The best food in Paris (a very personal view)

Here's the best stuff I came across:
- crépe au beurre et sucre (crepe with butter and sugar) on the Rue Mouffetard
- souris d'agneau at La Forge ("knuckle of lamb with parsley sauce"....a lot better than it sounds)
- profiterols at Louis Vin - (cream puffs filled with ice cream and covered with hot fudge sauce)
- yaourt aux marroniers (chestnut yoghurt as delicious as ice cream made by La fermière)
- crème brulée everywhere (especially cool when they set it on fire)

Getting online in Paris was not so easy.  Never saw an Internet cafe.  Only saw strictly computer centers or computers plus other services.  We use the "qwerty" keyboard but they use the "azerty" keyboard.  At least if you can believe the guy next to me on the plane.  I found the French keyboard too difficult to use.
I tried to get into the Bibliothèque St. Geneviève (pictured below) but it was too complicated to get a day pass.  Lots of things are complicated in France.



So hot here in New Jersey!  Nice and cool here in the Cumberland County Library.  It was a shock to arrive and find temperatures 30 degrees higher than in France.  I really detest hot weather because I hate to sweat.  That is why I like swimming pools, because you can exercise and not notice that you are sweating.

I'm all museumed out

  My favorite pic at the Marmottan museum in Paris was The Tuileries, by Claude Monet.  It captured the sun and wonderfulness of my walk through the gardens a few days ago.  The Marmottan was my last museum for my trip and I am quite tired out.  It cost 10 euros and I got through it in under 45 mins.  Great paintings by Monet and Berthe Morisot and Gustav Caillebotte.  Special exhibition was Marie Laurencin and she is not really one of my favorites.  When I entered the museum you had to have your bags looked into.  "Vous avez beaucoup de sacs", said the guard (You have a lot of bags).  Sigh...just call me the bag lady.

Getting ready to go home.  Calling the taxi, checking in for the flight.  Not too enthusiastic about leaving except to get a REST.  And my pocketbook needs a rest too.  Blow out final dinner tonight.  I might get ALL the courses.  For some reason, I always like what other people order better than what I order.  OK, sometimes, I just order and I don't really know WHAT I am ordering.  My friend keeps telling me they have a really good whatever at le Mouton blanc, where we are going tonight.

I love it when the weather forecast is WRONG.  It was supposed to be raining and cold for the rest of the week, but today there has been rather a lot of sun and NO rain as of yet.  I even got my Vitamin D bath.
15 minutes a day.  I sat on a bench after our big lunch and before I entered the museum.

The best things about Paris

Here is what I love about it...the architecture, the iron work, the scupltures, the chestnut yoghurt made by La Fermiere, the buses, the flower shops!  Today I visited a more obscure museum, the Jacquemart-Andre, thinking I could avoid the crowds.  I was wrong.  Mrs. Jacquemart and her husband, Mr. Andre, collected art and made a gorgeous home with outrageously high ceilings, just filled with art and fabulous furnishings.  It was to create an oasis away from the "foule" (the crowds).  Unfortunately now the crowds are IN the house.
Exhibition of Eugene Boudin, who influenced Monet and who was influenced by Jongkind.  A big rainstorm came so I went into the cafe there and had a $7 Diet Coke (Coca Cola light).

Then I traversed Paris by foot and metro to go visit a previous love of mine.  We spoke rapid-fire French for an hour and it was very pleasant.

Then it got really cold, but SUNNY at last.  Walking, walking, walking...had a croque monsieur at a cafe overlooking the bronze flame sculpture over the tunnel where Princess Diana was killed.  Walking around the traffic circle, I managed to find the bus to get home.  I adore the buses in Paris.  At the bus stop they say how long you will have to wait for the bus.  Then you get on and put your ticket "dans le trou" (in the hole).  Then there is a digital sign telling you what is the next stop and how many minutes it will be until the end of the line.  All this and scenery too!

