If the drivers in Paris are maniacs, the scooter and motorcycle riders have death wishes. “Traffic lights? We don’t need no stinking traffic lights!” (Of course, they say it in French.) The prudent pedestrian looks both ways and prays when the walk light comes on.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/05/29/speaking-of-maniacs/
May 29
Two Days, Four (Give or Take) Shrines
Rose Window at Sainte-Chapelle, courtesy of Julian.
Upper sanctuary of Sainte-Chapelle, courtesy of Julian.
Wednesday we hit three shrines: Two religious and one secular. We got up early to stand on line to enter Sainte-Chapelle. This church is two blocks away from Notre Dame. It’s also older and smaller than its neighbor. The entrance to Sainte-Chapelle is shared with the Palace of Justice. Our line progressed much faster than theirs, proving that the wheels of justice move slowly everywhere.
The lower level of Sainte-Chapelle contains the oldest painting in Paris, the Annunciation. I wasn’t able to get close to it to get a straight-on picture. The upper level has a beautiful rose window with other windows depicting Bible stories, and many paintings. Some of the smaller paintings were of assorted martyrs and how they met their fates. Even the floors are decorated.
Detail from floor of upper sanctuary, Ste.-Chapelle.
When I go into a very old church, I think about how a person of the time might have seen it. Churches were about the most spectacular things around. Since the peasant most likely couldn’t read or understand Latin, he or she may have acquired any knowledge of Jesus, the prophets, and saints through looking at the paintings or windows.
The next stop was Sacré-Coeur, on Montmartre. I was creeped out by the place four years ago. It reminded me of the story of Jesus driving the moneychangers out of the temple–before he did so. The area around the basilica at the time was very seedy and full of pickpockets. The pickpockets and scammers are fewer in number now, but there’s still plenty of commerce going on inside. Mass was being celebrated at the time, so visitors were respectful. In addition, photographs aren’t allowed within Sacré-Coeur, although that didn’t stop some people from trying.
The Basilica of Sacré-Coeur.
We’d made reservations months ahead of time to visit the Eiffel Tower at 8 pm, near dusk.
I’m sure this needs no introduction. The sphere hanging between the first and second levels is an ad for the French Open.
The area around the tower was jumping with people selling bottled water, wine, champagne, flowers, selfie sticks of dubious quality, and Eiffel Tower models. Since the French Open is going on, the city set up a Jumbotron so residents could watch the action from the park near the tower. Unfortunately, we misread our tickets–they’re for Thursday, not Wednesday. We wound up staying in the vicinity and having dinner at a restaurant where Julian and I ate four years ago.
Thursday we went separate ways to our own shrines. Roger went to a multimedia exhibit of David Bowie’s career. Meanwhile, Julian and I headed to Librairie Gourmand, where I could worship cookbooks. They have a few English language volumes. I bought a cookbook on Southwestern France and one on cooking for your cats. (Luka and Neli, don’t get any ideas…)
“Come on, Mom. Where’s the love here???”
After we finished our homage to cookbooks, we set off towards the northeast part of the city to see the Canal St.-Martin. We also walked over to a beautiful park, Des Buttes Chaumont. Many of the trails are closed for renovation, but what was open was fantastic. It’s heavily wooded, with a lake, stream, and waterfall. Parisians of all stripes were walking, jogging, pushing strollers, and the like through the park.
Pavilion and lake at Parc Des Buttes Chaumont, courtesy of Julian.
In the evening we reunited with Roger and took the Métro to the Eiffel Tower, along with 50,000 of our closest personal friends. It was much cloudier than the previous evening. We were sandwiched between Spanish and Korean tour groups on the way up. We also had to deal with Roger’s fear of heights. (And he’s the one who suggested we go up the Tower. Go figure.) We did make it to the top without a total freakout on Roger’s part.
