Paris Journal 2008

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Yesterday, we had the pleasure of meeting Elisabeth L., a friend and neighbor of our landlady, Elisabeth B. She is a tiny person, with a brilliant smile and a nice giggle. We paid her our rent money, and accompanied her to La Poste, which is not only a post office, but also a bank. She told us an interesting bit about how she has a parking space that she doesn’t need under the Place Saint Sulpice. It costs 980 euros for three months! That’s 327 euros a month! She rents it to a neighbor who does need a parking space. That’s life in the big city, I guess. I had been wondering why some people with nice cars leave them parked on the street at night. Now I know the answer. Swamp dweller that I am, I’m starting to tire of the hustle and bustle here in the city. When it is time to go home in ten days, I guess I’ll be ready. Three months seems to be just the right amount of time for me to be here – no more, no less. Now that people have returned from vacation, I’m witnessing much more mean, aggressive driving. This cannot be blamed on foreigners. It is Parisians themselves who are guilty. Only some of them behave like that, of course, but it only takes several to make an impression. The story about the lady who died at the Place de la Republique a couple days ago did not make it into the newspapers. So we’ll never know what happened there. Was she a victim of an aggressive driver? Who knows. After our errand with Elisabeth L., we went for lunch at the well known Café du Mairie, right on the Place Saint Sulpice. It is well known because of its setting, I guess, the fact that it has been there for a long time, and because “intellectuals” used to gather there in the 1950s. But it doesn’t have a full kitchen, so all one can order there is simple food such as sandwiches, salads, omelettes, and croques. That was fine with us. It is inexpensive. We had a simple, light lunch and enjoyed watching the people go by. In the evening, Tom was ready to have a real meal, and I’ve been yearning to try the fish soup at the Corsican restaurant, L’abri Côtier, so we walked around the Luxemburg Gardens a couple times, then went through the Gardens of the Observatory to the boulevard Montparnasse. We were warmly greeted and allowed to select our own table. I ordered my soup, and Monsieur was a little surprised that I didn’t order anything else. But then Tom ordered a full three-course meal, a la carte. That satisfied Monsieur just fine. For a starter, Tom had the escargots in profiteroles with béarnaise sauce. Yumm. Then he had a large souris d’agneau, which was very good. And then the finishing touch, the vacherin, which was a wonderful baked meringue topped with pistachio ice cream and whipped cream and a bit of caramel sauce. It was large. I was impressed that Tom was able to consume all of this. The starter course, in and of itself, is practically a meal. My soupe de poisson was fabulous. It was a dark red color (tomatoes and garlic compose part of the base of the soup), and came with a side tray of garnitures, including a very yellow home-made mayonnaise, thin slices of toasted baguette to serve as large croutons, and grated mozzarella cheese. A crock of soup and a ladle were brought to the table, and Monsieur served me my first helping. Later, I served myself seconds. I thought I’d be able to have dessert after the soup, but there was no way I could do it. My appetite was no match for Tom’s. Then we took that nice, long walk home. Tonight we have dinner with our July-August landlady, Barbara C. Then tomorrow we meet John and Linda K. of Sanibel, who are now staying in an apartment in the 6^th arrondissement. Then next Thursday, we have the big lunch party for eight Sanibelians at l’Espadon Bleu. Sounds like a photo op for the island newspapers! STRIKE UPDATE: We did receive our International Herald Tribune yesterday in the mailbox, but not today. It seems that the strike is hitting every other day. On Tuesday, when we went out, we noticed that none of the newsstands had the IHT, and they were missing some other foreign papers. But the French papers were all present. I guess the strike is against the printers or distributers of the IHT. I’ve seen nothing about it in the news.

Thursday, September 18, 2008 Produce shop on the Ile St. Louis. Display in a shop window on the rue Beautrellis in the Marais. Sculpture over the doorway to a gymnasium in the Marais. Lights being set up to shoot a movie on a balcony overlooking the Seine. The lights are on top of a crane that is behind that tree. Sign my guestbook. View my guestbook.

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