Trip to France update

So, the latest travel news regarding our upcoming trip to France in September is Susie has signed up for a day and a half of pastry classes at Lenotre. Located at their educational facility just off of the Avenue des Champs Élysée she has taken professional development classes there before and found them enjoyable and informative.

We also signed up for an afternoon one-on-one pastry shop crawl with Clothilde Dusoulier (of Chocolate and Zucchini fame). We've used her Edible Adventures in Paris guide many times over the years and find her insight refreshingly practical and her grasp of local nuances amazing.

May 19 Off to Paris!

After a light breakfast, we paid our bill, packed the car and left the tiny village of Turenne in a fine rain at a little past 10 and headed for the A20 north to Paris. The temperature was in the high 40s and we passed from drizzle to fine rain to light mist back to drizzle with the occasional burst of heavy rain until we were well north of Orleans when the rain stopped and the temperature rose to a balmy 62.

Traffic was light pretty much the entire drive into greater Paris and our trip rather uneventful with the exception of taking the wrong version of the A6 but finding our way back (thanks to good signage) but subsequently missing our exit for the Porte d'Italie (thanks to poor signage).

We coursed our way through Chinatown in the 13th arrondissement and into the 5th and found the entrance into the Gare d'Austerlitz car return (going the wrong way on a one-way entrance but hey it's Paris).

I nosed into an Avis slot and walked to the Avis (location voiture) window to learn that the office was closed and directed all business to the Gare de Lyon on the other side of the Seine (right bank). The note also said that if you were dropping a car off (we were) then just deposit the key into the box located to the left of the door. Yeah!

But before we let go of the car key I called our host Carsten Sprotte to inform him we had arrived a bit earlier than planned. He was unable to meet us any sooner than the scheduled 1630 time so we decided to leave our bags in the car, pop upstairs to the Metro ticket office and recharge our Navigo metro passes ("one swipe and you're good to go on train or bus"). So now we're set for the next week scooting around the city on Le Metro.

We then strolled back downstairs to ground level and sat at a cafe in the station and had a coffee before grabbing a taxi, dropping the key off in the magic box and heading across the river to 22 rue Sevigne.

that's us on the 3rd (US 4th) floor

Carsten was already in the apartment when we pulled up out front. He came down to meet us and help us schlep our bags upstairs. After he showed us the various feature sof the apartment, we unpacked. OK, after Susan unpacked we strolled downstairs turned left and and the block or so over to rue Saint-Antoine where rue de Sevigne ended right at Saint-Paul.  

looking south to Saint Paul and rue Saint-Antoine

looking north to the Carnavalet Museum

across the street and into someone's life

My goal -- and a frustrated one it was as I was to learn the next day from Marie, was to find the final resting place of Father Francois de la Chaise (1624-1709), "Pere Lachaise," who was the driving force behind persuading Louis XIV to turn an old hilltop home into a retreat for the Jesuits. Following the suppression of the Jesuits in the latter part of the 18th century the land fell into disuse. But in 1804 the property would become the world's first garden or pastoral cemetery, setting the standards for cemeteries around the western world.

Sadly,  I was unable to locate the burial location of  "Father Lachaise." I would come to find out the next day from Marie, one of the leading Paris experts on  Pere-Lachaise Cemetery, that he is in fact buried beneath the church in the crypt, which is is off-limits to the public.

From Saint-Paul we walked over to the Bastille and since it was dinner time we went in search of an Asian restaurant to satiate our craving for vegetables, which had been sorely absent from our food int he south. We stopped in at "Le Sun" and both had sauteed broccoli; Susie also had riz cantonnais and I had nem. Delicious!

Afterwards we strolled back to rue Saint-Antoine and I grabbed a dessert from Lenotre and then home for bed -- 

Big News from the smallest State

A cold rain has been falling off and on here in Providence for the past week or so. We dodged yet another major snow bullet and just had to dodge the hidden potholes floating beneath the surface of lingering puddles (since the city storm drains went out years ago).

It's been nearly a month since I last posted -- my dad's 100th birthday in fact. And frankly, he's largely responsible for what I'm about to tell you.

Johnson & Wales University offered me a job and I said yes. It was that simple.

As many of you know I've been working as a freelance consultant at JWU for nearly two years. This past Friday morning, out of the blue as they say, I was asked if I would like to become a full-time, salaried employee of the university. While it means I won't be joining Susie in Paris in April, the offer and my decision are pregnant with so much more value for the two of us.

So, Susie rescheduled her return from Paris -- she'll still be there nearly a month; more of those details shortly. And we're now planning to reschedule my ticket for Christmas so . . .

Well that's another tale to be told soon.

Anyway, Susie will have plenty to occupy her time: she'll be taking language classes at Alliance Francais in Paris, and a croissant class at Lenotre. Naturally, she plans to spend several afternoons at home working on and developing her croissant technique. I don't know about you, but I can't wait for that. She'll also spend a couple of days with her friend Misato who is now living and working at a pastry shop in Mulhouse, just south of Strasbourg.

And we hope she'll be able to link up with Valerie and meet her fiance -- they're getting married the day before our niece Rachel and Steve tie the nuptial knot in Grand Rapids in May.

Two more tales waiting to be told.

So, our lives have taken another turn, or rather a series of twists and turns. For the past five years in fact. One twist after another; one place of self-discovery followed by a flurry of uncertainty as one door closes only to be succeeded by another door opening. And we are now working on our two-year plan to buy a home in Brittany. Affordable, coastal, and in France. If want to see what I mean:

http://www.moulin.nl/water-mill-france and
http://www.ahouseinbrittany.com/

Once again, another tale waiting to be told.

Hang on folks and keep yur arms inside the car, the ride is just beginning.

