10 Mai - It's a lovely, lazy Saturday in Paris. My cold medicine ran out because I stupidly forgot to buy more, so we're off to a pharmacie for that. We walked down to Place Léon Blum since the only open place seemed to be the one to which we went the other day. Then we noticed that a lot of stores had a sign in their windows indicating that they would be closed from 13h00 to 15h00. So now we know not to try going to a store between one and three in the afternoon in this neighborhood.
I got my Jour et Nuit and then we wandered around the area a bit. Just a block or so from the pharmacie we found a Monoprix; the bottom floor is is a general department store, while the upper level is a large grocery store. We bought a few items and left. The building above the Monoprix contains many apartments and was nice looking. We started back towards the apartment walking toward Parc de la Roquette, the edge of which can be seen by the trees on the upper left. The upper end of the parc is just a block from the apartment. At the lower end of the parc is a marchè at which we bought some things for tonight's dinner.
We started the walk back to the apartment when we came across a building with the popular French liberté, egalité, fraternité and the French flag flying just below the words. It's not unusual to come across buildings with those three words emblazoned across the front.
We also came across this advertisement for a Big Band concert on 15 Mai, to which we hope to go.
I couldn't remember the champagnes we had on the cruise, so I wrote to Ô Chateau, the sponsors, and asked them to supply the names. Mademoiselle Claudine Kervadec emailed them to me. The first sampling was a brut, LeLarge Ducroq. The second, which was most preferred by all seven of us, was a demi-sec, Vincent Perseval. And finaly, a champagne rosé, Floquet Doucet. I was not previously, nor since, familiar with any of these wines. I assume they are small, little known houses. I will continue to look for them.
Dinner tonight, at home, started with a wonderful appetizer of Coquille Saint-Jacques, followed by Penne au Poulet et Champignons (Penne pasta with chicken and mushrooms). Robb had his usual salad, but I couldn't handle any more than the appetizer and the main course. I drank Chateauneuf-du-Pape and Robb drank a light chardonnay.
11 Mai - This was a day of miscues.
Robb, forgetting that it's Sunday, got up and made his way to La Poste. I arose a couple of hours later, had my coffee and checked my email. Since most stores are closed on Sunday, by law, we set off on rue de la Roquette to see what we could find. There are a lot of places run by Muslims here, so we figured we could find something. And we did, a nice little store down by Place Léon Blum. On the way back to the apartment, Robb stopped at a fruit stand for oranges, while I went next door to a sandwich shop to get a sandwich for lunch.
We finished our lunch and decided to take a bus ride on our favorite line.....the 69. Unfortunately, the RATP decided they didn't want to operate the 69 line on Sunday, so we're out of luck for today. While waiting for the bus that never came, Robb noticed this birdhouse just outside the parc de la Roquette.
We did go for a very nice, very long walk in the neighborhood. We came across a Ford that you will never see in the US (if the oil companies have their way, and they always do). Across the street from the bus stop is this Chrysler-Dodge showroom, where they sell American sized vehicles including the Jeep Liberty, one of which you can sort of see behind the car on the right of the picture. We have seen a lot more SUVs this time, though most of them are either Mercedes or BMWs.
We were just going to walk around the block, but ended up walking all the way to Père Lachaise and back down to the apartment.
Then around nine-ish, we thought we would go to a restaurant in the 13e, L'Avenue, but after checking the internet, we found a bazillian restaurants by that name, but not the one to which we wanted to go on Avenue de France. Then we thought we might go to one of the great oriental restaurants on Avenue de Choisy, but after walking down to the métro station, we decided to have dinner at Au Cadran Voltaire.....again.
I'm really glad we made that decision, because we had a table by the window on the coin de la rue (corner of the street) where we had an excellent view of all the comings and goings in Place Léon Blum. We sat there for many hours taking it all in and appreciating the fantastic lifestyle we were enjoying. At one point, an older couple was seated at a table next to us. The guy was trying to take their picture with his camera and was having a difficult time. I volunteered to take the picture for them and did. They were most appreciative and I got my brownie points for the day.
We finally left the restaurant and were going for a walk, when we both "got the call" at the same time. We canceled our planned excursion and headed back to the apartment.
Plus à venir, mes amis.
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