Out to Lunch

I've been out to lunch quite a bit, recently. Last Thursday, it was with Ken (Living the Life in Saint-Aignan) and some of his friends whom I felt I knew already, from comments left on his blog. It was at a couscous place in the 15th, not far from CHM's apartment, where Ken was staying. Paul and I both had brochettes and merguez. We were nicely seated in the courtyard room with a nice artificial sun roof, so that, even if the weather had not been nice, we wouldn't have noticed. The food was good; the conversation excellent. We were among the first to arrive for lunch and were the very last to leave, more than a couple of hours later.
On Sunday, we (four of us) went out to Verrières to see P&G and we all went out to a couscous place in Vauhallen. The couscous was pretty much the same as on Thursday. Maybe the marga was a bit tastier. Again, lots of good conversation and we were among the last to leave. And we left just so we could carry on the conversation in the cool and quiet of the living room at the house. Monday, the Verrieres Lebelles came home from China for their summer vacation. Paul picked them up at the airport, so I haven't seen them, yet. Usually, the first couple of weeks are taken up with doctor's appointments and such.
Tuesday, I met Victoria (The Franco-American Flophouse) and we did not have couscous! We went to a Vietnamese place on rue de Montessuy and got a sidewalk table in the shade for a very pleasant meal. Again, wonderful conversation. I can't get over how many blogs she reads a day, how many tweets, and how she actually follows up with phone calls. After lunch, we went over to the library, where, for once, I was not going to stay, even though it was Tuesday. She returned, and I picked up, Embers of War, by Fredrik Logevall, about Vietnam. Interesting. I'm still in the World War II part, though. As I was walking home from the RER station, later, I heard lots and lots of aircraft and then remembered that the Bastille Day parade is coming up, so they were rehearsing.
I mustn't forget that the month started with the AARO meetup lunch on the first Monday of every month! Not many people signed up, but we ended up with 13! When there are so many, it's hard to be a good host and follow conversations. D, sitting opposite me, came up with a reasonable theory for why brokerages do not want to do business with people who have foreign addresses. According to him, it might be because if they do transactions with such people, they could be deemed to be doing business in the country and subject to tax, therefore, they would avoid doing business in countries that looked at it this way. Well, if that's a reason, why don't they just come out and say so? And charge the customer for the tax, giving the customer the choice. So, unless a brokerage tells us why they have these new restrictions, it's just another plausible speculation.
Meantime, at home, we eat raspberries. I weighed a bowlful the other day -- about 375 gr. Every day, we pick a bowlful. We either save it for immediate consumption, freeze it, or give it away. We're coming to the end of the season, though. Just a few more bowlfuls left. I looked at the price of raspberries: €2.99/125gr. at the grocery store; €4.00/125gr. at the market.

The Stein exhibit at the Grand Palais

We've been doing a lot recently, and instead of loading up one post, I'm going to break it down into several episodes. I've just been too lazy to write more often.

Back in the days of the Pierwige, back before I stayed there, Paul was already living there and there were plenty of foreign students and young working people. Among them were Peter and Jeanne from Switzerland. They were not a couple, then, but they did become a couple and are still so. They came to Paris a few weeks ago and we all went out to eat on Tuesday evening and then to the Stein exhibit on Thursday morning.

The Stein Collection -- a great exhibit. I don't think I've ever seen so many Picasso and Matisse paintings together. Apparently Leo and Gertrude collected mostly Picasso and their brother and his wife took to Matisse. No matter. They collected early, before these artists became famous and overpriced. When they could no longer collect Picasso and Matisse or Cézanne, they started collecting newer artists. It's all interesting. Leo, the elder brother, left Gertrude when Alice B. Toklas came to live with her. And that's the Gertrude Stein I was more familiar with, the writer who befriended Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. We got to the Grand Palais a few minutes before opening and with our Carte Sésame we were in the direct access, no waiting line. It's so refreshing to see exhibits before the crowds come in and you can't see anything. (Last year, at the Monet exhibit, I saw the difference. I saw it once with Rita at 9:00 a.m. and then went again with the Pickars and Paul one afternoon. They allow too many people at once in the Grand Palais and it's tiring to try to see anything. You can get close. You can't stand back. Just keep moving.)

