Monday, July 24
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The brand-new
Simone-de-Beauvoir pedestrian bridge, already famous for its vibrations,
which we did feel. The thoroughly
modern pedestrian bridge even has its own elevators on each end. Wonderful
graffiti where homeless live near the Seine, east of the Looking east
from the pedestrian bridge, the air was disgusting with smoke from the
“déchetterie,” or trash-burning plant. Very green
water in the reflecting pools in the Bercy park. Pumps like this have been installed to help
improve the water, which I think comes from the By the way, the
city of One of four
towers that comprise the Mitterand (National) Library. The sky looks much better in this direction
(looking west). Water in the Another view of
the reflecting pool in the Bercy park. |
Dinner at Le Tire Bouchon on Friday night with friends was
delightful. We’ve been going to this
restaurant for eight summers now. One
year, last year or the year before, the quality seemed to slip just a
bit. But Chef Laurent Floury is right
back up there at the top of his game again this year. We had the best dinner we’ve ever had
there. I think this restaurant is now
once again my number 1 recommendation.
And, importantly, it is air conditioned and now entirely non-smoking. Yesterday, Tom
and I went on one of those marathon 5-hour walks. We wanted to take a look at the newest
addition to the annual When we emerged
from the end-of-the-line Gare d’Austerlitz métro station, we had a pleasant little walk
along the left bank there, going yet farther to the east. We were amazed at the majesty of the façade
on the The newest
addition to the There is not so
much sand used in this section of the This newest
stretch of Beach is far, far less crowded than the right bank. The crowds on the right bank are just
insane. The new Beach
is also the site of The newspaper
here claims that water from the After enjoying
the new improvements to this eastern section of the left bank, we crossed
over the new pedestrian bridge to take a pleasant walk and rest in the Parc
de Bercy. This is one of our favorite
parks in The beautiful
garden in the park is named for Yitzhak Rabin. It includes some long reflecting pools that
use, I think, water from the After making
our way slowly through the park and thoroughly enjoying it, we checked out
the cafés at the We were about
to ask if we could be seated on the real side, on the terrace, when the smart
waiter said that inside, the dining room was air conditioned, and
non-smoking, and if we were hot, we might like that. (All this was in French, which I understood
completely and explained to Tom later.)
We were indeed hot. We ate
inside, and it was wonderful. The wine
sold by the glass includes many choices, with very low prices. Their objective is to get you to try
different wines, and then you might buy a few bottles in the wine shop that
is part of the restaurant. There are
symbols on the menu to suggest which wines to try with which salads or main
courses. The air conditioning was
real, not a false promise as is often the case. Tom’s bottled water was not just cold, it
was absolutely frigid. The food was
very, very nice, but simple. The placemats
indicated that there are other Nicolas cafés in other parts of Paris – one at
the Place de la Madeleine, for example, and one at 17, avenue de
l’Opera. We will have to see if these
are just as nice, cool, and reasonable, because it is hard to find a GOOD
brasserie in those places. At lunch we
realized that we weren’t too far from the Promenade Plantée, one of our
favorite walks because the promenade is built up one or two levels from the
street, where an elevated train track used to be, and atop the workshops
called the Viaduc des Arts. The
promenade is quiet, and beautifully planted and designed. It took us up to the Place de la Bastille,
where we saw one of the big groups of rollerbladers taking off for one of
their Randonées. Once again we
were footsore, so we took refuge and rested in another park alongside the
basin where the After
traversing the length of the mad part of the The end of the
Tour de France was magical, with the very well-liked Floyd Landis in the
yellow jersey. So nice for an American
to win once again. But this American
is evidently much more popular among the French and among the riders than
Lance Armstrong. One of the riders who
used to be with Lance explained that people like Landis because he is not
“bossy,” the implication being that Lance, who was known as The Boss, was too
bossy. We then had
another nice dinner en famille with
Dan and Mary at the brasserie on the Parc du Commerce. The waiter was very sweet and smiled a lot,
and the food was good. Dan and Mary
had already eaten at McDonalds, so they just had a few snack-like items as
Tom and I had dinner. But it was fun. Dead fish and
litter in the A composition
in the Park of the Arsenal, below the Place de la Bastille, with houseboats
nearby. The floating
Josephine Baker pool on the left bank, on the city’s east side, near the
Mitterand Library. |