Notes from Paris

Staying up so late, I can hardly think!  It was still sunny at 9 PM.  Walking so much.  No busses today due to "Manif pour tous".  A manifestation which wasn't REALLY for all, as it was against gay marriage and any form of child rearing by gays (adoption or assisted births).  I was rather astounded to learn that one of the ring leaders with the very odd name of Frigide Barjot, received DEATH THREATS because she wasn't right wing enough.  I came upone this MANIF by accident and went up on a hill in the Passy Cemetery to view it from afar.  I know Manet and Berthe Morisot were buried in that cemetery but I didn't have the patience to LOOK for them.  Many thousands of people were demonstrating on French mother's day.  10 abreast walking down a broad avenue with horns, bells, drums and songs and signs.  Quite FESTIVE for a bunch of heterosexuals!  There were four different groups, I think.  The colors were pink and blue (for girls and boys).  The flags and sweatshirts had a picture of a nuclear family, man, woman and two children.

Up and down the 16th arrondissement today.  Visited home of Honore de Balzac (all in French) and visited address where I lived with an old countess with no money in my students days 46 years ago.

And ate a dynamite mousse au chocolat.  Have accomplished all of my food goals except for losing weight.
According to the scale in the apartment, I have lost 15 pounds in one week, but I know it is WAY off.

It is not easy to use a French keyboard

Finally got online but it is not fun due to French keyboard.  Letters are in the wrong place and punctuation is tres complique.

Je me debrouille vachement bien en general.  I am doing not badly at figuring things out.  I know how to buy a JETON for my 5 minute shower and how to ask for la note better than laddition?  And how to make a phone call from my room and how to get a wake up call.  It is great being able to walk around at night and feel safe.  I am in a nice neighborhood with an artsy movie theater right across the street.

I had my first CREPE au buerre et sucre on the Rue Mouffetard and it did not disappoint!

Well, time is money so I gotta go...

No, I'm NOT packed yet!

Like Christmas, or cooking dinner....my packing expands to fill all the available time.  Here I am online when I still haven't ironed out my products nor my purse.  Getting ready ahead of time is just a foreign concept to me.  But the lack of being ready colors all of my time with a vague feeling of unease and dread.  People say, "Have a great time!" and I just feel inadequate and worried.  Sigh.....  Here I am spending a LOT of money to go somewhere where it is colder and wetter.

Feel like I am going back into the dark ages.  Having a non-technology vacation.  Just a pencil, pen, yellow marker, black marker and a notebook. 

Saw a great play yesterday called Bootycandy.  About growing up gay and African American.  Most of it was hilarious and inventive, with of course some serious, unpleasant stuff thrown in and the required naked man.  There is always something to shock you at these plays I attend at the Wilma theater in Philadelphia.

Distracted driver

Yup, that's me.  Here are some of the things I do in the car...
- Rummage for hand wipes
- Apply lip gloss
- Remove and replace audio books on CD
- Answer the phone or listen to my voice mail
- Look for napkins or kleenex buried somewhere near the passenger seat
- Get out paper and pen and write a list
- Try to get poorly functioning pen to function

Had to stop for a strawberry shortcake today.  Totally wicked, but by the time I get back in town, strawberries may be DONE!?

Book review: Fodor's Paris 2011.  OK, I KNOW it is 2013, but this is the most up-to-date one in the local libraries.  I borrowed this one from the Vineland Public Library (914.4 Fod). I DID learn quite a bit from it and took five pages of notes.  I think my mother told me to never take a library book on vacation in case you should lose it.  I skipped over a lot of stuff on restaurants and shopping.  I can't afford to shop HERE, so why should I do it in France?  And how much effort do I want to go to to get to a restaurant I can't afford?  I think I am more into the if-I-happen-to-run-into-it sort of voyager.  Many helpful things in this book, like the best days to do this or that and that French people are going to be giving me the once over and that they don't like LOUD Americans. Neither do I!  And info on telephone and the necessity of a lot of polite banter when coming and going.  Book includes a large map.  I am going to miss it, but I might buy a more up-to-date book or perhaps even a DIFFERENT book.

