Index, Digital Pictures
May 2005 & September & October 2005
5/19/05 Objects d’Art
5/22/05 Paris
Interior of apartment, 35, rue de N.D. de Nazareth. The building was constructed sometime during the mid- to late 19th C. From the street you observe the large double doors leading to the interior with, of course, a smaller door for people. It would appear that the building was intended as apartments. From the courtyard we come up one flight of stairs; our door is armored and it is set into a steel frame. When locked it has bolts that go into the floor, the wall and the ceiling. The lock failed one Sunday morning when I wanted to get and almost $300 later it was repaired. 
The water and plumbing in the apartments was added later. How can we tell? Because on each landing there is a faucet, to serve the residents of that floor and, much later, individual systems were piped in. The toilet, in the continental fashion, is in a separate little (very little) closet raised from the floor to provide space for the plumbing. The bathtub and washbasin is also in a separate little room. The floors and walls of the bathroom are in quarried tile as is the floor throughout. This little apartment is very much in style because the beams in the ceiling are visible. This is recent. Originally they were concealed by latticework and plaster. The woman from whom we bought the unit had that covering torn down. The down side is that once exposed, the beams are exposed to beetles and other annoyances.
Dogs. Paris is a city of dog lovers. I have one plus albums of nothing but dog pictures. Dogs in all sizes, shapes and mutations, on leash, off leash, and amazingly behaved. You see them sitting next to the cashier in a butcher shop, in restaurants, in the Metro, almost every place except museums and grocery stores.
Fête de la Mairie. The Mayor of the Third Arrondissement (neighborhood) is very social and encourages all sorts of events. This includes a kind of open house day at the Mairie. There are booths selling all kinds of items: We found chocolate and coffee sold in support of small- scale producers (small farmers). Handmade toys made by delinquents youths of Paris. Jewelry, woven stuffs, books and, of course, food. There was couscous in large quantities. And a little bar selling not vintage red or white wine.
Musée d’Orsay. We had lunch in the restaurant overlooking the Seine, sitting under the great clock.
Paris III, the neighborhood. It was built on the site of the donjon in which Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette were originally incarcerated, then destroyed. The first two pictures are of the Marché du Temple, a great late 19th C covered market of steel. Now an indoor market for sellers of coats and leather goods, occasionally for tennis for the neighborhood schools and, in the Spring and Fall, tarted up for the collections of haute couture.
5/23/05 Plates (XIX c), Islettes, east of France. Part of Colette’s collection. Also her rebus plates. These are plates with rhymes in illustrations. Great fun over the cheese course.
5/26/05 Paris (blank)
9/05/05 Chapel Hill, Ian & Colette
9/16/05 RDU, waiting for our departure, more than 2 hours late and we made the connection in Boston thanks to AAL and a special bus.
9/17/05 Saturday, the Marché d’Aligre, the Aligre Market, one of our favorite places, a little flea market, plus fruits, vegetables outside and a covered
market as well with specialty shops. Much fun.
9/18/05 Sunday, Pictures taken in the Hôtel de Ville, on the “Fatherland” day when historic places were open for free or not usually open to the public.
9/19/05 Saint-Nicolas des champs, at the Arts & Métiers Metro station. It is next to the Musée des Arts & Métiers. Great fun. Things that move!
9/19/05 Our neighborhood park, the Square du Temple. Pictures of one the oldest houses in Paris, 3 rue Volta. There is some doubt as to its authenticity. But it looks real to us. Our apartment building is almost on the corner of rue Volta, turn right and across rue de Turbigo, keep on to end. It is now a little Chinese neighborhood.
9/20/05 9/20/05 Our little Arab (Tunisian) emergency, hole-in-the-wall grocer, rue Vertbois, next to the almost chic restaurant, Clos de Vertbois. The other pictures are of the court yard of the building in which Colette’s parents lived from about 1937 until her mother’s death in 1968. Their former
apartment has changed hands several times since the family sold it; we were told by a current resident it was a “rich young Italian” couple. Everything going up or down had to be raised or lowered by rope.
9/20/05 The bus stop for the No. 20 from the Gare de Lyon to the Gare Saint-Lazare, on the other side of central Paris (beyond the Opera and the Grands Magasins. We go to the Gare de Lyon to buy rail tickets, and coming back the bus goes around the Place de La République, about two full blocks, then up Blvd. Saint-Martin, and this is the stop. From here we cross the street (at the the signal light, of course), then walk up the sidewalk to the Passage Meslay, through it to the Rue Meslay, cross it, up to the Passage du Pont aux Biches (Passage of the Bridge of Deers), down the steps, past the fountain (Wallace, cast iron, an original), cross the street and we are home.
9/22/05 Le Chais (wine cellar), was in the process of being prepared to be open, by an American chap and his wife, across the street from the Arab grocery and the Clos de Vertbois Restaurant. My acquaintance, the real estate agent on the rue Volta, agrees with me that it won’t survive long. They are planning to specialize in the wines of Provence, and under Euro 10 a bottle.
