Paris Journal 2014 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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The crowd was thick along the Berge de Seine on the left bank. Sunday has been a big day on the riverbank for a long time, even before the Berges project was completed a little over a year ago. Even before the left bank Berge project became a reality, the City of Paris closed that highway to cars on Sundays and holidays, so that pedestrians and bicycles could rule the riverbank. Now, however, there are so many pedestrians on weekends that it is impractical and unsafe for bicyclists to ride through the center sections of the Berge project. Some of the bicyclists come upon the crowd innocently enough, because they start out way to the west, perhaps in the vicinity of the Eiffel Tower or even the Parc André Citroën. Riding east from there is easy, for a while. But shortly after you’d pass the Eiffel Tower and the Passerelle Debilly, you’d find yourselves pedaling through the former port for receiving gravel and sand and the like, destined for building and road projects in the city. The port there has not been very open to the Berge project. At each end, there are “do not enter” signs, but only at the east edge of the port is there a fence blocking the way. So bicyclists get “trapped” in there. Limber people with lightweight bikes generally find a way over the fence. But families with kids and those heavy Velib’ bikes find themselves in a bind. Hopefully, the City will force the port to remove this ridiculous and troublesome fence. Mean old port protectors . . . they must be trolls. We saw a family of three struggling with this situation as we walked down the ramp to the Seine, right across from the east end of the Musée du Quai Branly. The dad had boosted his 8- or 9-year-old son over the fence, was hoping to lift a bike up to him on the ramp to get it over the fence. I knew the bike was too heavy for that kid, and I thought about stopping and offering to help. My dilemma is that I’m plenty strong enough to lift that bike, but leaning forward and lifting that weight would mean a good chance of setting off one of my dreaded muscle spasms in my back. Similarly, I didn’t want Tom to do it because he’s had a herniated disk in his back. We both can lift plenty of weight, but we have to be so careful about how we do it. As we went on, I was hoping that some able-bodied young man would help the family. I turned to look back; that is exactly what happened. The kid and the young man were accepting the Velib’ bike from the dad’s and mom’s outstretched arms. Hooray! Too bad, trolls! Then I knew that the family would have no trouble getting the other two bikes as well as mom and dad over the fence. They’d have a minute or two of easy riding from there on, until they reached the crowded sections, beginning soon after the Pont de l’Alma. Hopefully, mom and dad would have enough sense to say they should all walk their bikes through the crowd. We noticed, however, a number of people who insisted on riding through the crowd, as insane as that was. I was incredulous when I heard them dinging their Velib’ bells at the throngs of pedestrians before them. “They’re nuts!” I thought. “Someone is going to get hurt.” By the time we reached the Pont Alexander III, Tom was tired and hungry. We stopped and sat at a terrasse table at Faust. Fortunately, the harried server took so long to get to us that we had time to realize that Faust no longer offers any nibblies or snacks with the drinks. We decided to leave before we’d ordered, and I was pleased that as soon as we stood up, a woman and her handicapped husband stood before us; she said, “merci, c’est gentil,” to me, assuming that we had seen that their need for a table was greater than ours. I actually hadn’t had the chance to notice that, but I was glad it worked out that way. At any rate, Tom had been able to rest his weary feet. We checked out the few other places near that bridge, but the one we liked (Rosa Bonheur, right on the water) also offered only drinks. Tom couldn’t get excited about tapas at one of the other places, and finally he said, “You know, it is so crowded here, that I think it would be better to go back up on the streets.” He was right! The Berges de Seine are so popular now that on a Sunday, the streets are a calmer place for pedestrians! Imagine that. What a transformation! So we walked up the steps and skirted around the chaotic Esplanade des Invalides, where various ball games were in full swing. We found the Place de Finlande to be an oddly quiet space in the middle of general chaos all around. We turned down the avenue de la Tour Maubourg, into the relative calm of the 7th arrondissement. While we passed a couple of service continu brasseries on the avenue, we decided that where we really wanted to be was La Terrasse, near the École Militaire and the Champ de Mars. So we walked along the charming rue Saint Dominique and then the tree-lined avenue Bosquet and voila! There we were, entering the comfortable brasserie called La Terrasse, with a terrific view of the École Militaire. Sitting on the terrasse at La Terrasse is to be confronted with traffic noise, including many city and tour buses. We like to be inside at La Terrasse, with the comfortable red-velvet upholstered chairs and adequate space around the black marble-topped tables. The head waiter shouted out “anywhere you like” to us, and so we took the table for two in front of the antique china cabinet that displays an attractive collection of old pewter and similar serving pieces. This was a very late lunch or very early dinner for us (6:30PM), so Tom ordered a club sandwich and I asked for a Niçoise salad. The food was good, and the place was so restful; we were grateful. The walk home from there was just right – just right.
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Monday, August 25, 2014
A shop on the avenue de la Bourdonnais that sells country
hams – a throwback in time. Avenues
like this are a fine place to walk on Sundays.
Bicyclists coming from the west along the riverbank are
blocked by this fence and gate on the Port de la Bourdonnais. Here you can see a bicycle being handed up
to a good Samaritan at left (above) and below.
Funny how Parisians like to alter their street signs.
Peering through the windows, we could see that the Faust
restaurant (not the terrasse) was
closed for the afternoon, but is certainly open for lunch and dinners
nowadays. We’ll have to try it
soon. We love the location, in the
underside of the impressive Pont Alexandre III, in its left bank footer. Even the brand new kitchen can be seen
through the windows under the bridge (below).
I adore restaurant kitchens, don’t you?
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