Paris Journal 2014 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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The New York Times chose to call the Berges de Seine project “a playful path along the Seine.” Well chosen words! The riverbank is playful, or perhaps we should say it is playful once again. Once upon a time, before the expressway was constructed on the riverbank, it was a playful path. The Quai de Grenelle was and still is a playful path, because it was never turned into an expressway. That’s where we chose to walk yesterday. We started with our usual walk up the rue du Commerce, avenue de la Motte-Picquet, and the elegant residential street that goes just outside the southwest border of the Champ de Mars. This street changes names too many times to count, but it is really just one long street. I suppose there were too many important men who had to have streets named after them at the time when these buildings were built. We like walking there because of the wide sidewalks, mature trees, beautiful Haussmannian buildings, and no commercial businesses; this is a totally residential area. So we crossed the Quai Branly just west of the Eiffel Tower and walked along the elevated bank until we reached the beautiful bi-level Pont de Bir Hakeim, which is now getting a facelift. After crossing the big intersection there with all its frantic traffic, we began our descent – down the ramp, to the real riverbank of the Port de Grenelle. I recently read that the Île aux Cygnes was constructed in the middle of the Seine to protect the Port de Grenelle. Then I checked the map; indeed, the river is wider there, just as it bends to the southwest. We saw a good demonstration of why the port needs to be protected, because a rainstorm suddenly poured down upon us. There is no good place to seek shelter down there on the riverbank, so we stood beneath a couple large plane trees, and up against the huge retaining wall where there was a slight outcropping above us – giving a bit of protection from the rain. The wind blew from the west, and the rain poured. We looked at the river before us. The water heaved and swelled; the river was in muscular, turbulent motion. Water is powerful, the Seine reminded us. We could see why it needs to be controlled, to protect the port. In my mind, this resolves the question about whether the Île aux Cygnes should be part of the 15th or the 16th arrondissement. The island was constructed to protect the Port de Grenelle, which is on the 15th side of the river, and it does just that. So the 15th arrondissement should be taking care of the Île aux Cygnes, in my opinion. About those cygnes (swans) – they do exist. We’d seen them years ago, when we looked down the steeply sloping bank of the Île on its Grenelle side. But since it had been so long since we’d seen any swans, I was thinking they were gone now. But no! Yesterday we saw a swan as we stood partly sheltered from the rain, looking over at that side of the Île aux Cygnes! I was so happy to see this graceful waterbird. After a while, the rain let up somewhat so that we were able to walk on to take shelter under the RER train bridge which crosses the Seine near the middle of the Île aux Cygnes. This artificial island was created in 1827, a scheme of two businessmen who were also elected officials of Vaugirard (the other village near Grenelle). Their names were Jean-Léonard Violet and Alphonse Letellier. Both of these men owned real estate in the area, and both now have streets in the 15th arrondissement named after them. I’m sure this improvement of the Port de Grenelle helped their real estate values! The walkway that runs the length of the Île aux Cygnes is called the Allée des Cygnes. It was created in 1878, and is about 850 meters long, 11 meters wide. A total of more than 300 trees line the sides of the Allée, including over 60 species. As we stood under the RER train’s bridge, two extended families joined us in seeking shelter there. One was Japanese; the other was German. They all were chattering away, with about six or seven conversations happening at once. The rain let up some more, so we moved on a bit to position ourselves under the overhang of a port building. Ah, peace and quiet returned. That reminds me that earlier, just as it was beginning to rain, we were stopped by a nice couple who asked us, in French, how to find the dinner-cruise boat called the Capitaine Fracasse. We began answering in French, but then I realized that their French was halting. So I asked if they spoke English. You should have seen the look of relief on their faces as we switched to English! I think they were native speakers of Portuguese, perhaps from Brazil. The Capitaine Fracasse boards and leaves from the Île des Cygnes, on the Grenelle side, close to the Pont de Bir Hakeim. This cruising resto gets good reviews on TripAdvisor, and we’ve passed it many times. But we’ve never taken this dinner cruise. In the top photo on this page, the steps you see in the upper left corner, leading down to the water, are the ones you take to board the Capitaine Fracasse. At the time I took this photo, the boat was out picking up its crew and wait staff. Another thing I should point out about the Île aux Cygnes is that it is NOT the same as the much earlier Île des Cygnes. Some of the English-speaking walking tour guides in Paris give false information about this. The older Île des Cygnes was formed by merging some smaller islets. Then the Île des Cygnes was merged with the left bank in the late 1700s. The Musée du Quai Branly sits on what was once the earlier Île des Cygnes. Even earlier, the Île des Cygnes was called the Île Maquerelle. Its name was changed by royal decree when swans were introduced to the island, in 1676. So if you have a tour guide who tells you that the current Île aux Cygnes is the one that the king had populated with swans back in 1676, that guide is wrong. The current Île aux Cygnes didn’t even exist then. Here’s another interesting but sad and gruesome fact: about 1200 victims of the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in 1572 were buried on the Ile Maquerelle (later the Île des Cygnes). The island was part of a vast territory that belonged to the Saint-Germain-des-Pres Abbey. So this Île is where religious and political leaders decided to bury the murdered Protestants. I do not know if the remains were ever moved. So they may still be there, beneath the garden of the Musée du Quai Branly? Who knows? One final tidbit about the older Île des Cygnes: the American engineer Robert Fulton did his famous