Les Richesses de Paris
Heritage Day:
Today was the first of the heritage days of Paris, and I was a little intimidated by the prediction of great crowds and waiting in long lines, so I wasn't sure I even wanted to leave the apartment. However, after struggling with my slideshow for a couple of hours, I decided to brave it and at least go to the Palais du Luxembourg which is up the block and across the street. It's where the French Senate is located and is usually closed to the public, as I found out the first time I was here and tried to go in. There was no line to get in and the crowd inside was very light, so I'm glad I didn't miss it. It was at one time the queen's palace (Marie de Medici) and still looks very much the part. Every square inch is sculpted, carved, gilded, or painted and the rooms are sumptuous and luxurious. The library, which looks out over the park, is quite magnificent, with sliding staircases and balconies to reach the books near the ceiling. The ceiling itself is ornamented with paintings whose creators you'd recognize. The main staircase is grand and wide, covered with plush carpet and guarded by sculptures of lions. Gobelin tapestries line the walls. I only took one picture, because photographs never do these rooms justice, especially when you don't have perfect lighting.
Afterward I went through the park greenhouses which are also usually closed to the public. Very beautiful, but nothing was unfamiliar, except the bean plant.
Needing a rest, I stopped for a bite at the little park cafe and listened to the band playing show tunes from Hello, Dolly. All you hear in Paris is American music.
Language:
Yesterday I took the Metro to Place d'Aligre, an outdoor market I'd been wanting to go to for years, but always missed it. There is a vast difference between knowing a language and using a language. At the market I saw some fruit I didn’t recognize. What I wanted to say (and could say, given some time to work it out) was, “What unusual fruit; I’m fascinated by the way the small, individual nodules hang from one long stem, something like a bunch of bananas. What’s it called? Dates, you say? They’re so smooth and golden; they appear to be in different stages of ripeness. Which ones are ready to eat?”
What I did say was, “What’s that? Same as those (pointing to the familiar- looking dates)? How eat?”
Language is so humbling.
Transportation:
It’s getting smaller and smaller. Remember, Connie, when we were amazed at the Smart cars, which looked like the front half of a tennis shoe? Now there are a couple of new modes of transportation, even more individual, and definitely less polluting, which is the whole idea in this city of three million cars. (T.V. commercials are showing animals coughing to try to appeal to the conscience of car owners.) One innovation is government-owned bikes which are lined up in bike stations, each locked into a meter-like device into which you insert a credit card. The lock then releases and you can use the bike as long as you want, returning it there or at another station, and your card is charged for the amount of time you used it. They’re quite popular - I’ve seen people, including women wearing skirts and heels, riding them all over the city (they’re a lot more courageous, or foolhardy, than I’d be in this suicidal traffic!) The other new mode of transportation is the Segway. Remember those? They really never got off the ground at home (pun intended), did they? Here, there are different groups of entrepreneurs renting them out on the streets. I haven’t actually seen anyone riding one yet. I wonder what will be used to move people the next time I come?
Food:
On the whole I've been a little let down by the food, at least in the cafes. The best meal I've had yet was one that I shopped for myself at La Grande Epicerie, the "grocery store" that's connected with Le Bon Marche (not your mother's Bon Marche). Le Grande Epicerie greets you with the selection of pastries that look like works of art; in fact, they look too good to eat, but if you passed them up for that reason you'd miss the lightest, tastiest, creamiest pastry you'd ever had. So light it almost seems to float up off the plate and into your mouth. If you can get past the pastries, you come to the breads in every shape, size and flavor. Then come the meats, a different department for each kind, and the prepared foods, which, of course, is where I was headed. I chose lemon chicken, herbed carrots, and a mushroom medley. Oh, and also two pastries (I didn't get by them), one was a strawberry tart and one a fraisier, which is layers of cake and cream studded with fresh strawberries. (I thought it was important to get my fruit.)
Serendipity:
One of the things I love most about Paris, and the reason I walk everywhere,is that you never know what's around the next corner. This time it was a "Bite of ..." kind of festival with vendors from an area at the foot of the Pyrenees: vendors of wine, cheeses, foie gras, duck confit, etc., etc., etc. All this was taking place on the quais of the Seine, right across from the Notre Dame, while a very loud band was oompah-ing in the middle of the crowd. Of course I had to participate, and so sat on a curb eating my plate of cheese, grapes, a fig, country-style bread, and, of course, a little juice of the grape. What can be better than wine and cheese at the foot of Notre Dame? Some of the romance went out of the experience when I tried to get up though. At the age of my knees, I have to think carefully about where I'm going to sit down. :(
