Paris Journal 2008

Sign my guestbook. View my guestbook. ←Previous Next → Barbara’s home page

Yesterday, we finally took a day off from work because Tom had not heard from the editors in New York after he sent them some material. It was a good day for walking – cool, and not rainy. The rain came back in the evening. We started with a walk through the Luxemburg gardens and the Marco Polo garden (also called the Garden of the Observatory) to the boulevard Montparnasse so that Tom could retrieve the umbrella he’d left at Chez Fernand the night before. With that mission accomplished, we set off for the 5^th arrondissement. I wanted to walk by the beautiful front of the Val de Grace military hospital, and we just generally wanted to walk around in a different part of town. (The Port Royal et Baudelocque maternity hospital across the boulevard from Val de Grace is also historic and beautiful.) The rue St. Jacques is the easiest street for negotiating that hill, Mont Ste. Genevieve, atop which the Panthéon and much of the Sorbonne rest. It was a long, very gradual slope up the hill as we walked from Val de Grace toward the Seine. Along the way, we stopped at the St. Jacques de Haut Pas church, which has a fascinating history of serving the poor. For a few years after the Revolution, from 1797 to 1801, the church was shared by the Catholics and a protestant order called the theophilantropes. The division was simple: the Catholics got the nave and the protestants got the choir. The church has a good display (in French) about its past, and we were absorbed in reading it until the priest asked all four of us tourists to leave, ten minutes earlier than the posted closing time, so he could go to lunch. And so we continued on up to the rue Soufflot, where we turned to the east and walked around the Panthéon and down past the College Ste. Barbe, where Alfred Dreyfus and others went to school. At the corner of rue des Carmes and rue des Écoles, we found a restaurant that Tom said would be acceptable for lunch. (We now have this new rule about rejecting places that promote their English menus too much; that eliminates quite a few places!) The restaurant was called La Petite Périgourdine, 39 rue des Écoles, telephone 01-43-26-33-35. We made the good decision to have our main meal of the day there, for lunch. I ordered the gazpacho for a starter. It came with generous shavings of aged Parmesan and thin little slices of Poilaine bread topped with little slices of fine, dark ham. The soup looked bland, but was not bland at all. It was nicely spiced. And the presentation was lovely. This soup was €6 and worth every cent. Tom, feeling rebellious, ordered the house terrines for a starter course, and a side order of French fries. No main course. That turned out to be a stroke of genius. The server brought him a plank upon which there were three half-loafs of home-made terrines. One had pistachios, and another had plums embedded within. Tom says they all three were great. He took a slice of each, and he ate them with the excellent pickles that were also provided. For a main course, I had the mignon de porc in a mustard cream sauce that included the grains of mustard, and a rich, creamy risotto (€14). This is the first pork I’ve had since Germany, where I think I had too much pork because that is mostly what is served there, it seems. The pork slices had been grilled, and they were very good. The sauce was perfect. It could not have been better. The risotto was excellent, but was so rich and the portion was so large that I could only consume about half of it. Tom’s French fries (€4) were the thick, generous kind – what we’d call steak fries. They could not have been better. The fries and my main course were piping hot when brought to our table. After we’d been eating for some time, the server finally came and removed the plank with those terrines. I guess this is an all-you-can eat course. Nothing was there to stop Tom from taking more than the three slices except for his restraint, which proved to be sufficient. The terrine course was €8. For beverages, I had 25cl of Cotes du Rhone for €6.30, and Tom had an espresso for €2.50. We also had a carafe of regular water, which is free, of course, and was served to us quite chilled in bottle that had once contained some very expensive wine (the label was still intact). The total for this lunch was €40.50, and at an exchange rate of $1.43 for a euro, that is plenty. But consider this: the tax charged is 19.6 percent, and it is built into the price. Without the tax, the meal would have been €33.86. Service is also included in the price. We normally would tip 20 percent, but it is not necessary to tip at all in Paris, because the service is included and, fortunately, servers are paid a living wage. If we would subtract 20 percent from the 33.86, the price of the food was really €27.08, or $38.74. Not cheap, but not bad at all, given the high quality of the food we were served. Our main goal for our walk was the weekend-long open house of the