Paris Journal 2013 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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Finished with our
extraordinarily expensive errand at the Federal Express outpost on the boulevard
Haussmann, we realized we could go home the way we came, on the metro. But no, it seemed to be a lot more fun to
wander through the right bank streets toward home. I was looking forward to
seeing the Square Louis XVI with enthusiasm.
This dignified and haunted little park is one of the places that
fascinates me most on the right bank side of Paris. It is the site of the
handsome Chapelle d’Expiatoire, which we could not see yesterday because of
renovation work. That was fine,
because what I like most is the park itself. It is the site of the
former cemetery of the Madeleine church.
Bodies of victims of the guillotine had also been unceremoniously
dumped there, in trenches, and covered with lime. This included the bodies of Louis XVI and
Marie-Antoinette, until they were exhumed and re-interred at the Basilica of
Saint Denis, by order of Louis XVIII. Louis XVIII shared the
expense of designing and erecting the Chapelle d’Expiatoire with the Duchess
of Angouleme. He had to buy the land
from a private landowner who had acquired it from a stonemason who bought it
after the Revolution. The Chapelle, and the park
itself, owe some of their somber dignity to the tall, old trees that provide
ample shade in this otherwise very urban spot. Somehow the right bank has
always seemed to me to be more urban than the left bank, but as we wandered
down through some quiet streets after leaving the Square Louis XVI, I wasn’t
sure why that is. It must be the
nature and number of the institutions and businesses there. I didn’t need to consult
the map as we walked home. It is not
that I know all of the streets over there, but just that I have a feel for
them, and for their terrain, despite their irregular patterns and directions. I also was navigating a bit by the sun and somewhat
by the dropping elevation, approaching the Seine. Somehow we ended up exactly
where I would have put us if I’d consulted a map. We walked alongside the Élysée Palace
grounds, and then by the grounds of the U.S. Embassy, where we have an
appointment on August 6 to have a document notarized. That will be our first
visit to the Embassy in all the years we’ve been summering here in Paris. We crossed the Champs
Élysées, when Tom suggested we take a break at the café in the garden at the
Petit Palais. That is one of our favorite
places to stop for refreshment. You
can enter the Petit Palais museum’s permanent collections galleries for free
– but you must go to the ticket counter in the foyer and ask for a ticket
first. Then you head off to the
left, into a stunningly beautiful grand sculpture gallery and almost
immediately turn to the right, exiting into a lovely garden that is
surrounded by the building. Straight
ahead of you then is the café’s terrasse.
If the place is busy, one
of you can stake out a table on the terrasse
while the other goes inside to purchase the refreshments in the chic
mini-cafeteria. But we were there at
10:30AM, when the café had only just opened at 10AM. We were the first customers of the day. So we both went inside to
select a bottle of sparkling water, an espresso for Tom, a
rhubarb-and-strawberry fruit cup for me (called a “marmalade,”, with some
crunchy crumbles on top), and an apple-and-almond tarte for Tom. We had not eaten breakfast really, and we’d
already hiked for a while. As we lounged and nibbled
on the terrasse, gazing into the
formal garden in the space before us, Tom asked me, “Can we have a garden
like this?” I said, “Yes, we certainly
can, except we can’t have certain plants like hosta lilies. But yes, we can have a garden like this,
perhaps around the pool that we’re going to build.” The garden in this
protected space has tropical and subtropical plants. Paris had a very harsh winter this past
year, but this garden seems to have fared well in spite of it. In other parks and gardens, we see evidence
of winter damage. Feeling refreshed after
this mid-morning snack, we wandered through the permanent collection of the
Petit Palais. One of Tom’s favorite Petit
Palais paintings -- Grimaces et Misères
(Les Saltimbanques) -- was gone, but in its place were several paintings
by the same artist, Fernand
Pelez. Several of my favorite paintings
were still there, and there were a couple new favorites to admire. The City of Paris has so many artworks, I
think, they cannot all be displayed at once.