Before going to the exhibit, we all met for dinner on Tuesday evening. Of course, over the years I had heard stories of the Pierwige before me and of Paul's friends there, so I felt as though I already knew them. Paul had found the restaurant on Lafourchette.com. He reserved us at Au Gourmand, where you get a 40% discount when you reserve via the site. Very, very nice. It was an excellent meal and, with the discount, not expensive, at all.

Goings and Comings

Okay, last time I wrote, I had just picked up J & E at the airport, dropped them off at their apartment and was watching the Tour de France on TV. What I enjoy about the Tour de France is the helicopter view of the sights to see along the route. The Tour ended yesterday and went very close by, in Fontenay sous Bois. I could have walked over to see it go by as we did several years ago when it went by just down the street. But, on the last day, they don't really race until they get to Paris, so it's more like a friendly parade of bicycles, not very exciting. After lunch, I just sat down and started knitting. The clouds started to build up again, so that by the time the Tour got under way in Créteil, I didn't feel like hiking up the hill to the nearest viewpoint. I watched on TV as they wound their way along a very zig-zagging route, crossing the Seine and the Marne several times, so that you would think we live in a zone with five or six rivers. They finally crossed into Le Perreux, went through the center  of town, down to the big intersection that leads to Nogent, but took the avenue into Fontenay, up the hill and then along the crest until they headed back down into Vincennes, around the Chateau de Vincennes, the zoo, and along the edge of the Bois in Charenton into Paris. They crossed over to the left bank and then back to the right bank at the Louvre, where they finally started racing for their 8 loops on the Champs-Elysées. It's nice recognizing all the landmarks of home along the way, via the helicopter.
Last week, on Sunday, I met up with other Girls High classmates and their husbands. First, I met with A² (That's for A and A) at the Museum of Jewish Art and History. A's family is related to the Dreyfus family, so she was particularly interested in Dreyfus affair exhibit and in the family photo album they had on display. I got her the email address of the person in charge of the that exhibit for her to contact. Then, J and E joined us for a nice walk back to their place via the rue des Rosiers (jam-packed with tourists), a bit of the Ile Saint-Louis, Ile de la Cité, Rue de Seine with the art galleries, and then rue Jacob. J and A were tempted by the Ladurée macarons, but came quickly out of the shop, struck with ticker shock. (Here's a recipe, in French!).
J & E are in a fifth floor attic walk-up. It's delightful -- lots of light and intelligent use of space. We rested and chatted for about an hour and then headed, on foot to Firmin le Barbier. I had been there with the Ps in June and can confirm that it is a very good place to eat. However, I will now give it a rest.

in the Yitzhak Rabin Park, across from the BNF,
before the movie

Starting Monday, I went out to Verrières to spend some time in English with Eléonore and Maxime. We played Monopoly, conversing in English, Go Fish, and other games. P-F was just in from Shanghai and took us all out to eat for lunch. I got to talk to Nadine a bit. Tuesday, I took the kids into Paris. The idea was to go to the Musée d'Orsay, but, in spite of the downpour and cold, the line serpentined in front of the museum (that's already an hour's wait) and continued around the block all the way back to the Seine on the rue Solferino! Crazy! So, we went to the Musée du Quai Branly, where we saw the Maya exhibit and the "Americas" section of the permanent exhibit. On Wednesday, we played scabble and did a little grammar review on verbs. We also watched To Kill a Mockingbird. I missed an appointment in Paris and was late for the second appointment! I guess I was just tired, so Thursday, I took the day off and on Friday, I took them back into Paris to see the new Harry Potter movie, V.O. and 3D! I drove them back home and once back in Nogent it was almost time to turn around to go to Louis and Gwen's for dinner with her parents and niece, Lya.
A lazy weekend and Emma arrived for an undetermined length of stay on Sunday evening. As usual, it's great to see her.

