The Big 6-0 Birthday Dinner at L’Ambroisie! Saturday, 20 June

First, the bottom line: L’Ambroisie lives up to its hype. It was everything I had hoped for, and more.

I’ve wanted to eat here for decades, but haven’t been able to get in for a variety of reasons (reservations required six months in advance until only recently, difficulty booking a table for one person, a bit of a prejudice for native French-speakers and against Americans). But my dear friend and long-time eatin’ and drinkin’ and theatre buddy Dale Halladay persisted and was able to make reservations for himself, his wife Mimi Haddad (another dear friend – I introduced them!) and me. What a gift! I still choke up when I think about it. Many people consider this to be the best restaurant in Paris, and therefore probably the best in France, and therefore probably the best in the world. As I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, it’s one of 10 Michelin 3-Star restaurants (the highest possible rating) in Paris; there are 25 in France and 70 in the world.

It’s going to take me a while to recap the dinner and insert photos, so come back to this blog entry if you’re interested in some vicarious thrills! Meanwhile, I’ll just give you a photo of the interior, a room fit for royalty but which, given the spectacularly gracious service, didn’t feel like a place where we didn’t belong (which is good, since I forgot my tiara at home!). We sat at the round table in the corner, at the back of the picture. As Mimi observed, the food and the place and the graciousness gave us a taste of the heavenlies.

Chefs’ Shangri-La – E. Dehillerin – Saturday, 20 June

Right in the center of Paris at 18, rue Coquillière you’ll find an almost-200-year-old cookware store called E. Dehillerin. It was established in 1820 and sits adjacent to the location of the old fabulous glass and iron “Les Halles” food markets (torn down in the 1960’s after 800 years of operation in that location). All the big chefs in town (and many of us tiny chefs from across the pond) buy their pots and pans and whisks and knives and spoons and molds and porcelain and serviceware and pastry bags and oyster gloves and (you name it!) there. On my first visit to the store in the late 1980’s a salesman by the name of Franck took care of me (you can’t miss him – a tall Frenchman, dark curly hair tied back in a small ponytail). His English was absolutely wonderful, so I asked how he had learned to speak it so well and he told me that he had lived in New Hope, Minnesota for a couple years (there was this girl, you see….)! So we bonded immediately, and to this day he’s the only salesman I let wait on me, assuming he’s not out fishin’ or something. And I tell all of my friends to ask for him when they shop there, and to tell him that Ms. Jacobson from Minneapolis sent them. Trust me, he remembers!

There are other much tidier cookware shops in the same neighborhood, but this old somewhat dusty no-nonsense place with worn floors and wooden warehouse shelves takes the prize! It’s the real deal! Their system is a little confusing: most of the merchandise is labeled with a code and you have to go to one of the price lists throughout the store to figure out the price. Or, of course, just have Franck look it up for you!

I bought just a few items this trip (good news, Leah: the copper cannelé molds were back in stock!) and I told Franck that I wanted to have my picture taken with him since it was my birthday. So here’s a shot of Franck celebrating with his best customer!

www.e-dehillerin.fr

Gearing Up for the Big Birthday Dinner! – Friday, 19 June

Tonight I had a classic French dinner at a place Patricia Wells recommended several years ago, Chez Les Anges at 54, boulevard de la Tour Maubourg. It was great! And a double bonus: it is just about a block from my apartment. It’s getting my palate all prepped for Saturday night’s birthday dinner at l’Ambroisie, a Michelin 3-Star restaurant (the highest possible rating – there are only 70 of them in the world, of which 10 are in Paris) and one I’ve wanted to experience for decades! My friends Dale Halladay and Mimi Haddad arrived in Paris today – we had lunch at Café du Marché, and they are dining with me Saturday night. Whooo hoooooooo! I can hardly wait.

But a few notes about tonight’s dinner.