newly renovated Collège des Bernardins (there is an error in the article this links to; the Church bought it from the City in 2001, not vice versa; here’s a French article that is more accurate). This former institute of education was started by monks back in medieval times. After the revolution, it was used for a number of purposes. It is now a cultural center – a place for exhibitions, concerts, and seminars. It has been restored at great expense, shared by the Church and the public. This grand opening and open house was well-publicized. The Pope will be speaking there on the 12^th. When we arrived there on the rue de Poissy, we could not believe our eyes. The line of people waiting to view the Collège stretched all the way down the street, around the corner on the boulevard St. Germain, and around the corner again on the rue de Pontoise. We didn’t even bother to see how far it went down the rue de Pontoise. We just decided we’ll see it some other time. Instead, we walked up to the Seine and ambled over the cobblestones along the edge of the river until we reached the Passarelle des Arts, where we decided to make our way home for a rest. Passing through the mysterious little arch in the Academie Française, we then walked down the rue de Seine, which was humming with pedestrian activity, to the Champion grocery. After gathering some supplies, we went home for our rest. In the evening, we went out walking again. At the square in front of the St. Germain des Prés church, we found a couple young men playing jazz. More specifically, they were playing Bop in an excellent manner. One saxophone player, and one electric guitarist. How wonderful it is that young people are interested in this music and are playing it so well! We sat on a bench near them and stayed until they stopped playing. We applauded after each piece. So did a young woman who was waiting for someone on the other side of the bench. Everyone else seemed to be ignoring them. I could have clobbered a group of three Americans who sat behind us and jabbered away instead of listening. Fortunately, they left. We enjoyed hearing these two guys so much that Tom gave them €10. Besides, we didn’t have any change. We walked on to the Italian-like square in front of the St. Thomas Aquinas church, and then it started to rain again so we made our way home by 9PM or so. Back to Chez Fernand on Friday evening . . . . that was a good experience, too. Both La Petite Périgourdine and Chez Fernand were full of local people. I did not hear any other English speakers. Three Spaniards entered the Périgourdine shortly before we left, but everyone else was speaking French. And we did hear one French/Italian couple greeted by the manager at Chez Fernand in fluent and enthusiastic Italian. Chez Fernand is one of those big old Parisian brasseries with a grand reputation from the past. It, like the others, was bought by a chain, and small little Chez Fernands have been allowed to pop up in a couple other locations in the 6^th arrondissement. We’d already been to one of these offsprings of Chez Fernand in the warren of little streets north of St. Sulpice last year. It was good, but not that memorable. This original, big Chez Fernand on boulevard Montparnasse was a memorable experience, on the other hand. We were seated at a comfortable booth (oh lucky day!) near the entrance, so we were able to observe everyone who came in while we were there. Only one group had a reservation. Everyone else just showed up. Many of them were greeted as regulars. We started by sharing the foie gras (a slice of the whole liver, not a paté) which came in a tasty fruity sauce and was accompanied by a poached pear. It was fabulous. I ordered the special of the day, rabbit, which came with a bit of demiglace sauce and homemade pasta. Tom had lamb chops. Both of these courses were very good. Then Tom had dessert, an apple crumble, which was unremarkable. Le Select, a slightly more informal brasserie, is almost next door to Chez Fernand. The atmosphere is grander at the latter, but we’ve had some meals of very good value at the former. It is hard to say which place I prefer. I guess it will just depend on my mood. At right, a picture of the long line of people going to the open house at the Collège des Bernardins. Sign my guestbook. View my guestbook.

Sunday, September 7, 2008 In the Marco Polo garden, the Fontaine des Quatre Parties du Monde (Fountain of the Four Parts of the World) was designed by Gabriel Davioud, and built between 1867 and 1874. Val de Grace, a church, former monastery, and now big military hospital. St. Jacques de Haut Pas church. Looking up the rue St. Jacques. I believe the steeple on the left is the St. Jacques de Haut Pas church. Poster promoting the open house for the Collège des Bernardins. While walking up the rue des Ecoles, we encountered a bagpiper from Scotland. He was playing for his friends who were at the brasserie across the street. Door to the Oceanographic Institute is decorated with a beautiful octopus.

←Previous Next →