Well it’s a cloudy, cool and rainy Sunday in Paris. Pretty much what the weather has been like here for the past two days or so. Still it still didn’t stop me from finishing five good days of shooting in the enormous park of Pere Lachaise cemetery. (photo: Charles-Phillipe Lafont.)
For the two of us this past week, our second week in fact, has been focused on Le Cordon Bleu for Susan (see her note on this blog) and Pere Lachaise for me.
(Out of consideration for you folks who are terribly inclined to know about such things, I have set up a second blog which will be just for my wanderings around the Paris cemeteries, documenting through photos these beautiful parks of history, full of sculpture, history and flowers, these ‘cities of the dead” where one can find the final resting places of the likes of Chopin, Bizet, Sarah Bernhardt, Heloise and Abelard, Moliere, Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust, Gertrude Stein, Maria Callas, Richard Wright – the list goes on and on. And then there are the whimsical graves of such people as George Rodenbach, Charles-Phillipe Lafanton, and Paul Doucherat, plus the numerous memorials to war dead as well as the Jewish deportees during the Second World War. Click here to check it out at!)
The only big news so far this week is that we finally got online at home. On Friday I went to the post office to pick up a package they couldn’t deliver to our mailbox (since it was too big) and lo and behold our ADSL system setup kit arrived. Our landlady Drea had arranged this in advance and we were expecting the package any day. Although the instructions were in French the kit came with a handy, very user-friendly CDROM which led me through, step-by-step the installation procedure. Everything was also nicely color coded as well (the red cable for the red jack that sort of thing). So now we have broadband Internet connection with our ADSL modem – but wait! There’s more! The kit also includes unlimited telephone calling to 53 countries worldwide (the US being one of them) and also WiFi and a host of TV channels not available anywhere else – all through the telephone line! All for €30 a month! Now that’s progress.
Of course, there are the requisite number of glitches, largely as a result of us not knowing the language probably: the software disk for the wireless card wasn’t in the kit; the TV connection won’t, well, connect to the channels; and we are uncertain whether “out of the box” we have the unlimited phone service yet. The company (“Neuf”) seems well organized, with great websites – if we just knew French! Hey but one of our goals this week is to line up French lessons. (photo: Elisa de Beauchesne.)
Yesterday afternoon I also did some more exploring of the Metro system – the rain being a good excuse to stay underground I suppose -- as I found my way to one of the numerous English language bookshops (W. H. Smith) just off the Place de Concorde. It was then back to the Hotel de Ville to BHV, the department store for a new robe for me and then home. Last night I fixed a pork roast, with little potatoes, and cauliflower. And for dessert we had leftovers (see Susan’s note from today).
And speaking of desserts, by now you know that Susan has been bringing plenty of good stuff home – and she is seriously contemplating leaving much of her “practical work” with one of the numerous homeless on the street as she walks home from the Metro. It is way too much food for just the two of us. Although with the leftover apple tart I took the remaining apples and sautéed them in butter and then added chunks of turkey breast (“dinde”) seared in balsamic vinegar, and served with a roasted potato-cauliflower concoction. Yummy. (photo: George Rodenbach.)
Susan had Sunday off from school, both of us working on blog notes, getting caught up on emails, doing laundry and just relaxing at home since the rain put a damper on cruising the city sights anyway. We do hope to get out this evening, though and try a nearby Indian restaurant where they specialize in Tandoori and curries. Being food-oriented it will probably be the high point of the day. But then we find ourselves focusing on food a lot here in Paris; in that we are just continuing a fine tradition began in Italy. It is probably also the closest thing we have in common with the Parisians so far.
Wish you were here,
Steve
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