I ordered a Kir Royale (cassis (black currant) liqueur with champagne) for my aperitif, and its fruitiness was perfect with my first course of grilled langoustines (sort of like our crayfish) with shaved summer truffles and roasted white & green asparagus. The langoustines were absolutely amazingly pure and sweet and warming, cooked to the perfect degree of doneness. The bodies were shelled (but the shells were left on the tails) and sprinkled with just a little oil and some fleur de sel. I've never had white and green asparagus side-by-side, so it was fun to compare them. Both were perfect. The white tasted somewhat like a cross between the mildest possible baby cauliflower and waxed beans. The green had a distinctly stronger chlorophyll (green) flavor, like the most deeply flavorful green beans you’ve ever eaten. The truffles were, of course, mild and as earthy as anything can be and perfect with the other elements. Again, the fleur de sel plus some drops of mango puree and the sprigs of chervil, chives and parsley decorating the plate enhanced all the flavors.

I chose Pauillac lamb for my main course, served with some very creamy pureed potatoes and with leeks that had been cooked in raspberry vinegar and sugar. Wowie zowie! It was delicious, and there was a lot of it! A beautiful red Bordeaux – I didn’t write down the name (shame on me!) but I believe it was a 2005 from the Pessac Léognan region - perfectly complemented the lamb and fixins'.

For dessert I had the strawberry mille-feuille – beautifully caramelized phyllo or brik pastry with Chantilly cream, strawberries, strawberry coulis and strawberry sorbet. It sounds like it might have been strawberry overkill, but trust me, it wasn’t!!! The sorbet was especially heavenly.

Coffee with tiny shortbreads and financiers (almond cakes) finished the meal perfectly. Ahhh…what a glorious and totally underserved privilege to be able to eat like this occasionally. God is good!

www.chezlesanges.com

Calder’s (and Paris’) Circus – Friday, 19 June

Today I was totally entertained and charmed by a very popular exhibit at the Centre Pompidou – it’s called “Alexander Calder: Les Années Parisiennes, 1926-1933” and it brings together about 300 sculptures, paintings, drawings, and toys from museums all over the world, works that Calder created while he lived in Paris from 1926 to 1933. It’s aaaaa-mazing! You may have heard of his “Circus” pieces, a huge set of figures and props made from wire, wood, leather, and fabric, complete with springs and wheels and strings that make acrobats jump, cowboys lasso a steer, trapeze artists fly, lion tamers crack their whip, etc. – they’re all here too.

There is also a film from the 1950’s (long after he moved back to the U.S.) of Calder entertaining some children by playing with his circus. By this time he had played with it a lot, and all of the figures were pretty worn, but it was more entertaining than any video game! My favorite scene was with a very colorfully dressed lady figure standing on a high table in front of a screen while the spring-armed knife thrower tried to throw the knives around her. Of course, on about the fourth try the knife hit her and she fell over. Two medic characters carrying a stretcher appeared from behind the curtain, loaded her up, and took her backstage. What a hoot!

You must ask to borrow my exhibit catalog. You can also view some guides on the museum’s website – www.centrepompidou.fr

I picked a video of the circus – I hope that it’s as entertaining as the one I saw! My nieces are apparently already very bored this summer. They’re also both quite mechanical. Hmmm…maybe Auntie could interest them in a project like this…it might be worth a try!

The exterior escalators and the rooftop of Le Centre Pompidou offer some of the best views of the city. Check out my photos. The plaza in front of the museum is a magnetic gathering space for artists, musicians, tourists, and only a few panhandlers!

Attention, Crafters: Un Jour, Un Sac – Thursday, 18 June

Martha Stewart may have already thought of this idea, but just in case not, here’s a cool project for all of you sewers and crafters! Just a couple doors down the street from my apartment sits a shop called “Un Jour Un Sac.” They sell way cool purse/bag/strap components – the purses and bags are made from paper or plastic or leather or sparkly synthetics or canvas or tapestry, and they all have a couple large grommeted holes on the top of each side. Then they sell a variety of cool colorful vinyl, webbing or leather straps, with lobster claw clasps on the ends. You just insert the clasps in the grommeted holes and – voilà – you have a handbag! You can buy straps to match or contrast with the fabric, to use on just one bag or multiple, whatever.

