Alone In Paris

This is the second part of the story of Colin and Barbara' trip to Paris in August September 2001. In this chapter, Keith and Meta go away for a few days holiday. Colin wrote this account from Barbara's diary; so the first person in the Adventures is Barbara.
All the grammatical and spelling errors, in fact any mistakes whatsoever, are Colin's

Monday 20/8/01: Day 25.

Fine and Warm.
Keith and Meta left about 7-30 am to travel to Chamonix.
With the flat to ourselves, we declared a day of rest. Keith had shown Colin where to buy freshly baked croissants. So we breakfasted very well.
I caught up with this diary and did some washing. Although my feet were rather swollen, I went for a stroll to buy some postcards.
I telephoned to Monique and arranged to go to Beauvais next Saturday. We also telephoned to Gran Win and to Margaret. Kath telephoned to us about the cancellation of the stolen credit cards.
Late in the afternoon we inspected the refrigerator and tested some beer we found there. Colin cooked a stirfry of vegetables and bacon pieces. Served it with rice and followed these by peaches. Washed down with red from Relais de Bacchus.

Tuesday 21/8/01: Day 26.

Fine day. Fairly hot, sticky.
Colin arose early to coincide with business hours in Australia. He telephoned credit card providers. It took until 8-30 am to complete the calls.
The wallet thieves had bought train tickets and car parts with one card. With the other cards, they bought more train tickets, paid a telephone bill, and bought FF2400 worth of alcoholic beverages.
Colin amused himself by inventing stories about the fates the thieves had brought upon themselves by stealing his cards and money. Death by alcohol poisoning was an obvious probability when one realised that just one delicious, very drinkable bottle of red from Relais de Bacchus in Rue Mouffetarde cost FF19. Then there were the car parts. The repair of a car (plus the already mentioned ingestion of enormous quantities of alcoholic drinks) made a fatal car accident more likely.
Much later, during a violent thunderstorm in Peronne, we imagined the thieves struck by lightning while talking on the telephone they had re-connected with the stolen proceeds.

Late in the morning, bearing toasted panini rolls purchased (FF20 each) from Rue Mouffetarde, we set off in a hurry to explore the Luxembourg Gardens.
We sat ourselves in the shade of a large chestnut tree and ate the rolls. A few metres to our left was the Fontaine de Medicis, a 17th century fountain in the style of an Italian grotto. It is thought to have been designed by Salomon de Brosse. Then to the left of the grotto was the octagonal lake, Grand Bassin.
On the way to the lake, we passed statues of Queens of France, and other statues such as Sainte Genevieve, patron saint of Paris. There was also a display of French timbers beside a huge map of France arranged as a stage where one could walk, shoeless, to see the place of origin of the timbers displayed.
We saw the monument to Eugene Delacroix (1890) by Jules Dalou. Delacroix was the leading Romantic painter and three of his frescoes are in the side chapel of Saint Sulpice Church. At the sculpture in the gardens the allegorical figures of Art, Time, and Glory are beneath the bust of the artist. Before leaving the gardens we looked at an exhibition of modern paintings in the Orangerie.

Near the other end of the gardens, but outside them, stands St. Sulpice. It is a classical church, built to plans by Daniel Gittard. The facade is by the Italian architect, Giovanni Servandoni.
In the Place St. Sulpice you can see the Fontaine des Quatre Points Cardinaux. Statues of four leaders of the church in France stand at cardinal points of the compass. It is a visual pun; �point�Ealso means never, and these four leaders never became Cardinals.
The interior of Saint Sulpice is bright and pleasant because of large arched windows. We were very impressed by two enormous shells (clams) resting on rock-like bases sculpted by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. The shells were long ago given by the Venetian Republic to Francois the First.
Also we were impresed by the linguistic ability of a young woman begging, with a baby in her arms. She asked for some money, in French. Colin replied in the same language that he didn�t understand her. The clever girl repeated her question in English. Colin was so impressed that he gave her all the small change that had escaped the wallet thieves. No matter what language we speak, it always comes out Australian.

Further down hill we came to Paris' oldest church, St. Germain des Pres. Rene Descartes and Casimir, King of Poland are among the notables buried inside.
Opposite the church is the corner cafe, "Les Deux Magots", famous for having enjoyed the patronage of writers such as Ernest Hemingway. It is the haunt of writers and the well-heeled, still. Naturally, all around were shops for the affluent: antiques, books, and fashion. An enormous motor car, complete with gauntleted chauffeur lounging against a mudguard, was double- parked outside the cafe. A Jazz Trio was playing expertly on the church corner.

We went up the hill back towards the gardens along Rue Toumon. There is some elegant architecture along this street. Across from Rue Soufflot, we stopped at a cafe. Sitting outside, sipping coffee, we watched, somewhat enviously, monstrous cake and cream confections being served to other diners, and we listened to their mostly incomprehensible conversations.

