Paris life

The weather in Paris this past week has really been quite nice, moderate temps and then brilliant sun for the weekend; a fitting way to cap off the continuing saga of Susan’s transition to pastry chef. (photo: main hall of the Musee d'Orsay.)

It’s a month now since Susie started her internship and it’s been a pretty rocky four weeks: lots of emotional ups and downs, mainly over the struggle to communicate but also of course to the adjustment of working in a Parisian pastry shop.

Think about it: you quit your job of more than 20 years, and head off to a foreign country where you don’t really speak the language at all, and after a few weeks of language lessons and retraining go to work in a business you know very little about with people whose language you hardly speak.

Challenging? You bet! Difficult? Of course!

Would she have it any other way? No. Well, OK, it might be nice if she could communicate on a more “casual” level with some of the other workers in the shop. But since they are Japanese and speak either French or Japanese that’s another hurdle that would take months to overcome. Still Susie finds herself doing more and more different things every day: lining tart shells, making different bread dough, making pastry creams, working on so many things it’s hard to keep track anymore!

This past week also gave us a chance to catch up with a couple of students from Susie’s basic pastry course last August at Le Cordon Blue. Lori from Washington, DC was in Paris for the weekend – she got a great last-minute deal on United – and was staying with another former student Valerie who lives in Paris. They came to see Susie in the shop last Saturday afternoon and the three decided we would all meet later that evening at the Odeon metro stop and then find a place for dinner. They were all dying to hear about Susan’s experiences at Pascal’s.

Susie came home about 5:30; I had been out at Pere Lachaise videotaping on one of the most beautiful days we have seen here in some time

We left home about 7 pm that evening and walked to the no. 10 metro at Jussieu and got off at Odeon. After we exited the metro and found ourselves beneath Danton’s statue and smack in the middle of half of Paris waiting to meet up with someone like us – compliments of cell phone technology – the four of us hooked up and off we went strolling toward the Seine looking for a place to eat. After a few minutes walking down rue Dauphine we settled on a small “ristorante” called Lombardi’s (29 rue Dauphine 75006). We walked inside and almost walked into the kitchen – this place is small. We were told to climb the spiral staircase to the first (second) floor.

We sat and ordered wine and food and had a wonderful evening, Susan relating her experiences about intermediate and superior and the internship of course. We caught up with what was happening in Valerie’s life here in Paris and Lori’s life in Washington, DC/Charlottesville, VA – a small world indeed.

OK the food was good, service slow, prices OK, but we got to hear and speak Italian, and I got the last glass of Averna. It didn’t matter. It was good to see them both again and spend a great evening talking and talking, about food of course, about pastry naturally. After we finished dinner we said au revoir and parted at the metro. We headed home enjoying a nice stroll in the quiet, chilly air of winter in Paris.

Sunday was the first Sunday of the month. We left the apartment about midday and headed off for the Musee d’Orsay, home of the world’s finest collection of Impressionist art. We started strolling up toward the Jussieu metro stop and the day being absolutely gorgeous (again) we just continued walking: right past the metro, along the Seine all the way to the museum, eyeing the bouquinistes and their old cards, posters, books, and old French magazines,

The d’Orsay is striking when seen from the outside, it still looks like a train station, but that is nothing compared to the interior of this museum. And I’m not sure “museum” is the correct word here, either:

Museum – noun - a building in which objects of historical, scientific, artistic, or cultural interest are stored and exhibited.

“Objects of interest”? “Stored and Exhibited?” That is simply too saccharine a description of this building. This place simply doesn’t fit the image that such a word draws to mind, as if it were a hulking, gray steel and concrete monstrosity designed by a committee. No way. Not in a city that gave us the Pompidou Center and the Cite des Sciences.

The French took an old train station ready for the wrecking ball and, while keeping much of the gorgeous interior including the overhead glass and iron ceiling which floods the space with natural light, added a series of rooms that seem to almost float on their own. Yes it’s a bit confusing, perhaps even chaotic, but embrace the disorder and just drift with your guidebook or the free map that’s available at the information desk on your way in, or even with Rick Steve’s handy podcast guide of the d’Orsay.

On the ground floor we spent a great deal of our time – we had all afternoon after all – wandering from room to room, occasionally looking at our guidemap but just letting the colors and paintings draw us to them, rather than choosing one over another: Corot, Millet, Daumier, Courbet, and of course the room devoted to the exquisite works of Manet. Of course how can you miss those absolutely stunning sculptures on the ground floor!? They are everywhere and capture your eye no matter where you go. Oh, and don’t miss the really cool exhibit at the far end of the hall from the entrance, where you can actually walk on a glass floor beneath which is a model of the part of Paris that is home to the spectacular Opera Garnier.


Then wend your way to the middle level and pop into the Art Nouveau room – and what a feast for the senses here: furniture to be sure but what furniture it is!

Walk around the middle level and just look at the space!

Head up the escalator to the top level to see the icons of Impressionism: Degas, Cezanne, Renoir, Van Gogh, Monet, a true feast for the eyes and the mind. Plan to spend some serious time here.

Go all the way to the end and then walk up to the small viewing platform where you are near the top of the old train station ceiling for a spectacular view of one of the most fantastic of spaces in Paris.

Enjoy yourself.

We did. In fact we’re going back the first Sunday in March as well – forget the Louvre, it’s simply too big, I mean 30,000 works of art! No we’re going back to the d’Orsay and this time we’re going to snap up the audio guides (€5) and spend the day.

Wish you were here,

Steve