The Paris metro is fabulous. No matter where you want to go in this city, it seems possible to get within walking distance by metro. It may mean taking multiple lines with lengthy underground walks between lines some of which include a lot of stairs but you can get there! And except for Sundays, trains seem to run every three minutes all day, not just at rush hour. On Sunday the wait time is about 5 minutes. Not bad! And we haven't even tried the buses of which there seem to be many. As a confirmed public transport rider, Paris gets my vote all the way.
A couple of other general notes. SKYPE is a great system. When I came online yesterday afternoon, there was a SKYPE message from Deb. She cannot yet use the system to talk as her computer is lacking a microphone. But, using the SKYPE system we could have a "conversation". She could send a message with SKYPE showing me she was writing something (a pencil symbol wiggling away) and when I received and read it I could immediately write back. An excellent way to communicate in real time.
And since we never pass a real estate agent's window without checking out the places for sale, yesterday during our walk near the Hotel de Ville, we noted that apartments in other parts of Paris than the Marais, are more reasonably priced. So last night when I couldn't sleep, I spent time dreaming up ways we might be able to afford a small place in Paris - how about a reverse mortgage on our Baltimore house. That might do it. Worth considering.
Today is turning into a lazy day. Morning paper, breakfast, run dishwasher, update blog, catastrophe when water started to leak out of the cabinet under the kitchen sink onto the kitchen floor probably from dishwasher, turn off emergency water valve, mop up floor, turn water back on and hope for the best, make lunch, go out to buy eggs, bread and wine, take a nap to recover from yesterdays excercise, continue updating blog. Pretty boring eh what.
Thursday - March 12
The weather man doesn't do much better here than in the US. The forecast promised a cloudy day but we are having another rainy day. But it doesn't matter.
Today is one of the two days during the week when marche Richard Lenoir is open; since this is a huge and fun market (5 stars in the book of Paris markets from which I took copious notes), we made the trip to it. Actually, it is not very far and we could walk, but having a metro pass makes it so easy to take the metro. And coming back we were loaded with food so we again took the metro.
We found the stand which had the delicious pruneaux d'Agen and the garlic olives so we stocked up again - more than last time as it is best not to run out of these staples. It is interesting that a number of stands have cooked beets for sale. Nelly suggested a salad of mache, beets, apples, cheese and walnuts which we want to try for dinner so we collected the ingredients at the market. We will substitute cashews for the walnuts since we have quite a few of them left from the purchases the other day at Izrael. I was disappointed in the stand where we got the mache and cooked beets. The mache was full of soil and grit. Have to skip that stand from now on. Not every vendor is good and it takes a bit of time to scout out the stars, but many are excellent and their owners are beginning to recognize us as this was our third visit to this market. We continue to use the same fish stand, cheese stand and olive and prune stand.
Also got cod, scallops and shrimp to make a cioppino for Saturday when Brigitte, Eric and Emilie are due to visit. The scallops are sold in the shell but the fish merchant will remove them for you.
In Peter Mayle's book about food in France, "French Lessons", there is an entire chapter on Livarot cheese and an annual fete for that cheese. Therefore it seemed necessary to try some of it. It is quite strong and delicious. I believe we ate Livarot in Normandy where it is produced, when we visited there several years ago.
So far we have found excellent baguettes in the local bakeries but the larger loaves of bread have been disappointing. Harley described them as Wonder Bread with a crisp crust. Today we noted that the stand where we got the olives and prunes also had some good looking bread including a pain aux noix otherwise known as walnut bread. We got a loaf and it is as good as it looks. We'll have to buy our bread at the artisinal stands in the market from now on!
Lunch (sauteed rascasse w/shallots and garlic, tiny boiled potatoes, broccoli and turnips) was almost over when Mme. Ferreira, the housekeeper who comes once a week to care for the apartment, arrived. She knew we were having a problem with the kitchen sink drainage since Martine had phoned her from the US after I emailed her. She worked on the sink drainage system for a while but was unable to get it working quite right. It still takes a long time to drain water which collects when washing dishes. When she left, she promised that her husband would stop by in the evening and work on it further. He arrived as we were finishing dinner and started in on it. He must have seen the same problem here before, because he knew just where to insert the snake he brought. The blockage was somewhere in the pipes in the floor or wall and was quite far down the system. And he produced a great improvement in the water flow. Not perfect but much more satisfactory. Hope it stays that way. It will be nice not to wait for 10 minutes for the sink to drain after washing vegetables or rinsing dishes. And, having gotten used to it, it will be nice to use the dishwasher again.
Mme. Feirrera is from Portugal but has lived in Paris for 19 years. She is a very pleasant person and does a great job of cleaning the apartment and changing sheets, etc. She does not speak English so it gives me a chance to practice French. Her husband is also a most agreeable person. We are lucky to have their help.
This afternoon, we visited the Picasso museum which is about 2 blocks from our apartment. Figuring there was no harm in asking I checked whether they would allow me free entrance as a volunteer at a museum in Washington. And they did. Professional courtesy I guess. The museum is in a huge hotel particulier (private mansion) and parts of the original interior architecture has been restored to its former elegance with high ceilings surrounded by plaster friezes and magnificent room proportions.
