10 31 and onwards

I am currently sitting in the lounge at Singapore.  On Thusday I pottered around where I was staying. 

Friday was All Saints day, La Toussaint here and a public holiday. Apparently quite a few people make it a long weekend, lots of the others go to church to give thanks for dead family members. I had planned an outing based on things from my Secret Paris book  and Ian, the Australian I met several days before, came too. We were in the 14th arrondissment.  First we went to a building which had a facade made using sgraffiti , a technique for buildings,  pottery etc : paint in 1 colour,  paint another layer in a different  colour, the  scratch a pattern in the top later so some of  the bottom layer can be seen.  Interesting. Then we went looking for some hanging gardens. This took a little while. I had not read the instructions carefully enough.  We were in the right place but were looking up for gardens above us hanging down, but they were named hanging because the gardens we were in  were suspended over the railway line below us. But we did find some interesting  meteorology measuring equipment.

Next was a church Saint  notre dame de Travail ( work in english) .It was very plain and with exposed metal beams and uprights.  It was built in a working class area and tried to create an environment the locals would be comfortable in. . We arrived as one service was finishing and left just as the next one was starting. I really must sort some photos out soon. I have never seen anything like it.

We went searching for a menhir ( bronze age standing stone) that was supposed to be in a particular park, but we couldnot find it. That was the only fail for the morning , so not too bad.

We went along a pretty, small cobble- stoned street near the park Montsouris that just had small 2 storey houses, all attached to each, but all pretty, well cared for and different from their neighbours. Then we wandered around in the park and saw a black swan that could have been the 1  Ian had seen on a previous trip.  A very pleasant day that included morning coffee and lunch.

Saturday I went for a walk and a sit in the Luxembourg gardens, had a nice lunch and sorted myself out to go to the airport.  The first uber could not get to me. About 50 m away from my apartment was a 5 road intersection and apparently 1 of them  was blocked, creating chaos. I could see him going all around me in the uber app. Eventually he rang me and asked me to cancel. Another guy also had difficulty. He talked to me to ask if I was in a hurry. No I wasn't.  So he eventually got to me. Turned out he lives near the airport and it was going to be his last job.

I am now in  a Melbourne airport lounge.

10 29 tuesday and 10 30 wednesday

Tuesday was a very quiet day. I pottered.

Today was different.

I had plotted on  my map 6 things of interest. I set off 9.30ish and walked to the furthest away by a slightly circuitous route ( 5km rather then 4).  This was a monument but blocked off. All the green area in front of the eiffel tower, where there must have been all sorts of Olympic things , was blocked off.  There are doing regeneration stuff. Next was morning noisette  and croisant, but i wanted a pain au chocolate,I have got used to one of those for moring tea and they had run out. I did get the last croissant though.

Next thing on the list was a statue of something which said it should be visible through a fence, but that was blocked off too. Then a pagoda - yep, it was all covered up with construction stuff everywhere. The fourth thing, a small park dedicated to some resistance fighters,  was there, but I had been there before. It was on one of the days that i forgot to record on the map where I went. The fifth thing, a statue of a man and a horse combined,,i had seen before too. But it was still an interesting day.  There are lots of family groups around, school holidays. Ar some point i had a very nice cabbage thing with chicken stuffing and lots of veggies, which i have not been getting enough of.

10 27 Sunday and 10 28 Monday

On Sunday I pottered most of the morning. I sat and read my book at early morning coffee and croissant, mid morning coffee and something and lunch.

In the afternoon I walked to St Germain des Pres, 1 of the 2 colourful churches that i like and listened to 3 /4   of an organ and soprano recital. I am not aware of every listening to the combination of organ and voice, but I thought it was odd. I am sure both musicians were very good, but I would have preferred just the organ. I left early because i realised I had forgotten to factor in the time for a coffee stop ( or more importantly the loo stop that a coffee provides) in the time it would take me to get to the next church. 

So then I walked in the direction of the church with 2 congregations, StvEugene and st Cecile,  the modern and the latin speaking congregation ( not sure which is which). This was 5.15 ish. The main streets were full of people but the in-between streets were very empty, quiet and dark, so i decided I would definitely get a bus home. I luckily found a place for a coffee , - have I said here that i have discovered noisettes? A short black with milk, more milk than a machiato in Australia. The milk often comes in a little jug. I have never had one that needed sugar because it was too bitter.

