Bonjour!
By special request of Robert himself, I am blogging that he is not ALWAYS a stick-in-the-mud, and that sometimes he is capable of going out in the evening after all! So! He had specially requested a week in Paris to “decompress” after Turkey; turns out, we didn’t really need decompressing from Turkey – rather, we needed a lazy, restful few days on a beach somewhere where we could have turned our brains to mush … NEVER happen in Paris; too much to see/do/eat, etc. After yesterday afternoon’s heavy rain storm, the skies cleared and we had a beautiful sunny, albeit very windy late afternoon, with huge clouds blowing across the sky. As sunset wasn’t until almost 10 p.m., we went out about 9:30 for the short walk over to Champs de Mars and the Eiffel Tower. From our flat, it is a fairly direct shot – takes about 10 minutes, and voila, there we were! (You may very well be sick of shots of the Tour from every possible angle, but bear with us, we couldn’t help ourselves!) Lots of other people – many of them young and obviously from out of town – were there as well. We walked past and through a “peace” structure – had “peace” written in many, many languages, over and over again; quite lovely and then found ourselves a bench to watch the Tour. I remembered from past times that it sparkles only on the hour, and then for 5 minutes, but R kept insisting that it would start sparkling “soon” – and it did – at exactly 11 p.m. A collective gasp went up from the crowd and thousands of cameras took picture after picture. At one point, we were watching the Trocadero across the Seine opposite the Tour, and flash after flash really lit up the sky. It was very beautiful, and certainly worth the walk and the wait. The weather promises more rain in the next few days, so we were happy to have been able to capture these non-rainy moments! (Also happy to report that Magnum Classics are available individually in France, because I had one on the way home…as we were paying for it, a small group of American girls were heading toward us, one saying: “If they have Magnums…” We agreed that nothing could be better!) We were back at the flat by 11:30 p.m. and directly to bed.
Up around 7 this morning – wondering how the security guards did all last night guarding the antiques below our window. We’re not sure how many guards they have, but some of the items looked very expensive – will know in the next day or two, as we go down for a look! R’s turn to go for breakfast, and he this time got a baguette, which we combined with the provolone, eggplant, salami and artichokes that we got the other day at the Italian deli – great breakfast!
We decided to head over to the 4th this morning, to check out the Pompidou Center and a church that had been recommended. Once again it took several buses – one to get us across the Seine (which looked VERY chilly and gray in the morning light) – and the second to take us to the Hotel de Ville (City Hall). In front of City Hall they have a huge area set up with tables and chairs and a massive big-screen TV – to watch Roland Garros! Very fun – especially the orange mat made up to look like a tennis court! Wonder if they’ll also use the space to watch Euro2012 which starts tonight…(France plays England in their first game on Monday.)
We were very close to Pompidou Center, where we have only visited once before, many years ago – and I don’t remember at all the Fontaine Stravinski in front, which is filled with all sorts of wonderful sculptures – very fun! Took pictures and wandered through several shops (and managed to find a wonderful poppy print, which we eventually bought…) before the doors of the Center opened at 11 a.m. There was a special exhibition on Matisse, who isn’t one of our favorites, so instead we walked around and admired the collections, bookstore, etc. Then off to find a post office to mail home our new poppy print…fortunately, there is a post office directly inside of City Hall – and actually no line at all! However, they said they didn’t have appropriate tape for us to use, and directed us to the department store across the street. The store, called Bazar or BHV was great fun; we’d never been inside before! Who knew?!
We were able to purchase tape and a sharpie pen. Then back across the street and a sit-down in the tennis pavilion while R taped up and addressed the tube. Finally, the poster is on its way to Tucson; will it get there before we do??
It was now just about 12:30 p.m. and we had been told about an interesting daily prayer service at St. Gervais, (Thank you, Bill!) which is located directly behind Hotel de Ville. We were a few minutes late, but were able to very much enjoy an interesting service in a stunning church. The Catholic church is run by the Fraternite Monastique de Jerusalem. There were probably 7 or 8 priests and about 10 nuns, all dressed in traditional garb, conducting the service. One of the nuns played a solo flute as part of the service (this was the only musical accompaniment they had) and the voices together resounding in the space was magnificent. There were several really beautiful icons – it was a different kind of service; we enjoyed it very much. The stained glass was really lovely; some was old and other windows were very contemporary and beautiful!
It was now time for lunch, and we hoped on and off a bus and landed in Café Alexandre just off Rue de Rivoli – and guess what, they were Greek and had shishkabobs! Oh my! We got a pizza Regina (ham, cheese and mushrooms) and a tomato and mozzarella salad and split them. Excellent pizza! It was while we were eating that the heavens again opened up – torrential downpour for just a couple of minutes. Then, outside and on to another bus for the ride back to the flat…naps all around!
Up and out again around 6 to head back over to our old flat to meet Graciela and Alain, our friends (and former landlords!) for dinner. SOOOO good to see them; it has been too long! We went to “our” restaurant, Le Torchon. We both had avocado and prawns to start, with R having duck breast and me having Pintade (think: Chicken!) for mains. R had tarte with apples and rhubarb; I had tarte citron. It was really good to be able to catch up with them, and Graciela has promised to come visit us this fall, after visiting her daughter and sister in Atlanta!! Very excited!!
Back to the flat about 10 and will post now and then collapse into bed! Definitely some laundry tomorrow, then who knows what? At some point we want to go through the antiquities booths downstairs…hmmm…
More later!
m
xxx
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