Paris 2007 – Our Lastest Trek

Since we were unable to find a concert we wanted to attend while on vacation we decided to go see Sonic Youth the day before we left for Paris, and what a great choice that was. Sonic Youth at the Greek Theater performing their legendary album Daydream Nation. Daydream Nation has got to be one of my all time favorite collections of music by a rock band, This album is one of the first CDs that David and I bought in the eighties, basing our purchase on one of the best marketing reasons – the album cover art – Gerhard Richter’s “Candle”. At the time I felt that Richter’s paintings were some of the best in the world and decided that the music would have to be good – based purely on sight – the weight of the CD case, the simple text on the back cover – none of this phased us – actually I believe this CD came in one of those long rectangular CD-Rom boxes with the “Candle” design printed on the box – I actually think we have it still in our archives. It was good and became better with each play – the soundscapes, the abstract combination of feedback and vocals, deep rhythms – all made for an exceptional collection of music. And soon after purchasing the music I saw a PBS special covering the new experimental music of groups like Sonic Youth and this television piece made the new music seem even more alive. So why after all these years hadn’t we seen the Sonic Youth in concert – can’t say for sure – but finally we got tickets and the tickets although not for the best seats in the house were for an exciting experience of watching Sonic Youth perform the entire Daydream Nation set. The night was fantastic compared to the heat we’ve been experiencing in the desert – cool – almost chilled – had to put our Sonic Youth t-shirts on over our shirts to stay warm. Redd Kross opened the show – had never listened to their music before and really although we enjoyed the music – I don’t foresee us going out and purposely purchasing their music – it just didn’t seem to capture our enthusiasm. Intermission brought on the larger crowd – LA is a city of late arrivals – and I just loved the choice of music for the last song before Sonic Youth came onto the stage – Brian Eno’s Another Green World – I’ll Come Running – my all time favorite. The wait was well worth it – Sonic Youth were vibrant – loud, brash and mellowed – the night air, the chill and of course a cocktail or two made for some very heady sounds and a very pleasant evening for me and Mr. D. (Sonic Youth Photos from Greek Theater Concert: http://www.ecstaticpeace.com/shots/daydream/ ). —————-

With a 7-hour layover in San Francisco – it was a long wait to get on board the Air France plane. And even longer when the plane’s engine filter was acting up and needed replacing – but once in the air we had no problems. I love flying Air France. Yes it is still a plane, but instead of school bus driver pilots with snappish attitudes and waitresses in the sky stewards who are so bored with their jobs they make for a most unpleasant journey – the Air France team is friendly, talkative and helpful, and they understand the need for passengers to wander around the cabin during the 12 hour flight to Paris. And the food – well – what can you say about a flight that actually allows its passengers the pleasure of using actual silverware when served a meal – this does not mean – plastic – actual metal knife and fork, before dinner drink, wine with dinner, after dinner cognac – coffee personally served – fresh water – and actually a very tasty meal for a transport and of course hand passed bread, dessert, salad – two of these meal during the long flight – oh by the way this was economy – not business and not first class – two flights back and forth to Paris on Air France have been pleasant – the United flight and the American Airlines flights sucked big time compared to their EU air competition, even the leg room in economy was better – and the seats – well of course they aren’t the best in comfort – but instead of the back going directly into the next person’s space – the bottom of the seat slides forward and then the back goes down – so as to not crowd the person’s behind you knees. Unfortunately when we arrived in Paris we found ourselves missing a vital part of our luggage – our suit bag that held our suits – okay we had hoped to maybe need the jackets – okay so how do you deal with lost luggage in a foreign country? Obviously airlines loose luggage all of the time and are set up for it, Air France’s luggage officers were in an office right before the customs exit – we waited about a half hour for the next available officer and we described our missing suit bag which is about 30 years old – brown, with both of our suits, shoes and good shirts and pants. We were going to be in Barcelona Thursday and Friday – so no we wouldn’t be around for someone to bring the luggage over – they would call once they had found