Their bags don’t have any closure mechanisms. I think I would add zippers or magnetic snaps or Velcro. I might go to the flea market on Sunday to pick up some old tapestry that I could use for this project.

Here’s a photo of the large bag I bought – I went with a neutral color for my first one. Since I’m using a cane here, I decided to buy short double straps plus one long strap so that I can easily sling this over my shoulder – the grommet is large enough to accommodate two lobster clasps. Visit www.unjourunsac.com for more photos and ideas!

Unexpected Lessons Learned @ LCB – Thursday, 18 June

Tonight I took a class at Le Cordon Bleu – “Food and wine pairing- Chardonnay and Cabrernet Sauvignon, France and new world.” It’s what was offered this week in terms of a “continuing ed” class – it wouldn’t have been my first choice, but hey, I always learn something at LCB (even if I try to make people think that I know it all!). The menu consisted of:
• Roasted stuffed baby mushrooms, tomatoes and zucchini and rocket (arugula) salad, followed by tomato granité
• Lamb noisette (loin) with hazelnut and rosemary crust and zucchini/carrot napoleon
• Melon and red berries with fruit/mint jelly

Most of the food was prepared in advance by the chef instructor and his assistants, so he primarily gave us brief descriptions of how the food was prepared and he answered questions. (In a typical class the chef would make the whole menu from scratch, describing all the steps, plus providing historical information, variations on the technique, etc.) With some knowledge of French cooking techniques and good notes from the chef’s descriptions, a girl could duplicate the menu.

The sommelier instructor, with a very impressive résumé of honors and restaurant experience, was challenged to find affordable wines to serve with each course, having been given just the list of ingredients and some hints as to the preparation. He described characteristics of the various wine regions of France and talked about similarities and differences of wine regions in other countries.

I wish that I could tell you more about the chef and the sommelier and about the specifics of the recipes and the wines, but here comes lesson #1: don’t leave your notes on the chair. When I got back to the apartment I discovered that I didn’t have my recipe sheets, on which I had taken extensive notes about the food prep and the wine. I called LCB on Friday morning, and they said that nobody had turned them in. (Why would a cleaning person pitch papers with voluminous handwritten notes all over them???) They offered me another set of the printed recipes/wine info, which is something (but I don’t have them yet), but I’m very irritated that I left behind the most valuable part of the class. I must be getting old or something!

But just a couple more observations and another photo. The first course was the most difficult to pair wine with – tomatoes are notorious “killers” of wine, the three vegetables would independently suggest different wine pairings, a salad containing the very pungent peppery arugula and some balsamic dressing needs a bold wine to stand up to it, and anything frozen (such as the tomato granité) tends to be a palate deadener. The sommelier’s selection of a white Beaujolais (made with Chardonnay grapes) from a highly respected vintner in the southern part of the region was quite amazing. Only about 1% of the wine produced in Beaujolais is white wine, and this one was a winner! It demonstrated its refreshing qualities with the mushroom, it was bolder with the tomato, it was fairly neutral with the zucchini, it intensified the peppery characteristics of the arugula and it exploded the flavors of the tomato granité. Wow!

The sommelier selected a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon to go with the lamb. It was good, but not particularly exciting. However, I did learn something interesting about using a two-step sniffing process to evaluate the maturity of wines. First pour the wine in the glass, spend a few seconds observing the color and the clarity, then stick in your nose and take a first sniff, observing the intensity and identifying various aromas that you can sense. Then swish the wine around in the glass to aerate it and sniff again. If the aromas are more intense at the second sniff, the wine could have stayed in the bottle longer. (Of course, once it’s open you gotta drink it, but this is a way to educate yourself about the aging possibilities of wines from various regions and winemakers – the same grape grown in various parts of the world will have different longevity in the bottle, and of course the vintner’s skill is a big part of the equation as well.)

