Paris 

I’m sorry I’ve gotten so behind in the blog, but Paris called.  It’s still one of the most beautiful, vibrant places on earth.  I’m writing this on the TGV to Bordeaux. When we left the apt. at 9:00 this am., it was hard to believe how quiet the neighborhood was.  The Marais starts to come alive around 4:30 and is really hopping around 11:30. Our apt truly was an oasis in the middle of all of this fun chaos.

The heat finally broke on Wed.  What a beautiful day in Paris!  We went to Rodin museum.  I highly recommend it, especially the garden.  It was absolutely beautiful and so peaceful.  I took a picture of the penthouse behind the museum.  I can only imagine what it would be like to look over that park.  I think you have to pay an admission to get into the park, but it appeared that there’s a small entrance at the back and many business people were eating their lunches there. We did the audio guide with the visit because we like learning as much as we can.  For those of you who may have visited the special exhibit when it was in Richmond, the traveling exhibit was very well done.  It actually contained information that wasn’t in the permanent exhibit.  We ate a lovely lunch in the garden from the café, but we certainly could have brought our own.  Perfect way to spend a morning.

After our Rodin visit, we went to the Legion of Honor museum.  It’s free of charge and located across from the Musee d’Orssey.  That visit has always been on Cham’s bucket list.  It explained the various military, govt. and some of the secular orders, not just from France but also many other countries. It was very informative.  I was struck by the plainness of the American medals versus the ornateness of the European orders.  The jewels and enamel work were beautiful.  That evening we met Carole and Andy Morris, Susan and Dick’s son, for dinner at a great Corsican restaurant in the neighborhood.  Time flew as we learned about their jobs and their future travel plans.   We are looking forward to seeing them when they come to Lynchburg at Christmas.  Carole also gave us some great market recommendations for a visit the following day. The next morning Thursday July 21 was designated as going to the post office to mail some of Cham’s books and some of my clothing back home.  Even if  we had understood the language, their system is very confusing.  Once again we were rescued by a wonderful person.  The postal employee spoke no English, but when she realized how clueless we were, she guided us through the various stations.  She didn’t stand behind a desk but seemed to float through the various stations.  One station didn’t do everything, we had to go to several.  It was really quite an experience.  Packages mailed, we realized how close we were to Place des Vosges, my favorite square in Paris.  This is the first time I’ve been there with the fountains on.  It was another beautiful day and everyone was outside eating their lunch.  We were approached by these two darling girls who were selling lunches in the park.  The group was called Menu Next Door.  According to them, people can drop by certain homes and pick up lunches for sale.  They help by taking them to the park and selling them for the woman. I guess it’s similar to our food trucks, but I can guarantee you the food trucks don’t sell what we had.  It was probably the best meal we had in Paris for 8 euro – chopped cucumber and tomato salad, small spanakopita, a meat patty in a pastry, delicious cooked carrots and a fantastic ratitoulle.  It was so wonderful to sit on the park bench and eat it.  We then headed to the Marche des Rogue Enfants (we still need to find out why they were red infants).  Carole told us it was the oldest market in Paris.  What an experience! It was surprisingly small.  It took us quite a while to find it.  It basically consists of a couple of produce stands and the rest are food and cheese vendors.  They had everything there.  The most popular seemed to be the Moroccan restaurant, but we opted for a French place because Cham noticed several locals eating there and rightfully thought if this is their choice, it must be pretty good.  We ended up getting some pate along with a bottle of red wine.  It was a great place to people watch.  The pate was a little too livery for me, but Cham really enjoyed it.  We then strolled back to the apt.  It truly was a wonderful day in Paris.

The next day we went to Vieux l’Comte.  This is a chateau outside of Paris.  It was one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.  It was built by Louis XIV’s finance minister Nicholas Fouqetrkey.  He had a fabulous party which included a new style of garden and also fireworks.  It was the party of the century and it’s still written up today!  It was such the event that Louis had Fouqet arrested the next day on trumped up charges. He spent the rest of his life in prison, almost 20 years.  It is an extraordinary estate.  I prefer it to Versailles.  The pictures don’t do it justice.  I can only imagine what it was like the night of the party.

