk 20 minutes to the restaurant, but she chattered away the entire time, holding my hand. When we reached the restaurant, she admitted that the walk did not seem to take long at all because “we” were talking so much. The server immediately brought complimentary kirs to our table for the adults, and juice for the girls. The service was polite, efficient perfection, and the food was all very good: chicken biryani for the girls, and lamb korma for the adults. We shared an order of samosa, and a couple types of nan. Unable to decide on which type of rice, we ordered one of each (basmati and Kashmiri). On the way home, the girls stuck with me, and the guys walked together, a bit of a distance behind us. Olivia and Sarah had boundless energy, in part because I had talked them into having Dharjeeling tea at the end of the repast. We talked about shopping the next time they come to Paris. Olivia asked me if I like to shop. I said, “No, not really. But I would like to shop with you.” I think it would be fun – especially when they are a year or two older. Olivia and Sarah liked Paris so much that they ranked it a “10” on a 10-point scale. Can’t do any better than that! I’m going to miss the girls. But they’ll stay with us in Florida in that week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, I think. That’s the plan, anyway. So now it is just Tom and me, together in Paris, comme d’habitude. Tom sent a “bundle” of work off to the publisher in New York yesterday via email, but he has at least two more “bundles” to work on, with two more deadlines. As we approach the middle of August, I’m always impressed by the increasing quiet and calm. The newspaper, Le Parisien, claims that fewer people have left Paris for vacations elsewhere, because of the bad economy. I just don’t see that. I don’t see signs of a bad economy here, and I don’t see that fewer people are going on vacation. The regular, huge traffic jams are happening on the highways outside of Paris, just like always, as the masses depart the big city for the countryside. But Le Parisien claims that this time, the traffic jams are because of all the road projects, not because of record numbers of folks going on vacation. I don’t see any factual sources for Le Parisien’s assertions, however. Summertime is, of course, a time when students are away – normally. But I remember that when we passed by the fashion design school at Les Docks the other day, there were people gathering there. I assume that’s because summer programs are offered. Like so many things we see on our Paris walks, I learned more about this place after the fact. The building that we walked under, which used to be in such a blighted place, is colorful and attractive now. More than a school, this Cité de la Mode et du Design is a sort of creative design “incubator.” The clever re-design of this design place was done by the architectural firm of Jakob&MacFarlane. It involves a new glass exterior called a “plug-over” on a historic commercial building that was originally designed by the architect Georges Morin-Goustiaux. “Plug-over” is an inelegant name for this elegant thing. Here’s a video that shows the building more in its entirety. If you are interested in architecture, you must watch this. Be sure to see the end, when the building is lit up at night. The facility includes a tea room, a restaurant, and a couple of bars/clubs. We may check out the restaurant and/or tea room when we are staying in the 6th in September. Historically, the building housed the Magasins Généraux quai d’Austerlitz, which roughly translates to the General Stores of the Austerlitz Wharf. I found some minutes of the Paris Historic Commission that contain some interesting information about Morin-Goustiaux’s original building, so I will attempt to translate: Created in 1905, the General Stores were built by the architect
Georges Morin-Goustiaux (1859-1909), a student of Gaudet, who spent part of his career in the U.S. This was the first building of this type in
France (comparable to the Manchester warehouses built in 1903 by the engineer
Huntes or those built later in the Havre in
1908). The structure is based on the
use of “pavilions” composed of two levels covered by a terrace. It is formed on 5 x 7 pilings that define 6
bays on the façade. Posts/poles were
constructed in reinforced concrete according to the Hennebique
process by the Simon Boussiron company. From the start, the criticisms of this
building were strong. Plans for making
the building taller and more elaborate would have remediated it, but were
never carried out. In its brutality
and its audacious construction, it evoked a misapplication of the principles
of the Citrohan mansion [housing that could be
built in modules, in a series] that would be done by Le Corbusier [in
1920-27]. In 1991, a first demolition of part of the structure – pavilions
8 through 12 -- was done as part of the construction of the Charles de
Gaulle bridge. Wow. That translation just about wore me out! See you tomorrow. |
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
The
Belle Vallee, docked near the Pont de Tolbiac.
The
café/club next to the Piscine Josephine Baker is called the Petit Bain
(Little Bath), and has a row of bathtubs in front, appropriately being used
to grow swamp plants.
Thomas
Cooley, Ph.D., professor emeritus from The Ohio State University, whose field
is 19th Century American Literature, poses in front of a bar/boat
called La Baleine Blanche (The White Whale), which
is appropriately painted black. If you
ask Tom a question about Moby Dick (e.g., why is black such an appropriate
color for The White Whale?), be prepared for a lengthy response.
The Cité de la Mode et du Design in Les
Docks area of the 13th arrondissement.
The
Blues Café/Club boat on the right bank.
The
Piscine Joséphine Baker with the pretty Pont de Bercy. |