What the hell version is this?

I swear these songs change on Playlist.com.  Now I seem to be listening to a version of Halo on which Beyonce cannot even be heard!  I am deleting it right now.



Didn't really understand the name of my new nail polish for this week, My boyfriend scales walls.  So I couldn't even explain it to my Vietnamese nail technician. I looked it up and it is from the Spiderman collection.  This wasn't really what I had in mind for Paris.  The Guidebook recommended just clear polish but that is too extremely plain for me.  They said that French women don't get French manicures.  Neither do I!  I was really looking for a very pale barely white. 

Just registered for the Cancer prevention study 3.  While I was filling out all of the forms was feeling bad cause my memory is so bad and I had to confess that I actually eat very few fruits and vegetables and that I spend an inordinate amound of time SITTING...reading, at the computer and driving my car.  It was all so depressing that I had to come over to use the Internet and listen to music.  Was not really in the mood for exercising.  Especially because it is so HOT and humid today.

Am all stressed out due to upcoming trip(s).  So many undone things.  I haven't finished even ONE of the four books I was supposed to read before hand.  And I realize I am RUNNING OUT OF TIME, to find things, buy things, prepare things,etc.

Audiobook review: Pimsleur basic French.  Finished listening to these 5 CDs in the car.  It was instructional and amusing.  The conversations were silly and dumb with a great emphasis on eating, drinking and shopping.  I did find them helpful for getting the feel for the language, and even though I am fluent in French, I couldn't always get it right.  The pronunciation is the hardest part.  There was a lot of repetition (sometimes TOO much).  I borrowed these from the Vineland Public Library (448.342 Bas) because it was all CDs and no books, easier for me in the car.  Had a great time laughing about the conversations with a friend on a long drive.

I want to eat something right now

An apt phrase for me....learning in the car with Pimsleur.  It is a good thing I already KNOW French.  Don't know how I could do this audio lesson if I DIDN'T know French!  I have noticed that proper pronunciation gives your face and neck a workout.  The conversations are sort of stupid...stopping someone on the street and then asking her how she is.  I am trying to get ready for all of that helloing and goodbyeing and politeness that the French go in for.  It is hard to be on a diet when you are constantly having to say in French....Do you want to eat something?  Yes.  What do you want to eat?  I don't know.  Very good. (see what I mean about stupid conversations?)  WHEN do you want to eat something?  Je voudrai manger quelque chose maintenant! (I want to eat something RIGHT NOW).

Hearing loud drunk people on the streets of Bridgeton.  Maybe every downtown has loud drunk people?  There were some hanging outside of the Millville Public Library the other day.

Heard an oldies station on the radio today.  WIBG?  I thought that was defunct...or maybe it was just on AM and moved to FM?  So, I looked it up.  It seems to be broadcasting out of Ocean City now..... I guess they weren't OLDIES the first time.  WIBG is pronounced WIBBAGE.

About

Wibbage 99 was Philadelphia's original rock and roll radio station, introducing millions of Delaware Valley teenagers to the sounds of Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Motown and much more.

Wibbage FM 94.3 is our tribute to the great Philly station of our youth.  You'll hear retro commercials, jingles and airchecks, but you'll also hear local news, weather and events.  Plus, that great music you know and love!

Your favorite songs from...
The Beatles, Beach Boys, Four Tops, Billy Joel, Herman's Hermits, The Association, Temptations, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Elton John, Van Morrison, Roy Orbison, Rolling Stones, America, Buckinghams, Martha & the Vandellas, Doobie Brothers and so many more!!!

Feeling rushed

Computer time running out.  Don't want to do anything which will take up any amount of TIME.  However, I must write up this audiobook because it is due today!

