Wednesday, May 2, 2001
Went first to Match which didn’t have a plentiful stock of cheese or flowers.
Did have (and we did get) Pepito cookies for the girls, totally cool
safety pins, salad, skim milk (what is France coming to?), and “Siouxseque
giraffe” yogurt.
Hopped the #81 bus for the Opéra. Exchanged our money, took pictures in front of the Opéra, explained the métro system to two Americans then métroed to Les Halles. Took pictures at St-Eustache’s head and hand [“l’ecoute” by Henri Miller. Nikki and Kilory can hardly wait to climb on it circa 2006].
Alan had mushroom
soup, and I had carrots and fennel soup at Foody’s Café
while nearby a woman read a Tony Hillerman novel in French. We bought six
ramekins [Sacre bleu! French white porcelain ramekins
to use with Pace Picante Sauce?! Obtenez une corde.], a salt mill (sel
moulin), and a pepper mill (poivre moulin) at a bistro supply place.
Walked through Passage du Cerf (the pedestrian streets leading to the Passage were squares of marble or quartz laid in beautiful patterns. Alan’s feet don’t care, though. They’re very unhappy.); had a free “Dilbert’s World Totally Nuts” ice cream cone at Ben & Jerry’s (Alan had chocolate something); and rested Alan’s aching feet at place Joachim du Bellay.
We entered the veritable city of Forum Les Halles (mall) where Alan bought
tacky 99F grey sneakers which he hopes will make his feet happy. The sneakers
themselves aren’t tacky; just tacky when worn in Paris with all-black clothes.
Touriste! Touriste!
We ate dinner at the “Asia Fountain”. Chicken soup with vermicelli [cellophane noodles – no sarcasm; that’s what they’re called in the States]!
Rolled my hair while watching part of that “In Love and War” Hemingway movie with Sandra Bullock in Italian.
Thursday, May 3, 2001
Thunder and lightning awoke us around 7:30 a.m. Noah-esque rain continues. Bussed to Châtelet, but the windows are so wet all you can see are Impressionist paintings right and left. A citizen AND Alan blessed out a drunk who was spitting and smoking on board, who then pretended to read his city map...upside down.
We walked through the Ile de la Cité flower market on
the way to the Archaelogical Parvis Crypt of Notre Dame. Underground Gallo-Roman
ruins and such. A good thing to do – a dry thing to do – when it’s pouring
rain. May I never forget the rainbow umbrella of Notre Dame. We entered
the Latin Quarter merely to find a McDonald’s bathroom and ended up at our
St-Severin Latin Mandarin restaurant from our 1999 trip. Soup, entree, and
dessert for 35F. This is the Soup Trip of 2001.
It was there we discovered we had with us the Garnier ballet tickets, not
the Bastille ballet tickets for tonight. We métroed to rue Jacob (aka the
upholstery fabric street) before returning to our room to tear apart our luggage
looking for the tickets. We found them, eventually, then packed up our souvenirs.
I looked at the clock thinking we had hours until the 7:30 p.m. curtain. I looked at the clock and my eyes saw 16:53, but my brain thought 6:53. Whipped Alan to go, grabbed some cheese and ran for the métro. As we waited for a tardy train Alan realized, and pointed out, my error. Happily, we got off one stop before the Bastille and leisurely chose a Chinese cafeteria at which to eat. Then leisurely walked to the Bastille while gawking at asparagus, and raspberry tarts. Then we leisurely browsed Bastille FNAC and bought a French/English “Ever After” DVD [the girls LOVE watching Leonardo da Vinci using his water-walking shoes].
We leisurely toured the Opéra and looked out at Paris landmarks through all
that glass. Sat in our seats and gazed at the hall. It looked like the board
room of the Death Star. Kept waiting for Darth Vader to walk by. Big, cold,
modern, 90% black, 8% white, 2% red. The ballet “Nosferatu” was weird. It
was the second performance of the world premier run of the modern dance vampire
“ballet”. The AIDS symbolism was unavoidable. They had only one dancer in
suit and tie. There should have been more. Most of them dressed in teenage
hip/grunge clothes.
After,
we went to the Champs Elysées and gawked at/photographed the Ferris Wheel
and the Arc. Alan took photographs for an Oregon couple and
a Japanese businessman. We watched it all go by then went back home along
with RATP security and their dog. It was the first non-crammed #13 ride I
can remember this trip. Called home. Girls seemed bored to talk to me, although
Kilory loves me “all the way past God’s home and back.” Didn’t get into bed
until 12:05.
Friday, April 27 | Sabbath, April 28 | Sunday, April 29 | Monday, April 30 | Tuesday, May 1 | Wednesday, May 2 | Thursday, May 3 | Friday, May 4 | Saturday, May 5 | Sunday, May 6 | Monday, May 7 | Tuesday, May 8 | Wednesday, May 9 | Thursday, May 10 | Friday, May 11| Saturday, May 12 | Sunday, May 13 | Monday, May 14 | Epilogue