Paris 2008 - 9-10 Juillet

9 Juillet (Mercredi) - We rode to Place de la République where we caught the 75 bus downtown. According to the plan de l'autobus, it should have gone down rue de Turbigo to rue des Archives. It didn't, and I knew it wouldn't because rue des Archives is one-way in the opposite direction. We got off at the Centre Georges Pompidou, at which we checked out an exhibit through the window. I'm not sure what we saw, but it appeared to be proposed buildings for the city. I suppose we'll have to go back to check.

From there. we walked over to rue des Archives and down to the area in which we had an appointment to meet Rhino75 at Les Marroniers for an apéro at 21h30. We had originally proposed a dinner meeting, but he works until 21h00. We were early because we had yet to eat dinner and I thought it might be a good idea to do that before we went out drinking, even though I didn't plan to drink very much.

Next door to Les Marroniers, there is a Thai restaurant named Chez Tsou. Robb suggested we eat there. It was really good and the waiters were all cute Asians (although I don't think any of them were actually from Thailand, they looked more Chinese than anything). Here's a poor video.

At 21h30, I went out to see if I could spot Rhino75 and he had just arrived as I got outside. We went back into the restaurant to join Robb. We drank and chatted for a couple of hours.

When we left, we planned to catch the bus just outside the restaurant, but it was not running that late. That meant we had to find a taxi stand. We didn't. But we did find a Parisian couple who stopped a taxi and asked him to take us home. I hope we have finally put to rest the crap about Parisians being cold and arrogant. We had actually just asked for directions to the nearest taxi stand. They went way beyond simple instructions.

10 Juillet (Jeudi) - I awoke around 04h30 with a splitting headache. I took some effervescent aspirin (everything over here comes in effervescent) and waited for it to work. It didn't. I took a regular aspirin. it didn't work either. So I got up, checked some email and sat on the sofa for a couple of hours. I returned to bed but couldn't sleep. Around nine or ten, I asked Robb to go to a pharmacie and get me a sinus medicine. Unfortunately, either he or the pharmacist made a mistake and he brought back a cold medicine. I didn't think it would work, but took one of the pills anyway in the hope I was wrong. I wasn't. It didn't. I went back to bed around four-ish and slept rather fitfully until about eight.

We walked down to rue Léon Frot to Les Casseroles for dinner around nine-ish. While there, Robb got into a conversation with a brother-sister couple from San Francisco. She was American and he was a Mexican professor. We chatted for a few minutes and they left.

We went for a short walk after dinner, during which I videoed a car I have been trying to get a picture of since I first saw it several weeks ago. The video isn't all that good because it was night and the light wasn't very good, so I'm not going to put it up.. It is a Ford sports car that I guarantee will never be seen in the US. I did finally get a daytime video, though it's a bit jumpy, but I'll put it up in a day or so. There are so many economical vehicles here that the US will not let into the country, and this is just another in a long list. One that I particularly like is the Mercedes A Class.

Plus à venir, mes amis.

Paris 2008 - 26 Juin

Jeudi - I had tentatively planned to take us to a couple of museums today, but Robb wanted to take his jacket back to Armand Thierry to see what he could do about getting it fixed. We are beginning to realize that the clothes Armand Thierry sells are not exactly the best. This is not the first time we've bought something there and had a problem with whatever we bought. I'm convinced to not shop there again, Robb is taking a bit longer to see the light. I will admit that he had no trouble getting them to fix the broken zipper on his jacket. The sales clerk was almost cheerful. But the point is we shouldn't have had to waste time (and métro tickets) going back to get it repaired.

It is the time of the summer soldes (sales). In France, the stores can only have sales twice a year as regulated by the state. They can have "going out of business" sales, and frequently use that excuse to have an unregulated sale from time to time. No one seems to get too upset when they don't "go out of business". We did check out a few places, but saw nothing we couldn't live without.

After, Armand Thierry, we were waiting for the 67 bus that would take us across the Seine to rue de Rivoli, when we decided to go over to O'Jules for lunch. I had my usual mixte baguette (it's about the only time I get to enjoy a baguette), and as usual, I couldn't eat all of it, so I wrapped it in a napkin and placed it in my bag to bring home for tomorrow.

We walked back over to the bus stop and got the 67. It was an interesting ride and we got to see a section of the city we wouldn't ordinarily see. We got off at the rue Vielle de Temple stop, which was several blocks from the street for which I was looking, rue de Pavée, but it took us past several stores I had seen many times on previous bus trips that I was glad to have the opportunity to check out.

We eventually walked up rue de Pavée to 11, rue de Payenne and the Centre Culturel Suedois (Swedish Cultural Center) where the current exhibition was paintings by Hilma af Klint. When we entered the courtyard, I wasn't sure we were in the right place because there were a lot of people sitting at tables drinking wine, tea and coffee. But it was the right place and we found the entrance to the museum and the exhibition, which was free. Ms. Klint was definitely ahead of her time.

We left there, walking back to rue des Francs Bourgeois We walked down to the corner of rue des Archives where we stopped at a bistrot (3eme Chinon) for a beer and a bit of rest. Just down the street was this interesting building.

Then it was off again to rue Rambuteau and the Centre Georges Pompidou. The Pompidou is as interesting outside as in. In front of the musée is a large square where lots of people gather to just sit around watching and listening to the buskers (street performers) and there are usually many of them performing all kinds of things from mime to playing a digeridoo.

Upon entering the musée, we were uncertain what we wanted to do, but decided to get a ticket to check out all the exhibitions, of which there were several. We started with the permanent collection which was, pardon my French, shit. I mean really people, how much talent does it take to stand on a ladder and pour a couple cups of paint on a canvas? Or to nail a few boards to a piece of plywood? There was one large painting(?) of about eight feet square, that was nothing but black paint on canvas. If these things are art, then I'm the world's greatest artist and you should all be paying homage (and money) to me. While we were walking through, Robb heard a group of German tourists complaining that this stuff was garbage.

Luckily, there was another exhibit to which we went. It was titled Traces du Sacré, and contained the work of many real artists including the just-visited Hilma af Klint. There were many, many pieces on display. So many, that I couldn't do the whole exhibit. We made our way back to the main entrance area where I found a bench and sat for quite awhile.

We left the Pompidou, walking up the square to a souvenir shop where Robb finally found the T-shirt for which he had been looking since we arrived in Paris. He had seen a lot with the inscription "I (heart) Paris" but he wanted one with Je (heart) Paris. And he got it at a good price. We walked back over rue Rambuteau, passing this cute fella, to the 29 bus stop. We waited quite a while but it finally arrived and took us across town to the Bastille, where we got the 69 bus home.

Plus à venir, mes amis.