Potpourri for $200, Alex

Odds-n-ends observations from our April in Paris trip  

People don’t kiss one another on their cheeks anymore. Instead, we saw numerous people shaking hands – men and women. Odd and a bit sad. Along these lines, we saw many natives eating food “on the run” in the streets! Fast food and no cheek kissing? Is this Paris?

A somewhat welcome change, though they decrease the spiciness of walking in Paris, is that there are pedestrian crossing signals everywhere. And people (natives included!) actually abide by them!

An ENTIRELY welcome change is that the crotte des chiens are getting to be pretty scarce. Bertrand Delanoë, the maire, has declared war on insensitive owners and they are now fined about €300 per unscooped poop! Here we see one of the last few undisturbed examples. Did its owner pay the price?

There are now municipal bicycles everywhere that can be rented cheaply. The idea is that you pick one up at your starting point and pedal it to the station nearest your destination. The system cuts down on car traffic and pollution. It seems to be popular; we saw many people riding the distinctive gray bikes.

To further encourage their use, Paris has now sprouted bike lanes. I’m not sure how effective they are since there aren’t many and those that exist are crossed by pedestrians quite a bit.

Another initiative of the Mairie de Paris is electric cars. Similar to the bikes (and similar to our Zip Cars), these are meant to be rented from station to station, though obviously they can be used on round trips. Here is the station below our apartment window (and in front of La Rotisserie), and typically, most of the cars are out, suggesting that this innovation has been embraced. You do in fact see the electrics all over the place.

Keeping with the auto theme, the last time we were here, original Minis were everywhere. Not so so now! This may be the last one:

They have been replaced by Smartcars, the new Fiat 500s (LOTS of those), the new Minis (quite right), and these little single-seat Renaults (note that it’s parked in a space that even a Smartcar had to pass up):

This cutie was often parked down the street from our building at night and during the day we saw it parked in various places around the islands.

Too bad it’ll never be seen in the numbers we see the other tiny cars; too many repairs to the bodywork!:

Thankfully the odd 2CV or two is still cranking and clanking around the cobblestones of Paris:

And though the motorscooter is still seen everywhere, a new three-wheeler has really taken the Paris streets by storm:

These things are everywhere. They are nifty to watch go around corners because the front tires lean into the turn, not the whole bike. So, cool technology, but man are the geometrics, mechanicals, and pneumatics complex!

On one of our walks, we came across this art deco sign:

I was intrigued for some reason and googled it. Not only is Duluc Detectives a real detective agency, but it’s been around for well over 100 years, having been founded by M. Duluc in 1910:

Nice mug shot!

It's currently run by his great granddaughter. Their motto? “In order to decide, one needs to know.”

The company is semi-famous among Parisians for both corporate and private (very private!) needs. Another odd bit of whimsy: Duluc is the model for the Luduc Investigation Agency, the centerpiece of a series of detective novels by Clara Black. There's a nice write-up about this at Invisible Paris.

So, that's about it! We had a wonderful week in Paris celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary and Claudia's birthday. The weather added a dimension - we lingered over meals much more (as you can tell from these pages!) - but didn't keep us from doing anything we wanted to do. 

 Au Revoir!

PS: Claudia wants me to add that she had a small, but significant triumph: She prevented me from purchasing a beret!

Or so she thinks...

Last Full Day in Paris!

The weather has finally gotten better, so we're heading out to "E. Dehillerin," a kitchen supply store. But if you've been faithfully reading this blog, you know what comes first:  I must get the morning's croissants! Here's where I've been going:

The bread really is much better here than the other two boulangeries in the neighborhood. And, the weather this morning is more-or-less better:

On the way we had lunch. This time it was at Les Fous d'Ile. I had pumkin/carrot/orange soup (good!) followed by a pork shank and lentils (OK). Claudia had le plate du jour, which was skate. Very average service, but again, the wine was good.

So off we go to the kitchen store. This place is near where Les Halles stood until 1971 and is quite a hike. Les Halles was the traditional market of Paris, with upgrades in 1183, 1763, 1850, and 1889,  it was the huge wholesale marketplace through which all the food of Paris passed. Those later versions of the market were immortalized in Zola's "The Belly of Paris." The market was moved in 1971 someplace to the south, and Les Halles now is the busiest train station of Paris. There's also a big shopping center, which itself is being completely revised (more on that later). 

Since the 1500s, the church of St-Eustache has been standing next to Les Halles, and there it remains today. Across the street is our destination, E. Dehillerin, which is a relative newcomer in this neighborhood, having been established in only 1820. It's still a family-run shop, distributing "high quality kitchen and pastry utensils for the catering professionnals, as well as hobby cookers." The wind had suddenly kicked up and it was sprinkling, so I didn't get a photo of the facade. This one is stolen from the intertoobes:

But I did get some photos of the interior. Here is the classic shot of E.Dehillerin:

They have all kinds of all kinds of things for the kitchen. Copper, stainless, cast iron, aluminum pots, pans, cookers, molds, etc. If they don't have it, you don't need it!

It really started to pour outside, so the place filled up with all sorts of people that suddenly remembered they needed something for the kitchen...