Book review: A week in winter, by Maeve Binchy, read by Rosalyn Landor.  Seemed a bit too long, but I enjoyed it.  Similar to a recent book I reviewed, this author introduces characters one by one.  By the end you are thinking,, "Stop already!" The end was satisfying and focussed on the first week of customers in a hotel in a mansion on a cliff in a small town in the west of Ireland.  The first characters we get to know are the people who own the hotel and work there.  Later we are introduced to some of the guests who end up there, all for pretty different reasons.  Sometimes we get all the way to that last week and then we go back and meet ANOTHER character and proceed again to the last week, each time learning a few new details.
I think some of the people have dinner at a restaurant called Quentins, which I think was the main subject of one of her other books.  I borrowed this audiobook from the Millville Public Library (AUDK F BIN)

Ugh...what else do I have to say today.  Am at the library, with a few irritating patrons.  A woman talking to herself who was trying to print out an entire conversation between herself and a girl's father, but it was going to cost $16.30, which she didn't have.  Then she had problems emailing or saving it.  So much drama on Facebook.  I can't imagine having much of a conversation at all on it.  Guess I just don't GET IT.

It's a gorgeous Mother's day

Except for the crowds and the large lady covered with tatoos.  Made the mistake of going to Bob Evans and Starbucks on Mother's day.  God...the crowds!  The health club was relatively quiet but I was forced to watch CNN, which is really getting on my nerves.  They announce all of this stuff that you heard about two days ago like it is this fabulous new discovery.  They also give wrong info and pronounce things badly.  It is almost more than I can take to listen to the "news" these days.  After you listen to the latest hostage crises and murders, you wonder how there can be any Americans left living.

Yahoo is acting up, yet I am fearful of "upgrading" to the new Yahoo.  Upgrades usually get rid of several features that I liked before.  Upgrades are one of my many fears.  Here are some more:
- fear of getting a new phone
- fear of getting a new camera
- fear of plans going awry
- fear of being awakened in the night
- fear of going on a trip without a phone or computer

Felt better AFTER my workout than I did before.  Went to work out right after eating too much at Bob Evans.  Now I sit at Starbucks being sorely tempted to get a large mocha cookie crumble drink with chocolate whipped cream on top.  I can only imagine the amount of calories in that one.  Was driven inexorably last night to eat stuff I shouldn't and of course, gained a pound this AM.  Feel kind of hopeless about getting my weight down.  Really hard being here in Starbucks constantly confronted with beverages that our populace consumes with narry a thought about it.

An entire afternoon without a snack

Can I do it?  Ate my lunch early cause it was here.  Nothing to eat all afternoon.  I brought no snacks to work because I am trying to be careful and my coworker apparently is in the same boat.

Practicing French in the car.  Pronouncing things properly gives your face and neck quite a workout.  I need to be doing those exercises anyway to combat the double chin affect.  Then went to get my nails done and the only magazines I could find were Essence, something in Vietnamese and People en espanol.  So I read People in Spanish.  

Working today but hardly working.  Classes are over and exams are starting and there is just not much activity around the library today.

Suddenly humid

Wow, it is going to be over 80 degrees today.  Having a hot flash just thinking about it.  That is getting a bit over my limit of comfort.

I only watch a few minutes of TV each day.  Happened to catch Matt Lauer at the top of One world trade center at the moment the top spire was raised, lowered and attached.  1776 feet tall - is that a historical date or how many people died on 9/11?  We now have the tallest strictly office building in the western hemisphere.  Ain't America great!?!?  Other interesting facts were that it takes the workers 40 minutes just to get to the top to do their jobs each day!  And that the first businesses will get their keys in 2014.  I happen to be going to New York next Saturday.  Must add this to the list of things to do (it is short, so far).  Feel kind of bad that I haven't visited the site at all in ten years.

Book review: Winter journal, by Paul Auster.  I didn't/don't even know who Paul Auster is, but according to a Henry Holt & Co. ad I saw in the New Yorker, he is "one of the great writers of our time".  I did enjoy this memoir...which detailed all the places he has lived (in order) and traveled and the decline and death of his mother.  Also there is a New Jersey connection, which I always like to know about.  And he wrote this when he was 64, about the same age as I am.  I liked the first paragraph - "You think it will never happen to you, that it cannot happen to you, that you are the only person in the world to whom none of these things will ever happen, and then, one by one, they all begin to happen to you, in the same way they happen to everyone else."  I recommend this book.  You can borrow the large type edition from the Millville Public Library (LT 92 AUS).

