Paris Journal 2013 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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Following good
Girl Scout values, we left the campsite better than we found it. We fixed the crooked toilet seat and cleaned
and dusted, and tried to put every little thing back where it was at the
beginning of July. Thus we left the 15th
arrondissement yesterday evening in a taxi, whose driver efficiently
delivered us to very close proximity of the apartment where we stay for the
month of September. This apartment
is in the venerable old part of the 6th arrondissement. We love the apartment itself (built in
1640!), and one of the great features is that our friends Ron and Elisabeth
live right across the landing. They
own both apartments on this floor. The apartment
is sparkling clean and has new double-paned glass in all the windows. This is very effective in keeping the
apartment insulated from heat, cold, and outside noise. It is wonderful! Unfortunately,
it does nothing about the inconsiderate neighbor downstairs, who plays his
television loudly 24 hours a day. At
least, the apartment upstairs seems to be quiet this September. To deal with
the problem person, Tom sifted through the CDs and found two that we’d purchased
in the past. I’m telling you all this
to describe how two people who are used to life in the swamp where the frogs
make most of the noise adapt to a densely populated city where a noisy
neighbor can drive you, and others, crazy. The magic CDs are
“Ocean Surf: A Surround Sound Experience,” by Solitudes, and “The Sounds of
Nature: Peaceful Ocean Surf,” by
Gentle Persuasion. “The Sounds of
Nature” has only one track, 63 minutes long, featuring “the seductive sound
of Cape Cod and its gentle ocean breezes.”
It addition to the surf sound, it includes the sounds of sea gulls,
whales, and even a foghorn. “Ocean Surf”
offers two tracks: “Rolling Surf on
Pebbled Beach,” and “Sweeping the Sandy Shore.” When you have a
neighbor who plays his television 24 hours a day, it is necessary to learn
how to use the “repeat” function on the CD player so that you don’t have to
keep re-starting the sounds of the ocean. Last night, we
played “Peaceful Ocean Surf” almost continuously. During the time we were not playing it, we
nearly went mad. Today, for a
change, I switched over to “Ocean Surf,” selecting the “Sweeping the Sandy
Shore” track because it sounds most like home, Sanibel Island. The “Rolling Surf on Pebbled Beach” is for
people from California, Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia, I think. I think I can
do without the foghorn, so this track I’m playing today is probably going to
be my favorite CD recording of the month. Whoever heard
of a literary critic who plays idiotic television shows all day and all
night? Anyway, we had
a lovely evening with Ron and Elisabeth.
After we chatted for a while, we all went to dinner at a new Italian
trattoria, Alfredo Positano, at 9 rue Guisarde. It was very good, but copious. We’d all been working away at cleaning all
day, and so we ate well. Today, I must
get on with shopping for provisions, which is slightly more challenging on a
Sunday. So I leave you with some more
photos from July and August.
Our
neighborhood church, Saint Sulpice.
A lovely
apartment window overlooking the Place de Furstemberg. |
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Yes,
I really did see this bottle of wine in a Carrefour supermarket on the rue
Fremecourt in July. Translation: “Wine of Shit; the worst hides the best;
the wine of the philosophers.”
A
little circus visits a park at the Square Cambronne in July.
Woman
with basket full of white doves is about to go on stage at the little circus.
There
was a photographic exhibition about coffee earlier this summer on the banks
of the Seine. |