Yesterday, Saturday, we decided to spend the day in another one of my favorite areas, St. Germain.  It was another perfect day.  We started at St. Suplice and ended at the Odeon fountain.  I had written by the Luxembourg gardens numerous times, but had never actually been in them.  They are exquisite.  They were the gardens of the former Luxembourg palace built by Maria d’Medici. The palace now houses the French senate.  After walking through the gardens, we headed to the Pantheon.  It’s on the top of a hill in the 5th arrondisement.  We decided to save it for another visit because it’s such a formidable site and we didn’t feel like we had the time to do it justice. While we were walking in the neighborhood, we passed a school, Lycee Henry IV,  that had a sign that was installed in memory of the students who were interred by the Nazi’s from 1942-44 and never returned.  What was particularly striking was that the plaque specifically says they were turned in by the Vichy Government. About 30 years ago, Bill Paxton’s uncle, a noted scholar, published a very unpopular book which said the Vichy government was much more involved with the Nazi’s than previously thought. Needless to say, this wasn’t a popular view at the time, but history has proven him correct.  It was the first time we’ve seen a plaque that acknowledged it.  We ended this perfect day eating oysters at our favorite oyster bar, Opium.  It’s absolutely tiny and we all had a hard time finding it last year, but found it this year without any problem.  We ate three kinds of different oysters, enjoyed a terrific Bordeaux, drank a toast to our friends and family and vowed to come back.  The lone employee was a wonderful young man from Algeria who spoke excellent English.  He said it gets harder and harder to go home to visit.  His family is encouraging him to stay in Paris because there’s nothing for him in Algeria. He is also a student at the Sorbonne.  He really wanted to teach English, but apparently didn’t score  highly enough so he’s going to teach French instead.  He had never seen an oyster until he took the job at the bar about a year ago.  He was absolutely charming.

It was such a gorgeous day, we decided to walk back to the apt. because we wanted to cross the Seine.  When we arrived at the Odeon fountain, we decided to stop for a beverage.  There were a group of black individuals who were having a very animated conversation, a gentleman playing the acoustic guitar and tons of people around.  All of a sudden a security van pulled up and 6 military personnel got out with machine guns.  I had to laugh because the acoustic guitarist was singing “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” while a woman with a machine gun was hiding behind a tree behind him.  I started laughing because of the irony of the situation.  However, unfortunately, it seems to be the new normal.  No one seemed upset about it. Where we stayed in the Marais is an historic Jewish quarter and a large gay population.  It was very common to see the officers with machine guns walking through the Jewish quarter. So sad, but readily accepted.

We’re on the train headed to Bordeaux.  When we get to the train station we pick-up a rental car, are staying at an Intercontinental hotel, Le Grand, tonight and then on Monday head to the town of Auch in Gascony for two nights and to visit this remote and un-touristy part of southwest France. We’ll return to Bordeaux where we’ll meet our good friends, Betsy and Alan Towne.  We plan to have an all day wine tour on Thursday and on Friday July 29 spend the day in a small boat with a private guide for an oyster tour on Friday in the Bay of Arachon. All this should be tons of fun.

Two things:  they eat a phenomenal amount of ice cream! It seems like there’s a shop on every corner.  The other thing we noticed in our neighborhood is that they love eyeglass frames as well.  One shop was especially popular, and they’re not inexpensive. Finally, the French seem to be able to go with it a lot better than we do.  My train seat was double booked so I’m in the back with Cham.  This has happened to three other people as well.  They just shrug and find another seat.  

It’s always wonderful to hear from you.  It’s hard to believe we’ve been here for a month.  Don’t forget us!  We miss all of you, but know October will be here in a snap.

More later!  Edie and Cham

  

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