Tuesday I took on something that required a bit more in
the way of French language skills than I actually possess. I went to a networking event for people
starting internet/mobile app businesses.
The format for the 5 companies that presented was 5 minutes of
Powerpoint then 5 minutes of questions. The
meetup site said that this was going to be in English, but actually 3 of the 5
presentations were not. That plus a
noisy venue took me to my language limits.
I’ve been to any number of similar events in LA and was hoping to see
how they played out in Paris. To that
extent it worked, but, truly, this was the limit of my abilities. Most interesting presentation I saw was for
an event planning site/app called Beekast.
I was a bit discouraged after the formal part of the
meeting (50+ people there) so rather than stick around for networking (talking
to people), I decided to go to another of the beer places on my list, Au
Trappiste. First beer: Leffe de Noel,
their “special” Christmas brew. It was
actually pretty good – for a beer by the same company that makes
Budweiser! (InBev). Second beer was Angelus by Brasserie
d’Annoeulin, a French brewery. Not
nearly as good and actually tasted a little of lemon. The waiter was nice (yes, EVERYONE speaks
English) and he recommended having the one French beer on an otherwise all
Belgian menu. Oh well.
A couple other random things. First, the French actually do try hard to be
discreet and NOT make a commotion when they’re out. It’s the only place I’ve seen where people
hold the iPhone microphone to their lips and basically whisper into it rather
than just talk out loud. Second, I took
the bus over to the tech networking event and the bus went past the Arc de
Triomphe where some sort of military ceremony was going on, along with the
enormous French flag flying (the one they had up for Armistice Day). Third, we’ve seen a certain amount of serious
military presence when we’ve been out and about. Just a couple times but, still, when you see
a guy holding his mat black machine gun and pointing it towards the
ground… Also saw French riot police in
their shoulder pads looking very serious as well.
Fourth, beards are in.
Full beards, not the lips and chin (goatee) version. Fifth, to me one of the loveliest things I
happen upon are musicians playing in the metro.
NOT the guys on the train itself playing accordions loudly. But, the times we’ve come upon the solo sax
player, or, even more impressive, the 10 piece chamber orchestra playing Pachelbel’s
Canon. It really is great!!! FYI, metro’s do not intersect. So, each time you change lines (it’s rare
that a single line will get you to exactly where you want to go) you’re walking
for 2-5 minutes up and down stairs! Even
mass transit is exercise.
Wednesday our “organizing principle” was a trip to the 7th
arrondissement to check out the poster store that Maxine bought from 8 years
ago and I visited 16 years ago. But,
this being Paris, rather than going directly there, we started by planning our
meal. Lunch in this case.
From Maxine: We ate at Les Cocottes de Christian
Constant. He has several restaurants all
on the same street. We ate at two of his
restaurants when we were in Paris 8 years ago and I wanted to try this newer
restaurant. A cocotte is a casserole and
the food was served in cast iron dishes and was appropriately homey and warming
on a cold day. I loved my appetizer --
an arugula salad with poached egg and bacon and a mustard dressing. My main course was roasted potatoes topped
with shredded pork (actually pig’s feet but who could tell) which was actually
quite rich. Tom had a delicious chestnut
soup followed by a vegetable plate which was a disappointment since it was
“just vegetables” and not many of them.
He did like his chocolate mousse dessert.
We checked out a cheese shop that had been “famous” the last
time we were here, Marie Ann-Cantin. I
should say that we’re a bit wary about Parisian “famous” since they’re all
branding themselves. MAC’s cheeses are
in the local supermarket, which was enough reason for us not to bother going
in. We also checked out a semi-famous
bakery, Poujauran. From there we went to
Jacques Genin, a candy store that Maxine was interested in. I had to go (!), she isn’t often interested
in candy stores. This place was famous
for caramels which came in at least a dozen different flavors. From there back to Le Bac a Glaces, the ice
cream place I’d been to when the weather was warm. This was Maxine’s chance to humor me – eating
ice cream while we walked with the temperatures in the high 30’s! But, I say this in all seriousness, it’s
worth it. I had a rose flavored sorbet
and it was amazing. Like eating
roses. Maxine had a lemon/basil one that
was equally good.
When we got home we decided that Emmy needed a bit more
exposure to Parisian life, so we went out in search of a café for her to enjoy. We walked around the nice, nearby shopping
street, Avenue Ternes, which was beautifully decorated for Christmas and had a
holiday market at one intersection. After walking for 45 minutes, we ended up
back at the café nearest our apartment which we like the best. I had a hot chocolate and Maxine had vin
chaud (warm wine with sugar). Now we’re
catching up (and doing things like these blogs)!
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