3rd House Journal

Place St-Michel

[Fontaine St-Michel, Paris; 5/4/07; click to view larger]

We often passed through the Place St-Michel, on the edge of the Latin Quarter and not far from the Seine, on our way back to the apartment. Tourists can usually be found snapping photos of each other in front of the fountain. There are also many cafés in the leafy little plaza. We stopped at one on my first day, still suspended between travel-weary-sleep-deprived and excited to find myself in Paris. We each had a glass of French bière of some kind. We asked for appetizers and were given a tiny bowl of stale burnt popcorn. Eh bien. The beers were tasty and refreshing, and the scenery so very Parisien.

[Place St-Michel, Paris; 4/29/07, about 4pm]

Espaliered

[Espaliered orchard, Luxembourg Gardens, 5/2/07; click to see larger]

Something about this photo makes me think of a landscape site model, like everything is seen actual size (if you click on the larger version), crispy little trees, tiny model people, the camera placed just at table height.

Le Petit Déjeuner Parisien

I came across the delectable Paris Breakfasts while posting about my own breakfasts in Paris after my brief stay. New York-based asrtist Carol Gillot paints lovely watercolors of breakfasts in Paris, but also mouth-watering photos of pastries and other Parisian treats. I also enjoyed her recent photos of little white dogs in Paris - I so wanted to photo all the little cuties I saw during my visit but I was too shy. Anyway, you can dream of croissants and café au lait while you're having your Cheerios and brew of choice at home in your jammies any day just by visiting her blog.

The Sensitive Traveler Finds Peace in Paris

[Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris; 5/2/07; click to view larger]

Paris is a bustling city. When I was there in early May, in addition to the city's residents there were throngs of tourists waiting to get in to various sites. We avoided some of the major attractions, except to walk nearby - Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre - I had no interest in waiting in interminable lines. Montmarte was the most crowded place we went and I couldn't wait to get out of there. My friend J said she loves being in crowds. I don't think it was only the crowds that bothered me - the Metro was crowded, but still interesting to me. Crowds of tourists and tacky gift shops were the combined irritant at Montmarte.

It's also noisy in the city. We stayed on a very quiet street, with shops but no nightlife. Still there was the occasional motorcycle revving down the narrow canyon of the street at night, or someone talking loudly (somehow less distracting when it's in French at least) on their way from a bar to home or elsewhere. At 4:00 or so every morning a truck would clang open its metal doors and make deliveries to the boulangerie next door. One morning the garbage trucks came before dawn. After a few nights of intermittent sleep in the living room on the sofa bed, J let me switch with her and sleep in the interior bedroom. It was definitely quieter during the night, but early every morning a construction crew arrived to chip and chisel the walls of the interior courtyard off the bedroom. What can you do?

Anyway, I knew from past experience that going to a big city would mean a certain amount of overload. As much as I love all the culture and stimulation that a city offers, I was going to need an antidote somewhere.

I found it at the Luxembourg Gardens, a beautiful, quiet park, its visitors as well behaved as the neatly trimmed orchard at one end. We ambled slowly around the pool and gardens in the sunshine and eventually settled on a shady bench in a far corner near a statue of Silenus, father of Dionysus, have a jolly drunken (albeit silent) time with his satyr friends. It was a lovely spot and refreshed us both before we got back on our tired feet (we walked for hours every day in Paris) and headed home to the apartment.

[Triomphe de Silene, Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris; 5/2/07]

As some of you may know, I started a blog a couple of years ago called The Sensitive Traveler, which I intended to be a place to compile ideas and tips and stories for those of us who are sensitive but love to travel. Unfortunately, since I took my full-time job last year I haven't had time to keep it up. But I still live it, whether traveling abroad or just traveling through everyday life. So I'll keep that site up and add to it whenever I have time or inspiration. As always, I welcome your own tips and recommendations for favorite oases wherever you find them.

Time on My Side

[Inside the Musée d'Orsay, Paris; 5/2/07]

Everything looks different with the benefit of hindsight and insight, through the lens of time.

