In need of a few books

We need books.  Never mind the 10,000 books already in this apartment.  We need three books in particular, and we need them ASAP, for work. 

One is the Norton Critical Edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the 2nd edition (not the most recent one, which is the 3rd edition -- that we have). 

I did some searching and found that the American Library of Paris has that particular volume -- according to its online card catalog.  This private library re-opens following the holiday weekend tomorrow.  So that will be tomorrow's adventure.  Memberships in this library are expensive, so I am not sure how this will work out.

Saint Sulpice comes into view as we walk over
toward the 5th arrondissement.  We stopped inside
to see how the church is doing.  All is well.  People
were gathering for Mass.  There was no sign of the
fire that happened there (before the fire at
Notre Dame de Paris).

Tom also needs a copy of his own scholarly book, The Ivory Leg in the Ebony Cabinet.  He didn't bring one with him to France, and now he needs a piece of it for his current project.

Finally, we need a copy of Peter Beidler's Rafts and Other Rivercraft: In Huckleberry Finn.  We have the e-book, but we need a dead-tree book because of some ridiculous thing called DRM.  I and many other people strongly object to DRM.  If you buy an ebook, you should be able to copy pages just as you can copy pages of a dead-tree book, for your own purposes and use.  But DRM blocks you from doing this.

If anyone wants to FedEx any of these books to us, great!  But we certainly don't expect that to happen.

Even though yesterday was a national holiday and a Sunday, several English-language bookstores were open.  We hiked over to the 5th arrondissement to visit them:  San Francisco Books, Berkeley Books, and the Red Wheelbarrow. 

The managers of San Francisco Books and The Red Wheelbarrow were helpful, friendly, and interested in our quest.  The Berkeley Books manager just said, right off the cuff without even looking, that she didn't have these three books.  She said she would remember a title like The Ivory Leg in the Ebony Cabinet if she had it.  Everyone seems to like that title!

We were not surprised that she didn't have these books, but we were a little taken aback at how quickly she dismissed our request.

The Saint Sulpice fountain has water in it again!

The woman who manages The Red Wheelbarrow (9 rue de Médicis) was happy to have an author in her shop, and she wanted to be as helpful as possible.  We did buy a copy of the 3rd edition of the Norton Huck Finn from her, just so Tom could have a copy to mark up with his notes.  (The copy we have in the apartment belongs to the apartment's owner, who, like Tom, has taught courses and written about Mark Twain.)

By the time we left her shop, it was almost the dinner hour.  We had no time to visit the Shakespeare and Company bookstore across the river.  So we went in search for dinner instead.

We ended up at Botan on the Rue Grégoire de Tours in the 6th arrondissement.  This tiny restaurant is fairly new, and highly rated in Lafourchette.  Lafourchette identified the cuisine there as French, but it is actually French with a heavy Japanese influence.

Amuse bouche at Botan, on the Rue Grégoire de Tours.

And it was delightful.  We were seated at a table in the window, and soon each of us had an amuse bouche.  It was a creamy and savory dollop flavored with tuna, seaweed, and more.  Delicious!

Then Tom had a very expensive and very small main course of marinated steak, and I had the duckling filet.  Both were excitingly flavorful.

We had lovely desserts -- one that featured seasonal cherries for me, and a small millefeuille for Tom.  The chef came out to serve us the desserts, and to remove our plates, which were absolutely clean.  He liked that.  We had used bread bits on our forks to sop op every drop of sauce.

Steak at the Botan restaurant, in the 6th arrondissement.

We started to walk home, but we'd already walked far and we wanted to see the entire Concert de Paris before the holiday fireworks.  We thought that if the taxi got caught in bad traffic (people trying to reach the vicinity of the Champ de Mars for the fireworks), we'd just pay him and walk the rest of the way.

But evidently everyone planned ahead, and they already were in their places.  The taxi sailed through the streets of the 7th, and we were soon home.  The métro could not have been faster than that.

I moved the armchairs into the dining room, where the TV is affixed to the wall.  So we had our own little home theatre, and we thoroughly enjoyed the show -- fantastic music and fireworks -- until after midnight.

Duckling filets at Botan.