Good Seattleite that I am, I was undergoing some soy sauce withdrawal with all of the European food we’ve been eating. Therefore, I suggested we eat at a Japanese restaurant down the street from our apartment. Roger and Julian both love sushi, so this was not a hard sell. The sushi was pretty standard-issue, but one of the skewers that came with Julian’s dinner was truly weird. It consisted of thin slices of beef wrapped around…Mozzarella cheese?!? Who says fusion cuisine is only an American concept? Before we leave Paris for the hinterlands on Monday, I’ll have to deal with my fish sauce withdrawal. I’ve located a couple of Thai and Vietnamese restaurants in the neighborhood to tide us over until we get home, if not to Lyon.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/05/29/two-days-four-give-or-take-shrines/
May 26
What Were They Thinking?!?
This afternoon we went to the Louvre to walk around the plaza. Many people believe that the I.M. Pei-designed pyramids are a stain on the museum, but this trumps anything I could imagine:
This is a gift shop for the most prestigious museum in Europe??? Please!
Louis XIV, the guy on the horse, is doing cartwheels in his grave.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/05/26/what-were-they-thinking/
May 26
Ah, Paris!
We arrived in Paris in the early afternoon. We applied several lessons learned from our previous trip here four years ago:
- Always buy Métro tickets from a human being rather than a machine;
- Ignore any solicitations; and
- Build up your upper body strength before the trip so you can haul your suitcases upstairs. The French don’t have an equivalent of the Americans with Disabilities Act. (Elevators in a Métro station, if they exist, are well-hidden.)
Our rental apartment is just outside a Métro station near the old Les Halles market. Rue Montorgueil, a major foodie street, is only two blocks away. Despite its central location, it’s reasonably quiet–at night. This morning was pretty cacophonous, since it’s a back to work day. We chose the courtyard-facing bedroom. Our traveling companion for this leg of the trip is our friend Roger from Nyack (NY). He arrived from Reykjavik before we did.
View from our flat.
We had dinner on our first night at Comptoir de la Gastronomie, a gourmet shop/restaurant on Rue Montmartre. Julian and I started out with asparagus gazpacho, while Roger had mackerel mousse with cucumber and aspic. For the main dish, the guys had two huge mounds of pork ribs. I was in need of vegetables, so I had pasta with a mixture of fava beans, fennel, tomato, mushrooms, and zucchini. A fine repast was had by all.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/05/26/ah-paris/
May 26
The Paris Bike Culture
You don’t see as many bikes on main streets in Paris as you do in Amsterdam. There’s a simple reason: The drivers are maniacs! Nobody wants to be somebody’s hood ornament. Cyclists tend to stick to side streets where they have a better chance of survival.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/05/26/the-paris-bike-culture/
May 25
Onward to Paris
We hopped a Thalys high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris. Our seats were in a car with free Wi-Fi and food. Having flown cheapo US airlines for too long, I expected the usual peanuts or pretzels. Wrong! Shortly after we got on the train in Amsterdam, we had the choice of a savory or sweet snack. Both of us chose a small bite of vegetable quiche. We thought that was the end of it; however, when we left Brussels, the stewards came around again with lunch.
I could get used to this…
Lunch consisted of rabbit meatballs with potatoes, vegetables, a small poached pear, artichoke purée, a roll, and a cheesecake-like dessert with lemon glaze. The wine was complimentary. Sure beats peanuts.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/05/25/onward-to-paris/
May 25
No Comment Necessary
Amsterdam has a reputation as a pretty freewheeling city, between the cannabis and red-light district. Here’s another example, a poster we saw on our way to the train station.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/05/25/no-comment-necessary/
May 25
Amsterdam Impressions
We spent two days in Amsterdam, commuting by train from Kitty’s home in Zaandam. Amsterdam is very easy to get around, thanks to the transit system and the layout around the canals. There was a huge influx of visitors due to the Whitsuntide (Pentecost) holidays. Although many stores are closed on Sundays, a large number catering to tourists were wide open for business. Commerce triumphs over all.
