Paris Journal 2008
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Yesterday Jim and Maddy H. took a train into Paris to have a long leisurely lunch with us, John and Linda K., and Ulle at L’Espadon Bleu. Lunch was very good. John and Linda had roasted chicken which looked especially delicious. Not many people were in the restaurant; they needed our business. The owner, Julien Logereau, looked happy to see us. His mother even came by our table to say hello. After lunch, we all wandered down to the Odéon theater area on rue Monseigneur le Prince so that Maddy could buy and sell back books at the San Francisco bookshop. After that, we walked along rue Casimer Delavigne where I saw yet another English language bookshop called Berkeley. Jim needed to check e-mail on his nifty little computer so we all went back to the apartment for drinks and conversation. Linda handed over the little memory card for her camera to Jim, and he sat in one corner of the living room to e-mail me the lunch photos as I sat at my computer in the other corner of the room. An abuse of cyberspace bandwidth? Maybe. I sent the photo to the local newspapers in Sanibel. When it was time for Jim and Maddy to go back to the train station, the rest of us took a little tour of the St. Sulpice church. Vespers where happening in the Chapel of the Virgin, so we were very quiet. I don’t think Ulle had seen this huge, hulking church before. Then she went back with John and Linda K. to the apartment they have rented over by Bon Marché, the esteemed old department store that has a fabulous gourmet grocery. Tom and I had eaten lightly at lunch (poached cod and vegetables for me) so we did go out to dinner at the Bistrot de la Grille, which is getting to be our regular neighborhood haunt. The Bistrot has my favorite terrine in Paris. It is called terrine de la Mere Brazier. Mother Brazier knows her country terrines. Yumm. I ordered some roasted chicken, which came Provençal-style, with tomatoes cooked in garlic all over the perfectly cooked chicken breast. I asked for puréed potatoes instead of the basmati rice, and the server was very happy to oblige. I think they are especially proud of their puréed potatoes. Tom, for some reason, ordered a skirt steak, which was tasty, but of course tough. Then he had a large serving of the dessert of the day, a rich clafouti made with pears and plums. This bistro is consistently good. I don’t think we’ve had any bad food there, ever. Three older Americans were seated next to us. They did not know French, but were prepared and using a pocket-sized French English dictionary. I thought they were doing pretty well. We did end up helping them order their food, so they asked where we were from. They are from San Francisco. Imagine San Francisco coming up twice in one day for us in Paris. A handsome and well-dressed French man sat near us, having his dinner by himself. He had several newspapers to keep him company. I guess he was listening to us as well as reading his papers. When he got up to leave after having dined on a great looking souris d’agneau and clafouti, he made a point of stopping to tell Tom that Americans are always very warmly welcome in Paris. How nice! We realized a little later that he’d left a couple of his newspapers there on the bench near us. So now we have a copy of Libération and the health and science section of Le Soir to read. Plus Jim left us with a copy of L’Est Républicain, so we have a lot of French news to catch up on.
Mural in
the Sorbonne depicting the disciplines of “radiation and magnetism.” Join me in supporting Barack by making a donation to my
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Friday, September 26, 2008
Here we are at lunch yesterday.
Young French man playing American jazz on a soprano sax
in front of Notre Dame on Sunday. He
was accompanied by a guitarist who was too tired to stand up.
Altar in the chapel of St. Genevieve in the St. Étienne
du Mont church. |