For the fruit dessert the sommelier wanted to go with something sweet (his rule is “sweet with sweet”), and he chose a French port, served chilled (this dulls the sensation of the higher alcohol content). I say leave the port to the Portuguese – this was OK, but not outstanding. And the high alcohol content could have contributed to me forgetting to triple-check that I had all of my papers when I left the class!

At this point all I have of my notes is what’s in this photo of the main course with the Chilean Cab…sigh….

L’enfant Terrible de la Cuisine Française – Thursday, 18 June

About a year ago I read some glowing reviews of a new restaurant called “Le Soleil” on rue de Grenelle (gosh, I seem to be spending a lot of time on that street!). It was reported to be the in-town twin of a quite decent restaurant I enjoyed several years ago near the flea market on the northern outskirts of town. I looked for it at lunchtime today but at the address I was seeking, there was a restaurant called “153 Grenelle.” I took a glance at the menu posted outside, and it looked good, so even though there were only a couple parties inside I gave it a try!

About halfway through my lunch a somewhat wild looking guy and a genteel looking woman came walking through the long and narrow restaurant (it seats maybe 40 people). He was greeting us few diners and asking how our lunch was. This is rather unusual behavior for a patron, but he did look sort of crazy! He then disappeared in the back and the woman went behind the bar, so I figured he must be connected with the place somehow. Well, I apparently need to brush up on my “Great Chefs of France,” because I later learned that he is Jean-Jacques Jouteux, the owner/chef of this establishment, sometimes called the “Enfant Terrible” of French cuisine! He cooked at a restaurant in Montmarte, then moved to Monaco and then to Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. The Parisian critics here have rejoiced over his return – “the great Jouteux is back” wrote the critic of Le Monde.

My lunch was great. I started with an asparagus “velouté” (a very velvety chicken stock -based pureed soup that has been pushed through a strainer to eliminate all lumps and strings while retaining some texture). It was served slightly warm (great idea!) with a drizzle of crème fraîche and mini baguette rolls.

Then I tried something I’ve never eaten before – seiche (cuttlefish). He served it grilled and lightly dressed with some olive oil, salt & pepper, and fine ribbons of basil. I was surprised when they brought me a fish fork and a steak knife for this course (normally they bring a fish knife, which is broad and dull since you’re not supposed to cut fish, you’re supposed to separate the flakes). They were right, of course, I needed a steak knife. Cuttlefish is the most dense fish (or meat, for that matter) that I’ve ever eaten. Its texture is a bit like that of squid or octopus, its cousins, but this “steak” was much thicker. It’s nice and sweet like scallops but really, unlike anything I’ve ever eaten before. Yum yum! It came with some perfectly blanched baby artichokes, including about an inch-and-a-half of the peeled stem, which provided a nice slightly acidic counterbalance to the dense and sweet fish. Here’s a photo of this strange sea creature.

I just ordered coffee (espresso) instead of desert, and it was served with a plate of complementary mini Madeleines and some very tasty “tuille” cookies. A refreshing glass of the house white wine complemented everything well.

The slate floors, the light grey walls, the lovely linens and tableware, the soft jazz playing on the sound system, and the impeccable unhurried service provided a welcome refuge from the somewhat dusty and loud street outside. It never ceases to astonish me how a small courtyard or the thick walls of a well-designed restaurant can instantly transport you to a different world.

I’ll be back! Check it out yourself if you’re in the neighborhood! www.153-grenelle.com

Up North it Stays Light Longer! – Wednesday, 17 June

I took these photos, sans flash, of the park that sits on top of my metro station, La Tour-Maubourg, at about 9:30 tonight. It stays light pretty late up north here! (Paris is at 48 degrees N latitude; Minneapolis is way down south at 44 degrees N.)


I don’t know if you can see it, but at the left side of the garden there’s a border of lavender that’s just starting to flower! Here’s hoping that it gets real smelly before I leave town on Monday! (You should be able to click on any of the photos in this blog to get a larger view of it.)