The pewsheet said there was a vespers service  at 5.45 on Sundays in the gregorian tradition with organ. When the service started, 12 robed men processed in ( maybe 4 were choristers (extra chanters not singers)) the rest clergy. Therr were about 25 in the congregation. The whole service was on  a printed booklet I was given, but it certainly did not start at the beginning of the booklet, so i had no idea. It was chanting in Larin , the music was in the booklet, but old style with only 4 lines and funny markings, The organ fitted in  with lots of bits in between and the chanting would start on the note the organ finished on. Sometimes just 1 of the clergy, sometimes all of them. Maybe this is a fairly standard RC service, I have no idea.  I was unimpressed with how often the people in the congregation were expected to get up, wait a bit while something short  was said, then sit down again. Only about half the 25 were older than me. Quite a few people in 30s and 40s. Maybe they teach Latin in schools.

I left after about half an hour.  I knew I had a few dark  empty streets before the bus stop. So just outside the church I was looking at the map on my phone making sure I set off in the right direction. There was a man on the other side of the road who saw me and said in English Are you as lost as I am?  I said i'm not lost, I know where I am going. I was a bit undecided about him and what to do. . Anyway, i helped him and realised he was going in the same direction as me so we walked together , chattering away. He was Sean from Ireland. We stood on a corner for quite a while talking till I said I better go. I was annoyed at having to wait 20 minutes for a bus tho. He told me he was a journalist and  author and one of the books he has written ( I looked him up afterwards) looked interesting.

In Paris there is an old no longer used elevated freight railway line that has been converted to a long thin  park. It is quite pleasant. You walk along looking at the upper stories of buildings and are closer to the often very interesting roof lines. There are occassionally chairs, ponds, lots of trees and flowers.  I had walked about a kilometre of the 4 1/2 km  and was watching the guy in front of me walking at much the same pace as I was. He had a jacket with a logo on the back of the neck that i thought was either Kathmandu or Mountain design. Suddenly a bird appeared and   he turned around  and said ' there's a sparrow, there are hardly any sparrows in Sydney left. '. He stopped and realised he didn't  know who I was at all.. I replied ' I wouldn't  know, I live in Canberra' . So he  was Ian from Sydney. We chatted for a bit and then walked on together to the end , stopping to take photos. It is about his 6th trip to Paris. He comes for about 2 months a year, usually with his wife. She frequents the wool shop i went to twice. We got to the end and I told him of the church I was going to visit that was about a km  in the direction he would have been walking  , so we kept chatting as we walked.

The church, Eglise saint esprit was very impressive. It was built in the the 1930's in a poor area of Paris. The nave is square with a huge dome on top. It was inspired by the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Inside it is covered with Byzantine style frescoes , but quite plain but lovely marble bits , like the altar rail.  ian was pleased that i had taken him there . He had never been or heard of the church. But my secret Paris book knew of it. We had lunch together and then I came back here. 

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10 26 Saturday

Today was a good day, despite only crossing 1 thing off my list.  I set off to go to a coffee shop / bookshop/ odd bits and pieces place in Belleville, a bit less desirable area than I am currently  in. There are lots of different ethnic groups, some run down bits and some bits that are getting new life . It is close to where I stayed last year for a week.

I planned on getting the bus there , but yesterday afternoon had difficulty with google maps and my brain. Long story but the result was that it only took me 40 minutes to get there when I thought it was going to take 55 minutes, so I had plenty of time to wander round this particula part of Bellevile. I found where I was going, it wasn't open when it said it would be, I  wandered some more and found several of the new breed of pastry/ bread / coffee shops with a few table and chairs  ( these shops are nearly always painted white walls the light timber furniture.) ( and the few that I have asked donot have loos) But I did find  a modernised corner bistro and had a decent coffee and piece of cake. The shop I was going to go to was open when I went past. But I am not making another trip.

