Paris
Sunday, August 13
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The church at Place Dupleix. What
looks like tall windows here are really tall insets of mosaics.
Wildly patterned mosaic tile ceilings in a modern wing of the Musée du
Quai Branly.
More mosaic tile on the church at the Place Dupleix.
The front yard of the Cuban Embassy is still a real mess. Most of the fence in front of the embassy
has been solidified now so you cannot see through it. But you can still see through this gate,
where it is obvious that they still think it is appropriate to keep junk in
the front of an embassy in |
Sorry about the
long break in the journal, but our friends Carol and Ron from They were
supposed to arrive on Thursday via one of the cheap airlines operating
between On Friday, we
all walked up into the 16th and went to see the Musée Marmottan. I think the last
time Tom and I visited this museum was in 1998 or 1999. It was good to see all those fabulous
Monets again, as well as all the other Impressionist works, both in the lower
level gallery and in some of the upstairs rooms. I did not remember the 18th and
19th century furniture and other art in the rest of the house,
however. That was new and very
interesting. We sat for a
long time on a terrace at a brasserie, just chatting and drinking wine,
before returning to the 15th.
After a rest, we dined at Le Tire Bouchon,
the last evening that they will be open this summer. This year, Laurent and Isabelle Houry (the
proprietors), are vacationing with their three children in The dinner we
had there was superb. Le Tire Bouchon this summer has moved up to the
very top of my restaurant recommendations list (when I update it this Fall). Then yesterday,
we tried to walk over to the Grand
Palais but it was raining too hard, so we had to give up and take the
métro only as far as Invalides. The
exhibition in the Grand Palais is truly funny. It is supposed to mimic the original exhibition
of machinery that was in the Grand Palais when it was first used in the
exposition of 1889. But these machines
that are now on display are all useless.
They are shown and explained by young comedians who make a big deal
about the machine, building up the suspense in their presentation, until
finally they demonstrate how the machine works. The comedians were “masters of the art of
anti-climax,” in Tom’s words. The machines
range from a device that makes Nutella (like peanut butter) sandwiches to one
that catapults a piano across the room at 4:30PM each day. Needless to
say, we all enjoyed the afternoon very much, looking at these useless
machines and watching the comedians demonstrate them. The weather improved, and we walked home to
the 15th. Then we dined
last night at La
Gauloise, the big traditional French restaurant in our neighborhood that
purports to be frequented by celebrities and politicians. Their photos line the walls of the main
dining room. I sat right in front of
an autographed photo of Kim Basinger, who has supposedly dined there. I never recognize anyone famous when we go
there, but the servers all treat Tom and I as if we were very important ourselves. Little do they know . . . . It was a fine
dinner, and we will be back there again soon, I’m sure. Today it is
raining again, so I think the plan is to visit the new Musée du Quai Branly. Carol and Ron are exploring the market under the
elevated train tracks at the boulevard de Grenelle this morning. Here
is a list of all the Paris fruit and
vegetable markets. The one at
Grenelle operates on Wednesday and Sunday mornings. Before dinner
last night, we took Carol and Ron to our favorite cheap grocery store down
the street on rue du Théâtre. According
to a fellow blogger, Ken Broadhurst,
“Ed” stands for “epicérie discount.” A
very appropriate name. I just learned
from Ken that the name of this grocery is not pronounced “ed,” but
“euh-day.” In other words, it is an
acronym. Ken is an American living in
the Loire Valley, by the way. |