the luggage – and by the way they did find it – on the next Monday I got a call from the airline and someone brought it around 2 in the afternoon – a bit worse for wear – what can you expect of lost 30 year old luggage – but our clothes were all there – but our plans for wearing them were gone – so we just brought clothes and bag back to the states waiting for another trip. Our apartment on rue du Bourg-Tibourg was perfectly situated – great job Mr. D. In the heart of Le Marias – 6 restaurants down the street – Kodo (29 rue du Bourg Tibourg) one of our favorite places to enjoy a meal, Le Coude Fou (12, rue du Bourg Tibourg directly below our apartment) http://www.lecoudefou.com incredible authentic French meal with absurdly painted murals of families enjoying eating while on other walls there was a painting of a cow with a hatchet plummeted into its body, and a nice chill bar Yono on 37 rue Vielle du Temple (http://www.myspace.com/yonoparis), an enjoyable meal at Le Gai Moulin 10 rue St. Merri (http://www.le-gai-moulin.com) and of course tea at the Mariage Fréres, but I get a head of myself. The space was perfect – a small tight efficient kitchen, a living room with French window opening over the street, TV – the only English TV was SkyNews good awful news casting – I thought for a moment we had been transported back to Fox Shit TV News in America – there really was no difference between the two – opinionated newscasters and critics – making much to do about nothing happenings and ballyhooing the type of tie the PM from England was going to wear to meet the US president. It was a comfortable third story walk-up pad with a large master bedroom above in a loft – stair walkup and bath upstairs. I liked the place after a couple days – but really did prefer the apartment we had the year before on rue Vielle du Temple with it’s courtyard and quiet days, opening the windows on rue du Bourg Tibourg was during the evening quiet loud, but pleasant to hear all those people enjoying themselves. Our first evening in Paris we spent down at the Seine – we took our first obligatory photo at the river – and then proceeded to enjoy the Paris Plage – a festival atmosphere of sand, palm trees, dancing, drinking and eating along the Seine. Tourists and Parisians come out all day long and lounge in the sand sunbathing, dancing in the evening and just walking around enjoying the river. We enjoyed the next day by having lunch at the Cafe de Beauborg and trying to decide how to spend the day since we were leaving in the morning for Barcelona – we decided to walk over to the Tour Eiffel in hopes of walking up to the top as we had never been up there during the summer – we got side tracked on our walk over by discovering the UNESCO building which is being revamped – incredible 60s architecture reminiscent of science fiction movie sets – with water features suggesting a moat with windows and a huge Alexander Calder sculpture. Once we got to the Tour Eiffel we knew we weren’t going to try to struggle through the crowd to climb to the top – we walked back to the apartment coming along the flame of the Statue of Liberty, and the bridge where Princess’ Diane died and many people have scrawled notes on the ramparts of the bridge to her memory. We also found a wonderful statue dedicated to Polish heroes. Then we took a stroll along the canals leading to the northeast section of Paris – hoping to find a bicycle store we could rent bikes to go out into the country like we did the year before – instead we enjoyed a very long walk and a nice meal at a little cafe along the canal. And off we went to Barcelona from Orly. Easy enough get a taxi out to the airport in the morning and get on the plane and arrive in Barcelona by 1 in the afternoon – we had thought about taking the train – but we were looking at an 11-hour train ride compared to a 2-hour flight. Easy getting through security and customs and up in the air and back on the ground before you knew it. We were staying at the Eurostar Grand Marina – my god – it was such a big place and so cruise ship oriented – but the room was great – with one of those really expensive shower setups – head, body and detachable showerheads and a bidet. Very nice. Got unpacked and decided to attack the city without knowing much about it at all. I did know I wanted to have dinner at Con Costa – I had read it was supposed to have excellent food – we made reservations and went for a walk – what a walk. Up the Rambla – a very noisy – tourist packed main street. Soon got tired of that street and headed off to one of the side streets and found a great plaza – La Plaza Real – where we had a great fish meal at Les Quinze Nitz. We asked for a bottle of wine that we thought would be a nice red wine but found ourselves instead faced with a chilled bottle of rose. We both are a bit adverse to American Rose but this bottle of Rose was excellent especially with the meals we