Paris Journal 2013 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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I had some
reading to do, and could think of no better place to do it than the
Luxembourg Gardens. The weather was
sunny and wind was calm. The temperature
was somewhere in the upper 70s F. I found two
empty chairs in one of the gardens on the west side of the park. There I sat in the sun, reading, until I
was too warm. Then I found two chairs
in the semi-shade, nearby. Most people who
are sitting and reading for some period of time use two chairs: one to sit in, and one as a footrest. People in
groups of two or more who are chatting with each other tend to use only one
chair per person. When there is a
shortage of chairs, for example, on busy Saturdays or Sundays, I would not
use two chairs. But on a Tuesday at
mid-day, you betcha, I use two chairs. After an hour
and a half, I walked back to the apartment, taking the longer route so that I
could visit Hé, a small boutique grocery that features mostly organic foods
and beverages. I found some
super thin Parmesan crackers that are gluten-free. These, I decided, would be a perfect medium
for Elisabeth’s savory fish paté. She
had generously placed a small plastic tub of this delicious concoction in our
fridge while we were out the other day. I decided to
give organic wine another chance. I
tasted some organic wine once at a friend’s health food shop on Sanibel, a
few years ago. It was terrible. So I have avoided organic wine ever since. But this is France, I reasoned
yesterday. If there is ANYPLACE where
there could be decent organic wine, this would be it. I haven’t tried
it yet. It is in the fridge next to
the tub with the last tiny bit of fish paté.
I’ll let you know later what I think. The Parmesan
wafers did turn out to be excellent with the fish paté. Speaking of
fish, I had an excellent whole dorade
royale (gilt-head bream) stuffed with fennel last night for dinner at La
Bastide d’Opio on the rue Guisarde.
We’d started the dinner by sharing a “tartine de chevre” which was really just a toasted slice of
Poilane bread with two round slices of goat cheese, some nice tapenade, and a
little green side salad. It was
extremely simple, but good. Tom’s main
course was a seafood and pasta dish, but most of the seafood was mussels, and
he had hoped for more of a mix. For dessert, he
ordered strawberries with whipped cream and a little scoop of vanilla ice
cream – again, very simple, but quite good. Shortly after
we’d been seated, an Australian couple was shown to the table next to us,
which was directly under the stairs.
The Australian man was somewhat tall and he was walking with a cane. He asked if perhaps they could be seated
upstairs instead, but the patron
apologetically said that they could not open the upstairs that night. (I think he would need an additional server
to do that.) We’d not yet
been served any drinks or anything, so we offered to switch tables with
them. Last summer, we sat at that
table under the steps a couple times, and we rather liked the coziness of it. The Australians
said no, but they were grateful for the offer, and that just started us in
conversation. Off and on, through the
dinner hour, we chatted with the Australians.
They live on some acreage outside of Melbourne. We had plenty of wildlife stores to share
with each other. We were dining
on a LaFourchette.com deal that required a 7:30PM (early) reservation, so I
knew that to be fair, we needed to ask for the check and leave early enough
that the boss could seat another party at our table. But before we left, I made sure the
intrepid Australians had my card, just in case they travel to Florida. I encouraged them to check out Sanibel
Island on the internet. The Sanibel
Chamber of Commerce should give me some kind of certificate of appreciation
for all the promoting I do. Tom jokes that
he’d prefer it if fewer people came to visit Sanibel. But actions speak louder than words. I know he loves peak season with all its
seasonal residents and visitors, because he spends lots of time and effort
entertaining them with his band, Island Jazz. After all, with
very few exceptions, just about all Sanibel residents were once Sanibel
visitors. That said, I
must admit that my favorite times on Sanibel are in the off-season, when we
can enjoy the wildlife and relatively pristine environment in peace and
quiet. (No, don’t get me started on
the Lake Okeechobee releases . . . .) And peace and
quiet ruled the night last night here in this apartment. For some reason, the literary critic turned
the volume on his TV way down.
We did not need to play our “Peaceful Ocean Surf” CD last night. Another thing
that pleased me mightily yesterday was that I found Romanesco, that
wondrous fractal vegetable, at the Marché Saint-Germain. Tom and I went to the marché at 4PM to buy
more Salers cheese from the Sanders fromagerie. After we also bought jambon blanc (ham) from the butcher, I suggested to Tom that he
might want to buy himself some bananas at the North African produce vendor’s
booth. I walked around to the
vegetable side of the booth and there it was:
Romanesco! When we were
home in the apartment, I immediately removed the leaves from the outer
perimeter, cut some fractals off, and ate them. Romanesco has the very best characteristics
of cauliflower and broccoli, and none of the less desirable characteristics. Good fish, great
weather, fractal beauty, peace and quiet.
Life goes on. |
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Dining
with our friends Sylvia and John at La Bastide Odéon on Monday.
A
decorative door next to the Café de la Mairie on
the rue Saint-Sulpice side of the Place Saint-Sulpice.
A
pre-Haussmann building that on the rue Bonaparte side of the Place Saint-Sulpice. I like it
from the old door at the bottom to the solarium at the top. Also note the reflection of the church in
its windows.
The
upper part of the fountain in the Place Saint-Sulpice.
Statues
in the upper level of the façade of the Saint Sulpice
church.
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