On our first day we just wandered hither and yon through neighborhoods. By chance we found a number of used booksellers in a neighborhood called the Spui (pronounced Spwee). We also visited the Begijnhof (hard to spell phonetically), which used to be a home for pious Catholic women who opted not to take the vows of nuns. It’s still being used as a home for single middle-aged women, regardless of their religions. There are Protestant and Catholic chapels in the Begijnhof. We chatted with the docent of the Protestant church, a woman from Kentucky who immigrated here when she married a Dutch man.
On the second day we had specific missions. Our first stop was the Dutch Resistance Museum, across the street from the Zoo. The history of how the Dutch fought back against the Nazis was truly amazing. (By coincidence, the Washington Post ran a story on Memorial Day of a small town in southern Holland where families volunteer to care for the graves of American soldiers who died liberating the country. Descendents of the soldiers have formed bonds with volunteers and other members of the town.) Our next stop was the Jordaan, a picturesque residential neighborhood. Some of the old homes had been torn down for modern monstrosities until the city wised up and changed its zoning rules. The cafés and coffee shops were doing great business. (See my earlier post for a distinction between the two.) Julian took plenty of pictures of the local architecture.
At the end of the day Julian asked me if I might be interested in retiring in Holland. First, I’m too young to retire. Second, their housing prices are even more exorbitant than Seattle’s. Third, I’d have to learn to speak Dutch. Dealing with German was hard enough for me four years ago when we visited Berlin and Switzerland. Fortunately, English is the unofficial second language in the Netherlands. Even the panhandlers in Amsterdam speak impeccable English!
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/05/25/amsterdam-impressions/
May 25
First Stop – Netherlands
We visited the Amsterdam area for the first time in over 20 years. We stayed with Julian’s cousin, Kitty. She lives on a river in Zaandam, a suburb of Amsterdam. You can see a series of latter-day (electricity-generating) windmills from the windows of her condo. Not quite as picturesque as the original ones, but they serve similar purposes.
A quaint windmill over the harbor in Zaandam.
On our first day, we took a road trip to two of the older towns in the area. The first was Edam (home of the cheese). As with most Dutch towns, Edam is crisscrossed by canals. We visited a small 17th century Protestant church and walked around the downtown area. The second town was Enkhuizen. (Don’t ask me to pronounce this!) This town fronts the IJsselmeer (this is not a misspelling, and I won’t try to pronounce this), a large body of water created by a dam across the Zuider Zee. We had a late lunch in Enkhuizen. I watched the café’s corpulent canine chase bikes on the walk outside while we were eating. A very Dutch scene.
On Saturday we went to Delft for a 150th birthday party. The sum of Kitty’s daughter’s family’s ages is 150. It was quite a crowd in the basement of a tavern. Kitty’s youngest granddaughter, age 10, was helping to tend bar. (In the States, Child Protective Services would take the children away if they were notified of a similar situation.) She did a fantastic job. The best part of the party was meeting some of Julian’s relatives that he’d never met. As most of his US relatives are no longer living, it’s good to know he has family somewhere.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/05/25/first-stop-netherlands/
May 25
The Bike Cult in Holland
Seattle’s bike culture has nothing on the Netherlands. Bikes are a main transportation option, and not just for the Spandex warriors. Most of the bikes resemble 1960’s-vintage Schwinns–single speed, covered chains, heavy frames, upright handlebars, fenders, and kickstands.
Hey, you have to park somewhere.
Many are customized to carry cargo and/or kids. Most of the bikes are step-through, and it’s not considered girly for a man to ride one of these bikes. Riders, even children, rarely wear helmets. The main plazas of Amsterdam are packed with bikes and bike racks. In addition, there are bike parking lots on barges around the city. This is a bike-parking garage adjacent to the Central Train Station.
Bike parking garage in Paris.
The problem is the lack of enforcement of traffic laws for bicyclists. In theory, they are supposed to follow the same rules of the road as cars; in practice, it’s pedestrian beware. We were nearly clipped or run down more than once by bikers. It was nearly as bad as the Burke-Gilman Trail in Seattle during prime training season for the Seattle-to-Portland bike race. Who knew these old-school schleppers could move so fast?
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/05/25/the-bike-cult-in-holland/
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