ordered. Unfortunately we didn’t expect the humid heat of Barcelona and I began sweating like a pig. Coming across the first of three Gaudi buildings was breathtaking. Casa Batllo from across the street – looking at those wonderful curving lines, tiles and jutting balconies was a dream come true. I had wanted to experience these structures since the 1970’s when I first found a book in the Boise Library covering his architecture – it was during my days of being fascinated with Paulo Solari and Acrosanti. We did not go into the Batllo – the lines looked long and we still wanted to be able to pack into the afternoon La Pedrera and La Sagrada Familia and still be back to the hotel in time to meet the taxi to take us to our reservations. Although disappointed by our time constraints just standing in front of the Batllo was exciting enough – my god the imagination to create this piece of architecture was so mind numbing. We wandered the streets further to find La Pedrera – it stands majestically on the corner of the street – huge and with a state of triumph of time. Built between 1906-1912 the Pedrera had a long line of eager visitors waiting to go inside the building – to take the elevator up to the rooftop and the exploration of the other levels afterwards. The tiles on the ground were incredible – octagons with sea creature lines – each a bit different – and the entrance was through one of Gaudi’s organic shaped metal/glass sculptures – the elevator was hot and sticky – I was soaked through and through. The door opened and delivered us onto the roof of his landscape of chimneys and vents that had a special world presence. I thought my grandmother Grace would have liked this place as Gaudi had used broken glass to texturize the vent covers. The vistas from the rooftop were spectacular views of Barcelona – we could see La Sagrada Familia from the roof – our next destination. Curving lines, tiny tiles arranged in swirling lines covered abstract structures and down we went through the labyrinth of the attack – a brick world filled with museum pieces from the Gaudi collection – we took a stair way down instead of the elevator and found ourselves walking down a cool corridor of sweet stairs that did not break the stride – and curving railings that felt wonderful to the hand. Into the courtyard we exited – a cool dark place where the roof had been hand painted – probably stenciled but beautifully wrought with delicate purples and greens – dark and moody – perfect in this heat – I felt that Gaudi possibly had been influenced by the discovery of the cave paintings of the prehistoric men at that time – the paintings on the walls – the cave like feel of the building. We left La Pedrera thinking we were moving towards La Sagrada Familia but we took side steps and found ourselves traveling around streets that were empty of tourists and felt very much like the residents area – we stopped in for water in a little cafe and finally found ourselves in the presence of that cathedral that Gaudi never finished. Huge. That is all I can say. Huge and very difficult to take in with anything beyond awe. The spires seem to go up into the air forever – and the broad base, the square modernist sculptures, the giant snails slowly descending some of the spires, the fruit sculptures heaped atop other spires looking like Willi Wonka surprises – the back of the cathedral had much of the work Gaudi completed – it was very organic and I felt had more adoration than the front which looked to be part of the continuing construction – they are still trying to finish this great piece of architecture. We wandered around the streets of Barcelona – no we didn’t go into the Sagrada Familia – I couldn’t take anymore in – neither could Mr. D. La Pedrera was exhausting – this is something that we both have learned – there is a moment in our viewing of “art” when the senses get overwhelmed and beyond that point there is no need to look any further other than scanning – I have enough captured in my mind and eyes for the rest of my life I need never see this again. When we go back to Barcelona and we will we will go see the Miro Museum and explore more of the city – but I think we will leave the Gaudi’s for others. Dinner at Con Costa was a beach board walk restaurant and when we arrived we were wondering why we needed reservations – the place was empty but from another couple – but we made the best of it – while enjoying our cocktails the room began filling up with locals – the food was great – we both had a calamari appetizer – each of them different and each of them great – the wine we chose was very rich and flavorful – our entrees arrived when the room was completely filled – the three waiters – there were only three worked the room masterfully – each bringing out to the tables of the locals the fish of the day – actually bringing out the fish for them to inspect and then took it back to be prepared – and