i got up late to catch the 12:28 pm eurostar to paris...i walked over to paddington to find a taxi and arrived at st. pancras international where i caught the train...had a long walk to my coach which meant a short walk when i arrive at gare du nord and a quick walk to queue for a taxi...my seat mate was an l.s.e. student working in paris during the week and studying in london during the weekends.
when i arrived in paris at 1:30 pm, i asked the taxi driver to take me to my hotel, wait, and then take me to cent quatre, the old city mortuary, now an artist space...i had visited the space three years ago and wanted to see how much it had developed...the exhibit that dominated the space was leandro erlich's
in perceptions which you can check out at this site:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBhe6gs1S78...
after walking around the space (it seemed that half the space was loaned out to comedie francaise),i walked over to rotonde de la villette, a toll house connected to the canal systems of paris...the rotonde was crowded with weekenders enjoying the final days of summer before the cooling weather of fall and then the dread of winter...as usual, the french use whatever open space they have to do some art display, this one fashions of a by-gone era of travel...
i caught the metro at stalingrad and headed back to reuilly-diderot and the hotel...i checked in and went up to my room...as it was still a bit early for dinner, i watched some french television...two poirot shows in french...how fitting for our little belgian detective...
i walked around the corner to bistrologue for dinner...i had a house red with my entrecote..it was well cooked, not the usual bloody french steak...of course, i had frites with the meal..when in london, it's fish and chips...in paris it's steak and fries...
day two in paris was market day...i have always had poilane as a must do on my list of paris adventures...today i was headed for this iconic (love that word) bread shop in the bonmarche area...i purchased a walnut bread, a brioche, and a sour dough...i was planning to lug all this back home...while there i asked if i could snap of picture of the famous bread chandelier which actually hangs in the workers's area...they said sure, so i took a picture, "ushing" all the workers out of my shot...thankfully i only had to chase one worker away...
from poilane, i walked over to la grand epicerie paris, the market attached to bonmarche...to call it a market is a bit of an understatement...there are rows and rows of canned goods, jams, cereals, a wine section with 80% french wines, take-out foods both hot and cold, a produce section, cheeses, and a bakery with breads and delicacies to die for...check out this site for a fun presentation of what la grade has:
http://www.lagrandeepicerie.fr/#en-GB/coulisses/film
here is a rather glittery picture of the market...check out all the macaroons...in all sorts of flavors...
i was a bit hungry so i crossed the street to have my petit dejeuner at Le Weekend, probably the best croissant i had in recent memory...crispy on the outside, buttery on the inside...excellent...i crossed back to visit the miraculous medal chapel which is located amidst all this luxury...the body of st. catherine laboure is in a glass coffin on the right side of the altar...
feeling a bit holier, i headed for rue louise weiss which is the new gallery area of paris...but, alas, as all galleries in the city, the street and its galleries were closed...it is a place to revisit...
with the noon time feeding coming up, i headed for tube stop sentier and montorgeuil and les petit carreaux...i had lunch at comptoir du commerce, duck confit washed down with a cote de rhone troyes garcons...nice way to have lunch watching the pedestrians along the carreaux...
after a futile attempt to purchase a loaf of praluline bread, bread infused with pralines, (it seems the shop is related to art galleries, closed on mondays), i returned to the hotel and rewatched some old amazing race shows...what a great series and so worthy of its emmy awards...
i had dinner at wasabi, a korean-japanese restaurants, run by mrs. chung...i had the korean stew aka chige...the meal began with pan chan and then i burned my tummy with the wonderful kim chee stew...i didn't want the really hot stew because i was traveling back to london the next day...
i had a 1:04 pm departure back to london via eurostar but decided to get there a bit early, avoiding any last minute rushing...and i was glad i did as the front desk guy could not find me a cab in all of paris...so i took to the streets and finally got a guy at the end of his shift but willing to take me to gare du nord...i guess he saw the desperation in my eyes...i will be ever grateful to will for that bit of human kindness...
the trip back to london was uneventful except i had a four seater with a french gal (rather young) heading for work in london with minimum english skills, a l.s.e. graduate returning to london for work, and a black gal i dubbed black mary because she reminded me of my mother...no sooner had the train pulled away from the station then she started saying the rosary...she was warding off the evil spirits...i felt good...
once back in london, i headed for the elysee and an overnight stay...tonight would be my last night of indian food (a curry washed down with cobra beer) before i headed over to criterion theatre and
hitchcock's 39 steps...i was a bit early so i walked from piccadilly toward leicester square and found m&m world...and they had the m&m candy acting very british, from crossing abbey road to catching a double decker...
the play was a marvelous spoof of the hitchcock movie with four characters playing the entire cast of the movie, actually two doing most of the double duty...i shared the space with drama students from esher college...they had all the questions the teachers kept reminding them to review as the play was being presented...good experience for these kids...the play was fun though a bit fast paced...comedy had to balance with the mystery...
i headed back to my basement room at the elysee, first time in the renovated area...the rooms are bigger and more modern...definitely a nice upgrade...thank you, dilep...
my return home via sfo was nice and pleasant...little turbulence...the barbecued chicken was a bit spicy so i scraped off the sauce, shredded the meat, and made a sandwich...and that was yummy...the movies were fine fare...
mary poppins and one of the
x-men...what was more entertaining were these four irish guys heading for vegas...omg...
hangover part 3 irish style...but, because of the seating configuration, there was a young gal (well, maybe not that young) sitting with them...and they kept giving her oprah-like advice, dump him, get the ring...
the transfer in sfo went smoothly and the turkey-cranberry sandwich at boudin's was awesome...ran into my buddy james in the red carpet lounge...we locals are always on the go...
back home and ready for the next trip...don't know when but we are planning for a summer trip to southern africa....
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