Tuesday was our last day in Paris before a trip out of
town, so Maxine and I decided we’d do separate wanderings through parts of the
city that we’d wanted to visit. Mine was
the area by the old Les Halles market.
There’s a long history of the food market for Paris being in that
location, but that’s old history. The
food market was moved out of town to Rungis in the 60’s and the space where Les
Halles had existed was turned into a shopping mall. Badly… This was a re-check for me. I was there years ago and was unimpressed. I still am.
However, the area around the mall has been spiffed up and was a lot of
fun to walk through. Some interesting
stores (including one that repurposed boat sails into women’s purses) and
restaurants. I started my wander for the
day at the Passages des Panoramas, the oldest covered street in the city. So, I guess I was starting with an old
shopping mall and ending with a bad shopping mall. Along the way I also walked through the rue
Montorgueil market street where I picked up a sandwich that I ate as I walked. So, as seems to be usual with Paris, some
interesting shopping and food, as well as generally pretty buildings and
streets.
Coincidentally, Maxine also ended up in the Les Halles
area checking out the many kitchen and cookware stores in the
neighborhood. She ended up heading north
to the 9th arrondissement and had lunch at a café called Richer
recommended by our Australian friend.
She had a great meal (and plans to try other restaurants owned by the
same group) and explored a different area of town including the fur district,
many music and art stores.
I also checked out something else I was interested in, a
place called the AntiCafe. Their business
model is that you pay for the time you’re there (4E for the first hour and 3E
for each additional). But, the coffee
and snacks are free. Effectively,
they’ve switched around the Parisian café concept where you buy a cup of coffee
and can occupy the table as long as you like.
When I got there the question I had for them was, “How do I identify
myself to you so that I get access to things”.
I started stumbling through that question in French (badly) and the girl
who worked there asked if I’d prefer to switch into English. I later asked her about speaking French and
she said that she didn’t, that other than English she only spoke Estonian. Along with strays like myself, people seemed
to use the place as an office. They’ve
got a conference table and free wifi with at least 15 of the people busily on
their computers.
Wednesday we picked up our rental car which was an
amazingly simple process. They didn’t
need International Drivers Licenses, just U.S. ones and our passports. And the car rental place was within the range
of where we walk Emmy every day. We
picked up our luggage and Emmy and drove to Burgundy about three hours from
Paris.
Our hotel, Abbaye de la Bussiere, had a gated entrance,
so by the time we actually pulled up and parked our car, the owner was outside
to greet us. Very friendly British
man. He and his wife bought an old abbey
and turned it into a top notch hotel.
Amusingly, they were also raising some Shetland Ponies and he invited
Emmy to play with them. She did. And in her usual energetic way, managed to
annoy the more reticent pony. But, all
in fun (at least for Emmy). We felt
especially welcomed when Clive told us Emmy could walk around off leash, and
could join us in the dining room for dinner.
The hotel was in the hills outside of the town of Beaune,
which is the former capital of the region.
The area is very pretty. However,
we kept looking for vines! After all,
this is Burgundy! Shouldn’t there be
vines? After unpacking we took a couple
hour drive. We visited the pretty
village of Chateauneuf-en-Auxois, one of the beautiful villages of France
(designated by the French government). We
asked about the vines and were told that they were on the other side of the
hill, so we decided to save that for Thursday’s wandering. As to dinner that night, Maxine covers the
hotel restaurant in her blog entry with her pictures.
Thursday was a driving day, but driving through one of
the most famous wine regions in the world.
No, we didn’t stop to taste. Just
drove and enjoyed the beauty of the region.
We started south of Dijon and passed through villages from wine bottle
labels – Gevrey-Chambertin, Nuits St. Georges -- we ended up in Beaune for a
late lunch and (finally) some wine tasting.
Then a snack and some wine at a bar in town (it’s nice when simple bars,
because of their location, stock great wines!)
Then back to our wonderful hotel for the night.
Friday too was a driving day, this time from Burgundy to
Toulouse. It was a pretty long day and
we didn’t get to Toulouse until around 7pm, and we left the hotel after
breakfast. We were spending Thanksgiving
with our friends, their family, and their friends. We feel very lucky. This is my college roommate and both Maxine
and I have known him for decades. He and
his wife are extremely welcoming of us, as are their friends and family, which
gives us such a special opportunity to be involved in French life. The friends and family largely speak English,
but also enthusiastically encourage and help us when we try to speak our
garbled French to them. In both
directions there’s an effort to include us despite the limitations our language
skills place on events.
Saturday was Thanksgiving. Obviously the French don’t celebrate the
American holiday or have the day off, so our friends schedule it for the
weekend. And, since the holiday is a
novelty to French people, it’s also a chance for them to learn about American
food customs. Which is amusing in its
own right. Also, this being a French
version of the holiday, people didn’t arrive until 8pm (except the English guy
who got there at 7:30!). They didn’t
understand about stuffing so I had to ask for a second helping 3 times. They also didn’t at all understand about
pumpkin pie! Champagne and good
wine. And a late night!
Sunday was a closer group, family and extended family of
our friends for an afternoon meal that went on for 2 hours. Leftovers!
More champagne and good wine.
Monday was just a day in the car, plain and simple. We left after breakfast and didn’t get to
Paris until nearly 7pm. Turned the car
in and walked back to our apartment.
And, discovered that winter had come while we were gone! It’s now pretty close to freezing. I’ve taken out my down jacket and gloves for
my late night Emmy walks and she’s got her warmest dog jacket on as well. We’re told that Paris doesn’t get as cold as
New York, but that’s not that much consolation for people and dogs accustomed
to warm and dry Los Angeles. The trip
may be heading in a new direction (restaurants with fireplaces, museum visits,
reading at home…)
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