Paris Journal 2010 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com

Photos and thoughts about Paris

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Yesterday was a great improvement over the day before. Still, however, Tom is having to spend too much time on homeowners association work. If we could just get Florida to stop intruding on Paris . . . . We went out on several fun errands. First, I showed Tom the cute little shop where I’ve been buying the daily newspapers on the rue de Seine between the rue Robineau and the rue Saint Sulpice. It has a quintessential façade that makes you think “ah, quaint Paris.” It is a tabac, but not a bar. It has the standard yellow diamond shaped “presse” sign, indicating that this is where you may buy newspapers. Way up high, in the front window, two carved Thai dancers are on display. The couple and son who run the shop are very sophisticated-looking Asian-French people. Well, the son isn’t sophisticated yet. He’s just learning the job. Lots of little useful things are for sale in the shop, besides newspapers and magazines. Small office supplies, and things like batteries for your camera can be purchased there. And there, on the back wall, behind the counter and running practically the full length/depth of the shop are cigarettes – many kinds of cigarettes – on display, each type in its own slot with a plexiglass strip in front. Stuck onto the plexiglass strip, in front of each type of cigarette, is a sticker that says “fumer tue” – smoking kills. Nevertheless, the woman who entered the shop before us wanted to buy a pack of those deadly things, and she was desperate. Her pack was sitting on the counter, waiting for her, as she frantically rummaged through her handbag, looking for enough coins to pay for it. It was amusing me to watch her. The young man behind the counter, at the cash register, waited patiently. Finally she said for us to go ahead. The show was over. We paid for our papers and left the adorable presse/tabac, bidding goodday to the young man who was learning the family business. After a stop at the ATM for the nearest BNP Parisbas bank, we went back to deposit the papers, cash, and our jackets. It was turning out to be a perfect day, and the temperature was about 78 F. After refreshing ourselves with a snack of pears with wonderful blue cheese from the Auvergne region, we went out again, this time to go to FNAC Digitale, the electronics store on the boulevard Saint Germain near the medieval museum known as the Cluny. We needed a stereo to play our CDs. The one in the apartment hasn’t worked (for CDs anyway) for a couple years. We have a nice little collection of CDs, and we do love our music. FNAC has a very good audio department for an urban store. Eventually, we found the compact stereo that we wanted and then got the attention of a polite young salesperson to help us. I quickly located a cable that would also attach my Fuze MP3 player to the front of the new stereo, so we could have virtually endless music, commercial free. For a mere 79 euros, this stereo produces beautiful sound. It is an LG XA14. The salesperson had to give us paperwork, after we’d paid, so we could present it at a little counter on the ground floor and be given our stereo in its box. A few years ago, the store had several people behind cash registers on the ground floor to do this job. Now that space is used for retail display, and you have to go to the little back room where there is now only one employee working behind one small counter to give you your purchases. We waited for a short time for the gentleman in front of us to be served, but when we reached the counter, we realized that when the employee brought up the gentleman’s box, he also had already retrieved our box. The computers in the store communicate with each other! Very efficient. After stamping our forms in triplicate and attaching a handle to the strapping on the box, the employee thanked us and sent us on our way. We found that there was an exit to the side street, right behind us, with a security guard standing by. Sure enough, as we exited the security alarm went off. Fortunately, it isn’t too loud and only sounds briefly. We stopped, turned around, handed the guard our paperwork, and the bag with the cable that we’d purchased. The guard explained that the salesperson forgot to deactivate a device inside the cable’s package. The guard sent us on our way, so we had to set off the alarm again. I’m glad we weren’t exiting the front door on the boulevard. That would have been more embarrassing. We came home, set up the compact stereo, and headed back out to the Saint Germain market to buy snacks for the evening. John and Linda were to arrive at 6:30 for drinks and hors d’oeuvres before we all went to dinner. At the market, we bought strawberries, cherry tomatoes, a mélange of olives, roasted and lightly salted almonds, and tomme cheese from Savoy for hors d’oeuvres. John and Linda arrived, and we had a great time catching up with their recent adventures. They went to Nice first, before coming to Paris. Now they’re here for the month of September, in an apartment not far away from us. We went to the Bouillon Racine, partly because we wanted to show them the interior of this Art-Nouveau-over-the-top resto. Also, I thought it might be a good place for our annual Sanibel East dinner in late September. I ordered the Piperade d’Encornets again, and discovered that the kitchen staff must make this dish in the morning. When it is served at lunch, it is superb. By dinnertime, however, it is only good, not so superb. Tom and Linda ordered the excellent pluma de cochon, a tender and lean piece of pork that comes from the area of the shoulder blade. John had a shrimp salad that looked fresh and good. For dessert, Tom and I shared an entremet au chocolat that was divine. John and Linda shared a crème brulée that was correct, as they say in French. The service was very good – our server was a tiny little Asian-French gal who spoke English every bit as well as she spoke French. We had such a good time dining with John and Linda. What interesting, intelligent, and good people they are! Sign my guestbook. View my guestbook. Note: For addresses & phone numbers of restaurants in this journal, click here. And here’s the 2009 Paris Journal.

Friday, September 3, 2010 Dome and star atop the back end of the Saint Sulpice church. Façade of the Hotel Fleurie on the rue Grégoire de Tours. Read the description of the hotel on the English version of its web site. Now it isn’t difficult to hire a native speaker of English to write these things, so why don’t Parisian restaurants and hotels do that? Little do they know how we snicker at the inept translations. In the photo below, the car is a reflection; it is not inside the hotel. Also reflected in the window to the right of the door are Tom and me. ← Previous Next →