Sunday, September 28, 2014

This afternoon we went to the Jardin de Luxembourg. There were a lot of people there, being a Sunday afternoon and all Paris seemed to be there. We were lucky to find a table at the outdoor café where we ordered. The café is near the bandstand and we were lucky to be there for a concert. So in addition to our drinks, we heard a lot of nice music.

Frequently, the French Senate sponsors an artistic display on the fence that surrounds the gardens. incidentally, the Senate is located on the grounds of the Luxembourg Gardens, or perhaps it is the reverse. in any event, there was today a series of eighty some photos taken by a celebrated photographer. He had taken photos around the world of colorful insects, beetles, and plants. we spent about a half an hour looking at a part of the display. We will return to see the rest later on. here are some of the photos.

The ones you see here are a mixture of the insects and plants. They were taken all over the world. If you want to see all 80 photos, you may click here for the exposition website of the Senate. When the page comes up, click on the word Les Panneaux in the upper left part of the screen to get to all 80 photos.You can click on each one to enlarge it to a full screen. Click on the "X: in the lower right corner to go back to the complete listing. Enjoy!

After leaving the Jardin, we went back to the place St. Michel where we branched off to the rue St. André ders Arts for another dinner of Breton galettes and crêpes. This time we ate at the Crêperie Saint-Germain. See the photo below,  the one of the flaming crêpe, flamed with Grand Marnier. If you look closely, you can see the bluish flames on the point of the dessert.

The end of another fine day.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

This morning I went around the corner to the Café Sancerre which has become what the British call "my local". Here are photos of the café.

In the afternoon we went tour local park where they were celebrating the Fête des Jardins (Garden Festival) in Paris. Many of the public gardens and parks had special displays, exhibits, etc. In our garden, the Fall flowers were all out in splendor. There were also several tents where there were displays and information available. At one, children were offered small pots of plants or flowers and given instructions on how to plant and care for them. There were always two or three interested children there.

We spent an hour or so at Le Sancerre and then headed down the rue des Archives where we came to the National Archives building. They have a large garden and today there was an outdoor convention of genealogy. There were about 25 booths where all things genealogy could be researched and discussed. There were booths for each of the major regions of France where people could check out their ancestors. There were also booths where, for a fee, you could check out software for researching, publishing, and printing out you family history. There were quite a few people interested in these projects.

We left the Archives garden and went farther on down the street near the BHV to a block that has a lot of cafés and restaurants. We picked out one, Chez Vito, where we had some nice pasta for dinner.

After dinner we went to the Lutheran Church Eglise des Billettes only a block from the café. There was a choral concert there that we wanted to hear. The group was called Quid Novi. The music dealt with the era of Luther, early 16th century. We knew several of the pieces. We left after about an hour and a half since it was rather boring. There were some good pieces of music but much of it was interspersed with letters by Luther read by several actors. Too much lecture and not enough music. The chorus was adequate but not near the quality of the one that we had heard in the Swedish church a week ago.

Friday, September 26, 2014

Today we did several errands and visits which we will tell you about.

First, we went to check out an apartment that friends would like to rent, but they wanted us to verify that it would be suitable for their large family. We had an 11:45 appointment with the rental agent. The apartment is only about a twenty minute walk from here so it was no problem. The apartment was on the second floor with an elevator, so that was a good start since the stairs were circular and a bit steep. The apartment itself was as pictured on the internet. It was recently remodeled with a good kitchen area, comfortable beds, nicely furnished, and with  two baths (two bedrooms) both with showers. As is true in most places in Paris, the rooms were rather small, but unless you want to pay big bucks, that is what you get. We reported to our friends that this would be good for the family.

Later in the afternoon, we met an old friend for coffee at the Café du Départ at the place St. Michel. We have known Cherie for years ever since we attended yearly meetings of an organization called National Association of District Supervisors of Foreign Languages. She is from Minnesota and has been retired now for 6 years. She spends a lot of time in Europe, especially France since she taught French for years. She also had just spent several weeks in Roumania where she had studied years ago and still had friends there. We had a nice visit for an hour and a half, reminising about our experiences and travels.

We ate this evening. Alexandria made an excellent mushroom and cheese omelette which we polished off with a glass of red wine. It was followed by a green salad, and a panna cotta.  

Thus a busy day ended.

Thursday, September 25, 2014

For the past two days we have not done anything extraordinary. Just a small bit of shopping and some café sitting. In the evenings we frequently watch either the TV or some of the DVD's we brought with us.

Today, Thursday, we went for a walk to the BHV (Bazaar de l'Hôtel de Ville). This is one of the large department stores, about a 20 minute walk for us. It has very large selections of housewares and home repair items. However, not needing anything of that nature, we went up to the 5th floor to their cafeteria which looks out on the rooftops of Paris, more specifically the Paris Hôtel de Ville (City hall).

The corner of the Hôtel de Ville.

The rooftops of Paris.

On the way back to the apartment, we passed a pet store called Moustaches. See the interesting display window here and the dog watering bowl outside the front door.