Book review: Peaches for Father Francis, by Joanne Harris.  In which the characters from a previous book called Chocolat come back to Lansquenet, a small village in France.  There is an interesting addition of an Islamic theme and the push and pull between the cultures.  There is a bit of a mystery about who caused a fire and who is the covered up woman and why has she come to town.    Our heroine, Vianne, returns to the small town to straighten out some things. She gets very involved and has trouble getting back to her life in Paris.   I borrowed this book from the Vineland Public Library (FIC Harris Joanne)

A lot of spawning going on

Attended the re-dedication of the sign for the Fortescue horseshoe crab habitat, the first official horseshoe crab sanctuary in New Jersey.  Due to Hurricane Sandy, the sign was damaged.  There were plenty of horseshoe crabs spawning and we learned the appropriate way to HELP them if they get stuck in the sand.  One should never pick up a crab by the tail.  Pick it up from the side and just orient it so it can get back to the bay.  It was like an ORGY. Up to 14 males can attach to a female to fertilize the eggs. A female typically lays about 25 egg clusters each year.  Each cluster contains about 4000 eggs.  But only a small amount ever reach adulthood.  Some horseshoe crabs live twenty years, but it takes about 10 years before they can mate. Since I can't figure out how to get pics off of my phone, I had to steal this photo from someone in Maryland.



















Rushing today as had to use the Bridgeton Public Library computers.  They only give ONE hour and there is no room to put my STUFF.  But, they are the only library open on Thursday evening.

My trip is coming up and I don't have a plan for taking pictures.  I am getting in the mood to do that.

Bad travel dreams have started

Last night I dreamt that I missed the plane and also that I forgot my suitcase.  Just went to visit a supremely organized friend of mine.  She loaned me some Euros and told me about a few things to do in Paris off the beaten path.  She has many travel purses and a list of what she has done every year in Paris and an ongoing list of THINGS TO DO there.  I am feeling overwhelmed.

It is National Stroke awareness month.  See if the person can SMILE and raise both arms over their head.

I seem to have been catapulted into a position today.  Mostly a figurehead at this point.  Just by hanging around.  Possibility of a part-time temporary job.

Went out for a walk down the street in Greenwich today.  Appreciating the quiet and the lack of traffic.  Soon, the seasons of BUGS will start and I will no longer want to stroll outside.  But, today, great smells and not too hot or cold.

Where I live at, you can't trust NOBODY

Overheard, at Wawa.  I don't really WANT to trust anybody in my neighborhood.  Feel sort of bad about my glee thinking that the dog next door may have run away yesterday.  I saw her out the window with NO leash and NO people.  That night I walked around the outside of my house picking up trash since it was trash night and noticed a LOT of trash on the one side of my house.  Never have I had so much trash before those people moved in next door.  Also saw two big piles of dog shit in their yard.  They don't pick up after their dog.  Must remember to add that to the letter I probably won't have the nerve to send to their landlord, who is a LAWYER.

Not much on my calendar today.  After I get done using the computer, I am going to go home and STAY there.  I need to do that more, but I don't really want to.  Am much more comfortable running around the county doing errands of one sort or another.

A feel good story today about Charles Ramsey liberating the girls from their captivity in Cleveland.  A black man freeing white and hispanic girls being held by a Puerto Rican guy and his two brothers.  Charles said, "I knew sumpthin' was wrong, when a pretty little white girl ran straight into the arms of a black man!" (him)  Americans are so desparate for good news that they stand out in the street and CHEER when they hear some.  The three girls had been missing for ten years or more.