Earlier yesterday, I did have the TV on but muted for the military parade on the Champs Elysées.  Angela Merkel was the president's honored guest, and all seemed to go as planned.  Using the computer, I also had YouTube on, which showed me that yellow-vest protesters were noisily parading just a few blocks away, on the chic Rue Saint Honoré.  The police did not allow them to march down to the Champs Elysées.

Today I saw some video clips showing that a small group of protesters did make it onto the Champs Elysées after the military parade was over.  They tried to do some damage by setting fire to trash containers and tossing metal barricades about.  But the numbers of protesters participating in this violent vandalism were small.

The stately church of Saint Sulpice.

By the way, most of the yellow vests don't wear yellow vests anymore.  I think this is so that if real trouble erupts, they can just run off and blend into the throngs of normal pedestrians on the street.
 
If I hadn't gone looking for video coverage of protesters on the Quatorze Juillet, I would have been completely unaware that they were out and about.  Paris is a big city.

I sympathize with the plight of the people protesting, but I don't support their violence.  In fact, I think the violence (including property damage) hurts, and does not help, their cause.

The good Paris, where pedestrians rule

Pedestrians rule in Paris. 

Increasingly so.   A new addition to Parisian pedestrian perks this year is the closing to automobile traffic of the Rue du Commerce on one Saturday per month (except for August, when the city is so calm that this is not necessary).  Yesterday was the day for July.

The ban on autos was from 1PM to 6PM. 

Entrance to the Volontaires métro station on
the Rue de Vaugirard, across from Le Bon Pari.

I'd already walked up to Monoprix to  get (at last!) a supply of V8 juice in the morning.  But I found an excuse to go out in the afternoon, too, to experience the calm.  I bought eggs and Beaufort cheese at the Thomas cheese shop, then took a short walk down to the church at the end of the street.

Even though they could walk in the street, most pedestrians remained on the sidewalk, but they crossed the street anywhere and anytime they wanted, without worrying about being run over by frenzied French drivers.

The main difference that I noticed was the quiet.  The only sound was the soft music of people chatting with one another as they walked along, going from one errand to the next.

I am amazed at how much the noise from engines and wheels on pavement adds to the tension in a city!  With the quiet comes the calm -- including a calming of nerves.

Tom went out a little later, when he finished working, so that he could experience what I had.  He bought a baguette at the bakery, of course.  That's his thing.

Puréed carrot and curry amuse bouche at Le Bon Paris.

In the evening, we took a walk down into the southeastern part of the 15th arrondissement to dine at Le Bon Pari, a highly rated and fairly new restaurant that I found on Lafourchette. 

The place is decorated in a stylish and simple dark gray, yet the food was bursting with color and flavor.  We were warmly greeted and seated at a table right in the front window.  That was a good sign of good things to come.

Beet and Burratina starter course at Le Bon Pari has a flavorful raspberry vinaigrette.

I ordered the beet and Burratina cheese appetizer to share with Tom.  It made our mouths tingle with flavor.  The main courses, lamb shank for Tom and Guinea fowl for me, were delightful.  Tom ordered café gourmand (assortment of tasty small desserts and an espresso) and I, since this is a holiday weekend, ordered an Armagnac.  We could not have had a better holiday eve dinner.

Supreme de pintade (Guinea fowl) on a bed of purréed red cabbage and cream.

This morning I turned on the TV for the first time this summer, so that we can watch the Quatorze Juillet (Bastille Day) military parade.  I have the sound turned off, with the French subtitles on.  What I enjoy most are all the helicopter views of Paris.  Tom liked the tiny robots that put on a show on the cobblestones in front of the VIPs as the parade began. 

According to Madame la Patronne at Le Vieux Pressoir, this is what French people do in the morning of Quatorze Juillet:  watch the parade on TV.  She told us that 20 years ago, and ever since then, that's how we spend this holiday morning.

Lamb shank at Le Bon Pari rests on a disk of savory roasted celery root.

This evening, the Champ de Mars will fill up with tens of thousands of people for the Grand Concert of Paris.  We don't do crowds, so we will watch this on TV.  The concert is spectacular, with guest musicians from all over the world performing with the French national symphony orchestra.

