We’re SO behind on blogging!!!!!
But, first, a request to anyone reading this. Over the past week we’ve gotten emails from 3
different people who are reading the blog.
It’s really great to hear from you and to realize that our friends are
following our adventure. So, a
request… If you’re reading this and we
don’t know it, could you please email one of us? It really helps to motivate us (and reduces
delays in writing). Thanks!
So, first, LAST Thursday…
Christmas is decidedly in full swing here in Paris. We read about a “crafts” Xmas sale in the
exhibit space adjacent to the Louvre and decided to go there. We saw some very interesting stuff, actually
unique items (unlike what we’ve been seeing at the Christmas markets on the
Champs Elysees and elsewhere in the city).
One section had regional crafts and Maxine bought a nice red scarf from
the weaver. So, while neither of us has
been to the Louvre Museum yet during this trip, we’ve now been to the shopping
mall attached to it.
After that, Maxine and I went in different
directions. My organizing principles,
what I was looking to do given the area of Paris that I was starting in, for
the rest of the day, were these. First,
Angelina, then the Laguiole store, than the craft beer store. All three are sort of in a line parallel to
(and extending well beyond) the Louvre.
First stop, morning hot chocolate at Angelina. Two words: Worth it… It’s incredibly touristic. Apparently sometimes there are lines out the
door to sit there and drink a cup of hot chocolate. And it costs $10 for a cup of hot
chocolate! But, grudgingly… it’s worth
it.
From there, walked towards one of those “sights” I had
from our last trip, but didn’t make it to then, the Laguiole knife store. Got to the address after walking past a
number of American brand stores including Levi, Frey Willie (also in Santa
Monica!), and Carrhart. Got to the
address and circled around for 15 minutes, trying to find the store, but it
wasn’t there. Note that this is
something that historically (meaning any time up till 10 years or so ago) would
have been odd in Paris, a store closing down.
But, it had. We are seeing many
signs of France acting more and more like America in that sense, less stable to
retail, empty store fronts, sale signs.
Odd for France, but what we’re all certainly used to in the US.
Last stop was La Cave Au Boulles, a beer bottle
store. Really a great experience. I walked in and stumbled through some French
to say that while I do speak some of the language, I don’t really have the
vocabulary for beer. The owner replied
in English, “That’s OK, I try to help people in whatever language they do
speak, if I can.” The store was, well,
it was something of a candy store for me.
Noting that I had to carry home whatever I bought -- on a 20 minute
stand up metro ride along with 10-15 minutes of walking and those final 65
stairs back to the apartment – I limited myself to 4-12 oz beers. They were: Brasserie Correzenne’s Dordogne
Valley IPA (good IPA), Brasserie Bendorf’s Cycle Ephemere 9/Stout a la
framboise (not much detectable fruit flavor), Brasserie de la Pigeonnelle’s
Pigeonoel (haven’t tried yet), and Brasserie An Alarc’h’s Kerzu Imperial Stout
(haven’t tried yet, and it should be noted that at 7% ABV it’s something of a “lite”
imperial stout). All together I spend
13E, which in the craft beer scheme of things, is pretty reasonable.
From Maxine: After the craft fair, I did some window shopping
in the area and had lunch at Le Garde Robe, a wine bar/restaurant. Even though it’s in a pretty touristic area,
it was filled with regulars who greeted each other enthusiastically. The restaurant had both light and heavier menus of the day (can’t remember their
clever names). I asked if I could have
one item from each for my lunch and they were happy to accommodate. I really liked the roasted endive with ham
appetizer (from the heavier menu) and the marinated salmon with berries, apples
and radishes (from the lighter one). We’ve
found that the casual wine bars have some of the most interesting food we’re
eating here in Paris.
For dinner, Maxine really humored me! A beer place, Brewberry. We even got there early to make sure we could
get a table. Unfortunately, the entire
place was closing at 7:30 for a private party.
So, we had a couple beers and had to leave/find another place for
dinner. Which we did. I had an American Strong Ale collaboration
between Brewberry&Tool, Siren Brewing’s Ticklemonster IPA, and Against the
Grain Brewing’s Moleram figeram. Maxine
had Destruise’s Blackness Imperial Stout and Naparbier’s Farmer’s Choice. After that we left, we wandered down rue Mouffetard
and decided to have a burrito served by a Peruvian guy in a Mexican restaurant
in Paris. Talk about cognitive
dissonance!
Friday involved some catching up (unfortunately not getting
to blogs which is why I’m writing about December 5th on December 15th). We did have a great dinner at a place Maxine
really wanted to try, Verjus. From what
Maxine read, the people running Verjus previously had a “hidden” restaurant,
one of those small dining things in someone’s apartment. But, with success, they now have a permanent
restaurant. And it was the best meal we’ve had in 2 months. Maxine’s got more commentary on Verjus along
with her pictures from our meal.
Saturday we went to the flea market (Marche aux Puces). It was much more fun than that phrase, “flea
market”, sounds. We were in search of
the stand for a guy selling antique French posters. Previously he had a store in the 7th
arrondissement (see above about stores closing down…) and Maxine bought 2
posters from him in 2001. Unfortunately
he’s no longer operating a stand at the flea market either. BUT, we did have a great time. Without cataloging everything we saw, let’s just
say we found plenty of things to consider buying but, this trip, we bought
nothing other than lunch.
We decided to go to the flea market on the PC3 bus, which
travels a route along the Paris peripherique.
What you should know about Paris, what this means, is that we were
seeing a very different side of Paris. In
Paris, the expensive stuff is at the center of the city. And, generally speaking, the poor are pushed to
the peripherique, or outskirts, of the city.
It’s a different view of Paris…
“Dinner” amounted to snacking on the Pont des Arts
bridge. Actually quite a fun thing
despite the cold weather. When we were
here 8 years ago I heard about these “full moon picnics” on the Pont des Arts
bridge, but timing didn’t work for us to attend one. This time around we did. Another meetup, with 20-30 people drinking
wine (and some schnapps provided by a friend just back from Thanksgiving in
Germany), bread, homemade tapenade, and other starches. We watched the moon come up and talked to
people who’ve lived in Paris for years as well as visitors like us. Then we walked over to a café with our friend
Wendy and had a drink with her to continue the evening.
Sunday was the first Sunday of the month and our second
chance to visit museums for free. On
Maxine’s recommendation, I started with a walk up the Arc du Triomphe which had
me sweating despite the near freezing weather.
Then Maxine and I met up at the Pompidou Center Modern Art Museum. Maxine’s
note: The permanent exhibit at the
Pompidou traces the progression of 20th century art and was very
interesting. I understand it’s been
redone recently and it’s a definite improvement and worth seeing.
Then, despite us both walking miles and miles, we ended
the day with dinner at a “salon”, in this case a Storytelling Evening organized
by Bernadette Martin. Met a completely
different group of people than we’d seen in any of our other excursions, and
listened to a talk about finding angel sculptures throughout the city of Paris. It was a very enjoyable evening and made us
see Paris differently.
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