It's summer

The other rose bush from England -- Hot chocolate

 Last Sunday I was a tourist in Paris. The Ps were here with grand-daughter and a friend of hers, 15 years old, so they wanted to pack in the Eiffel Tower, the Orsay museum, and maybe a few other sites. Sunday morning I arrived at the Eiffel Tower at just past 10 and found them in the North tower line after a couple of intercontinental text messages. It was starting to get hot, but we were in the shade. We talked; the girls went off to the souvenir stands to check out prices. After about an hour an a half we were waiting for the elevator to go up to the second level where we got in another line to reach the top. At least while you are in line you are also looking at Paris below and getting your bearings. A walk around the top, I did not climb up the stairs for the outdoor peek, and in line again for the elevator down. By the time we got down, we were all pretty hungry and the heat was already weighing on everyone. I'm not complaining. It's just that you forget so fast how long it takes to "do" the Eiffel Tower. Grin and bear it and be sure to be in good conversation with such pleasant company.

One of the rose bushes we picked up in England

 We continued our gabbing through lunch. We walked over to the Boulevard de la Bourdonnais, near the American Library and stopped at a corner café. We waited for menus. We waited to order, and when we finally started our order, the waiter shouted at us that we couldn't order sandwiches from him; you could only do that at the bar. That, in spite of the fact that others of us were ordering other dishes. He just walked off to let the sandwich eaters choose something else and then kept ignoring us. We finally got up and went to the opposite corner and had an excellent lunch that was even cheaper than if we'd stayed at the first café. I think we were seated and served in less time than the first guy had shown up to take the order, too.

Herbs: parsley, (no sage), rosemary, thyme,  and mint

Rhubarb -- in fact I harvested 2 lbs. this morning
 and made rhubarb pie!

After all that standing in lines and then sitting at lunch, we walked to the Musée d'Orsay. The girls felt this was a really long walk, but I just mapped it on mapmywalk.com and it's not quite 1.6 mi. or just over 2.5 km. We walked in the shade and stopped at some souvenir shops, and to get water. Then, R stood in line at the museum while we girls stood in the shade by the side. There's some renovation work going on, some of the post-impressionists are grouped together in a side room, making it very convenient to see the major pieces together. We were all pretty tired before a full hour had gone by, so we finally left to catch a cab back to the hotel.

Zuccini

Well, on Sunday afternoons there are no taxis to be found at taxi stands. We had cool drinks at the corner café and still no cabs came by, so we took the metro, which is, of course, always the best solution. It's just that you can't always convince the others that it's going to be faster. After a short rest at the hotel and showing  off our respective photo albums and R showing me some cool apps on his Ipad, we headed back to the metro to go to the restaurant. There was no way I could get them to walk (less than the earlier walk, but still a little over a mile), so we got back on the metro. Anne met us on our way from the metro station to the restaurant for dinner. Louis and Gwen were already there when we arrived.

Tomatoes

Cucumbers

Firmin le Barbier on the rue de Montessuy, again, near the Eiffel Tower, is excellent for a small group. It's been written up in several guides and deserves its excellent reputation. It's not too expensive. It's small, so you really do have to reserve.

My throat, which had been scratchy since our return from England, was fairly sore. I thought I was just talking too much. But on Monday morning, I had no voice at all and even today, Saturday, it's still not normal. Seems other people are dealing with laryngitis, too, so I guess it's a virus going around.

Hope you've enjoyed the pictures of our vegetable patch.

Family visits

Paul and I got back a few days ago from a visit to the Husaunndees in Northampton. Aurelia is getting to be a big girl now. She goes up on the big slide, likes the swings, the climbing toys and all that. She's very expressive, if not always comprehensible. She repeats just about anything in English or in French. And she eats just about everything, too. We were completely charmed. 

We also got a chance to see the house that Claire and Geoff are buying. It's nice. Big rooms. There will be a bit of work to do on it, but nothing preventing living in it immediately. 

And Charlotte came for the weekend, so we got to play with her, too, and then accompany her back to Woking and see Geoff's parents and the rest of the family, including the newcomer, Daniel, who is just two months old. We bought a couple of rose bushes and blueberry bushes for the garden.

