Paris Journal, Part 3
6/8 Sunday
Fresh market. A different rhythm.
Went to the neighborhood fresh market. We visited this on our first day here, and it was nice, but today we weren't so tired and we got to see more of it. The whole scene is tremendously bustling and French (but also fairly friendly), with fresh veggies, fruits, seafood, and cheese, all at good prices. Open every Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday, until 2pm. We had a lot of fun today, and came home to make a delicious lunch. I had brie with tomato and basil (basilic, I now know to call it), all perfectly fresh. I took our little Larousse electronic dictionary with me, and that came in really handy for things like figuring out that fletan is halibut. Again, there weren't too many kids around, and the vendors kept offering Nicholas free goodies. He was happy to munch an apricot and a cherry, but shied away from the shrimp, which was cooked, but still sporting its head and legs. I ate the shrimp, which was quite tasty. I'll pick some of those up soon, but tonight I'm going to try pan-frying the halibut (we don't have an oven or I'd bake it). I was pleased to manage the shopping pretty well with my limited French. The language already feels a lot more familiar to me than it did a week ago.
We're trying to find a rhythm for this longer stay, which is a lot different than a week-long vacation. We have a much longer stretch in which to see things, but we also have to handle laundry and shopping and the business of daily life, and Suzanne's summer course carries a fairly serious work load, since the schedule is quite compressed.
6/9 Monday
Today a we had a sitter for Nicholas for three hours. Her name is Julia, and she is the twenty-something daughter of Francoise, another of the Yale professors in the summer program. Suzanne went with them to the park, but used the time to get some reading (teaching prep) done, and Nicholas and Julia hit it off nicely. That's great, since we'll definitely need some more sitting so Suz can get her prep done and I can do a little work too. Today I got to go off solo for this first time. Took a book and headed up to St. Germaine, where I secured a cafe table at Le Rouquet (less famous but also less mobbed than Cafe Flore or Les Deux Magots), ordered a cafe au lait, and got some actual work done when I wasn't rubbernecking.
6/10 Tuesday
Big day today. Went on the bateau-mouche with Suzanne's class (a nice bunch). It was an exceptionally sunny afternoon, which had us broiling on the top deck--but it was nice to see all the famous sights along the Seine framed against blue sky. Suz and I took this tour last time we were here, but it really is remarkable how much you can see from the Seine. The guide books don't exaggerate when they call it the central "artery" of the city--it does somehow seem like the city's life force flows through it.
Nicholas started off grumpy and disinclined to be pleased in the morning, after not getting a great night's sleep, so he and I had a distinctly bumpy morning with much wrangling and a few melt-downs while Suzanne was off teaching. He didn't want to go the fresh market, didn't want to go on the bateau-mouche, etc. But in the event, he enjoyed the cruise a great deal, and also got a kick out of meeting Suzanne's students. By the end of the day he said, "You know daddy, you don't really need a camera. I've got a hundred pictures in my mind, and 130 sentences!" Moments like that are pretty great.
I also had some almost giddy successes with my French today, including another successful trip to the fresh market, where I was again taken for Italian. And then, even better, we went to the seafood market at Rue Daguerre (to pick up the Paella Royale, a mix of Spanish rice, shrimp, clams, mussels, etc.) and I got in an extended conversation with the woman behind the counter. She asked me quite a few questions, and as long as she didn't speak too fast (I'm not afraid to say "plus lentement, s'il vous plait," which means "more slowly, please") I was able to follow most of what she said. And I was also able to explain, in decently acceptable French, that we had been here six years ago for a one-week stay before Nicholas was born, that we had returned for a five-week stay because my wife was teaching a summer literature course at Cite Universitaire, etc. etc. She complimented me on my accent, and then launched into the familiar complaint about how Americans don't articulate their words (she thought at first that I was British). We were both clearly pleased by the conversation and she tossed in a tasty mayo sauce to go with our crevettes (shrimp).
I was so intoxicated by this success that I struck up another conversation when I came across a neighbor in the hall. She was looking for a book on the little communal bookshelf they keep there (nice touch, that) and I used the opening (Vous cherchez un bon livre, n' est-ce pas?) to get things rolling. She spoke much too quickly for me to get everything, but I told her a little about us and gathered that she has aunts and uncles in San Francisco whom she has not seen for a long time. I'm curious to know what she does for a living, since she was looking for the second volume of Proust's A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, which is not exactly light reading. She didn't compliment me on my accent, but she did think I had been living here for a while.