Showy chandelier in a Chinese
takeout on the Rue de Vaugirard,
next to Le Bon Pari.

Then tonight, millions will gather on the Champ de Mars (near us), the Trocadero, and various places along the Seine and elsewhere to watch the most spectacular fireworks show in the world.  We'll also watch that on TV and from our kitchen and bathroom windows.  We'll watch the festive crowds coming and going on the Rue du Commerce from our balcony. 

Then tomorrow, I'll find the video of the concert and fireworks on YouTube, so that I can share that with you, via Facebook and this blog.

Happy Bastille Day!

Quatorze Juillet with the Cooleys

July 14, 2018 -- Quatorze Juillet, which Americans refer to as Bastille Day, begins quietly, at home.  Like many Parisians, we laze about the apartment and watch the military parade on TV.  In fact, this is our biggest TV day of the year, because we also watch the Tour de France in the afternoon, and in the evening we will watch the big concert and fireworks show -- all on French national television.  Then the rest of the year, we pretty much watch no television whatsoever (not counting Netflix on my tablet).

A modern twist on a traditional Moroccan dish called a Pastilla, at O Fil Rouge on the rue St. Charles.

Since I'm home all day today, I'm doing a couple loads of laundry.  French washing machines take a long time to wash a load.   Dryers take a long time, too.  This one has a reservoir that fills with water which must be emptied after each load.  The dryer doesn't vent.

That sounds dull, but the concert and fireworks show are not dull at all.  Tom and I don't do crowds anymore, and besides, we've discovered, the only way to see the entirety of the huge fireworks show is on TV -- with all the helicopter views all around.  Dan will go out and mix with the masses, however.

Last night we dined out at O Fil Rouge on the rue St. Charles.  With a 20 percent discount (on food, not drinks) thanks to lafourchette.com (thefork.com), we splurged on a Chateaubriand steak for Dan.  I had a Moroccan dish called a pastilla, stuffed with tender, savory braised lamb.  It was accompanied by heavenly puréed sweet potatoes.   Tom had a large veal chop.  The guys also got puréed potatoes with a generous sprinkling of chives.

For dessert, we shared one order of O Fil Rouge's famous pain perdu in a pool of rich caramel sauce.

Service was warm and friendly.  We were remembered as the Floridians that we are (well, at least Tom and I are).  The restaurant was full people and is showing signs of success.  Each year something about the decor is changed, making the place a bit more sumptuous and chic, looking a little less like someone clever decorated on a tight budget.

Chateaubriand topped with foie gras, with puréed potatoes and chives.

Three nights ago we also had a nice dinner, this one at l'Alchimie.  This is the first time Dan has treated us to dinner!  Dan and I each had a perfectly cooked fish filet that was rolled in a tube which was filled with a minced mushroom stuffing.  The concoction sat atop a small bed of tasty polenta.

Tom had a pluma de negra, which is a special, tender cut of pork.  We shared a couple servings of moelleaux au chocolat.  Lovely dinner!

In each of these restaurants, we were the only non-French people.  And that's the way we like it.

Let freedom sing

The St. Lambert park was built on the site of a former gasworks.  Dimitry
Vicheney's first job was working on the crew that demolished the gasworks and created this fine park.

July 15, 2017 – Under the guise of a holiday stroll along a lively street in Paris, we continued my investigation into Russian influence on the history of Paris.  Specifically, we wished to locate the other two Russian Orthodox churches that Dimitry Vicheney mentioned in the interview with the Paris 15 magazine reporter.

We’d already seen the doorway to the Russian Orthodox church on the rue Olivier de Serres.  And on the 13^th, we visited the big, shiny, new Russian Orthodox church and cultural center at the corner of Avenue Rapp and the Quai Branly. 

Now we had to find the Russian churches on the rues Petel and Lecourbe.  I’ve been wanting to explore the rue Lecourbe anyway; it is a busy shopping street not far from our apartment, and for some unknown reason we haven’t walked or shopped there much at all in the 20 summers we’ve been here.

Old fashioned roses still blooming in the St. Lambert park.