The vet took the cat for the week we were gone. We'll ask him to do that again when we go back, but it still makes just going off for a couple of days difficult. We'd like to go down and see Gwen's folks, meet up with some other friends in the Tourraine.

Before going to England, I had dinner with the kids and Sarah and Kyle, who were in Paris for just a few days before joining their family in the Alps to finish their vacation. That was fun. Gwen had never met either of them and for Louis and Anne, it was the first time meeting Kyle and it had been a long time since they'd seen Sarah. We had dinner at the Bouillon Racine, a really fine restaurant. Very much in its Art Nouveau origingal look. 

Sarah and Kyle have returned home and now it's Roger and Gloria's turn for Paris before they, too, go back. They should be getting in later today with Shelby and a friend of hers. They only have two days in Paris. We're all having dinner together tomorrow. 

I think C was supposed to be coming to Paris for work last week, but I guess I missed her. J and E are coming in a few weeks for a longer stay and other friends are coming in September, so I hope we'll all be able to get together, then.

Busy first week of February followed by calm babysitting

The last week of January was busy. Nothing to write about, just generally busy. It was about the same with the first week of February. For example, on my birthday, I had to go into Paris for an appointment with the chiropractor, then to the travel agency to pay for the rest of our trip in March, home for lunch, an appointment with the rheumatologist, back to Paris with Paul to meet with Anne to go to the movies and then meet with Louis and Gwen to go out to eat for a birthday meal.
The movie was "The King's Speech", which just opened on the 2nd, so we got to see it on its first day out. It was worth all the hype, but I do wish there were less hype. They talk and write so much about a film before it comes out that you often wonder if you need to see it, and if you do go, you're often disappointed because it's not all that fantastic. "The King's Speech" is a good movie, a good feel-good movie. The acting is excellent. I'm glad I went to see it.
We ate at L'Enoteca, a wine-bar restaurant in the Marais. We've gone there off and on in the past but not recently, so it was a treat. The food is good and the wine is excellent. Luckily, we did not drive into Paris because we certainly drank over the legal limit for driving. We got on the metro and had a nice invigorating walk home from the RER to clear our heads. I had a very nice birthday.
Thursday, I drove into Paris to pick up brochures, posters and other stuff for the AARO and AAWE booth at Expat Expo. I got home for lunch and then met one of the volunteers at the Parc Floral to set up our stand. It took all of 10 minutes once we got there. Getting there was not so easy. We came through the park and found the exhibit center at the very back of the park. The door was locked. After several attempts to catch someone's attention, we finally got help and were told to come around through the exhibitor's entrance, which meant going back out of the park and following the street even further back and come in and around through some parking lots. It was a long walk. Once we got the stand set up, we had to go back the same way to go back to our cars.
Friday morning, I rode my bike to the Parc Floral. This time, coming in the exhibitor's entrance and parking my bike right in front of the building was an advantage; the back entrance is nearer to home. The AAWE needed more space than AARO because of the books they have for sale, so we grabbed a second table and set that up. It was a strange exhibit. The booths, like ours, catered mostly to the expats (foreigners) in France, but most of the conference sessions were for French about to expatriate or just back. Strange.
What I really liked during the three days was seeing friends from AAWE and AARO who were manning the stand with me. Recruiting volunteers went very easily and we had plenty of people on hand.
When I got home on Sunday it was to news that Aurelia had the chickenpox and would I like to go to Northampton to babysitThat is not a question to ask me. It's a great excuse for me to cancel and postpone appointments and rush off, which I managed to do on Monday. So, I'm here watching Aurelia play, eat and sleep. In fact, I've been taking advantage of one of those naps to write this letter.
While I've been gone, Paul has been holding the fort. We had a new separation put in between us and the neighbor and new plantations to go with that. We are also having the attic insulation redone and that was supposed to start today, but it looks like it's being put off until next week.
That's all for now. I suspect that I won't be writing again until we're off on vacation.