Fresh market. A different rhythm.
Went to the neighborhood fresh market. We visited this on our first day here, and it was nice, but today we weren't so tired and we got to see more of it. The whole scene is tremendously bustling and French (but also fairly friendly), with fresh veggies, fruits, seafood, and cheese, all at good prices. Open every Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday, until 2pm. We had a lot of fun today, and came home to make a delicious lunch. I had brie with tomato and basil (basilic, I now know to call it), all perfectly fresh. I took our little Larousse electronic dictionary with me, and that came in really handy for things like figuring out that fletan is halibut. Again, there weren't too many kids around, and the vendors kept offering Nicholas free goodies. He was happy to munch an apricot and a cherry, but shied away from the shrimp, which was cooked, but still sporting its head and legs. I ate the shrimp, which was quite tasty. I'll pick some of those up soon, but tonight I'm going to try pan-frying the halibut (we don't have an oven or I'd bake it). I was pleased to manage the shopping pretty well with my limited French. The language already feels a lot more familiar to me than it did a week ago.
We're trying to find a rhythm for this longer stay, which is a lot different than a week-long vacation. We have a much longer stretch in which to see things, but we also have to handle laundry and shopping and the business of daily life, and Suzanne's summer course carries a fairly serious work load, since the schedule is quite compressed.
6/9 Monday
Today a we had a sitter for Nicholas for three hours. Her name is Julia, and she is the twenty-something daughter of Francoise, another of the Yale professors in the summer program. Suzanne went with them to the park, but used the time to get some reading (teaching prep) done, and Nicholas and Julia hit it off nicely. That's great, since we'll definitely need some more sitting so Suz can get her prep done and I can do a little work too. Today I got to go off solo for this first time. Took a book and headed up to St. Germaine, where I secured a cafe table at Le Rouquet (less famous but also less mobbed than Cafe Flore or Les Deux Magots), ordered a cafe au lait, and got some actual work done when I wasn't rubbernecking.
6/10 Tuesday
Big day today. Went on the bateau-mouche with Suzanne's class (a nice bunch). It was an exceptionally sunny afternoon, which had us broiling on the top deck--but it was nice to see all the famous sights along the Seine framed against blue sky. Suz and I took this tour last time we were here, but it really is remarkable how much you can see from the Seine. The guide books don't exaggerate when they call it the central "artery" of the city--it does somehow seem like the city's life force flows through it.
Nicholas started off grumpy and disinclined to be pleased in the morning, after not getting a great night's sleep, so he and I had a distinctly bumpy morning with much wrangling and a few melt-downs while Suzanne was off teaching. He didn't want to go the fresh market, didn't want to go on the bateau-mouche, etc. But in the event, he enjoyed the cruise a great deal, and also got a kick out of meeting Suzanne's students. By the end of the day he said, "You know daddy, you don't really need a camera. I've got a hundred pictures in my mind, and 130 sentences!" Moments like that are pretty great.
I also had some almost giddy successes with my French today, including another successful trip to the fresh market, where I was again taken for Italian. And then, even better, we went to the seafood market at Rue Daguerre (to pick up the Paella Royale, a mix of Spanish rice, shrimp, clams, mussels, etc.) and I got in an extended conversation with the woman behind the counter. She asked me quite a few questions, and as long as she didn't speak too fast (I'm not afraid to say "plus lentement, s'il vous plait," which means "more slowly, please") I was able to follow most of what she said. And I was also able to explain, in decently acceptable French, that we had been here six years ago for a one-week stay before Nicholas was born, that we had returned for a five-week stay because my wife was teaching a summer literature course at Cite Universitaire, etc. etc. She complimented me on my accent, and then launched into the familiar complaint about how Americans don't articulate their words (she thought at first that I was British). We were both clearly pleased by the conversation and she tossed in a tasty mayo sauce to go with our crevettes (shrimp).
I was so intoxicated by this success that I struck up another conversation when I came across a neighbor in the hall. She was looking for a book on the little communal bookshelf they keep there (nice touch, that) and I used the opening (Vous cherchez un bon livre, n' est-ce pas?) to get things rolling. She spoke much too quickly for me to get everything, but I told her a little about us and gathered that she has aunts and uncles in San Francisco whom she has not seen for a long time. I'm curious to know what she does for a living, since she was looking for the second volume of Proust's A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, which is not exactly light reading. She didn't compliment me on my accent, but she did think I had been living here for a while.
posted by Steve Shoemaker at 1:47 PM
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