Across the street from the bus stop, they are doing extensive work on a large building. Here is the wall they have put up on the street level to block off the building. Interesting but no comment. I think
this may be more a matter of graffiti than anything else. Some cases of graffiti can be very extensive and well done in Paris.

Monday, September 22, 2014

This afternoon we went to a choral concert at La Madeleine church. We don't normally like to go to concerts there since the acoustics for choral mueic are not very good. However, we thought that the group singing might be worth hearing and we were right. It was the Alfred Street Baptist Trinity Choir from Alexandria, Virginia. They presented a program of hymns and snthems, spirituals, and gospel songs.
We enjoyed the concert very much. They sang several pieces that we knew. Several of the pieces had soloists who were also very good, especially the final number that had a fine bass soloist.
After the concert, the choir gathered on the front steps of the church and a reprise to those in front of the church for which they recived a warm round of applause.
Here are some pictures of the choir and the church.

The main alter of the church.

The ceiling above the alter.

The choir in performance on the alter.

Closeup of the choir in performance.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Today we went out in the afternoon with the intention of going for a walk up to the place de la République to people-watch and have a drink. We walked for two blocks and we saw mobs of people at the Carreau du Temple. You may remember last year we made mention of this old covered steel and glass market that was built in 1868. It had been restored and reopened just this year. Click here for more info. There were hundreds and hundreds of people both outside on the streets and inside the building attending the Street Food Temple. They subtitled it Le Culte de la Cuisine de Rue. There dozens and dozens of street food vendors of all types both inside the building and outside in the streets surrounding it. We went inside and walked around to marvel at all the different kinds of street food you  oould find there. We tried some ice cream first. We chose two unusual flavors. One was a kind of dark chocolate called Dark Side and the other was a Mojito, part of it included mint. We later got two bottles of Badoit water and some special Breton cakes called "far" which we took home. Here are some photos of this event.

A sign announcing the event and telling about how you had to buy tokens in order to make purchases.

The glass roof of the restored building.

A view of a small part of the hall.

A display of different cookware.

Another display dealing with food.

A third part of the large display

Here are some of the individual vendors. This one is called La Glace Mobile, the IceCreammobile. 

This one is selling pralines. Notice it is Fifi la Praline.

The DJ providing music for the Hall.

The wine vendor.

Here they are selling the liqueur called Ricard. Click here to learn about it.

Here we have veggie hot dogs.

Finally, a view of another part of the large selling area.

We spent almost 2 hours in the food hall, tasting, watching people and checking out all of the various food choices at the many different food stands. We never got to the place de la République. We just went back to the apartment.

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Today is laundry and shopping day so I thought I would show you some more interesting shots

Took this shot from a bus window. It's in the Pigalle area of Paris along the boulevard de Rochechouart. It's an area full of nightspots. The Moulin Rouge is located down the road from here.

A discarded toilet on the street but it conjures up interesting possibilities.

A local shop that specializes in baking what are called "chou" A rough equivalent is a cream puff. It's a flakey pastry filled with different favored creams. Notice the play on words "I love chou" can also be taken for "I love you". Cute, Yes?

A duck came visiting in a caffe in Scheggino, Italy. Just after I took this, it squatted and peeed on the floor of the caffe.

A dog drinking fountain on an Italian street.

In Scheggino, the moon rising over the top of the hill with the castle turret a lit up.

Same night, this time the moon behind the clock tower of the church.

You can guess this one. "Watch out for the dog" in Scheggino.

In Scheggino, a sign about 6 feet off the ground on one of the streets that indicates the water level of a flood on the 3rd of September 1936. It was the Nera river that flows through the town. It must have been one helluva flood.

Friday, September 19, 2014

Today we had a leisurely day. We did a bit of food shopping, had dinner in early, and then went to a choral concert in the Swedish church near the Arc de Triomphe. We had been there a number of time for concerts in the past. This evening we heard an excellent choir called  the Chorale Cantilena from Norway. The music was excellent and they even performed several pieces that we had done rather recently. There were 23 singers and unfortunately only twenty-one in the audience. Still in all, they sang with full generosity to the small audience. There is no photo of the outside of the church since there is a lot of scaffolding due to repairs but here is the sanctuary.

The choir in the sanctuary.

We had an interesting experience on the way home from the concert. We took the number 30 bus and then transferred to the number 65 but  we got on one going in the opposite direction. It took us through a largely immigrant area which did not look too enticing so we stayed on the bus to the end and then took the bus back in the correct direction. The end of the line was at the extreme northern border of the city so it took about twenty minutes to get to our stop. Interesting to see the streets at night in that area of Paris. People have told us that this is not too good an area at night. While on the bus we saw a pickpocket in action with his buddy. They would drop coins on the floor of the bus and when someone bent down to help pick them up, gone was the wallet. When the victim went up to the driver, the wallet mysteriously appeared on the floor. We saw them try it on another couple but were not successful. You always have to be careful when traveling.