Then I just wandered back towards the wool shop, 11km .  There was definitely a slower, weekend , pace, not the bustle of weekdays. When I was almost at the wool shop I started to look for a lunch spot which I found. I had a whole fish. Normally I never choose this, but I fancied a glass of wine so thought I could take my time over the fish. I was sitting inside but had a good view of the passing parade. Then , to flaunt all my rules at once, I had a desert and then a coffee. ( i only occassionally have a desert and only occasionally wine and certainly never both at the same meal)  I think i was there for almost 2 hours, but the staff didnot mind.  Then I went to the wool shop, then I sat in the nearby huge church ST eustache for a bit.  I started walking back here by crossing the seine on 1 of the foot bridges and stopped to listen to 1 of the bands that play on the foot bridges on the weekend. I started to move off, thought what's the rush and stayed for ages. 8 piece brass mainly - 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, 1 Sousaphone, 1 drums, 1 sax. They were clowns too. In one  oft played theme song to a war movie that I recognised but cannot name, 2 of the trumpet players  were walking around  as if creeping through the bush holding their trumpet as a rifle. 

A bit further on  I was a bit annoyed, I wanted to walk up a street that I had not been along before but there was a protest of some group, most of them older folk, but there was still several police vehicles,  quite a few police. This group got to the street before me and they were going fairly slowly., taking up the whole width of the street. Some disgruntled car drivers.   So there was a group of people who were walking very slowly  behind the police, me included, all chatting in a variety of languages . But after a while I got past the protesters by walking 3 sides of a rectangle.   I left home at 8.50 and got back at 4.45. A longish day for me, but tonight France goes off daylight saving and I get an extra hour in bed.  

10 25 Friday ( and Thursday)

On Thursday i did very little other than experiment with butterflies and sit in 3 separate bar / cafes for early breakfast, morning tea and late lunch and plan today's outing.

Today I walked over to the other side of the river again to go to the Jaquemart Andre museum.  This apparently is a very fancy house with a very rich couples art collection.

I didnot have a ticket and, according to the sign on the queue, it would take me 30 minutes to an hour to get in. I didnot fancy waiting so went to the next place on the route,,the Parc Monceau. It was quite nice wandering around.

Next on my route was the Alexander Nevsky cathedral , a russian orthodox church. I found out about this in the Secret Paris book i have, nowhere else have i seen it mentioned. It was consecrated in 1861. ( as an aside i remember that john and i in 1976 stayed in a hotel on Nevsky prospect ( street) in St Petersboug ( except it was Leningrad then) it was then the main street of the central city area) Alexander Nevsky was a great leader , wise ruler, successful military commander and devout Christian, so the book says. Apparently  it is the archdiocesan seat of the Russian Orthodox Church in Western Europe..  in  2019 i went to another russian orthodox church , next to the seine, much newer. It was supposed to be important too. Maybe there are different flavours of russian orthodoxy.  Todays one was circular, lots of domes and taller than it was round. Inside was quite dark with paintings of people and saints all over most of the walls. There were a few chairs and there were a few other people just sitting , so I did too. It was about very peaceful.

My route took me past the arc de triumph.  There were lots of tour groups , tourists, hawkers, a largish group protesting about something, etc etc ( including pickpockets i assume) . I quickly walked close enough to get a sort of photo then hurried away. There were 2 buildings on my list , I with  facade made entirely of pottery, the other  very attractive art nuveau building. I try to eat at small cafes but I had been looking for a while. They usually tend to be in back streets, not the main roads where the big bistros are. Today I went to a nice looking big bistro . Apart from 2 japanese girls, i was the only non French speaker. The schools are on holidays and there are lots of kids around. I caught a bus back to my apartment,  the first time this trip, that i have used public transport. 

10 23 wednesday

This morning I walked to the Picasso Gallery. On the first of 4 levels there was an exhibition of Jackson Pollock's early work and the similarities with his work and Picasso s early work. The rest of the Gallery was picasso's work arranged roughly in chronological order and relating to world events of the time. I enjoyed it. 

Then I went to a garden that was attached , through a deliberately not very well signposted, passage to the place des Vosges. It was very tranquil with 3 interesting statues in the middle. However sitting on a stone bench, the only available type of seating, soon gets to be quite uncomfortable.