I couldn't blame them for ducking in; the rain was coming down in buckets. This shot was taken from inside the warm, dry, and ancient front section of the store:

I've got to leave it here as they're calling for boarding our plane. I'll update this post tonight with the rest of the day's journey. Never fear! The sun comes brilliantly (really!), we have ice cream standing on the Pont de le Tournelle in the super-bright sun, and we have a good final dinner that involves a cat! 

A bientot! 

OK, we're back home! Here's the rest of the story...

I forgot to mention that the site of Les Halles, which is now the largest Parisian RER train station and a shopping mall, was undergoing massive renovation, with several cranes. I didn’t take photos as it was starting to rain, and sorry to say, but the area was unattractive. Here is an artist's rendition of what it might look like soon (and it even includes the church of St-Eustache in the background):

After the rain stopped, we left E.Dehillerin and headed back to the island. On the way we passed the Tower of Jacques. It’s sort of strange in that it’s this very tall medieval tower sitting out in its own square. When we came across it, I commented that "it looks like a church belfry missing its church. Wikipedia says that that is exactly what it is: " ...the Tour Saint-Jacques...is all that remains of the former 16th century Church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie ("Saint James of the butchery") which was leveled shortly after the French Revolution."  I can’t think of why I didn’t photograph it as it’s a neat, oddball thing to come across on a walk, but here's what it looked liked in 1867, and still looks about the same today (btw, this is a great b&w photo from Wikipedia; click to it's original size and you'll see a lot of detail):

Tour St-Jacques is about halfway back from the Les Halles area. This point will be sort of interesting a little later.

We also passed the Hotel de Ville and I took a reverse angle photograph of the famous photo that Robert Doisneau made of a couple kissing:

Somehow not as powerful as this:

We finally got back to Ile St. Louis and stopped into Berthillon for what is supposed to be come of the best ice cream in the world. It did not disappoint. We enjoyed ours on the Pont de la Tournelle (where else?) in the brilliant sun. But we could see more storm clouds over Notre Dame…Here’re some photos of the LAST STORM of our trip, though it did provide some nifty photos.

Have you ever seen such a long ladder? The workmen at the top are scrambling to finish up – we all could see the rain coming up the river. I am pretty sure that the rooftop is a penthouse swimming pool with lots of shrubbery around it. Here’s a closer shot after the storm had moved in and the workmen had scampered off with their long ladder:

Here’s a wider shot, the LAST RAIN on St. Genevieve:

And here’s the LAST RAIN on the upper half of Ile de St. Louis:

And looking further down river, here’s the LAST RAIN on Notre Dame:

The lighting that the clouds provided, the clear air from several fronts passing through (we nearly got blown off the bridge eating our ice cream), and the usual foreshortening of photography provided for an odd image. Those cranes are a LONG way away. The tower in front of them is Tour St Jacque, which is about halfway between the cranes and where I stood taking the photo. Weird. Here’s a tighter shot of that, and you can even make out the roof of the church St-Eustache behind the cranes:

Pretty neat, huh?

These shots were taken with lightning cracking off in the clouds. Then the rain really hit and it was a deluge. As it died down, it turned to hail! It finally settled down to a drizzle, just in time for dinner.

Though we’d been threatening to do it all week, we’d never actually eaten in the restaurant on the ground floor of our building – La Rotisserie. It is recommended by several sources for having great meats and a strong Beaujolais list.

It’s a nice enough place, with an open flame licking around spits of lamb shanks and boeuf salers. It is “la petite soeur” of Le Tour d’Argent, which is just across the street. Apparently, in addition to being a well-regarded (if informal) restaurant in its own right, it’s the training stables for the chefs and staff of the older sister.

For fans of the Disney movie “Ratatouille,” you may know that it was based on Le Tour d’Argent. So, supposedly the owner of Le Tour d’Argent is a rat. Not so it’s little sister, because we hadn’t been seated a minute before we espied the owner of La Rotisserie sitting with some lucky customers:

His name is Monsieur Beaujolais, and he takes his job tres serioux! Here we see him inspecting the plat du jour menu, no doubt checking for correct spelling.  Once satisfied with that, he made his rounds to each table, making every customer welcome:

Once satisfied that all was proper and in order, he retired to his seat by the window. But, with each new group of people being seated, he would stir himself and go over to welcome them (though we think he also was sniffing them closely for how well they fit in – La Rotisserie is informal, but it does have its standards!) He also offered advice on how to properly dissect one’s dish, going so far as to place his paw on a diner’s hand to guide her proper use of the fork and knife. Madame was not amused.

I had a plate of Provencal mushrooms followed by coq au vin. The ‘shrooms were out of this world. Claudia had the quarter chicken, which is highly recommended in several guidebooks and online, and we agree!

The rain had stopped by the time we finished dinner. The clouds had departed and there was just a hint of sunlight, a very heavy blue dusk. The blue fading into pinks and muted yellows was amazing and the crescent moon was directly above the lit Eiffel Tower. I took several photos and can’t decide which one is better, so here are all of them.

A great end to our April in Paris!

Tomorrow, a few final thoughts on April in Paris...