Is our French improving? We’re saying more, replacing one word grunts with utterances more or less resembling whole sentences but the proof – the true test, is in the response. People we talk to in French generally start to slowly cock their heads to the left, develop looks of deep consternation, like they’re trying to push out a cold gherkin and say, “English?”, in a desperate “OMG please stop” kind of way. So…yes, I think so.
There’s a gay bar beneath our apartment in Rue Honore. It’s one of those ones where the steel armour door closes after midnight and there’s a secret password to get in. They’re very polite and always ask after us (there entrance is next to ours) but we’ve opted not to swap passwords at this stage.
Yesterday:
Morning caffeine hit, then off to Place de Vosges…..Actually that’s a lie, we were heading for a motorcycle accessory shop which happened to take us past Place de Vosges. I was looking for a particularly French souvenir and thought a Belstaff motorcycle jacket would be just the ticket…….a reminder that Belstaff were British, made their clothes in Romanian (and that it was 28 degrees) was, I thought, rather beside the point. ….the point being that they’re awesome.
Beautiful afternoon walk by the Seine with a stop at Shakespeare’s bookshop, which we’d not been in before and just loved, little nooks and crannies here and there where you can sit and read, a sleeping cat with a sign, “I’ve been up reading all night please let me sleep”, big timber beams, a view out across the Seine to Notre Dame….and great books.
We went to the St Genevieve library at the Sorbonne, a beautiful space to read and work in however we could only do a tour as there was a queue (for students) to get in – all the desks were taken. Amazing.
A wine and some snacks under the “cherry tree” pub we visited before our walking adventures began (corner of Rue Descartes), the tree now out of blossom, vibrant with new green growth and shading the little square.
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| Cool Barber’s Shop (that’s not me) |
We walked downstream on the left bank as far as the Tuileries, and crossed the river to wander through the walkers, picnickers, cyclists, musicians, joggers all out enjoying the (hot) spring sun. After a catch up back at the ranch we wandered down to ile de cite in the cool of the evening (about 9:30pm now); young, chococlate-coated-face, munching-on-icecream-cone boy, stumbling at speed way past his bedtime, classical guitarist playing on the bridge – people sitting around listening, 40 people deep ice cream shop queue…..home to bed.
Today:
Coffee this morning was stand-up style (6 euro for two coffees and a croissant) with all these macho looking builders in high viz gear getting their pre-work espressos.
Up early to catch some still-water-photo opportunities on the Seine then off exploring all the beautiful “passages” on the right bank; stamp shops, antique books, coffee houses art galleries, beautiful old timber work, mosaic tile floors worn into ruts from hundreds of years of happy shoppers. The “passages” took us eventually to Galeries Lafayette. where we hunted down some (actual French) shoes for Di – very nice. We bludgeoned our way through the massive crowds to the roof top to steel views over the city.
I (jeff) went to a very cool barber across the road from our place that does the whole, head massage, hot towel, razer shave, beard trim thing – beer or coffee thrown in – very cool.
Wandered back to Le Compass restaurant in Rue Montorgueil – best Soup L’onion in the universe – then home. Dinner downstairs waiting for our teams bag to finally arrive from Dubai – which it did – yeh! a wander in the cool evening to find dessert then to bed.
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| Dinner – waiting for bag |
