Paris Notes 0809 #7
February has turned out to be a pleasant time to spend time in Paris. At least this February. It has been much milder than January with no snow, daily highs mostly in the upper forties or higher, and more sunshine.
January and February are supposed to be similar weather-wise but that has not been the case this year. Also, I have noticed an appreciable drop-off in tourists at the major sites since mid January. While there are still enough tourists to go around, it isn’t overly crowded. There were no lines at Versailles last week and only a relatively short one at Musée D’Orsay. Part of the reason is many of the special exhibitions ended early this month and the new ones start in March.
Highlights have been visits from Chris and Marcella, friends from Vermont, and Colleen and Lisa, my daughter and stepdaughter. Chris and Marcella came early in the month and stayed with us for several days before the four of us took the TGV south to Mougins, a small and ancient hill town in Province just a few minutes bus ride north of Cannes.
Before Chris and Marcella arrived we anticipated them getting to our apartment around 9:30 am based on their flight schedule. Imagine our surprise when we were awakened by the doorbell. The alarm glowed 8:30. I rushed to push the button that opened the entryway door, then quickly dressed. Still, nice to see their tired faces when we opened the door. Their plane was early and they avoided the time-consuming baggage claim by having only carry-on. And there was no waiting time for the Air France bus to Place Etoile.
While here the four of us walked around some neighborhoods, saw the rue d’Aligre street market
and a few museums, ate some good food, and enjoyed some fun and stimulating conversation. Marcella was a French major and had spent a year in Paris studying so we didn’t need to be tour guides all of the time.
After three days in Paris the four of us took the TGV to Cannes. It was a pleasant 5½-hour trip with a quick, non-stop portion to Aix-en-Province and a slower part with more stops along the coast to Cannes.
The trip to Mougins from Cannes was more trying since we picked the wrong bus to take. We ended up being deposited beside a road that wasn’t on the Mougins area map that we had. We followed the bus driver’s instructions as to how to walk to the timeshare but it soon became apparent we weren’t headed in the right direction. We finally stopped at a restaurant and called a taxi. The cab was more than a half hour coming and took more than a half hour to find the time share because the GPS system she used did not account for a one way street required to get where we needed to go. Mougins is spilled all over a hill filled with a maze of narrow, mostly one-way roads and it took her time to sort it out. When we finally arrived it was well after dark and we were lucky to get something to eat at the development’s restaurant that was in the process of closing.
The next day we walked up the hill to the old town. High scale touristy.
This is where Picasso once lived as did other notables.
Lots of narrow streets limited to pedestrians only. Plenty of art galleries and nice shops.
After asking, we found a small plaza filled with enticing restaurants where we had a very nice lunch in one of them, Le Petit Fouet. Cassoulet is a southwestern French dish of beans (usually white) and meat (duck in this case) and occasionally other ingredients slowly baked together and served in individual crocks. Ours was excellent. As was the wine.
The following day we took the bus to nearby Grasse. This is a much larger city spilling all over a ridge. It has a rather large and lively old town but the place is mainly known for the Fraganard Perfume Factory. Wendy and Marcella toured it while Chris and I walked the streets of the old town.
Interesting place to wander around. Not dominated by tourists but a vital city of and by itself.
On our last day we were scheduled to leave from Cannes at 5:30 so the four of us took the bus into town around noon. By the way, all of these local bus trips cost only one euro or about $1.30 and they were heavily used. We underwent a thorough security check (locked doors, detectors for both us and our baggage, interview with the caged attendant, lockers with numeric keypad locks) and left our small bags at the train station. The Mediterranean was only a short walk away and we watched some teenagers playing on the beach.
And a further walk down the beach was the walkway where the handprints of numerous movie stars were embedded in concrete. Interesting.
From there we walked around the old town and up into the hill section and had a nice lunch. Again not crowded.
Sunshine and high fifties during the day the whole time we were in the south of France.