I wandered on past various places  i saw  when i was staying in the area in 2019 till I got to my destination, a wool shop. I glanced in and quickly realised that i  needed lunch before tackling it. It was immense with lots of staff, people looking and people in 3 queues at different desks. I was there for a little bit of a few different yarns for my butterfly project for Wendy's new stole. In one part of the shop there were many shelves stacked full of large cones of different colours and thicknesses of yarn ( 1 cone per each colour and thickness) It was sold by weight. You took what you wanted to 1 queue and the lady would weigh out as much as you wanted and the machine wound off your yarn into a ball. But I wasnot prepared to say what I wanted till I knew what it would cost. I was sent to a different queue, but then I was told I was in the wrong queue, etc, etc, my ignorance about how the very peculiar system worked . But people in queues in wool shops are usually quite chatty and interesting to talk to. Despite the time taken I was pleased with the outcome and will go back next week. They also sold a bit of material but heaps and heaps of buttons and bits and pieces to sew onto things. No  threads

That was enough for the day.

10 21

Today was full of odd bits and pieces.

I walked over the Seine ( as brown and unpleasant looking as the other day) to  the northern part of the 9th arrondissment and saw a fire station which is noted for the grape vines that they have cultivated over the years growing all over the fence between the trucks and building s and the street.  According to my book they harvest over 150 kg of grapes.

The next stop was the Musee  Gustave Moreau. He was an artist born in 1826.  The gallery was his house. In some rooms there were just paintings ( his and others) squashed into every available space which I found quite off-putting. Some rooms  ( all quite small)  like dining room and bedroom had fewer paintings , then on 2 upper floors there were more of his huge paintings, but again all packed in. They were mostly dark colours or naked ish  women or tormented men or angry weather or some combination of the above. Mainly biblical or mythological. There was one that was a bit different and it or the style were vaguely familiar. Turned out it was a copy of a Canaletto,  a Venetian painter whose light airy paintings i quite like. Apparent copying someone else's work is OK. Then I found one of his that was light, but apparently wasn't finished. But it had the lady and 2 unicorns from the tapestry. 

Nearby was a square with an interesting statue. Apparently there used to be a Paris Carnival which stopped in the 1950s. The sculptor is know for his witty illustrations and caricatures of everyday life. So this fountain has a thief, a courtesan, a harlequin and a debardeuse  - a pants wearing woman. In the 19th century it was illegal for a woman to wear pants unless she had a permit from the police, a letter from her doctor to saynshe had to wear pants (???) or was in costume for the carnival. The law was not overturned officially until 2013.

Then I saw a wall with a lovely art nuveau stained glass pattern.  Then i had lunch which took a while because , just as I was finishing , a local came in and sat near me. She loudly asked the waiter  ( not rudely, he was just a bit away from her)  for a glass of white wine but cheaper than the previous days. I sort of snickered and she spoke to me. We established that her English was better than my French but I still tried. Except she noticed that i had accidentally used a few italian words which she knew. Fairly on, I got the usual question in French, Are you English. my response is always in French,  I speak english but i am not from england i am from Australia,  which every french person i have met on the streets  seems pleased about.  We talked for quite a while . 

Next stop was the Eglise of st eugene and st cecile.  This church is lovely and colourful inside. The columns are colourful  and there is lots of stained glass. There were only a few other people there. It was lovely just to sit quietly in. The other thing that is intersting about this church is that after vatican 2, in the mid 1960s , half the congregation said they wanted to stay with the old ways - priest with his back to the people  speaking in latin. So for ages they had 2 congregations and 2 priests, but now i think they only have 1 priest but they still have services in latin as well as english.

Next stop was a coffee and cake. There are coffee shops often called ' coffee shop ' springing up all over Paris . From my sample of about 5 , the coffee is not always great. The coffee from a bar  is probably better  than I remember from 2019. Todays was good.

My next job tonight is to plan tomorrow. I might include a bus ride. I waked over 18km today.