9/23/05 9/23/05 No. 75 bus to the Hôtel de Ville, cross the bridge (Pont d’Arcole) to the Ile de la Cité, and Notre Dame de Paris, then across the bridge (Pont au Double) to the left bank, the Church of Saint-Julien the Poor, then the Church of Saint-Séverin. The young man is Theo Murail who is the half-brother of our grand’nieces, Emmanuelle’s children.
9/24/05 Les Invalides
9/26/05 The Church of Saint-Paul on the rue Rivoli (it begins there), the Hôtel de Sens, the courtyard of the Hôtel d’Aumont, where Colette’s family had an apartment until about 1939 when a reversal in fortunes just before the war forced them to buy their own place at 2, rue du Pas de la Mule.
9/27/05 Magasin Tati, rue du Temple, and its sidewalk shop. The Opéra (Palais Garnier), Gare Saint-Lazare, now principally the commuter station to the west side of Paris, also formerly the boat train to the channel for the trans-Atlantic services. It has piped in music throughout, ghastly! The intersection of Arts & Metiers where the Metro station (one of the three that we can use), and a wonderful reclining nude by Volti.
9/28/05 Musée Picasso, not too far from our apartment, and two of my favorite statues. Statues and pictures in the Museum. Statue, pregnant woman, 1973; Bust of a woman, 1931; La Chaise, 1961, woman pushing a baby carriage; Tête de Femme, 1921.
9/29/05 Across the Pont Neuf over the Vert Gallant looking toward great department store, La Samaritaine, now closed for rebuilding; the boulangerie window of Monoprix on rue du Temple, near us.
10/01/05 Saturday, Rue Saint-Denis, vide grenier, literally empty the attic, a sidewalk garage sale. Great fun. Rue Saint-Denis famous for its special merchandise of prostitutes, not working that morning.
10/02/05 rue de Bretagne, is one of our favorite shopping places on Sunday morning. All the shops are open, butcher, baker, wine, etc.
10/03/05 On foot in the left bank, from the Place Saint-Michel, past the Place Saint-André, eventually back to the Seine.
10/04/05 Major strike, transport workers, teachers, hospital workers, against proposals of the government to cut benefits. Too bad Americans are not smarter! The smoke is from barbecue stands selling toasted merguez, the Alegerian sausages made from lamb (mouton) or hot dogs, served in baguettes.
10/05/05 Rue des Archives is our route to the Seine, Hôtel de Ville, Bazare de l’Hôtel de Ville, and the bus route coming back. Narrow and crowded, and traffic does move deliberately.
10/06/05 Rue des Archives, a little car. Decorated truck. A shop that specializes in antique and gilded clocks.
10/07/05 Gare de Lyon, and the trains south, and southerly directions. It has a famous restaurant, very 19th C, we have never eaten there.
10/08/05 The famous Flea Market (Marché de Saint-Ouen) – fun once in while, in many respects a little threatening because of the crowds, street hawkers selling cheap jewelry, pickpockets. There are different sections – you go through the used and new clothes to get to antiques. Bargains are few and far between.
10/09/05 The train (not TGV) to the center of France where my chums Brigitte and her brother, Gille, Renault have retired. I knew them 40 years ago in the Central African Republic and we have always kept in touch. The Château d’Ainay-le Vieil is near their home in Meaulne. The château d’Ainay-le Vieil (10 pictures), near Meaulne where Brigitte and Gilles Renault live. This moated chateau is still owned and lived in by the same family since the 16 & 17th C. It is spectacular. We walked along the top of the wall, no guardrail, on the interior side and no place for someone with a tendency toward fear of heights! It has a collection of gardens that we did not have time to visit, plus stables. What a life! Roughly translated from the little brochure the history of the chateau is as follows: “A renaissance chateau within a feudal enclosure complete with its moat. In the part lived in by the owners there are souvenirs of Louis XII, Colbert, Marie-Antoinette, Napoleon. The renaissance chapel has murals from XVI and XVII centuries that have been recently restored.”
10/10/05 Another nearby château, the Château de Culans. The Château de Culans is a fortified château, purchased in 1950 and restored and is now home to the owners. The original walls around the chateau were destroyed but the chateau itself was fortified. The towers of the château are seen from the village around one side, then the chateau, its towers and walls seen from the outside. The manor house of the chateau opens into the courtyard, the chapel, and then interior shots. The interior shots with the life-size models were taken on the top floor of one of the towers showing how the men-at-arms lived. Not fun. Note the fire in the fireplace built on top of tiles but under a chimney. The purpose was to heat the water to pour through the holes (les hourds) around the side to discourage invaders trying to put up ladders. Look behind the châtelaine and you will see a daylight from outside.
10/11/05 A TER (Train Expresse Régional), very streamlined and comfortable.
10/13/05 Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, outside of Paris. just outside of Paris, the Château de St.Germain-en-Laye and former residence of the kings of France, now an archeological museum. Colette’s father, Guy Gaudron, was an archeologist and worked here for many years as a curator of the museums of France (one of many, of course).