once prepared in baked in salt – brought it out and proceeded to uncase the fish from it’s salt casing and serve it up. We actually didn’t need to take a taxi from the Grand Marina to the restaurant and so after our meal we walked back along the boardwalk to the hotel. The next morning we checked out and took the tram from the hotel over to the beach. Oh the water was gorgeous and we sat out on the beach soaking up the morning. We walked along the beach so that we could go over and look at the Frank Geary Fish – a huge sculptural piece over many shops and restaurants. Along the way we ran into many groups of old men sitting around playing dominos with great zeal. Many delightful restaurants lined the beachfront and we chose a restaurant with large red umbrellas that looked out over the beach. The food was exceptional – I wonder did we actually have any bad food anywhere while we were in Europe. I can think of only one evening when the meal was a bit lacking – our last evening – but it was still good – better than most we get here in the states. We caught our plane back and we in Paris by 10 – just in time to see the Roller Blade parade going down rue Rivoli blocking all traffic. Thousands of Roller Bladers glide through the streets on Friday night – escorted by the Police and ambulances – and flares. We had a great tuna pizza at a little restaurant in the square near our apartment. Next day we found ourselves in Belleville looking for the park that overlooks the city after having unsuccessfully tried to book a reservation on the train to Amsterdam on Monday – the train was booked up through Wednesday our last day in Europe – mental note – make sure you make your reservations for the train in the states. We had the tickets for the train but not the reservations. Yikes that cost. The Butte in Belleville had a spectacular vantage view of the city. You could see sweeping vistas of the Tour Eiffel, Arc de Triomphe and Sacre Cour. The park itself was very pleasant. There was this great walk way down to the lower levels of the park that was covered by a very old wisteria grouping that was in blossom – we wandered the park and were greeted by some people – everybody it seemed this trip was very friendly – in the restaurants, in the clothing stores – we are often asked about how we are treated as Americans in Paris – my impression is probably better than we are in our own city. Everywhere you go – into stores, restaurants, etc you are always greeted with a bon Jour, bon Nuit – everyone without exception. For a city/country that has over 50 million tourists visiting it a year – how could they not be friendly to their guests – well in Palm Springs most of the merchants are nasty and belligerent and expect the city residents to foot their advertising – and unless you have a special address couldn’t remember your name from day to day. And they wonder why their shops are empty. I don’t know how many times we have eaten in specific restaurants in PS and the same waiter/waitress comes to the table and acts as if they have never waited on us before – giving us that classic American spiel of “my name is blah-blah and I’ll be your sever tonight” – Christ. Anyway we walked away from Belleville with a new perspective of the city and decided to enjoy a meal at Le Coude Fou – a great restaurant located below our apartment. The food was very traditional – lots of meat and only a few fish plates which we chose – and really enjoyed. Next day was the tour de France. We got to the Champs Elysées about 10 am – we wanted to get a perfect place to see the race. We figured that the place to be was right at the turn in front of the Arc de Triomphe. We found that many people already had the same idea – at 10 am we had to stand behind others who had the front line. It was an over cast day and we brought our rain gear just in case – yes we are die hard fans of the Tour – I don’t get the media and it’s claim that the race is dead and that the fans are fed up with the race – you couldn’t tell me that 1 million fans were upset by the doping scandal – they were there to cheer on the those that completed this test of human strength. What I find especially irritating is the broadcasters who make choices for favorites and when their dandies of the day don’t make the grade – the whole race is a disaster and a mess – please spare me the opinions of the talking heads of Versus TV – the old OLIN gang – a bunch of old farts who are so latched onto the old standbys like Vinokourov – who by god was in the back from the start and they kept claiming he was going to win the tour – and Lipheimer – another poor choice whom they kept fawning over while Contador and Cadel Evans were shining on, I don’t even keep up with the sport that much – but I know you can’t predict anything from the start of the race. We stood 20 deep at the turn – through some rain and a long parade of advertisers – 7 hours of standing