Paris Journal 2010 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com

Photos and thoughts about Paris

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It was still chilly in the afternoon, but the rain had stopped so we went for a long walk, round and round in the Luxembourg Gardens. It was otherwise an uneventful day, but we had a fun dinner in the evening with our new friend Carolle. Some of you may recall that earlier this summer, I wrote about an incident in which Tom was bitten by another diner’s little dog in a restaurant across from the French National Assembly, Le Bourbon. Carolle is the owner of that dog, who, by his bad behavior, turned out to be a real “ice breaker,” causing Carolle, Tom and I to become acquainted. Carolle has a flat in the 7^th arrondissement, so we arranged to meet for dinner at La Petite Chaise on the rue de Grenelle. Many of the best restaurants are closed on Monday nights, but La Petite Chaise is always open. I think that includes holidays as well. The downstairs dining room of the restaurant was full. I’d reserved and so we were given a nice table right in front of the window. The dog was given a spot of floor to sit upon, and was later presented with a bowl of water. Even so, the dog barked twice during the course of dinner, creating a startling and loud noise that rang out in the room. After one of these outbursts, one of the other diners then said “guzundheit,” which I thought was pretty funny. Carolle is a retired economist from Maryland who is now, in retirement, building a school near the north coast of Haiti. I told her about our friend’s son, Markus Rosbach, who directs Amurt Haiti, which also has built a school and runs several empowerment programs for local residents. We had much to talk about, and I’m sure we will keep in touch with Carolle. For dinner, I started with a salad of mixed greens and small leeks, dressed with a beet vinaigrette and adorned with a thin slice of Parma ham. It was delicious. Tom and Carolle each started with the French onion soup, a real specialty of the house. I recommend La Petite Chaise’s onion soup, as well as Le Mondrian’s. Carolle and I then had the daily special, a tuna steak, which, I’m afraid, was a bit overcooked. My mistake. I should have ordered it to be cooked rosé, and not a point. The tuna came with a healthy pile of veggies, and no potatoes, rice or pasta. Nice. Why did I order fish anyway? I’m going back to our island, in the land of fish, very soon. Tom had his usual wonderful lamb chops that come with the excellent, rich scalloped potatoes and carrots. For dessert, Tom, Carolle, and I shared two gateaux aux chocolat, light flourless chocolate cakes made with very fine, rich dark chocolate, served in a pool of crème Anglaise. Yumm. The service was gracious as always, and the clientele was very international. I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the things we must do and the responsibilities we shoulder when we return home on Thursday. But that is in part caused by how good this summer was. Even though we had work to do, it seemed to be relaxing. And overall, the weather was extremely pleasant (except for this week). We did the things we wanted to do, and we relaxed, in spite of needing to deal with unpleasantries having to do with our homeowners association back in Sanibel. Tom accomplished much with the first stages of making a new edition of Back to the Lake, and I helped. I also wrote a number of articles/commentaries for the newspapers back home, which seemed to be appreciated. This is a good place to write. Life in France was good this summer, and the French were very good to us. I don’t know what we’d do without these months in Europe each summer. Thanks and love to the apartment owners who help make it possible, and to all the others, too, who make our time here fun and pleasant. Sign my guestbook. View my guestbook. Note: For addresses & phone numbers of restaurants in this journal, click here. And here’s the 2009 Paris Journal.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010 The mineralogy museum had a large space full of these great oak cases and vitrine tables to display rocks from all over the world, and beyond (meteorites were included). Fruits harvested from the Luxembourg Garden’s orchard are waiting to be taken to the kitchens and dining rooms of the Luxembourg Palace, where Senators and their guests will consume them. In the Gardens, you can walk around the orchard and look at it through the fence, but it isn’t open to the public. St. Theresa chapel at the Saint Severin church. ← Previous Next →