Later, from the flat, we went out to the excellent markets in Rue Mouffetarde. There are street markets here almost every day. We bought tomatoes and peaches and a piece of lovely soft cheese to add to the goodies Meta had left in her refrigerator. We also bought a bottle of cheap red FF19-50.
I spoke to Monique by telephone to organise our trip to Beauvais. We will go next Saturday for three or four days. After Beauvais, we will spend a couple of days in Peronne.

I saw some amusing things today. A smoky coloured cat being carried, like Margaret's Sacha, in a cat bed carrier. A small terrier dog being walked by a boy near St.Sulpice. It had woolly hair like Sugar, a dog we once had. The little dog was wearing two crossed glitter hair clips to keep its fringe out of its eyes. Last Saturday, I saw a sign on a door near downstairs toilets in a cafe. The sign said, "Prive. Sans Issue. Chiens Mechants."

Wednesday 22/8/01. Day 27 - Fine, Hot.

The nearby remains of the Arenes de Lutece were our first destination. The remains date from the late second century CE. The stands could seat 15,000 persons in 35 tiers of seats.
A signboard at the Arenes said, "It (the structure) was originally used both for theatrical performances and as an amphitheatre for gladiator fights. This type of combination was peculiar to Gaul (France) and the arena is similar to other French ones in Nimes and Arles. 'Lutetia' was the Roman name for Paris. The destruction of the arena began towards the end of the third century CE at the hands of the Barbarians, and later parts of it were used to build the walls of the Ile de la Cite. The arena was then gradually buried. It was rediscovered in 1869 during construction of the Rue Monge and the allocation of building plots nearby."

Victor Hugo, among others, campaigned in the nineteenth century for restoration, but work did not really get underway until 1918.

Next, we came to the Jardin des Plantes. We climbed the hill to a lookout. Most of the rest of the day was spent in the adjacent Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle.
There were four floors and four departments of exhibits: Palaeontology (skeletons, casts of various animals, an exhibition showing the evolution of the vertebrate skeleton); Palaeobotany (plant fossils); Mineralogy including gemstones; Entomology (some of the oldest fossilized insects on earth). In addition, there was a temporary exhibition in the basement. It showed endangered species.

Despite eating a large and delicious lunch with wine, bought from the museum cafeteria, by the end of our visit, we felt like endangered species ourselves. Looking at skeletons, stuffed animals and birds, and charts and diagrams for a lot of the morning and all afternoon is very tiring.
The fatigue was no surprise really; at the ticket counter in the morning, despite our sprightly gait, trendy clothes, and our fluency in French, the ticket woman instantly recognised us as old age pensioners.

Back at Keith and Meta's we recovered with our cheese (the beautiful soft one from yesterday), another bottle of wine from Relais de Bacchus, and a stir fry of vegetables and beancurd. Fresh peaches followed. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the night we introduced beer to the evening meal, either. But maybe it was Monday night. Of course it was: Keith and Meta had left beer in the refrigerator, we drank it Monday night and had to buy more.

Thursday 23/08/01. Day 28. Hot to Very Hot.

Colin went out to time the train journey to Saint-Denis Basilique. This was a preparation for meeting our friends Monique and Andre Massin on Saturday.
At Saint-Denis Basilique, Colin did a bit of wandering trying to find where we met Andre and Monique in 1998. Anyway, we have to allow three quarters of an hour for the trip.
Meanwhile, I cleaned the flat and did some washing, converting the flat into a Chinese laundry of lines of drying clothes, because the rules forbid hanging washing outside.
We bought panini for lunch, and after eating wrote postcards.
Tonight we walked to the shops and bought a cheese, Pont l'Eveque. Delicious! soft, in a skin. At Relais de Bacchus we bought a white wine to have with the main course: noodles with fish (Grenadier but not like the Blue Grenadier we can buy in Victoria) and vegetables. We bought more peaches.
I went to two supermarkets. Looking for things in strange supermarkets is always difficult, but unfamiliar packaging and French labelling made my search more frustrating.
It was a hot night. We went walking twice and saw a student trio playing jazz in Place de la Contrescarpe.

Friday 24/8/01. Day 29. Hot to Very Hot.

After we had washed everything we possibly could, we went to the market (Les Halles) to buy fruit, vegetables and bread. We also bought each other a panini for lunch.
After lunch, we walked to the Museum Cluny - museum du Moyen Ages. All the exhibits, including a Roman baths under the later church, were interesting, but the most interesting were the mysterious tapestries called "La Dame et La Licorne" (the lady and the Unicorn).

Later, we found Keith and Meta had returned to the flat from Chamonix and Dijon before us. We invited Keith and Meta to eat with us at a restaurant, and they chose a good one, just re-opened after the summer holiday. They knew the proprietor. He was a friendly man, and took the trouble to converse with us.
The food was generous and delicious. What they ate was not recorded. We both began with a herbed goat's cheese, wrapped in filo pastry. Next I ate a fillet of beef (well part of one anyway) with sliced potatoes and garlic. Dessert was a rich chocolate mousse with thin creme anglaise. Colin's main course was fish with green beans.

Next morning, it was our turn to depart. We were going north to Beauvais, to stay with Barbara's penfriend, Monique.