experiments on steam navigation on the old Île, because the Perier brothers had set up a steam works there at the bequest of the City of Paris. Steam was needed to power the flour mills, since the water levels of the Seine varied too much to be a reliable source of power. Steam began to form on the inside of my wristwatch as we sought shelter from the rain that was cooling the summer day. When the rain stopped, we walked on to the Pont de Grenelle, admiring the Statue of Liberty as we ascended the ramp to the street level. I knew just the place to go next, to freshen up and try to rid myself of the drowned-rat look: the ladies’ room on the second floor of the Panoramic section of the new Beaugrenelle shopping center. Ah yes. This restroom is modern, well lit, and sparkling clean because it is has an attendee. No tip jar or tray was in sight. She must be paid a living wage! How very French, and very nice. We sat on a comfy bench in the shopping mall and talked about where to go for dinner. The plan was to check out Le Plomb du Cantal, a bistro formerly called Zola, on the way home. The triangular bistro overlooks the Place Emile Zola on the avenue Emile Zola. We’d looked at the posted menu, which features many beef main courses, and a couple of duck dishes. Because the owners have recently invested more money in this neighborhood place, we thought we should try it. But when we arrived at that place, somehow the menu didn’t appeal so much. It was just a few minutes after 7PM, so we started to return to the apartment. But I decided to check the daily specials posting at Le Café du Commerce before we rounded the corner for home. Voila! Travers de porc (baby back ribs) were the daily special, with homemade plum sauce. The accompaniment was mashed potatoes-and-black olives – a Provençale dish. The decision was made; we’d dine at Le Café du Commerce, the big resto that we overlook from our kitchen window. Fortunately, we were early (by Parisian standards). I asked meekly and politely if there was perhaps a table for two available, and I received a welcoming “bien sur, madame” from the maître d’hotel. He handed me a slip of paper with number 124 written on it, and instructed us to ascend to the next level. We thanked him. Before we reached the stairs, a large group started to overtake us. I decided to step aside, and let them go on up ahead of us. But they kept coming, and coming. I was amazed at how many there were! When I thought that was the end of them, we went up to the first level, and were seated. The big group was going on up to the top level. Then more of them arrived. And more, and more. Where are they putting all these people, we wondered? So many more arrived that some of them had to be seated on our level. The group members seemed to me to be almost all British, but we did hear an American voice or two. I thought they might be band and choir members from some of the many British bands that perform in Paris parks in the summer. They were decidedly middle-class and upper-middle class, and seemingly somewhat educated. Several of them seemed more like athletes than musicians. Finally, at the end of the dinner, we asked our server about the huge group. She said they had been at an event on the Champs Élysées today. She also said that many of them were actors. (Now I know that there was a huge fitness/sport event in the Grand Palais which was attended by 5,000 people. The folks we saw at the resto were working for the sponsors - a sports gear manufacturer and a coaching business - to promote and organize the event.) That explains it! I thought that one of the two tall black men in the group looked like Aldis Hodge (American actor who played the computer whiz in the TV show Leverage). Perhaps it was Aldis Hodge! What fun we had, from our table 124, looking over the railing at all the excitement! Downstairs, we could see servers coming out with tray after tray holding many plates with the same dish. The group must have had a set menu. The restaurant was running like a well-oiled machine, or a beautifully danced ballet. The numerous plates going out of the kitchen to the tables of the group were gorgeous. Upstairs, we could see a number of people from the big group dining, including Aldis Hodge or his look-alike. At one point, the chef and the manager had a heated discussion with the leader of the group. Not many restaurants in Paris could handle a group this big; we were impressed with the speed, precision, and execution of this operation. Nevertheless, there was some little glitch. The chef went up to the top level to explain to one of the group’s biggest tables what the problem/delay was all about. Finally, he calmed down. I think he was more concerned than any of the group members were. We saw young servers we’d never seen there before. The restaurant was fully staffed and more for this exceptional evening. All the servers were dressed in their sharp, somewhat formal black slacks, vests, aprons, and crisply ironed white shirts. By the time we left, the resto was chock full, and hopping. Meanwhile, our dinner was delicious. The starter course of finely sliced and marinated beets with a couple pieces of goat cheese was a refreshing and delightful summer dish. The plum sauce on the tender, juicy pork ribs was unmistakably freshly home made. And the dessert, baba au rhum, was lovely – comme d’habitude. During the dinner, the resto opened the glass roof over the atrium, about half way. The threat of rain had disappeared from the radar. So when we were at home after dinner, and after members of the big group had consumed much beer and wine, we heard the animated sounds of many people having a good time, floating up, out of the resto, and into our kitchen.
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Sunday, August 3, 2014
The
view as we begin our descent to the riverbank at the Port de Grenelle on the Seine.
The
modern Japanese cultural center being constructed near Bir
Hakeim is an example of “starchitecture.” It was designed by the architects Kenneth Amstrong and Masayuki Yamanaka, and was completed in
1997.
We’re
accustomed to seeing wall murals and electronic billboards that constantly
change. Here on the rue Saint Charles
is an interesting combination of the two.
In these two images, the billboard image for a bank advertisement
yields to an image that completes the mural of the Pont Mirabeau.
Marinated
beets with goat cheese (above), and barbequed baby
back ribs in plum sauce with Provencale mashed
potatoes (below) at Le Café du Commerce.
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