Neighbors from hell

  Looking forward to a trip to PARIS.  Trying to get all of my ducks in a row.
Not sure how I am going to handle all of that WALKING.  I am used to car to house to car to library to car to store to house.  Also I have to resort to WHEELS to lug all of my crap around.  It will have to be a new and lighter me to get around Paris.

Not so light today though.  Gained weight overnight.  Probably cause I ate hors d'oeuvres all day.  Need a new approach for that.  Can't eat everything in sight just cause it is going to be my "meal".  Next time I should try one of everything and only have seconds if it is something HEALTHY.  We had Cinco de Mayo snacks after church and more delicious food offerings after an author lecture.

Boy, do I need a change of scene.  The scene directly around my house is really getting on my nerves.  I have a letter I wish I could send to the landlord of my neighbors.  I haven't written it yet but it details about 10 things they have done to annoy me in the month that they have been there.  Now, I know they are not doing it specifically to annoy ME, but how can people like or not notice trash all over the place and loud dog barking?  I was only home for two hours on Saturday and that d*&^ pitbull was barking for at least one of those hours.

In a windowless room at the beach

My plan for the day was to lie on the beach and then take a walk.  Also spend a few hours in the computer lab at the Ocean City library. And maybe visit a friend in an aging place.   Well, the beach was wild and windy.  I should have been happy as it was beautiful and I was allowed to access it and there was NO ONE THERE!  But I was freezing as I swore never to wear a coat any more a few weeks ago.  I will have to find somewhere inland to get my walk in.

So I came over to the library.  I love this library.  You sit in the computer lab with comfortable chairs and very few people.  They are all well behaved.  Only problem is, there is not enough room for all of my STUFF.  But, hopefully, they still allow you THREE hours on the computer if no one is waiting.  Now, that is more like it! I am always struggling to get all my computer chores done.  It is a never-ending battle.

Actually, this is an "excursion" day.  I need to plan one a week.  Haven't even been able to get THAT in as every day seems to have an event.  Sometimes only one event, but an event nonetheless.  But now I am thinking that I need to schedule TWO excursion days....one for the beach and one for all the other places I would like to go.  Why not?  I AM retired, after all!  I could visit oh-so-many beach towns and get back to my idea of exploring every exit of the Garden State Parkway.  And suddenly, miraculously, my Sprint navigator started working again!  I do have some slight fear that the saleslady at the Sprint store might have signed me up by pushing a button that I never push.  She was trying to show me how to load a picture onto Facebook from the phone.  That, BTW, was NOT successful.  Only a small portion of the picture appeared on Facebook.  It looked good, but was incomplete.  Back to the drawing board on that one.

Vaguely Jesus-y bon-vivant

I love this phrase.  A woman told a story on NPR last night about a plane ride and people who may have thought she was a "vaguely Jesus-y bon-vivant".  That's me!

Stopped by a group of people in front of the municipal building in Millville, New Jersey.  I heard singing.  They were singing a patriotic song.  How nice, I thought.  Then I got a creepy feeling that they were gun rights supporters or something I wasn't in favor of.  Guess I will have to read about it in the paper.

Went to Jim's lunch for lunch today.  It is a very colorful little restaurant that closes down for the whole summer every year.  They have three sizes of rice pudding, WITH or without raisins.  Now, where else can you find that?!

MY most beautiful women

Gwyneth Paltrow was just voted the world's most beautiful woman.  So I thought I would add MY most beautiful women:
- Fergie
- Beyonce
- Jennifer Lawrence
- Queen Latifah

Can't really think of my choices for most beautiful man.  What does that say about me?  Alright....

- Legalos
- Sawyer in Lost
- Brad Pitt in the olden days
- George Clooney

Gorgeous day today.  Weather is fine, plants are blooming, all sorts of purple things confusing me.
I took two walks already today.  I learned at the recent lecture that I should be doing 30 minutes of CARDIO 5 days a week.  So will have a new statistic at the end of each day.  Minutes of cardio over total minutes of exercise for the WEEK.  Yoga and arthritis exercise don't really count for CARDIO.