A New Standard for the End of the Workday – Wednesday, 17 June

OK, OK, so this wasn’t a workday. I slept in real late, then ate some baguette and cheese and jam and yogurt, then washed my hair with some terrific new shampoo I bought yesterday, then caught up on emails and blogging, then went out to pound the pavement for a couple hours. But I still needed to end the “workday” in style.

And the style was a Leffe (a Belgian abbey ale, served in an appropriately chalice-shaped glass), on tap – a meal in a glass! And as if that weren't enough, it came with a complimentary bowl of chips. I think that this should become the new standard for the end of the workday – of course, drinking it at a sidewalk café in Paris helps a lot, and a girl can’t jet over here every day, but there must be some way to approximate this in Minneapolis! Put on your creative thinking caps, boys and girls!

(By the way, don’t you just love my cute new Paris map pencil case with its sneaker zipper pull?)

Auditory Beauty of Paris – Wednesday, 17 June

Some days I walk down the street or sit in a café with a beatific smile on my face and a tear in my eye (or maybe it just comes across as a goofy grin – you’d have to tell me) because I’m just overwhelmed by the visual or olfactory or gustatory or tactile or auditory beauty of this place.

(I have to say that, in this respect at least, it helps to travel alone – you spend more time looking around and listening around and focusing on tastes and smells and sensations than you do if you’re sharing the experience with someone else. Sharing the experience is great, no question, but it’s also a little distracting, in my humble (but outspoken) opinion.)

Anyhoo, the last couple days I’ve been reminded of the auditory delights of this place:
• Sitting in a café and hearing the delightful faint bell-ring of tiny spoons being placed on saucers - it tells me that I’ve arrived here and pretty much nowhere else.
• Quiet conversations in the beautiful almost “singing” quality of the French language – the room can be full of people, but it’s not loud. I can’t understand what they’re saying, but it really appears that they’re enjoying each other and the art of conversation.
• The Doppler effect modulating the pitch of an ambulance’s singsongy eee-ooo-eee-ooo siren as it’s going past you.
• The city buses have a horn, of course, but when they’re approaching a bicyclist or a pedestrian that might not see them the driver uses a bell sound – ding ding ding ding ding – to signal his presence in a way that won’t make the bicyclist or the pedestrian jump out of their skin. (Of course, motorists aren’t always that kind to each other!)
• The beautiful soft chime of two wine glasses clinking - whether intentionally as people are toasting each other or unintentionally as a waiter places them on a tray.
• Walking past an elementary school (it’s behind closed doors of a building that looks like so many others, so you don’t even know it’s there) when the kids are out in its playground, laughing and calling to each other. Today I walked past “Crèche Municipale” (a public kindergarten in the neighborhood) and a very young child was singing the ABC song, the English version, with a French accent – you know, a-b-c-d-e-f-g; h-i-j-k; lmnop … – even more cute than when a tiny American does it!
• Most motorcycles and scooters are fairly well muffled – not too many Harleys around here! There are a lot of motorbikes, but there are also a lot of bicycles sporting cute little brrrring-brrring bells (roll your r’s when you say brrring-brrring and you’ll get what I mean!).
•The trickle trickle drip drip swoosh swoosh of the plastic lime green feathered brooms of the street washer guys (wearing lime green jumpsuits, naturally) as they dip those brooms in water that has been sent running down the curb from a spigot opened up the street, to wash doggie souvenirs (and other miscellaneous stuff) from the sidewalks. I know that they wash streets and sidewalks in other cities, but here they do it with style!
• Generally, if you hear a loud voice here, it’s an American's (sad to say, it’s as if we think it’s all wide open prairie!). Although, I gotta admit, I went to a very large outdoor pizza joint tonight and it got just too loud for me – people of all nationalities were stretching their vocal cords!

OK, so maybe I got a different kind of tear in my eye tonight!

