The way to go Easy

We dined with a new friend, Ann, who is a musicologist and medievalist, last night.  She lives in the 12th, on the east side of the Right Bank, and we are in the 15th, the west side of the Left Bank, so we met in the middle, at an Italian restaurant in the 5th, near the Panthéon and the church of St. Etienne du Mont.

Somewhere in the dinner conversation I was asked if I knew how many hits my blog receives.  There are statistics available, but I rarely look at them.  Today I did take a peek, and I was surprised to learn that the most popular blog entry I have made in the five years that I've used Blogspot for this journal was on August 24, 2016, "Hot and Flawless."

Sounds like porn, but it is not.  The first half of that entry is a sample of my science writing, and the other part is a review of a dinner at l'Alchimie, a favorite restaurant that disappeared last year.

The place in the 5th arrondissement where our
friend Roniece likes to enjoy her "chardy"
(glass of chardonnay) at Happy Hour.

When I was employed as a science writer on government-funded environmental projects, I could not use the informal style that I now use to explain complicated subjects to non-techie people.  Now I can use an informal, story-telling style, and I enjoy doing so.  You can see that in the August 24, 2016, entry.

The most popular entry of the past week was "The heat and the homeless."  I salute you all for caring about your fellow humans!  Thank you.

The hot weather was part of the story in each of those two blog posts.  The extreme heat kept me from exercising for two days this week, which is a calamity in my psyche.  I made up for some of the exercise deprivation yesterday.  Combining the long walk in the morning with our walk home from dinner equals 10 miles, twice my daily goal.  That's not bad for someone with a deteriorating knee and arthritic feet.

If you are so inclined, use the comment section below or Facebook messaging to let me know what you DO like to read about in this blog.

We used the metro to go to dinner last night, so we finally bought our two Navigo Easy passes.  This new Navigo Easy system will eliminate the paper tickets for the metro, perhaps by the end of next year.  I showed the passes to Ann last night.  She'd not heard about them yet.  Because she is a year-round Parisian, she has a regular Navigo year-long pass, which is a sturdy-looking photo ID.

Navigo Easy is for people on short stays, but it is not the same as Navigo Discovery and Navigo travel passes.  The Navigo Easy passes can be recharged at the ticket windows or on the Navigo machines in the metro stations.  My guess is that eventually, Navigo Easy might replace Navigo Discovery and Navigo travel passes.  The travel passes expire in a week or a month; so Navigo Easy is better for people like us, who are in Paris for a few months, but who only use the metro occasionally.

Each Navigo Easy pass costs two euros, plus we asked the ticket agent to load each card with a "carnet" of ten tickets.  That brought the total to 16.90 euros per Navigo Easy pass.  There does not seem to be an Easy way to see how many tickets remain on the Navigo Easy pass, so we will have to keep count.  The ticket agent suggested re-charging the cards before they are empty, so we don't have the embarrassment of trying to use a card that is depleted.

In addition to regular urban-zone metro and bus tickets, you may also load RER tickets (for trips to the airport, etc.) on the Navigo Easy pass.  No more paper tickets!  Less waste.  And a shiny new card in our wallets.  The Navigo Easy pass will theoretically last for 10 years.

So in addition to having new library cards in Paris, we also have new subway passes!  We are tickled pink about this.

We had walked almost all the way home last night when we finally decided that it was just too late and we'd walked far enough.  So we took the metro from Duroc, near the famous Necker Hospital, to Avenue Emile Zola.  The metro was nearly empty.  When we'd taken the same line in the pre-dinner hour, the cars were hot and crowded.  We made a mental note to avoid rush hours on the metro.

Here are some scenes from our visit to the 5th arrondissement:

These first five photos are of the ornate façade of the St. Etienne du Mont church.

The Panthéon, as seen from the plaza in front of St. Etienne du Mont.

A remnant of the Philippe Augustus wall around old Paris, dating to the 12th C.

The heat and the homeless

I lost my privilege of positivity in this heat wave.  Today, the temperatures will rise to 106 in Paris, a city where most places, by far, are not air conditioned.  Those that are air conditioned may not be air conditioned very well, and some places that are air conditioned -- like the American Library -- have closed their doors -- even to their dues paying members -- for this hottest day.  The library has no sympathy for us, even if we want to use the space so that we can work on producing books that the library puts on its shelves.

The Eiffel Tower as seen from the entrance to the
École Militaire.

But in some ways, I agree that we don't need the help or sympathy.  We don't need it nearly as much as the homeless do.  The social services experts here say that summertime can be even harder for the homeless in cities like Paris than the wintertime is.

Summer heat means that keeping food fresh is more difficult for the homeless.  Even getting enough water to drink can be a challenge -- although that is far easier to do in Paris than in Marseilles, evidently.  Many of the homeless -- especially immigrants -- are carrying heavy backpacks and wearing multiple layers of clothing.  In an interview, one of them acknowledged, "I am going to stink."

So I cannot be positive when there is so much suffering out there on the streets.  Bear with me.  Here's the situation.

Paris has many services available to the homeless.  Some are offered by the government, some by non-profit organizations.  La Protection Civale, L'Armée du Salut (The Salvation Army), La Maison dans le Jardin, LÉspace Solidarité du SamuSocial, Emmaus Solidarité, Street Housing - Secours Catholique --  these are just some of the groups working to help the homeless survive the heat wave.

Some of these organizations send out groups on maraudes.  These are not marauders in the English-language sense of the word; they are not out roaming in order to plunder and steal.  Instead, they are out to give what is needed to the homeless:  bottles of water, maps that show neighborhood water fountains and spigots, information about places where food is available, etc.

