... yup, it's still in business after all these years ...
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Start a New Life
If any of you have a past you want to run away from, the French Foreign Legion awaits you ...
... yup, it's still in business after all these years ...
... yup, it's still in business after all these years ...
Monday, February 2, 2009
Winter Wonderland, for 45 minutes
It snowed today! Apparently we got the edge of a big storm that paralyzed London.
Snow was falling and about a half-inch was already on the ground when I got up to go to the gym at about 8 a.m. (i.e. before sunrise). When I got back, the sun had risen and it had turned to rain and started melting, so the pictures didn't come out all that well, but here they are:
Snow was falling and about a half-inch was already on the ground when I got up to go to the gym at about 8 a.m. (i.e. before sunrise). When I got back, the sun had risen and it had turned to rain and started melting, so the pictures didn't come out all that well, but here they are:
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Still Breathtaking
Even after six months here, sometimes I see something that just takes my breath away:
This is a view from place de la Madeleine, home to some of Paris's top food shops, up the boulevard des Malesherbes to the church of St. Augustine. I was walking around the plaza and just stumbled on this yesterday.
This church isn't even mentioned in my guidebook's chapter on "The Major Churches," which must tell you something all by itself. Maybe there's nothing worth seeing inside, but it's still startling to round a corner and see something like this.
I'm guessing that we have Baron Haussmann to thank for this -- he's the guy who rebuilt Paris in the 1860s into a city of boulevards, and what he seems to have done is just taken the existing landmarks and bulldozed boulevards strategically between them. So you get vistas that you don't get in, say, London, which also has a pretty good selection of landmarks but (for better or worse) never had a Haussmann or a Napoleon III to open up the vistas.
Just something else to love about this place.
This is a view from place de la Madeleine, home to some of Paris's top food shops, up the boulevard des Malesherbes to the church of St. Augustine. I was walking around the plaza and just stumbled on this yesterday.
This church isn't even mentioned in my guidebook's chapter on "The Major Churches," which must tell you something all by itself. Maybe there's nothing worth seeing inside, but it's still startling to round a corner and see something like this.
I'm guessing that we have Baron Haussmann to thank for this -- he's the guy who rebuilt Paris in the 1860s into a city of boulevards, and what he seems to have done is just taken the existing landmarks and bulldozed boulevards strategically between them. So you get vistas that you don't get in, say, London, which also has a pretty good selection of landmarks but (for better or worse) never had a Haussmann or a Napoleon III to open up the vistas.
Just something else to love about this place.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Gone Fishin'
I was in the downtown area near the Opera house today to do some shopping, and I brought along a list of bistros from my guidebook so I would have a place for lunch. That neighborhood has a lot of touristy restaurants that aren't very good so you have to be careful.
All of them were closed.
The French small-business owner has a different attitude toward the profit motive than the rest of us. Most of the restaurants close for at least part of the weekend, often all of it, even though you would think that would normally be the most profitable time.
But here the attitude seems to be that it's not about profit so much as enjoying life. If you're making a good living, why work harder for more money at the cost of time to enjoy it?
That attitude also seems to underlie the "conge," or annual vacation. It's quite common here for a shop or restaurant to just close up for three weeks, leaving only a sign in the window saying "Fermeture -- conges annuels" with the date of their expected return.
In Paris this tends to happen in August, when everyone flees to the countryside and leaves the city to the tourists. In Provence, to which many of the Parisians flee in August, the conges tend to happen in January, as Joey and I discovered to our dismay last week. In Arles, the smallest of the towns we stayed in, we nearly didn't find anyplace to have dinner. Fortunately, the most expensive, Michelin-starred restaurant in town was open and we had one of the best meals of our lives. But it was either that or pizza.
I think it would actually do Manhattanites good to close up shop and move to the Hamptons or Fire Island or the Catskills for the entire month of August. But unfortunately, it will never happen.
All of them were closed.
The French small-business owner has a different attitude toward the profit motive than the rest of us. Most of the restaurants close for at least part of the weekend, often all of it, even though you would think that would normally be the most profitable time.
But here the attitude seems to be that it's not about profit so much as enjoying life. If you're making a good living, why work harder for more money at the cost of time to enjoy it?
That attitude also seems to underlie the "conge," or annual vacation. It's quite common here for a shop or restaurant to just close up for three weeks, leaving only a sign in the window saying "Fermeture -- conges annuels" with the date of their expected return.
In Paris this tends to happen in August, when everyone flees to the countryside and leaves the city to the tourists. In Provence, to which many of the Parisians flee in August, the conges tend to happen in January, as Joey and I discovered to our dismay last week. In Arles, the smallest of the towns we stayed in, we nearly didn't find anyplace to have dinner. Fortunately, the most expensive, Michelin-starred restaurant in town was open and we had one of the best meals of our lives. But it was either that or pizza.
