Paris Journal 2014 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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Rain changed
our plans. What would have been a walk
along the Seine and a visit to the Petit Palais museum turned into a walk
down the avenue Émile Zola, rue Beaugrenelle,
rue Linois, and the Île aux Cygnes. We’ll save the Petit Palais for a dryer
day. But first we
did essential errands like going to the post office to mail our absentee
ballots (Florida’s primary election is August 26) and to pick up a package
that was too big for the mail slot in our building’s door. The man behind the counter at La Poste was
super-nice and helpful. He even left
his post to show us the machines and get us started with obtaining the
postage stickers for our ballot envelopes.
He could see that they were election ballots; voting is very important
to the French, who have much higher voter turnouts than Americans have. Then we checked
out the Franprix grocery next to La Poste. As I suspected, it has been completely
renovated and is no longer shabby. It
was good to take our time in a sleek, modern, uncrowded
grocery, finding the few things we needed (like Lavazza
coffee again). After unloading
our bags at the apartment, it was time to venture out for that walk. We had not seen
the charming rue Beaugrenelle for a while. It is a quaint, calm little street set just
one short block back from the hectic Place Charles Michels. We admired the
ethnic restaurants (Thai, African, Indian, Iranian), and gazed in wonder
through the windows of a spectacular chocolate shop called Le Voyage Gustatif. Then we
re-joined the masses on the rue Linois. Because it had
been raining all afternoon, there were more people than usual walking on the
Île aux Cygnes. Walkers who’d been
stymied all day were out in force, all at once. We had to
negotiate around some tricky puddles that obscured the paved part of the Allée. But it was
fun – the air was fresh and clean, and it felt good to be out. We felt like kids let out to play. On our way back
toward the Statue of Liberty, we broached the subject of dinner: where to have it? Fortunately, Tom and I had each been
thinking the same thing: now is the time to try Eclectic, the new brasserie
near the Seine that is part of the Magnetic section of the new Beaugrenelle commercial center. Most people
were seated outside at this new brasserie, but we wanted to be inside, to
enjoy the new décor of the place, and to ensure protection against rainshowers and smokers. It was only
7:30PM, but two chefs in tall toques were working away in the kitchen, which
we could look into via a wide, horizontal section of glass built into the
back wall of the dining room. The
glass seems to magnify the view.
The dining room
décor was elegantly modern, but had eclectic details like funky salt and
pepper shakers that looked like dumpy, bare-chested men, and a nice tea
kettle collection on custom-built shelves.
The floors of the dining room were real Terrazzo – an
old-timey flooring that we cherish.
The lighting
was some of the best we’ve ever seen for dining in Paris. The whole place was well-thought-out, and
the tables were not crowded together. We
could breathe there. Chairs and
banquettes were comfy, and the tabletops were granite. The place just made us feel good.
The menu was eclectic,
featuring Italian, Asian, American, and French cuisines, as well as some
others I probably missed. We each
decided upon the crispy chicken, served sweet-and-sour style. I asked for rice with mine, and Tom asked
for fries.
The cost, 23
euros each, is far more than the Chinese carryouts
charge for sweet and sour chicken in the 15th, but this dish was
special. The crispy exterior was
outstanding – I could swear it had coconut in it. The chicken was garnished with fresh fruit
and hot green pepper bits, and the sauce was delicious – certainly not
something out of a jar or pouch. The
chicken was dark meat, which I prefer; Tom prefers white meat, alas. The long-grain
rice was as good as it can be, and Tom’s fries were tasty, too. The servers slacked off from time to time
so they could gossip, but the manager stepped in to fill the voids. The serving
size was generous, so I did not order dessert and Tom simply had a café gourmand that came with three
tiny, delicious pastries.
The walk home
was pleasant, but when I went out on the balcony to read for a while, I could
see another rainstorm complete with lightning in the distance, slowly inching
toward Paris. These
temperatures in the 70s are delightful, so we will not complain about the
weather. The rain has saved me hours
of work that I would have done in the past month, watering the thirsty plants
on the balcony. And so it goes
. . . .
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Friday, August 8, 2014
Flowers
that are really chocolates, in the window of a shop called Le Voyage Gustatif, on the rue Beaugrenelle.
Chocolates
in seashells . . . hmmmm.
Whimsical
floral display in apartment windows on the rue Beaugrenelle.
Tea
kettle/pot collection in Eclectic.
Wall
mural by Bryan Becheri in the Square Alésia-Ridder. |
