PUC-Montpellier, Game One

I declared on facebook this morning that I wanted to go to the ball game. In France, the Elite division plays double-headers on Sunday and we're getting to the end of the season. The last game I went to was last year in the spring! I had said I was going to the game last week, but we had lunch out with the family, instead and I never got over to the ballpark.

One of the advantages of living in Nogent is that the ballpark, "Stade Pershing", is within walking distance, in the Bois de Vincennes, just behind the sports school, INSEP.

My walk, so you can see how close it really is. If you click on the map options you can choose the satellite view and see the ballpark.

Swan family in July

Game One is supposed to start at 11:00 a.m., so leaving home right after lunch, I thought I'd make it in time for the end of the game. I went a little out of the way to get an ice cream cone at the Lac des Minimes. On my way around the lake, I heard there was a Jewish wedding reception going on at the restaurant (the music gave it away) and the baby swans I took pictures of early in June are thriving. Here are two of them with one of their parents. The other parent and little one were out of range. And the picture of them from June 4!

Swan family in June

When I got to the ballpark, I went immediately to the scorers' booth and spent most of the time up there with M.D. who was scoring on his own. We caught up on news of our kids, our spouses, ourselves and watched the game. It had started late, so I really hadn't missed much. I only knew a few of the players. Others are altogether new and some were just kids last time I saw them play. I did see some old friends in the stands and others who came up to the booth. No pictures, though. Sorry. The game didn't end until after 3! PUC lost, 6 to 9. 

There's nothing quite like a baseball game in France. The pitching was off, so the first pitcher was relieved by a center-fielder who has a strong arm -- not really a pitching arm, though. There were errors. There were hits. You have to really pay attention because anything can happen. You think it'll be an easy out and you end up with another run in and another guy on base. Professional games are downright boring, in comparison.

An Ile de France Walk -- at last

A small gaggle of geese by the river

Caillebotte property at Yerres

At last! It's been such a long time since I went on one of these walks! Yesterday, when I decided that I really wanted to go, Louis called to ask if one of us could take his car for inspection, but thank goodness he was able to take care of it, because of course, I would have done it, but it would have been one more Wednesday lost. As it was it was a gorgeous day for a walk.

Take a look at the Ile de France Walks blogpost for details of this particular walk. Every week I get the email invitation and almost every week I say to myself, "boy, I'd like to go on that walk" and every week, something seems to come up to prevent it. Sometimes, it's just not for me -- too long, or too difficult.

Even today, I dropped out a little early with some other walkers. I had a blister that was bothering me and didn't think it necessary to continue for the sake of continuing. I dropped out at Yerres, where the group came up to a bridge on the river practically in front of the Caillebotte property. This is the house that belonged to the Caillebotte family and that he painted in several of his paintings. I recognized the areas in front of the doors where the women of the household read, sewed, knitted, while he painted, with the immense garden in the background. Having seen the Caillebotte exhibit in May, I was very interested. (My post on the Caillebotte exhibit.)

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.