This is the interior of the courtyard and two pictures of the exterior of the Sainte Chappelle that is now deconsecrated. A sainte chapelle is one that was built to house a relic of the crucifixion of Christ. It predates the one on the Ile de La Cité. The picture of the enormous park is not revealing of other than its size, apparently unchanged since the 15 or 16th C. The last two pictures are the moat, now dry – obviously – with little menuhin stored there.
0/13/05 Interior pictures of the apartment using available light. Not fully successful.
10/14/05 Niort, Vendée, near where our cousin lives. Brigitte has lived there almost 10 years, and is in and out of Niort to take the TGV to/from Paris, but had never actually visited Niort. The donjon (fortified tower) is spectacular. Niort had been a major port until the marshes were drained.
10/15/05 Clisson, where Brigitte’s eldest son, Thierry, his wife and children live. After leaving Clisson, and about 20 minutes later, at exactly 5:55 p.m., in a traffic circle (roundabout) Brigitte rolled to a stop. We learned later the clutch cable had snapped. Brigitte had made fun of my cellular telephone but she was glad we had it then! She called the gendarmerie (like the police) who, in turned, connected her to a garage. Half an hour later we were rescued. The garage did not have the spare part it needed, so the mechanic called Brigitte’s insurance company who authorized a taxi homr. We waited another 45 minutes and then had an hour’s ride in a comfortable new car home. The next day, Sunday, a neighbor lent Brigitte a little truck and she drove me to Luçon to catch my train to Brittany and a visit to Jean-François Robert. 10/17/05 Jean-François Robert, also a friend of 40 years! Lives in a former and picturesque fishing village, Le Bono, and the nearest train station is Auray. Monday is market day in Auray and I’m big on markets. We also visited the Citadel of Saint-Louis that is a major fort that was constructed in the 16th century to protect the great harbor and town of Lorient. It is now a museum with a wonderful collection including Chinese imports from the 16th & 17th century. Jean-François’s father retired as a full admiral in 1940; J-F enlisted in the French Army as a soldier, so active duty in Algiers (1942) as a corpsman, then in Viet-Nam. Returned to France for medical training at the French Army Medical School in Bordeaux (very good), and then returned to Viet-Nam as a physician. When I knew him in Bangui he was a Colonel and commanded the tropical disease health program with which US AID had projects. He retired to Tahiti, then returned to France. He and his wife divorced some years ago. He has an encyclopedic memory, does not drink, loves oysters and good food, and visiting historic spots. His hobby is automobile mechanics, among other things. 10/18/05 No pictures, but I took the TGV to Paris. A TGV consist of 9 integrated cars (no joints) with engines at the front and back, so it does not have to be turned around. At Rennes another TGV was joined to it. Colette was in the second section, so we met after we arrived a Gare Montparnasse, Paris, and took the Metro home.
10/19/05 Paris, the window at Fauchon’s on the Square of the Madeleine, Vendôme, and the Place de la Concorde in a sudden rain, with the Eiffel Tower in the background. 10/20/05 The Opéra Bastille, the mockup of the proposed new School of Architecture, old private manor, the obelisk in the center of the Bastille, we take the no. 20 bus home and see the “shocking” posters celebrating gay and lesbian pride day, the “Wallace” fountain, Passage du Pont aux Biches across the street from the apartment, and motorcycle parking in front of the apartment.
10/22/05 Street market on the rue Charonne
10/22/05 At the German Embassy, Angela and Klaus Neubert’s apartment in the Hôtel Beauharnais. We knew Klaus in Saigon (1970-72), and again saw him in France then in New York and Washington. We tried to keep up with him, and he with us, but the diplomatic mails failed. He and Angela had assignments in Germany, then in Russia, twice in Rome, the third time as Ambassador where we visited them in 2002, now as German Ambassador to Elysée Palace. It was great fun hearing first hand and in detail stories of European politics. The US does come off well. Klaus was educated in Rome (elementary school), Paris (Lycée Saint-Germain), Germany, then Boston (Fletcher School), so he is perfectly quadrilingual plus a very good working knowledge of Spanish acquired through extensive visits to Central America after his mother divorced his father, then remarried a plantation owner there.
10/23/05 Marché d’Aligre, Le Louvre, La Seine
10/25/05 Julien, Antoine, Pierre Balcou, the sons (oldest to youngest) of Colette’s neice, Anne.
10/26/05 Place Saint-André (overlooking Place Saint-Michel), note the little balcony with a folding deck chair, then Notre Dame, La Seine, the Opéra, a Passage, Palais Royal, Place Colette looking toward Le Louvre, Le Louvre des Antiquité, a wonderful building with lots of different antique stores, and Saint- Germain.
10/27/05 Sacre Cœur, Montmartre, and 35, rue de N.D. de Nazareth.
10/28/05 Depart Paris to return to the Chapel Hill, NC., via American Airlines. Take your own food!
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