A few days after returning to Paris Colleen and Lisa arrived. This time we were awake and dressed. Lisa had never been to Europe and it had been over twenty years since Colleen had spent a few days in Paris. Both had studied French in high school and Colleen in college and they did remember some of it so they weren’t totally lost. They had spent some time planning what they wanted to do and asked me to put it together for them - and for us to be with them and show them around as much as we wanted. It turned out to be a busy week.
Petit arc in front of the Louvre. The Arc de Triomphe.
Day 1 (arrival day) – the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs Elysée, and a crèperie for dinner.
Day 2 – St Chapelle, the Conciergerie,
Notre Dame,
a walk through the Marais,
then dinner at a café on Place du Maréchal Juin near our apartment.
Day 3 – the Louvre,
sipping the heavenly thick hot chocolate at the nearby Angelina’s , dinner at another nice restaurant on Place du Maréchal Juin.
Day 4 – the Musée D’Orsay,
coffee and beer and the Sartre/Hemmingway hangout Café de Flore, and a nice dinner at a restaurant nearby.
Day 5 – easy trip to an uncrowded Versailles via the RER (the metropolitan Paris short distance train system).
Then a special dinner at Le Petit Troquet
followed by a short walk to the Tour Eiffel which looks spectacular lit up at night, especially up close.
Day 6 – a Day for the Dead; the Pierre Lachaise cemetery
and the Catacombs with its ossuary of one to two hundred year old bones lining the underground passageways. Plus walking through several different areas, watching a long line of protesters waiving signs and singing while passing by, shopping, and dinner at Peperoni where we had fun interacting with the members of the Bigoti trio.
Day 7 – l’Orangerie with its massive Monet water lily paintings that cover the walls,
another dessert treat at Ladurée,
a shopping walk for them, and a very nice dinner at M comme Martine near our apartment.
Day 8 – the BluVan picks them up at 5:30am, Ugh! Wendy and I go back to bed.
Some other scenes:
- While out walking by myself early one morning in Mougins a three legged black cat sauntered across my path. What does that mean?
- One night in Mougins looking up a stairs framed on either side by walls and seeing in the street above two large orange iron beams lit from beneath by a pulsing red light. On climbing the stairs the beams turned into a cherry picker being used to remove the very last Christmas decoration spanning the street. Very Felliniesque.
- At Peperoni Café one night watching the bearded male drummer playfully dance with an older man while an attractive black woman from the audience courageously tried to sing "Killing Me Softly" a la Roberta Flack, in an entertaining Karaoke kind of way.
- Passing the window front of a closed upscale women’s shoe store and seeing a blond woman in her late forties singing with two men slightly older, one of which was playing the guitar. She gave me a very embarrassed smile when she caught my eye.
- Coming back to the apartment by myself after a very long day walking around with Colleen and Lisa and saying very clearly to a seated Wendy, “UNCLE!”
- Having a thoroughly enjoyable teatime at Collette’s with her sister Jeannine. It was early in the month and we all still had the inauguration on our minds. They both had watched it on TV. Wendy said she was particularly taken with Aretha Franklin singing “God Bless America”. Collette mentioned the tune was the same as the British “God Save the Queen”. Wendy sang a little of the American version, then they sang the British version. And, yes, the tune was the same.
- Having Inda over to the apartment one afternoon. She was back in Paris for a few days and was very excited that some musical possibilities might be opening up.
- Peter and Duffy coming to our apartment for dinner the night before they were to leave for their home in California. Again good conversation and a good time all around. Two interesting guys.
- Passing in front of the salon a few days ago where we recently had our hair cut. The people in the shop that trimmed our hair waved to us. We waved back and Wendy
- fluffed her hair. The man that trimmed it gave her two thumbs up. Nice to be noticed.
We leave Paris on Saturday, but before we leave, we are looking forward to dinner with Véronique and Frèdérique one last time tomorrow night. Then off to Vermont and our new house!
Dan and Wendy
2/27/09
P.S. For "Adventures of Heartman in Paris", check out www.sveltie.blogspot.com - W.P.
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