Garden behind the Grand Palais.

These good marauders are volunteers.  In the summer, like so many Parisians, many of them leave the city for extended vacations.  That leaves the organizations in great need of volunteers to fill the summertime gap.

This is not a volunteer job for older people like us -- or even for many middle-aged people.  To be out in the heat of the day, breathing air with elevated levels of bad ozone is very bad for those with high blood pressure and immune system problems. (We learned that the hard way, in the heat wave of 2003.)  A better solution might be to raise money to hire and pay young people to do this important work in the summer.

While the marauders go to the people, the people come to certain centers like the one operated by SamuSocial in the 12th arrondissement.  Here, the homeless can take a shower, cool off, even see a doctor.  (The SAMU are emergency doctors and responders.) 

The President of SamuSocial, Eric Pliez, appeared on TV on Monday to denounce the poor care for the homeless in Paris.  He estimates that there are 5,000 homeless people in this city.  He points out that people are weakened by life on the streets, and so are more vulnerable during heat waves and cold spells.  (Of course, the biggest danger is during the day in a heat wave, and in the night during wintery weather.)

Homeless people in dire need of help can call 115 to request emergency shelter.  SamuSocial responds.  This week, 115 has been overwhelmed by calls.

During the hottest part of the summer, the City of Paris is leaving many parks open all through the night.  This isn't just for the benefit of the homeless; many Parisians live in small, hot, studio apartments, and they need a place to walk, sit, and cool off after dark, too.

Homeless shelters have increased the number of places available, included an additional 80 spaces in Paris, with another 110 available if needed.

As for the two of us, we're okay.  We stay cool by staying damp, with fans turned upon us, all day long.  We work, and for these two hottest days, we are not venturing out of the apartment.  We are finishing so much work that we will have more time to explore and wander in Paris when the weather cools off, beginning this weekend.

More soon . . . .

Birthday boy dines well

Passing by palm trees on our way home last night.

Tom's belated birthday dinner was at Le Poulpry last night.  This elegant restaurant is situated in a 300-year-old former stately home that is now the headquarters of the Ecole Polytechnique (Polytechnic school), and is only a block and a half south of the Musee D'Orsay -- a special place for a special occasion.  I found the establishment on Lafourchette.com in a special promotion of elegant restaurants.

The courtyard at 12 rue de Poitiers, home of Le Poulpry and the Ecole Polytechnique,
also called La Maison des Polytechniciens.

The place is perfect.  The tables were arranged with plenty of space in between -- rare for a Paris restaurant.  The decor was elegant yet simple and honest, not fussy.  The service was professional and engaging, yet not intrusive.  The food was divine.

To enter the restaurant, you climb these stairs.

Our reservation time, at the restaurant's opening hour of 7:30PM, was early by Paris standards.  That allowed me to photograph the dining room before it filled with people.

We'd walked only a few blocks in the summer heat and then taken a taxi the rest of the way.  All taxis in Paris seem to be air conditioned now.  That certainly was not true 21 years ago, when we started summering in this city.  Yes, this is our 22nd summer in Paris.  Time flies.

Customized Limoges plates feature images of the Polytechnique's original uniforms.

Our server spoke French and English equally well.  He correctly assumed that we were American; usually, folks here think we are German or English or Canadian people who speak French  -- unless they know English so well that they can discern the various accents. I answered, "Floride."  Later, I asked him what part of France he was from, and he answered, "Paris," but said he'd spent a long time in Hong Kong.  That's where he learned his British English.  He'd also spent time in Cambodia.

We shared a starter course of foie gras and peach chutney.  Then we each had fish main courses -- John Dory for Tom, and drum fish for me.  Mine came with flavorful chanterelle mushrooms in a rich, creamy sauce.  Tom's fish came with a light beurre blanc sauce and unusual vegetables, including miniature eggplants.  Tom ordered a cafe gourmand for dessert.  Everything was delicious and beautiful.

The foie gras with peach chutney.

The John Dory, or St. Peter's fish.

The maigre, or drum fish, with a rich mushroom sauce and risotto.

The repast took a full two hours, so the air had cooled just slightly when we left the restaurant.  We walked home slowly, through the 7th along its charming "spine," the rue St. Dominique, and then across the Champ de Mars, through the Village Suisse antique zone, and down our lovely rue du Commerce, home again in the 15th.

Tom explores the courtyard a little more before we leave.

It took a while for us to cool down in the apartment.  Today, tomorrow, and Friday will be even hotter, so we will probably forgo restaurants until Saturday.  To me, it is torture to sit in a hot restaurant for a period of time, feeling trapped.

Instead, we will have picnic-like suppers, with all kinds of interesting little things to eat.  This, the apero dinatoire, is the way to go during a heat wave.

The apartment is not air conditioned.  So, one of us gets up at about 4AM, when the city air has finally cooled to about 70 degrees F, to open the windows.   We go back to sleep.  I get up and close the apartment up at 7AM, when the risen sun begins to cook the city.  Awnings down, sheer drapes drawn, and fans running, we work at the computers.  At 3PM, we'd normally quit working and start walking, but not during the heat wave.  3PM is going to be siesta time for the next four days.

So I did my walking early yesterday and today.  Yesterday, I walked to the rue St. Charles, and continued up and down the full length of its open-air food market (Tuesdays and Fridays).  Today, I did the same at the market on Boulevard de Grenelle (Wednesdays and Sundays).  I walked some other shopping streets as well.  But shopping?   No.  It was too early in the day for that.