I think it would actually do Manhattanites good to close up shop and move to the Hamptons or Fire Island or the Catskills for the entire month of August. But unfortunately, it will never happen.
On the Road
Up until now, I hadn't spent much time at all on French roads -- I've traveled almost exclusively by Metro or long-distance train. But this past week in Provence gave a good taste of it.
There is an extensive motorway system linking the major cities. The highways are new and very well-maintained. The speed limit is 130 kph, or about 80 mph. Most of the roads are toll roads; by American standards the tolls are a bit expensive (4 to 6 euros, or $5.50 to $7.50, for an hour's drive), but worth it for the quality of the road.
Gas is between $5.50 and $6 a gallon, but the gas stations aren't American-style fortresses; you pump your gas and then go in and pay, without (usually) having to insert a credit card or make a deposit first.
The French love traffic circles, which appear at just about every intersection outside the central cities. This isn't just a weird attempt to ape the British; it turns out that they're safer and cause less air pollution than intersections with traffic lights. It seems we will be seeing more of them in the United States for those reasons.
It's when you get into the cities that things become a bit difficult. French cities, of course, were built long before the invention of the automobile. Many city streets are too narrow for two-way traffic and, except for the major Parisian boulevards, they seldom go in a straight line for long.
The French have tried to solve this problem by copiously signing city streets with signs pointing in the direction of major destinations. And by and large, the system works. But see if you can spot the flaw in this system from this picture:
As long as your destination is on one of these signs, you can get there. But what if you're looking for a specific address on a specific street? Do you see the street sign at this intersection, and even if you see it can you read it from your car?
Look again.
See that little blue thing to the right of the "Clamart/Versailles" sign? That's the street name. And that's about what it looks like from a car. You need a zoom lens to really read it:
So if you're driving in France, prepare for a lot of frustration, circling and extra effort to cover that last mile.
There is an extensive motorway system linking the major cities. The highways are new and very well-maintained. The speed limit is 130 kph, or about 80 mph. Most of the roads are toll roads; by American standards the tolls are a bit expensive (4 to 6 euros, or $5.50 to $7.50, for an hour's drive), but worth it for the quality of the road.
Gas is between $5.50 and $6 a gallon, but the gas stations aren't American-style fortresses; you pump your gas and then go in and pay, without (usually) having to insert a credit card or make a deposit first.
The French love traffic circles, which appear at just about every intersection outside the central cities. This isn't just a weird attempt to ape the British; it turns out that they're safer and cause less air pollution than intersections with traffic lights. It seems we will be seeing more of them in the United States for those reasons.
It's when you get into the cities that things become a bit difficult. French cities, of course, were built long before the invention of the automobile. Many city streets are too narrow for two-way traffic and, except for the major Parisian boulevards, they seldom go in a straight line for long.
The French have tried to solve this problem by copiously signing city streets with signs pointing in the direction of major destinations. And by and large, the system works. But see if you can spot the flaw in this system from this picture:
As long as your destination is on one of these signs, you can get there. But what if you're looking for a specific address on a specific street? Do you see the street sign at this intersection, and even if you see it can you read it from your car?
Look again.
See that little blue thing to the right of the "Clamart/Versailles" sign? That's the street name. And that's about what it looks like from a car. You need a zoom lens to really read it:
So if you're driving in France, prepare for a lot of frustration, circling and extra effort to cover that last mile.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Strike 3, and out
It seems that the strike yesterday was bigger than I thought, although this account confirms that it was not quite as bad as expected.
The link above is the only way to read that article in France, alas; the newspaper printers honored the strike and no copies of the paper were printed or delivered in France.
All is back to normal today; in fact, the Metro was noticeably uncrowded. One wonders if some people took the opportunity to grab a four-day weekend, especially since there are no public holidays here between New Year's and Easter.
The link above is the only way to read that article in France, alas; the newspaper printers honored the strike and no copies of the paper were printed or delivered in France.
All is back to normal today; in fact, the Metro was noticeably uncrowded. One wonders if some people took the opportunity to grab a four-day weekend, especially since there are no public holidays here between New Year's and Easter.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Strike 2!
OK, I've now seen an actual demonstration related to the strike. Here they are, in front of the borough hall for my neighborhood:
As you can see, it's a pretty small crowd, and in an hour-long walk across the center of Paris I didn't see anything else of the sort.
By the way, it's unclear whether the red flag means this was a communist demonstration, but the Communist Party is alive and well in France, as I noticed the other night in downtown Arles:
As you can see, it's a pretty small crowd, and in an hour-long walk across the center of Paris I didn't see anything else of the sort.
By the way, it's unclear whether the red flag means this was a communist demonstration, but the Communist Party is alive and well in France, as I noticed the other night in downtown Arles:
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