They must be rotated, and of course, some of the most famous of the
Petit Palais paintings, like Monet’s Soleil
Couchant sur la Seine a Lavacourt, effet d’hiver, are often out on
loan for exhibitions elsewhere in the world. People often do not think
of the Petit Palais as one of the go-to museums for seeing the work of the
Impressionists, but there are a number of very important Impressionist
paintings there, in the permanent collection which can be seen for free. When we left that beautiful
Beaux-Arts museum, we realized that the walk home from there was better than
ever, now that the Seine’s left bank pedestrian amenities are in place. There is a more direct way to walk home
through the left bank, after crossing the Seine on the magnificent, overly
decorated Pont Alexandre III, but there is no better way. We descended to the
riverbank level after traversing the bridge, and as we walked by Faust’s terrasse, we noted that in that hour
before customers arrived, the staff was playing North African music, not the
music of Ray Charles this time. It had been a long walk
from the boulevard Haussmann, but there were so many great places to sit now,
and lovely things to look at, as we walked along the riverbank. How nice this is! After leaving the
riverbank, we walked through the Musée
du Quai Branly’s beautiful and exotic garden, as we often do, and on
through the Champ de Mars, which was very busy with tourists who’d arrived
there in tourist buses. When we were almost home, on
the rue du Commerce, we decided to stop for a fresh baguette in the organic
bakery. Then at last we were home, in
time to do some work at the computers, read, and rest before dinner. Dinner was at Stéphane Martin, which I’d
reserved via LaFourchette.com. We’ve
known about this restaurant for years, but somehow last year we missed dining
there, because by the time we thought of it, the resto had closed for
vacation. In September, we move over to
the 6th arrondissement, and so we don’t generally dine in the 15th
during that month. But this time, I’d managed
to remember and reserve at Stéphane Martin, and we were so glad. The dinner was superb. Hors d’oeuvres were already on each table when we arrived: a glass full of nicely seasoned green and
black olives, with a few pickled onions and cool, cooked carrot slices. We nibbled as we perused the menu. We knew what we wanted,
however. The signature dish for Stéphane
Martin: Jarret de porc braisé au miel d'épices et embeuré de choux (pour 2
personnes). A mis en bouche arrived : a seafood rillette spread, with
tiny, thinly sliced, cripsy toasts. We ordered the pork roast
and cabbage for two, and a moelleux au
chocolat de Tanzanie et sorbet à la verveine for me, and a cherry
clafouti for Tom. The slow-roasted pork
arrives at the table on a bed of buttery red cabbage, all on a big platter,
and is served to two people. A crock
of honey-based dark, juicy sauce arrives shortly after the platter. I vowed to make this dish
again at home in Florida sometime.
I’ve done it before; and I think I can do it even better this time,
knowing a little more about how to order the roast from the butcher. Last time, I duplicated the cabbage of Stéphane
Martin’s almost perfectly. Tom said I should make it
for his poker buddies one night, instead of the pulled pork I normally make
for them. I said maybe that’s too much
pressure . . . we shall see. I suggested
I try it out on him and my mother for dinner one evening first. He agreed that this is a good idea; Mom (Joy) likes pork roast, and cabbage. This is pork roast and
cabbage to beat all others: moist, incredibly tender, savory, sweet, and
mild. Oh my. As if that weren’t enough,
the desserts were incredible. The moelleux was made with some of the
best dark chocolate I’ve ever experienced – chocolate from Tanzania! And the verbena sorbet was the perfect
addition. When we arrived at home, I
checked on the balcony plants. In spite
of the rain the night before, they were dry.
So we went about the task of soaking them mightily, because this
afternoon will be very hot. This insured that we had a
thunderstorm last night. Torrents of
rain and violent thunder besieged Paris in the wee hours of the morning. I do love a good thunderstorm, and there
was nothing mild about that one. |
Saturday, July 27, 2013
In
the garden within the Petit Palais.
Comfy
chairs for weary walkers in Le Jardin du Petit Palais Café.
Louis
XVI and Marie Antoinette were buried here for a while, in what is now the
Square Louis XVI with its Chapelle d’Expiatoire.
Crossing
the Pont Alexandre III, you can see the terrasse for
Faust in the lower right corner, and the beautiful dome of Les Invalides to
the left. The woman in black and white
who approaches is about to ask Tom to take her photo with the Eiffel Tower in
the background.
The
Eiffel Tower and the steeple of the American Church as seen from the Pont Alexandre III.
The clafoutis
aux cerises at Stéphane Martin.
Moelleux
au chocolat de Tanzanie et sorbet à la verveine. |
