Paris 2008 - 17-18 Juillet

Jeudi - Robb went to a funeral at Pére Lachaise today. Of course, he didn't know he was going to a funeral, he had just planned a short walk in the cimetière and came across the service. According to the information he overheard, it was a young woman of about 24 who apparently was well-liked.

Around 20h00, we walked down, settled into our seats in the very back of the 69, behind an American family of dad, mom, two daughters and one son. Judging from the conversations we couldn't help overhearing, it was their first time in Paris, except for the dad who would point out things from time to time as we rode to the Champ de Mars.

If any of you are familiar with Rick Steves, you know he always mentions rue Cler in every show he does about Paris. We have never been there. I want to rectify that today, but I wasn't really sure where to get off the bus in order to get there. As luck would have it, when we got to the area where it's located, the bus was stuck behind a garbage truck. That meant that the bus could only move forward as the truck made it's pick ups. It also meant that I had time to check the street signs. We had no sooner passed rue Cler than the bus had to stop, less than a block past it. I ran up to the driver and asked, in my best French, if he would let us off. That is usually a big no-no, as the bus only stops at designated bus stops. But the driver was very accomodating. He pulled over to the sidewalk and opened the doors. We thanked him and jumped off.

We walked back to rue Cler for our first, and most likely, last look at the street made famous by Rick Steves. It's a lot smaller in real life than it appears on his TV show and in pictures. To be fair, it was about 20h30 and the markets for which it's so famous were closed, but still there wasn't much to recommend it. On top of that, every restaurant we passed was overflowing with tourists. We had hoped to find a place on the rue in which to have dinner before attempting our primary objective of the evening. It's also supposed to be pedestrian only, but there were a lot of cars driving through.

As we continued down the rue, Robb noticed a place on one of the side streets. It too, was crowded, but mostly on the café terrasse while the interior was mostly empty. We could tell from the conversations that most of the clientele were French. So we had a blah dinner at the Bistrot. It was okay, but far from great. Our waitress was a lovely girl who, though she is French, has only been in Paris for a few months. She seems to have been just about everywhere. She told us she needed to practice her English because she was going to start a job in which she needed to speak English.

After, we walked over to the Champ de Mars for the main event of the evening, la Tour Eiffel in its new decorative coat of blue. Because France is the seat of power in the European Union for the next six months, la Tour Eiffel has been bathed in blue light, both inside and out. On the side facing the Trocadero, are the golden stars that can be found on the EU flag. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was even more beautiful than I thought it would be.

18 Juillet (Vendredi) - Sinus headache.

Plus à venir, mes amis.

Paris 2008 - 1 Juillet

Mardi - We started by going to the Marché for some fundamental things, which of course, includes champagne and cheese. After carting it all back to the apartment and putting it away, we went down to the bus stop and caught the 69 to Pére Lachaise because I wanted to go to the pharmacie there.

A strange thing has been happening since I reported that I could buy my medicine with no prescription. Apparently, it's not true. I've been to at least a half-dozen pharmacies in the attempt to buy it and they have all turned me away for lack of a prescription. That had me wondering how and why the one guy sold it to me so easily. So to find out what was going on, we went back to that pharmacie. The guy with whom I did business the first time was not there, and the guy who waited on me asked for a prescription. I told him that I had bought the medicine there a couple weeks ago without one and that started a general conversation between the other three people working there. It was finally decided that they would sell me another, but they put my name into their computer. I'm not certain if that was for the next time I try to buy the medicine, or if it's just something to cover their butts. It doesn't really matter becuse now I have enough to last until after I get home at the end of the month.

We walked out of the pharmacie just in time to catch the bus. Neither of us wanted to go right back to the apartment, so we stayed on the bus (during which we passed a group shooting a TV commercial as we passed Place Léon Blum) until it got to rue de Rivoli. We walked down rue de Rivoli for a while and then walked up to rue des Archives to les Marroniers We got a nice table that was technically inside, but for all intent was on the café terrasse. We ordered a couple of beers and sat back to enjoy people watching. The bar and the area were quite crowded. We sat there until after 19h00, then left to get the 75 bus right outside the door.

Before the bus came, Robb decided he wanted to go to BHV Homme, right around the corner, to see if he could get a pink T-shirt, which apparently is all the rage right now. He first found a hat that he liked. He put it on and asked a couple of strangers what they thought of it. It turned out that the "strangers" were two gay guys who have been together for about a year. We sort of bonded after they asked how long we've been together. Their names are Ashan and Enias. One is Swedish and the other is French, but we're not sure which was which since they were speaking English. They wanted a picture of us and we of they, so we had one of the salesgirls take a picture, first with their camera, and then with mine.

We said our goodbyes and Robb continued his search for a pink T-shirt. He found one he thought he loved until he got home and tried it on. It's a V-neck and it doesn't quite fit right. We're hoping "it will ride up with wear". Is anyone familiar with that phrase? Think: Mr. Humphries.

We hopped onto the 75 and rode to Place de la Republique where we just sort of wandered about for a while. I saw a little manége and couldn't resist shooting a short video.

After, it was the 56 to Place Léon Blum, then the 69 to our stop and home, where we crashed for a couple hours.

Plus à venir, mes amis.

