Paris Journal 2014 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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In spite of the perfectly English weather (i.e., miserable), we felt like celebrating again last night, because Tom had just finished an important part of the new edition of Back to Lake (to be published by W. W. Norton & Co. at the end of the year). So he’d asked me if we could go to La Table d’Hubert again. Bien sur! I made a reservation. The rain was just barely spitting when we left the apartment, so we opened the umbrellas and walked. We were going to be early, but I needed to do something about my shoe situation. My only real walking shoes for cold damp weather were in a state of being glued and clamped. I was wearing open-toed shoes, with socks, trying to avoid puddles to keep my socks dry. I’d already been scoping out short boots in various shoe stores. Le Monde et Nous, a boutique that I have been admiring at the beginning of the avenue Félix Faure, seems to have the best selection and prices for what I want. That was right en route to the restaurant, so we stopped. Within 10 minutes, I was buying the boots of choice: black leather, with thick vibram soles and elevated vibram heels – very practical for the weather we’ve been having. The boutique owner was pleased that I wanted to wear them and carry my old shoes out in a bag; that way, he kept the sturdy shoe box, which I was sure he would put to good use. His shop has lots of beautiful, lacy, colorful and comfortable tops, all made in Italy. These are tempting. We were only two or three minutes late when we arrived at the restaurant. Hubert was happy to see us, and thanked me for my little review in lafourchette.com. Or was it this journal that he saw? He said something about having the restaurant to ourselves, which made me think he’d read what I wrote about our recent experience at l’Alchimie. I’m too embarrassed to ask. At any rate, we did not have the restaurant to ourselves. Two other tables were occupied, both by younger couples. After a thoroughly enjoyable steak dinner followed by tarte tatin (thick apple pie with no top crust) and a scoop of rum raisin ice cream, we were ready to go back out into the cold damp for the 30-minute walk home. But once we were outside, we saw that the rain was coming down harder, and so we descended into the metro line 8 at its Balard end – four stops later, we’d be almost home, at the Commerce station. We still had a few blocks to walk from there. Puddles were growing, and becoming impossible to avoid. I was grateful to have the new boots. These boots are made for walking . . . in the rain! Sanibelians rarely get to wear warm boots like this in a cold rain; so please forgive my glee. At the apartment, we settled into our normal after-dinner routine of reading and listening to instrumental jazz (vocals interfere with the reading). Then I suddenly remembered that the sound-and-light show on the Paris City Hall was going to be live, on France 3 TV! We turned the TV on in time to catch the end of the Liberation of Paris documentary that preceded the sound-and-light show. And the show went on, in spite of the rain. There were people actually out sitting and standing in the rain to see it! (But TV cameras showed that they dispersed immediately, the moment the show ended. The wet parvis [plaza] in front of the Hôtel de Ville was suddenly empty. That parvis has recently been named for the Liberation de Paris, by the way.) During the show, images were projected over the entire façade of the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall). Some of the images were so realistic, you thought you were seeing bombers and parachutists; other colorful images danced and moved to the music. A couple dancers performed in front of spotlights that projected their shadows perfectly onto the building façade, much larger than life. (Here’s one spectator’s video of the show.) Good show! Speaking of the Liberation of Paris, the New York Times web site has the original August 25, 1944, article from its front page available at http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0825.html#article And if you’d like to see more photographs of the Liberation, search for “Liberation de Paris” on YouTube. There are some fascinating images, including a piece about recently discovered photos taken 70 years ago.
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Tuesday, August 26, 2014
“FFI” stood for Forces
Françaises de l’Intérieur, or French Forces of the Interior. This is what DeGaulle called the Resistance
during the later stages of WWII. These
are a few more photos from the parade on rue du Commerce on Saturday, showing
those representing the FFI.
Delicious steak and tarte
Tatin with rum raisin ice cream at La Table d’Hubert. Hubert made the tarte a flambée, right before our eyes.
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