You start to see how things are constructed, the scaffolding - more flimsy than imagined, but remarkably persistent.

Why does it take so long to sort through the jumble? Well, no matter. Eventually, if you keep at it, some things will come together, click into place. Soon you'll have enough to put on shelves. You can step away and see them as artifacts, personal history.

Lèche-Vitrine, Partie Deux: Le Voisin

[J contemplates our neighbor across the street in Paris; 4/30/07]

So if you were writing the script, what storyline would you make of this scene?

Act 2:

[Apartment windows, Paris; 5/4/07]

Parisian Street Punks

[Sparrows at Montmartre, Paris; 5/1/07]

Cute, aren't they? I thought so. J and I were enjoying a bit of peace away from the tourists crowding Montmartre, sitting in a café just off the Place du Tertre. I had a cup of tea and a pain au chocolat (like a croissant with chocolate chips slipped between the buttery layers). These cute little sparrows soon perched atop the empty chair across from us, so I took out my camera. They flew off. I shook some flakes out of my napkin for them. But they were gone. Then they came back, ever so coyly. Watch this slick manoevre...

[Thieving Parisian sparrow team take advantage of tourist idiocy]

The one on the right distracts me by snapping up a flake from my tray while the one the left makes his move and dives under my camera to try to make off with the sizeable remaining chunk of my pain au chocolat - several human bites' worth. I squealed and he dropped it and flew off. Little thieves. I remember, back in March, Dave referring to sparrows as amiable street punks. Got that straight.
 

Window Licking

[Maison Chocolat, Paris; 5/3/07]

Lèche-vitrine, the French expression for window shopping, literally means "window licking." Combine Parisians' passion for food with their passion for elegant window display and you have plenty of windows well worth licking.

[Pâté and wine shop, Paris; 5/4/07]

It's not just food that's displayed beautifully, of course. Clothing and house goods displays are equally eye-catching. These candy-colored men's shirts look downright edible.

[Chemises pour les hommes, Paris; 4/29/07]

Many of my lèche-vitrine photos caught our reflections as we slavered over the displays behind the glass. Here my friend J seems to try on the rose-colored apron!

[House goods shop in/near the Latin Quarter; 4/29/07]

The best thing about lèche-vitrine is that it's completely free.

La Seine-ter

[The Seine and the Ponts des Arts; 4/29/07]

We were continually crossing the Seine, sometimes to get to something on the other side but many times just to be there, to take in the views of the river and the city from an open vantage point. Escaping the confines of the warrens of streets and buildings on the Left Bank where we stayed, your head clears as you stand on one of the many bridges over the river.

Minus the car traffic on other bridges, the Pont des Arts, a pedestrian bridge, is ideal. In the warm weather, Parisians come out in the evening to picnic on the bridge as the sun goes down. We saw mostly groups of young people, probably students, sitting on blankets and sharing wine and various foodstuffs they'd toted along. Occasionally, someone would have a guitar and play it softly.

[Institut de France, from the Ponts des Artes; 4/30/07]

When the sun sets, the buildings along the river begin to glow as their lights come up. The sightseeing boats turn up their lights as well - one of them in blinding fashion, and equally blinding lights course up and down the Eiffel Tower (see below) although those lights eventually subside to somewhat more restrained illumination.

[After sunset, from the Pont des Arts; 5/1/07]

My favorite views of the Seine and its bridges were at dusk.

[Pont-au-Double from the Île de la Cité; 5/3/07]

Bleah...

[Carriage door in the Marais district, Paris; 4/30/07]

Feeling a bit bleah today. Had to resort to caffeine this afternoon to function at work. Really, I love to travel but I seem to always feel like crap when I return, regardless of the number of time zones I travel through. Hopefully it won't last too long. (Also, for the astrology savvy, I do have frigging Saturn sitting on my Moon right now.) Well, working at home tomorrow so hopefully I can sleep in.

Travel stories to be continued...