Déjà Vu, All Over Again! – Tuesday, 16 June

In January a few years ago I stayed in this same École Militaire neighborhood in Paris’ seventh arrondissement. Late one night I went to a café a couple blocks from my rue Cler apartment for a bite to eat. I was sitting in a glass-enclosed, glass-ceilinged area (very pleasant places to be in the daytime when it’s sunny but chilly), which gave me the perfect location to witness a very unusual phenomenon – a torrential thunder-and-lightning snowstorm (I’m sure there’s a proper meteorological term for it; maybe one of you know – thundersnow?!?). Huge wet flakes piled up on the round tables outside the restaurant. When the snow finally let up a bit and I decided to go back to the apartment, I stopped at one of the tables outside and used the snow on it to make a little snowman for a centerpiece. My slightly curmudgeonly waiter knocked on the window and motioned for me to clear off the other tables in the same manner, then smiled and waved goodbye.


Well, today I stopped at the same café, Le Bosquet, and I’m pretty sure that the same slightly grumpy grandfatherly gentleman waited on me! Immediate flashback to the thundersnow! But this time it was a gloriously sunny day, perfect for a glass of rosé, which came with a little dish of herbed olives. Yum! What a way to revive and restore!
The artisan bakery Pain d’Epis is just across the street in this photo – fabulous breads and pastries – it’s my favorite in the area. A great cheese shop, Marie-Anne Cantin, is just about a half-block down the street (a slab of her butter and three of her cheeses found their way home with me today), and a terrific condiments shop, L’Epicerie Fine, is just a few steps farther.

Could we Transplant this Church and its Garden to Minneapolis, Please?!? – Tuesday, 16 June

As I was sauntering down rue de Grenelle today, I stumbled across this church at #147 - I had seen it before but had somehow forgotten it. Its stone appears to have been recently cleaned and restored – I couldn’t miss it this time! It sits in a beautiful courtyard that you can easily miss if you’re in a hurry to get somewhere (ah, the joys of being a “flâneur” – a stroller, a wanderer (even though my mobility is somewhat limited), who is here to “be” rather than to “do”!).

At the front of the courtyard, right on the sidewalk, sits a half-timbered house. Then in a lovely simple garden, tucked among 19th century Haussmann-era buildings (and with the American University in Paris just behind it) you find this gorgeous church. It’s a French Evangelical Lutheran church called Paroisse Saint-Jean. Hmmm...Evangelical Lutheran...I could do that...but it’s only a couple blocks from my favorite Sunday hangout, The American Church in Paris...maybe I could split my time between them...hmmm....

Here are some of my photos of the church and garden, plus one from the church’s website www.eelf-stjean.org

First Clues that “We’re Not in M’pls Any More!” – Monday, 15 June

For many years, I’ve used the “Airport Connection” shuttle service to get from and to the airport. Depending on the time of day, you might have the van to yourself or you might be sharing it with six other people. Which means that you might have a direct and efficient route from/to the airport or you might get to see some new parts of Paris if the driver drops off or picks up another party before or after you! Share, share, share – it’s not always the American way!

For the first time, my shuttle driver was a woman (and a very fine driver, I must say)! She had a sidekick who served as the navigator/front-man/suitcase-slinger/phone-answerer. It worked very well. Other times I’ve been a bit nervous when the driver was consulting a map while driving (or answering the phone or turning around to chat with the passengers). But she could actually pay attention to the driving. The mid-morning hour, combined with the rain and an accident somewhere contributed to big traffic delays on the A3. I left the airport at about 10:00 and was deposited at my apartment at noon – and I was the first dropoff! Good thing I wasn’t in a big hurry! But at least I could enjoy looking at the wild poppies growing along the roadside, check out a bunch of car models we don’t see in the U.S., and take a short snooze or two!

The elevator in my building might be the smallest one I’ve ever seen! I could just barely walk straight in (I didn’t have to shift diagonally). It held me and one suitcase (I had to take two trips to get everything upstairs). The interior is – no exaggeration here – about 30 inches wide and about 20 inches deep. It’s cute, and it’s efficient, and it does the trick, but oh my goodness, what a squeeze! The sign says it accommodates two people. They’d better be VERY friendly!

