Saturday, April 14
After a most luxurious late start and a little grocery shopping a la Nantucket, but minus the coupons, Trudy and I were off for the day. We headed for the Jeu de Paume, stopping along the way to get information on concerts at Saint Chapelle and to admire the tulips in the Tuileries. The unusual Picasso exhibit gave us a whole new appreciation for poisson. Check with us later for the full story. And then it was on to the Palais Royale where this shot of Trudy and pigeon was taken. We circled back around towards the apartment and found that the tents we'd seen yesterday on Pont de Archeveche, were the site of a wonderful antique market. Many bargains but nothing for us. And we finished the evening at a vegetarian and smoke-free restaurant just around the corner from the apartment, Le Grenier de Notre Dame, where we can highly recommend the meatless lasagna and moussaka with lentils. The apple tart did not however, measure up to Bob's tarte tatin.
posted by Judy at 5:24 PM|link
Friday, April 13
I like the looks of this place and its possibilities. Le Coeur Fou, foolish heart I think, but the dictionary says fou means mad or crazy. I like my translation though and picture myself thirty years younger, having just arrived on the bike parked out front. And you know who was driving it? Peter of course because even after more than thirty years I still have le coeur fou for him. Seems to be some sort of technical difficulties here with this post overlapping the earlier one. So I'll just add a few lines to see if that clears it up. Trudy arrived this morning, not at 6:15am as originally scheduled but at a much more civilized 9:45am. Apparently there was bad weather all along the East Coast, but Paris is unexpectedly bright and sunny. And our adventures are about to begin.
posted by Judy at 6:09 AM|link
Wednesday, April 11
This is what I love about France. You wouldn't see this in the window of a CVS now would you? And for Meg ...of course I remember when the Silver Rabbit got hit. I can see us both at the kichen sink that day, surrounded by the White Tidewater cabinets that weren't plain white like I thought, and when I tried to send them back they wouldn't take them. The sudden huge crash, dripping hands and the car mashed into the light pole and the curb. It's funny though, I don't have the same clear picture of the other cars, only of our poor little Rabbit. And remember how it never really drove right again after that? If you watched it from behind, you could see three tires instead of just two, kind of like a crab going a little sideways down the road.
posted by Judy at 2:17 PM|link
Tuesday, April 10
Hooray! I emailed the paper this morning so now it's just me and my sabbatical. I'm a free woman, an 'electron libre' even, if you saw that earlier post. And what a lovely day it was, just letting my initial errand to pick up an adaptateur at BHV lead me wherever. When the light rain turned into quite a downpour I ducked into a place that advertised cafe latte and something called a San Franciso steamer. The steamer had those Italian syrups added so I don't know why they gave it that name. I went for a latte instead. A left-behind magazine turned out to be an English guide to things to do in Paris, and that led me up the street to the Issey Miyake shop called A.POC, which stands for A Piece of Cloth. And that's not just any piece of cloth. He's invented (patent pending) some sort of amazing knit material which doesn't run at all. Arm holes and a neck opening can just be cut out, with no stitching around them, all in great colors, not just the usual Japanese black and gray. Of course, the price reflects their uniqueness so fortunately I came to my senses before making an unwarranted purchase. I kept wandering and eventually ended up at the Palais Royal, amazed by the length and regularity of this covered walkway that surrounds the gardens. How envious I am of those for whom this is just a part of their daily walk.
posted by Judy at 4:58 PM|link
Monday, April 9
Aagh, the weather is getting to be a bit of an annoyance. I'm going to be quite ready for some sun and warm weather when the next real Spring day finally arrives. No pictures today. I just took my book, found a secluded corner table in a cafe around the corner, and spent several hours reading 'Revere Beach Boulevard'. What an odd combination it was to look up and see the park across the street surrounded by ancient gray buildings, and to look down and let my reading transport me back to the familiar scenes of Kelly's Roast Beef and the North End. The book, which was a great gift, makes me want to explore more of Revere, beyond the beach, and maybe check out Suffolk Downs when I get back.
posted by Judy at 4:16 PM|link
Sunday, April 8
Well it's the end of my first week in Paris and I'm truly in love with it all over again. Other than the day after I arrived when the temperature went up into the 60's, the weather has been uncooperative, though usually there are a few bursts of sunshine every day. Mostly though it's cloudy and gray, if not actually raining. In the apartment I bundle up in my black fleece and, the last couple of days, have even resorted to turning on the space heaters. I've come to realize I could never be a struggling writer in a garret apartment in Paris. It's just too cold for me. Besides, I much prefer to be a doer. All these days when I've stayed inside working on my paper, I've only really wanted to get out and be seeing things, as if every minute inside I was missing something important. And that seems to be true of everyone in Paris, especially on a Sunday when you can hardly move through the throngs along the quai heading toward the Louvre or the Tuileries. One of the special things here is the way everything seems to line up, so that you can catch a perfectly framed view of something in the distance. Sometimes they're far away and sometimes not, like this view of the Louvre pyramid from the outer court.
posted by Judy at 3:44 PM|link