waiting for the race to come our way – we were entertained for awhile by the Skoda advertising team painting the Skoda logo on the street – a team of playful men painting each others faces with street paint and having great difficulty getting the heating element to dry the paint in time for the race to fire up. It was so exciting to see the racers race by in the pelaton and the break away speeding ahead of them. When the tour was over you would think that most of the people would leave – but no they were waiting – waiting for what – it seems that at the end of the race – all of the teams get to do a victory lap – they introduce all of their names at the grandstand and they ride as a team up and down the Champs Elysées – and everybody claps and cheers as they ride by – the Germans in the crowd kept trying to get past the barriers to greet their T-Mobile team and the RoboBank team – but the police kept pushing them back – and finally Contador and Discovery rode through – it was great to see the winner do a final lap. We had a great meal at one of our favorite restaurants – or rue de Berri – a little Italian restaurant we have gone to each time we have come to Paris – the food is very tasty and the small tight room is always has a great atmosphere and surprisingly all of the staff is the same as it was the first time we entered the place some five years back. Well since we couldn’t go to Amsterdam we decided to just enjoy the last three days in Paris – we decided to take the Ferris Wheel in the Jardin de Toulleries. This gigantic Ferris wheel gives you another great view of the city. I loved the idea that when you get into the ride there are no belts to keep you in your gondola – you are revolving around high in the air – with an added edge of hey I am not buckled in. Yes it was a bit frightening – but really it was such a gorgeous day we had a great time looking all around us. We then went to the Jeu de Paume at Concorde to see the Pierre et Gilles exhibition. There were some interesting homoerotic pieces that we both liked, and some of the pieces were very campy – we both felt vacant after going through the show – most of the works were kitschy and we felt that they were mainly advertisements – pop art at times is just so tired. I must say the impression we got at the Stella show at the Metropolitan in New York in April and the Serras at MOMA were true experiences of the sculptural form – where these pieces were boring after awhile, but we bought a magazine that covered how they do their artwork so we can remember the show. We had a great dinner at Kodo – which was just down the street from our apartment – drinks, wine and great food and company and then after drinks we were both a bit high and we stumbled our way over to the river and enjoyed an evening sitting on a boar on the water having even more cocktails. We had a great evening. We did a lot of shopping chocolates were purchased at Chocolates Mussy at 8 rue de Bourg-Tibourg, olive oil products were purchased at Oliviers & Company, pants and shirt for Mr. D at Willi’s at 48, Rue Ste. Crois de la Bretonnerie, lots of new French Chanson Nouvelle music at Virgin on the Champs Elysées and wine at NYSA on rue du Bourg-Tibourg. And we had to have a try at tea at Mariage Fréres the oldest tea establishment in Paris – the smells of tea have permeated all of the wood in the building, the staff wanders around in white linen and you feel as if you have stepped back in time. Mr. D had Salad et Thon and I had Salmon fumé and we both tried different teas – I had Olang Fancy 14euros for a pot and Mr. D had Gengis Khan 7euros for a pot, his was very smoky flavored, mine was very smooth. We enjoyed a dessert made with their special chocolate infused with tea. A great experience. All in all a great trip even though we lost luggage and we didn’t go bicycle riding. We enjoyed the time together and had a lot of fun just wandering the streets, sliding into interesting shops meeting people at restaurants, in the shops, tasting new food and enjoying La Plage. We were glad to be back in Palm Springs with all of our luggage. We spent the day after we got back at a birthday party for Bill Healy who turned 90 years old. Wow! His wife Wilma had recently turned 85 and they both are such dears to us – we were very happy to be able to celebrate Bill’s birthday with his family. Vacation over we decided to end the vacation with concert – Diane Krall at the Hollywood Bowl – we didn’t have the greatest seats in the house – but the acoustics were fabulous. She made me cry with her rendition of Case of You by Joni Mitchell and the tears were streaming down my cheeks when she sang her last song – How do you mend a broken heart by the BeeGees – it was a wonderful evening and a special way to end our vacation together. I really enjoy spending my time with my special friend Mr. D. —————- Now playing: John Cale – Walking The Dog (Live) via FoxyTunes