Thu
23.Feb.2012
Paris, France
I see that a lot of this
page is just jet-lagged rambling about the high price of Paris.
Feel free to ignore those parts. They won't be on the exam.
In Paris for a week en route to California. Rhodes this ain't;
Paris is markedly colder, (one reason I spend the Winter in
Rhodes). Today's sun was filtered through the faintest trace of
mist in the air, giving everything a pastel-like cast.
Home Sweet Hotel Room
As before, I am in a cheap hotel in a great neighborhood centering
around Rue Daguerre, the east end of which is pedestrianized and
rather boutique-y. The whole street and neighborhood have great
character and local color. This is a less-touristed area in the
south of the city. (14th Arrondissement.)
Cheap for Paris would buy you multi-star luxury in Rhodes. In Paris
it gets me an overgrown closet with a washstand, and a toilet down
the hall... in a great neighborhood.
Cat soap
There's a complete kitty in every bar!
Café Daguerre has a prime corner location at the start of Rue
Daguerre, near the metro and Place Denfert-Rochereau (a mouthful, non?),
They offer wi-fi. and are atmospheric as all get out. In short, they
can charge 3.70 euro for a macchiato without batting an eyelash, and
nobody, even me, complains.
There is a large lion sculpture around the block at Place
Denfert-Rochereau, but this isn't it. This is a detail from a
monumental group over in the east part of the city at Place de
la Nation.
Île de la Cité
The island in the Seine where the city began.
Today was forcast to be the only fully sunny day of my week here. I
hoped to see it illuminate the extraordinary stained glass windows
in the Sainte-Chapelle.
The queue stretching down the block from the entry put the kibosh
on that plan.
Long as I am on the island, I'll see what the open-air market is
doing. Today it is a garden and plant market; Sundays it is birds.
Sign Spotting
Thanks to my friend Kelly for the expression.
A sign for Hall, whose kitchen is a wonder, second only to that
which comes from it.
Oh My Darling
I've found clementines here, but not mandarins. Curious.
They are sweet, delicious, all but seed- and fiber-free, and
incredibly uniform. As if somebody had found the most
customer-friendly individual fruit in his orchard, and cloned it
into a zillion identical fruits. Curious.
I've seen them from about 2.70 EUR / kg up to 3.97 on the
boutique-y pedestrianized part of Rue Daguerre near my home base,
and even at 4.90/kg(!) up in the tourist zone by Pompidou Center.
Fortunately, the lower prices prevail on my part of the street.
For perspective, the going price in Rhodes is 1.00, and the
oranges have more individual character. The Mediterranean this
ain't!
Oh, ma darlin, Oh ma darlin', ...
Enough rambling.
Just enjoy the pictures,
Contents Copyright 2012 Jeff Bulf