10 20 Sunday

This morning was an early start for a Sunday. early coffee and croissant at the bakery, only place open. Church at the big place near me Saint Sulpice. They advertised a Georgian choir.  Maybe I read it as Gregorian. Anyway it was recorded music and some  sopranos. Lots of standing. I left before the sermon and found a place to sit for a bit until it was time to go to the puppet theatre. This small theatre in the Luxemburg gardens has been going for years. The show i saw was a version of Prince Charming. I had read the story, but I still could not make out what was going on. Their French was too fast for me.All the kids there really seemed to enjoy it.

I spent some time pottering then went for a walk, late afternoon, shops all open, people everywhere . I stopped for a glass of wine. I rarely drink more than a few mouthfuls  of wine at a time  (usually from Noels glass when he is having some wine) so realised pretty quickly i had to get some food , which i i did.

10 19 Saturday

An easy day.

I pottered in the morning, it was drizzling, I went for my morning tea to a bistro place and sat in a corner having my noisette and pain au chocolate reading my book about the left bank thinkers and writers. I am up to the late 1940s. It turned from a drizzle to a downpour , noone was coming in so I continued to sit in my corner for another hour or so, then went to a nearby church Notre Dame Des Champs  I wandered around a bit, but i came in at the end of a funeral and half the church ( the interesting bit) had been partitioned off formrepair works. I wasn't in the mood.

I had been recommended a cafe a km or so away  ( back to drizzle) so I went there . It was delicious food. Total of 18 people could be seated (sqashy) but because there was me only at a table for 2 while i was there,  there was only17 diners, but they had a quick turnover so lots of sittings. 2 ladies, 1 cook and 1 waiter.  2 choices first course, 2 choices main course, and anything from the cabinet of cakes and things for desert.

Then back here, more rain.. 

10 18 Friday, a good day

This morning after my normal,coffee and croissant I talked to Noel, as normal and then ,unusually, my sister, which was good. I left here with no special plan other than check out notre dame and meet my canberra friend for lunch. I wandered down backstreets toward  the seine. It was time for morning tea so I went into the first bar, hoping it was a small neighbourhood one. No,big fancy one. The barman directed me  to a stool at the end of the bar. The bar was in the middle of a biggish room and he faced outward toward the street. I reckon I was in the best seat of the house. I could see exactly what he was doing, all the front inside , all the outside and the bar, and some of the back part. There were about 10 tables inside in the front and over 20 outside. No idea about the back. He was taking orders from 2 waiters, looking after the 5 people at the bar, and making coffees for all the regulars who came in, often with just a greeting but no words about what coffee, so he must have known their regular orders. He had a big mirror above his machine, so sometimes he would make a coffee for a regular coming in and it would be on the bar waiting for the regular.  Once he had 6 orders all at once while he was making several others. He held it all in his head, though sometimes repeating the orders under his breath. Very impressive. So I sat for quite a while just watching.

Next stop was Notre Dame. The crowds loitering around looking were quieter than normal.  There were several cranes working when I was there. There are hoardings up at ground level with a display of big black and white photos . I went closer to look and by change it was a photo of a group of 24  foresters,,some with tree saws. About the only thing I have read in detail about the restoration was about the lengths that they went to to find the exact same fairly rare timber for some of the beams as had been used previously. 

I went on my way to the Cafe I was meeting Jan at. I passed a small church, wedged in between buildings so all you see is one end. I took a photo and thought there was something different about the decoration above the door. From a distance it looked like stained glass , but it was a mosaic. It was a Romanian Orthodox Church. So I read some of the bits of information on the door ( not the one in Romanian) . It won some award for the restoration work of several years ago.

I was still a bit early so I stopped again at a tiny park around a statue  of a man named Ronsard and sat down and read about him , a 16th century  poet. Maybe it will come up in a trivia quiz and maybe I might remember him.

I chatted to Jan for a long time. Then we went our separate ways. I walked to and then along a shopping and food street that is well known in the area, stopping for a chai latte and biscuit and then in the direction of my apartment.  I heard someone calling out what sounded like sue, but Sue is not a  French name. The second time I heard it I turned around it was Jan. Fancy that.

I even remembered to  buy some camomile tea on the way home. I have forgotten for the last 2 days.  I normally take my shoes off as soon as I get in the door. Not today, I remembered i had to take the rubbish out first, again something I had forgotten for several days.