First we took a diversion on the rue Peclet (near the town hall for the 15^th arrondissement) and noticed the Chaplin St. Lambert cinema.  This summer, the cinema is featuring an Alfred Hitchcock retrospective.  There is another Chaplin Cinema in the 14^th, in the Denfert neighborhood.  Good to know.

Next we found the odd little Russian Orthodox church at 3-5 rue Petel.  It is a small, flat-roofed, one-story, strange structure made of ceramic-faced block with a stark, 1930-vintage appearance.  The bulletin posted on one side of its doorway is entirely in Russian – no French or English.  On the other side of the doorway is a wooden plaque that does give the name of the church, which is very long and includes the names of a number of saints.  Obviously, a committee charged with naming the church could not reach consensus. 

Plaque by the door of the Russian Orthodox church on
the rue Petel.

Back at the corner of rue Lecourbe, we turned and walked past the side of the town hall.  There Lecourbe becomes a shopping street with wide sidewalks, and lots of stores and restaurants.  

Lecourbe is not chic; the buildings have not been recently cleaned, and the street infrastructure is a little bleak; it does not have lots of street trees the way that rue de la Convention does, for example.  The shops and small restaurants seem to have plenty of business.  Many were open even though this was a national holiday. 

We found the doorway to the last of the Russian Orthodox churches on our short list.  It was a door to a Haussmannian building with a couple courtyards.  The sign indicated that the church was at the back of the second courtyard.  It had to be a small church, like the others, and we did not intrude.  We continued our walk.

Sign for the St. Seraphin of Sarov church at 91 rue Lecourbe.

When we reached the end of Lecourbe at the Place Henri Oueuille we turned around and walked down the sunny side of Lecourbe.  The temperature was just mild enough that we enjoyed the sun in our faces.

At rue Mademoiselle, we veered off toward our neighborhood.  An entrance to a Haussmannian building caught my eye because of whimsical carvings of a dog and a cat hovering over the door.  Nice!

Back at the apartment, we did our usual July late afternoon thing: rest and watch the Tour de France for an hour or so.  Then we dressed up for our holiday dinner at Le Tipaza.

Tom waits for dinner at Le Tipaza.

We like to be seated toward the back of the restaurant, and without asking for it, we were given our usual favorite table.  The fancier dining room with crystal chandeliers is toward the front, but we like the cozier back room – especially when air conditioning is needed.

Service was wonderful and the tagines were delicious.  It was a simple dinner, without starter courses or desserts – except that Tom had a café gourmet, which included a piece of Turkish delight and a small pastry stuffed with fig – a sort of fancy fig newton.  We left feeling well nourished on meat and vegetables.

We especially enjoy the walk to and from Le Tipaza because it includes the shady, broad avenue Emile Zola, and the shady shopping street, rue Saint Charles.  The streets are usually calm during our after-dinner walk home.

This time, however, traffic was backed up everywhere because of people trying to go somewhere where they could watch the Quatorze Juillet fireworks, which are set off behind and from the Eiffel Tower, nearby.

Dog and cat carvings above door
on rue Mademoiselle

But there aren’t only fireworks to celebrate the national holiday.  Just in front of the Eiffel Tower, an elaborate stage had been erected for a concert that began at 9PM.  This annual concert features mainly the national symphony orchestra – which is fantastic – as well as some featured opera stars from France and elsewhere.  Two American opera singers were included this time.  You can watch the entire concert here, on YouTube.

We were home in time to watch the magnificent concert on TV.  When it concluded, we went up to the maid’s room, where we have an even better view of the Eiffel Tower.  We watched the fireworks from there.  You can watch them here, on YouTube.  The video is a half hour long; put it in full-screen mode, kick back, and enjoy the show.

You can see on the video that the Champ de Mars was full of people – mostly young people – screaming in delight at the fireworks.  There were plenty of families with small children.  I love these fearless people.  Paris is still Paris.  Paris knows how to do fireworks.

The sound track for the fireworks is great, too.  It includes a wide variety of music – classical and popular.  In the middle somewhere, Frank Sinatra sings “I Love Paris.”

I can’t imagine another city having a more impressive fireworks display.  Sure, some put on some great shows.  But no other city has the Eiffel Tower, which was made for a show like this.  Grande Dame de Fer et Dame de Feu.