Ciao for now, be well, keep calm and stay cool. They were certainly cool at Pascal Pinaud's pastry shop on rue Monge in the 5th:


Thanks Pop for getting me here. You gave me the strength and taught me to realize that the only challenge in life was the fear of putting one foot in front of the other.

Ti amo Papa!

Paris, Macaroon Class, Marie, Philippe and Valerie

A rare thing happened here Saturday morning: we actually set the alarm clock and got up early. Well, reasonably early anyway. The day began overcast but the sun would peek through occasionally throughout the day.

Susie left about 8:30 to head for the no. 1 Metro at Bastille, and she just made her 9:00 a.m. macaroon class at Lenotre as it was beginning. One of the major culinary schools in Paris, Leonotre holds its "recreational" classes (in French only) at the Pavilion Elysees, right along the Champs Elysees and indeed just in front of Nick Sarkozy's place (the Elysee Palace). The class was about three-and-a-half hours long, during which the students made three different flavors of (traditional) macaroons.

While Susie was off baking I grabbed my cameras and headed up to. . . . Pere Lachaise! Surprise! After strolling and taking photos for a couple of hours I walked to the no. 3 Metro and made my way into the city, getting off the no. 1 at Champs Elysees-Clemenceau. Susie's class was just across the street. Here are just a few images Susie took in class:



Plenty of gendarmerie were out on Saturday -- and presumably late Friday night as well as the Pope came to Paris and held a quick midnight mass, followed by services at Notre Dame in the morning before jetting off to Lourdes. Or so we were told. Actually we never saw him so we can't be sure this all happened.

Anyway, I got to Lenotre a bit early so I just sat and watched people and took a few photos of the several million tourists who happened to be walking from Place de la Concorde toward the Arc d'Triomph.

Before long I was joined by my personal pastry chef who had in her hand nearly two dozen freshly baked macaroons. She offered them to a man and his daughter sitting on the bench where I was waiting for Susie and they gladly accepted -- which by the way, was a great way of introducing ourselves to total strangers! But when she tried to give them away to people on the street, even the gendarmes politely said, "No," as if in fact they were saying, "Are you crazy? Trying to poison us or something? Is this an Al Qaeda trick?"

So the four of us -- Jeremy and his daughter Rebecca from "The Bench," couldn't resist the cookies -- strolled along the Champs, eating freshly made macaroons while the huge sweep of humanity remained oblivious to what they were missing.

We said good by to Jeremy and Rebecca as they headed for the Metro and Susie and I strolled through the Tuileries. We walked as far as the Louvre and then headed to Les Halles and lunch at our favorite cafe near Saint Eustache, the Cafe Etienne Marcel. We each ordered the Crocque Monsieur with a side of frites to share.

After lunch we strolled passed Detou, almost next door -- actually Susie did go in and browse baking supplies for a few minutes -- and then turned up rue Montorgueil, heading for the no. 3 line at Sentier. We got off two stops later at Republique, and found our way back to Gouymanyat, the spice shop we had visited the Friday we arrived in Paris.

From there we returned to Republique and the no. 9 to St. Ambroise and home where we unpacked and readjusted our personal baggage, so to speak.

About 4:30 or so we headed back out and down to the Place Leon Blum where we caught the no. 69 bus for Gambetta, for Place Gambetta in fact, and got off just short of that near the Gambetta entrance to Pere Lachaise. It was there that we met up with Marie and Philippe. Philippe, certainly one of the most knowledgeable people in Paris when it comes to the cemeteries in this city, and is in fact a walking repository of incredible information, now lives nearby in Gambetta and gave us a short tour around the Mairie and the Place itself.

Philippe, Susie and Marie

Naturally we stopped at one of the best patisserie in the area, "Sucre Cacao," at 89 Avenue Gambetta. Incredible creativity and variety of treats to match. Prices were, we thought, a bit high.

We soon found a nearby cafe to sit, have caffe and spend next hour or hour and half doing what comes so natural in this part of the world: talk, laugh and just be alive.

Eventually we had to say au revoir. Marie and Philippe were off to their evening's adventures visiting friends outside of Porte Bagnolet, all the way at the end of Metro line 3, past Gallieni in fact -- while Susie and I got on the no. 3 toward Republique and back down the hill to meet up with our friend Valerie.

After playing a bit of metro exit tag -- we had never clarified with Valerie exactly which exit at the St. Ambroise stop we would meet and there were four or five -- we met up on the street. The three of us walked to nearby Blvd. Richard-Lenoir and Blvd. Voltaire and sat and had an aperitif while we caught up on the latest news from the west side of Paris.

The last time we had seen Val she had come to Providence, on my birthday as it turned out, and spent a couple of nights visiting New England before heading west to the wilds of Las Vegas.

After an hour or so we walked around the corner to where we were hoping to have dinner: "Le Refectoire," another Clotilde recommendation. Although we didn't have reservations -- it was Saturday night after all -- they still seated us and we spent the next couple of hours talking about . . . what else but food, particularly the baked and pastry kind.

The service was good -- and I wasn't far off the mark in assuming that our waitress had once fronted local bands. Anyway I had duck breast with a gratin dauphinois, Susie had lamb and Val had fish. The wine was a light red that seemed to suit our needs just fine. Desserts were light, easy on the preparation and not terribly challenging -- particularly for these two women.

The three of us walked out into the late night air feeling its bracing quality for the initial moment after leaving a closed-in environment and realized, again, how wonderful it was to be alive and in Paris.

We walked the few meters back to the intersection of Voltaire and Richard-Lenoir where we hugged and said good night and au revoir. Valerie walked north toward Filles des Calvaire and her Metro, and we turned south and walked home.

Yes indeed. Good to be alive and in Paris.