Paris 2008 - 27 Juin

Vendredi - I got the possibly brilliant idea that Robb and I should try to get our Juillet métro tickets now. That way he could maybe use that instead of having to buy regular tickets which are only good for one ride, one way. We walked down to Place Léon Blum to the Voltaire métro station, but not only do they not sell tickets there, there wasn't even anyone there to tell us that. We had to take the bus up to the Pére Lachaise station, where we got them with ease. We still don't know whether or not we can use them now, but I guess we'll find out soon enough.

When we went to dinner at Les Casseroles on Wednesday evening, it was next door to a Libanaise restaurant, Fakra, which looked interesting, so that's where we went for dinner tonight. Once again, we've found that when going to small places, the owner is usually also the waiter, and is always very friendly and helpful and chatty. We had some amazing dishes, the names of most of which I've totally forgotten. As has been the case here on this trip, the portions are super-sized and I cannot even come close to finishing what they bring to the table. Tonight we also had our second bottle of Lebanese wine. If I hadn't seen the label, I never would have known.

Plus à venir, mes amis.

Paris 2008 - 20-22 Juin

20 Juin (Vendredi) - These next two or three posts are going to bore you because we basically did nothing. I am taking a few days to recover what little strength I can before attempting to do anything else.

Robb went for another of his marathon walks today, but this time he got himself really lost. He called me several times to get directions, and at one point seemed to be within a few blocks of Place Léon Blum, but somehow he managed to make a wrong turn and ended up quite a distance away from it. Or so it seemed from the way he was describing the area to me on the phone. It turned out that he was only a few blocks from the apartment, but didn't recognize things he has seen almost every day since we've been here. His basic problem is that when he realizes he's lost, he won't stop and figure out where he is, he just keeps on walking, getting more and more lost.

We went to l'Artiste Café for dinner. I, again, had Penne aux Trois Fromages. Robb had so much food, even he couldn't eat all of it.

21 Juin (Samedi) - I slept till almost 12h30 and then forced myself to get out of bed. I was still tired. Even when I don't recognize that I'm tired, I can tell by the way my eyes feel very heavy and it's almost painful to open them.

Today was a beautiful day in Paris, with temps around 24C (74F) and blue skies with almost no clouds. Around 15h00 or 16h00, we heard really loud music coming from the street. We had the window open, so I had a look but could see nothing. I suggested to Robb that he could go down and have a look. He called me a few minutes later, but I could barely hear him over the music and people. He had found the source of it all. Near the Square de la Roquette, there was a free, outdoor disco-like thing set up. When he returned to the apartment, he said there were signs indicating that the music style would change every couple of hours (it didn't) and that it was scheduled to end around 21h00 or 22h00. We went to Bistro Expo for dinner around 21h30 and it was still going strong. It is now 01h30, and it is still going. I suspect it may last all night.

I've just learned that the music was because Saturday was the occasion of the Féte de la Musique, with music being played at many places around the city. It's all free, of course, so wherever it happens, there are hundreds of people in attendance; dancing and drinking until the early hours of the morning.

22 Juin (Dimanche) - A real nothing day. We didn't even go out for dinner. Robb went for a walk for an hour or so somewhere near Pére Lachaise. I can never say exactly where he went because he doesn't usually know. He just starts walking and, sometimes, finds his way back without assistance.

Plus à venir, mes amis.

Paris 2008 - 10 Juin

Mardi - We did it. We finally did it. We found an area of Paris that we absolutely hate. We took the bus up to the Pére Lachaise métro area. The idea was to find a nice restaurant and have lunch. We thought that perhaps the restaurants right there might be too busy, with all the tourists and such. So we started checking out the area and found a nice place just across the street, but off the beaten path. We settled into a table on the café terrasse and awaited the waiter. He informed us that the only thing they had was salads. So, we took off to find something else. We walked to the corner, looking down the street. We saw a lot of restaurants that seemed to be considerably less crowded. We looked at one after another until we finally gave up in disgust. They were all filthy. One even had a table that had been shit upon by a bird, and they didn't even bother to clean it off. After seeing the table, I noticed the chair was in even worse condition. This might seem like I'm prejudiced, and maybe I am now, but this was a predominantly muslim area, and the restaurants were almost totally muslim owned and run. We couldn't get away from there fast enough. We finally settled on one of the tourist places we had previously shunned.

After the fiasco near Pére Lachaise, it was such a pleasure to go to a new restaurant, l'Angella, in our neighborhood, just next door to the Chinese place to which we went for lunch the other day. It's all very modern with interesting furniture and a large waterfall just opposite the front door. I think our waiter was the owner, but I'm not certain. He was quite charming and we learned that, though he is French and his wife is Italian, he spoke Japanese, among several other langauges. The food was quite good and not dished out in family-sized portions. I had Spaghetti alla Carbonara and Robb had Osso Bucco. Robb's dish was clearly the better of the two, although mine was very good. They presented the veal as meatballs and the whole thing was covered in a delicious tomato-basil sauce. Dessert for me was very thinly-sliced pineapple with cerise. Robb again had the best, coffee ice cream with chocolate sauce. After our café, we left with the definite intention of returning one evening.

Plus à venir, mes amis.