Paris 2011-5

4 Juillet (Lundi) - I took an alprazolam (generic Xanax) last night, and for the first night since we've been here, slept straight through.  I'm somewhat susrprised I don't feel that much better, but I suspect my medicine has more to do with how I feel than my lack of sleep.  I have doubled my dosage to what it was before this doctor, to see if that's the problem, but it will take at least a week to see a result.

I haven't mentioned food in a couple days.  We have been eating 'at home', because I realized that at €100 or more per night, it would cost us almost $20,000 to eat out every night for three months.  We simply cannot afford that.  For whatever the reason, prices in this area are rather high.  We will eat out occasionally, but it probably won't be often.  That's one of the advantages of renting an apartment.

Robb was hot to buy another shirt.  He went back to the store where he had previously bought three shirts.  The shirt they sold him was a medium and he wears a small, so I accompanied him back to make the exchange.  Surprisingly, the clerk gave him no hassle at all and the exchange was made.

We decided to go back to Comptoir Turenne to get something to eat.  We had the same waiter and, apparently, I was right about the other day, because he greeted us warmly and provided excellent service.  We decided on the Chevre Chaud Salade.  It was huge!  Robb, of course, finished his, but I could only eat about three-quarters of mine.  As I am wont to do, I had a good look around and noticed that the ceiling had been painted as a map of the Marais.

On the way back to the apartment, I noticed an old door.  It's somewhat atypical of doors here.  Most are in better condition.

Our friend, Steve, came down with some kind of stomache problem, so we re-scheduled for Wednesday evening.

5 Juillet (Mardi) - The Musée d'Orsay has lent some of it's impressionist paintings to Hôtel de Ville which is showing them for free until the end of Juillet (July).  We hopped aboard the 96 bus and rode to the Hôtel de Ville stop, right across the street from city hall.  We walked to the main entrance, but had to go to the back entrance.  As we thought, there was a line waiting to be ushered into the show, luckily, it wasn't very long.  An interesting thing happened while we were waiting; there was a small group of kids with their teachers in front of us.  The guards looked over, saw them and then motioned them to go inside, ahead of the people waiting in line in front of them.

We finally were let in and it was well worth the wait.  There were actually two exhibits in the same place; the Impressionistes and La Construction du Nouvelle Paris (the costruction of New Paris).

The Nouvelle Paris exhibit was up a couple flights of stairs, but I was determined to see it.  It was worth the climb.  There were a lot of pictures of now famous buildings when they were new, or as they were being built, including some really great pictures of the new opera building, which we know today as Opéra Garnier, the old opéra.  There was a cast of the Théâtre de la Porte St. Martin, which I thought was the Théâtre de la Renaissance.  It's a great exhibit and if you're going to be here before the end of July, I really recommend it.'

Then, we went downstairs to view the Impressioniste paintings.  Again, easily worth the wait to get in, which because it has been here a couple weeks and will last until the end of July wasn't that long.  There were several artists in the show with whom I was unfamiliar, but I enjoyed seeing their works.  Of course, if you've been to the Orsay, you know they never show the complete collection at one time, there's just too many.

After our visit to l'Hôtel de Ville, we walked up to BHV Homme in the hope of getting some more bargain T-shirts.  I bought a couple and Robb bought one.

We left and walked to the 75 bus stop on rue des Archives.  We took the 75 to Place de la République, but got off at the wrong stop, so our walk back to the apartment was several blocks longer than necessary.  Fortunately, the weather in Paris right now is beautiful (low to mid 20'sC, 70's F).  Since we had to walk right past it, we stopped at Franprix and Robb bought some stuff, including another bottle of wine.

We heard from our friend Peter and, I think, we have a date for drinks tomorrow afternoon.

6 Juillet (Mercredi) - Last year, I complained because every place at which we stayed was undergoing some kind of construction.  Since we got to Paris this year, it had been nicely quite.  It now appears the peace is to be broken.  Just across the courtyard, workers are renovating what I think is an office.  Will someone please explain to me, why are the workers only noisy in the morning when I'm trying to sleep?

Peter stopped by around 14h30.  We drank some nice wine and, as usual, had a great conversation.  We started outside in our little jardin terrasse (garden terrace) but it started to sprinkle, so we moved inside.  During the course of the conversation, Peter asked if we had been to the church down the street (Église Saint-Denys-du-Saint-Sacrement).  We told him we had, but then, he mentioned the "Pietà" by Delacroix, which we had totally missed.  He did say it was in a dark corner, and the church was quite dark when we were there.  Now that we know it's there, we'll definitely make a point of going back to see it.

Around 18h30, we walked down to the Turenne/Saint-Claude bus stop.  Caught the bus and rode to the Hôtel de Ville stop.  We walked to rue des Archives and then, up to Les Marrionners, passing an empty Chez Tsou.  All the other places around Chez Tsou were busy, as usual.  We have eaten at Chez Tsou and liked it very much, so I don't understand why it's always nearly empty.

We ordered a picher du vin rouge and settled down to wait for Steve, who arrived straight from work.  We drank some wine and chatted for several hours, and made a tentative date to meet in Madrid, since he and "cheri" will there for a few days while we are there.  Then, Steve left while Robb and I decided to have dinner there.  We both had what Les Marrionners calls the "Croquita".  It's basically a croque monsieur, but the croquita is an open-faced sandwich with mozzarella, ham, tomatoes and Herbes de Provence.  It's very good and very filling.  It comes with a small salad.

We finished our dinner and walked down to rue François Miron to get the bus back to the apartment.

7 Juillet (Juedi) - Laundry and La Tour de France.  Robb made his daily trip to Franprix and a side trip to the pharmacie for acetone, because I had used Super Glue on my house booties and got a lot of it on my fingers.   I tried to watch la Tour at 13h00, but it wasn't on.  I thought maybe they had taken a day off.  I was starting to watch a tape of yesterday's action around 15h00 and figured I would try France2 once more, and there it was.  I don't know if you can watch this French website in the US, but thought I would include it just in case.  Laundry takes forever.  Washing is quick enough, but in order to have dry clothes, you need to run them through the drier at least three times. 

  

You can see all the Paris pictures at Paris 2011

À la prochaine, mes amis.