Their collection of paintings, drawings and sculptures is extensive. It covers the wide range of styles which Picasso experimented with during his long lifetime. He seemed to like goats as there were several goat sculptures. There was also a large painting from 1951 depicting a "Korean Massacre" which was reminiscent of Guernica and was probably sending the same message.
I especially liked his metal sculptures which were composed of metal sheets, cut, bent and painted.
Included in the exhibit were many of the paintings by other artists which Picasso himself had collected - Braque, Cezanne, Corot, Derain, Gauguin, Matisse, Miro, Modigliani, Renoir, Vuillard.
For dinner we had the mache salad with beets, etc and it was very good. Almost finished the walnut bread. It is a disaster to find so much good food when you have weak willpower. Oh well, back to Weight Watchers on our return to Baltimore.
Friday - March 13
One of the delights of the streets in this and other neighborhoods is the beautiful black wrought iron work on many windows and balconies. The metal is formed into intricate designs and adds a graceful note to so many buildings. Other pleasures are the roof lines and chimney pots, and the huge elegant doors . So many things to take note of.
We decided to splurge and go out to lunch today. 102 Best Restaurants in Paris has been reliable so we picked the Cafe des Musees, 49 rue de Turenne, 3rd arrondisement. I am including all this detail because next time we are in Paris this is a must visit.
The restaurant is quite small and tables are very close to each other. We went without reservations, something not to do again, even for lunch. Rather than have the daily menu which is the most reasonably priced, and undoubtedly excellent, we wanted to try two of the dishes recommended in the restaurant book. So Harley had the entrecote and frites accompanied by a bearnaise sauce and I had the chicken from Bresse cooked in an iron pot and served on a creamy bed of morels. The chicken dish got 4 OT's. What is an OT you ask. Many years ago there was a reviewer in Philadelphia who rated restaurants in OT's rather than stars. An OT was an "Orgasm of the Tongue". This dish really got them. Sopping up the sauce with the pieces of baguette prolonged the pleasure. We also shared a "pot" of wine, a carafe by another name and ended up with double cafes. We went away feeling like we had found nirvana. Just couldn't stop smiling. Quoting Peter Mayle's mention of Michelin Guide restaurant inspectors, "eating for a living is as close as one can reasonably come to heaven on earth". Friday the 13th certainly wasn't an unlucky day for us.
On the way back to the apartment we picked up salad for the next day at the marche des Enfants Rouge.
After a rest necessitated by lunch, it was time to make the soup base for the cioppino which we will serve on Saturday for our first guests. It is an easy recipe so getting it ready was no problem. It also seemed a good idea to wash all of the salad greens which we had picked up at the market. Enough work for one day.
Saturday - March 14
Out early to get the paper and the bread for lunch. I discovered that the patisserie was open already before 8:00AM so I picked out an assortment of pastries for lunch and proceeded on to our favorite bakery for bread. Horrors!! It is closed on Saturday and Sunday. Guess it will take a second trip to get the bread for lunch.
Back home, breakfast and the paper finished, we set up the table for lunch for 6 people. We added the leaf stored in the closet and found a table pad, table cloth and napkin. Then we made a trip to find good bread. It turns out that the patisserie/boulangerie where I had found the delicious looking pastries had some very good looking bread. There was a long line out the door waiting for their turn. When it was our turn, we picked 5 baguettes, a combination of walnut, traditional and seeded and returned once again, climbing our 82 steps to await our guests.
Brigitte, Eric, Emilie and Emilie's brother Maxanse were due at 12:30 so I warmed up the cioppino base, prepared salad dressing and got out the caponata, olives, sausage slices for the entree (French for starter and much more sensible than using entre to mean the main dish).
Our guests called us to tell us they would be late. They arrived just after 1:00PM laden with gifts - a beautiful bouquet of tulips, moutard de mieux, cheese, a bottle of wine. Such kindness. We are so fortunate to know them because of our friendship with Alain, Brigittes father. After we greeted each other, it was time for lunch. I believe all went well and that they enjoyed themselves.
It seemed like a good idea to take a walk in the area after lunch. Although they live close to Paris they do not come into the city very often so I served as guide. Brigitte mentionned that she loved gardens so we headed back toward the Hotel de Ville where we had discovered the 15th century house and garden several days ago. On the way we stopped at Izrael which seems to be a destination "worth a detour", walked by the garden and then went to the shop which sold antique musical instruments. Brigitte is a musician and this seemed like a worthwhile detour also. It was.
By this time, Harley was tired and went back to the apartment (where he proceeded to clean up most of the mess from lunch). The rest of us continued our walk, heading for the Place des Vosges and then coming back to the apartment. The end of a lovely day together.
Sunday - March 15
Today is Sandy's birthday. I sent her an email but don't know if it will be possible to speak with her.
Sunday provides a relaxed morning since there is no IHT so I don't have to go shopping first thing. And today is a beautiful day. OOPS, must have hit the wrong key and find I have published this part of the flog while I have more to say. I'll continue of part 4.
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