Paris
Wednesday, September 6
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This statue of Marechal Ney is on a square just in front of a restaurant
called Cloiserie des Lilas, one of Hemingway’s favorite restaurants, on the
border of the 14th and the 5th arrondissments.
Fountain at Place Denis, looking from the direction of the Observatory
toward the
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We have successfully moved over to the 6th
arrondissement, but it wasn’t easy. In
addition to the four suitcases that arrived with us in We thought we’d be able to start the laundry, which
takes forever with these French washing machines, and put the important
things away, then we’d go back and get a taxi to bring the rest over. The vigic
and digicode for the building’s front door worked fine. We entered, and
just to be cautious, we knocked on the door to the apartment and rang the
bell before entering. The
guests who were supposed to leave the day before were still there. We enjoyed meeting them, but we didn’t get
the laundry started. They planned to
go out and come back later in the day to get their suitcases and then go to
the station/airport. That was
fine. We left
our important things and went back to get our real suitcases. We had planned to walk back to the 15th, but
it started to rain. So we took the
métro, and then Tom went to find a taxi while I waited with the suitcases
& printer. When we
came back with all of our suitcases about an hour later, the taxi pulled
away, it was raining, and Tom tried to use the vigic to open the door to the
building. It did not work. I punched in the door code. It
did not work. We rang the bell. It did not work. There
seemed to be no electricity to the panel. We waited for an hour.
Nobody left the building. Nobody came to the door. Two nice
young men from neighboring businesses were very concerned for us because of
the rain. Finally, I stayed by the door and luggage while Tom went to
the Hotel Recamier around the corner to see about getting a locksmith (we
have no cell phone that works here). The locksmith said he could
probably get the front door open by slipping a piece of plastic in there, but
he'd have to charge 80 euros. We decided to wait longer. Part of
our problem earlier in the day was also because I left the apartment
instructions, including the phone number and name for a neighbor, Madame
Zaoui, in my computer briefcase, which I had taken into the apartment earlier
in the day when the digicode WAS working (when we met the previous
guests). From now on, I will have her name and number with me in my
billfold. After
another half hour, Tom went back to the hotel to call the locksmith. I
waited longer by the luggage. Finally, before Tom came back with the
locksmith, a tall, handsome man in a beautiful suit opened the door to
exit. He held the door open for me while I brought in the bags and
explained to him what I thought the problem was. He tried the door code
and said that I was right, it was not working. He propped the door
open. Just as I
got everything inside, Tom came back with the locksmith, and saw of course
that now the door was open. Fortunately, the locksmith only charged Tom
20 euros. We were
exhausted. Tom took a nap, and I was
reading next to a window that overlooks the courtyard and door to the
building. The tall handsome man had
left the door propped open, so he could return without any problem. It stayed open like that for hours, then
another man went out to get his groceries, and he shut the door. When he returned, he had to call Madame
Zaoui to have her let him in. The two
of them went to investigate. The work
that I had been hearing down below (someone was hammering and drilling)
stopped. Then I heard Madame Zaoui,
and the man (who turned out to be Gerard Georges LeMaire, the neighbor below
us, who is a literary editor) in our stairwell. Then I saw Madame Zaoui go out to do her
shopping, and the electric button for the door lock was working. I went down to check.
Indeed, the digicode had electricity again, and it was working. I think the workers down below must have
turned off a circuit, and they didn’t bother to check to see what all was on
that circuit. The most important thing
on the circuit is, of course, the digicode panel. Lucille P. was kind to send her restaurant recommendations
for this area. We already know about a
few good restos over here, but it is always good to have more. On our first night here, we went to one of
her recommended bistrots, Chez Fernand, at 9 rue Christine, and had a lovely
dinner. I had a fish called “rascasse”
and Tom had the leg of lamb. Then last
night, after a long day of walking and running errands, we went to one of our
favorites from the past five years, Le Séraphin, on rue Mabillon across from
the market at Saint Germain. It was
good as always, and everyone inside seemed to be happy and comfortable. Now that
we are in it, we absolutely love this apartment near Saint Sulpice. It is extremely comfortable and well
organized. Its owners are designers of
the most practical sort. I had great
fun unpacking and finding neat places to put things. There is a lot of storage here, all
cleverly arranged. Although this
apartment is smaller than the one in the 15th, it feels bigger. The
building was built in 1650! One of the
three Musketeers kept his horse in a place that faced on this same courtyard
that this apartment overlooks. We love
it here. |