The apartment is on a lovely tree-lined boulevard called Avenue de la Motte Picquet.
It’s just above Café Max (the red awning in this photo), and a couple blocks from Napoleon’s tomb at Les Invalides. The tables outside of Max’s were filled with businessmen when I got back to the apartment tonight. At the end of the block there's a big flower shop and a posh restaurant/café. My metro station is La Tour-Maubourg - its entrance is in a beautiful little park across from the flower shop. A taxi queue/shelter sits adjacent to the park. Bus #28 stops right outside my door, and bus stops for four other routes are within a couple blocks of the apartment. A Vélib’ rack (Paris’ ubiquitous self-service one-way bicycle rentals) sits outside my door. So many transportation options besides good ol’ shoe leather! Banks, a post office, cafés, chocolatiers, bookstores, newsstands, pastry shops, grocery stores, bars, a mattress shop, hotels, restaurants, an antique watch/clock repairer, the Chilean embassy, a snazzy purse/wallet shop, a car wash, real estate agents, a dance studio, hairdressers, etc. line the boulevard – it’s a village!

Rue Cler, one of my very favorite streets, is a short three blocks from the apartment. Tonight I had dinner under the awning (it was still drizzling a bit) at a café I try to patronize every trip, Café du Marché on rue Cler. My Confit de Canard (duck leg and thigh that has been preserved by curing with sugar and salt, then roasting in duck fat and setting aside to age in the fat, then heated and crisped before serving) with fried potatoes, a green salad, slices of baguette, a glass of red wine and a cup of espresso came to €14.70 (about $20) - yet more evidence that “we’re not in M’pls any more!”

Don’t Like the Weather? Just Wait a Few Minutes! - Monday, 15 June

Back in my hometown of Duluth, the weather taught us to be very hopeful people. We’d say, “Too hot for you? Just wait a couple minutes, it will change!” (Of course, we could only say this in August, but you get the idea….) Maybe that’s one of the reasons Paris has always felt like home to me. Don’t like the weather? Just wait a few minutes – it will change! [Fun fact: Paris is at 48 degrees N latitude, farther north than Duluth at 46 degrees N!]

We descended through thick clouds, and by the time I got outside we had “liquid sunshine” (as my mom used to call it), a.k.a. a downpour. While waiting about 20 minutes for my shuttle it changed to a drizzle, then rain again, then just overcast, then….

But the rain doesn’t seem to dampen Parisians’ spirits. Just outside the immigration hall at Terminal 2E of Charles de Gaulle airport is a fairly dingy “arrivals” hall with a small Illy coffee bar. It’s always mobbed with confused people trying to figure stuff out. The people in front of me were taking forever to find the sugar and coffee stirrers, so the young black man working the bar looked over their shoulders at me and asked for my order. I said “café noir, s’il vous plaît” (black coffee, or espresso), and he chuckled and pointed at himself and nodded his head in approval as he said “noir, comme moi” (or something like that, in any case a reference to “black like me!”). Just the warm and cheerful welcome I needed!

What World Recession??? People are a-Travelin’! - Sunday, 14 June

Northwest Airlines’ direct flight to Paris is now operated by Delta. All 250 seats of the Boeing 767 were full – young, old, families, vacationers, business people, a variety of nationalities. Based on conversations I heard around me, I’m guessing that about half of the travelers were French. As I recall, Northwest used a slightly larger plane for this route, an Airbus 330 that seats about 300, but in any case it’s been a LONG time since I took a totally full flight to Paris! Gotta say the service was efficient, the leather seats comfy, and the woman in the middle seat of my 3-person row didn’t have to climb over me to go to the toilet (she made her husband get up!).

But the guy in front of me felt compelled to fully recline his seat as soon as he could, and left it that way whether he was resting or eating or helping his daughter or walking around the cabin, causing me a bit of discomfort and irritation whenever I would whack my knee into it! So thank goodness for MP3 players – about 2/3 of the way through the flight, I decided to combat the frustration by spending some time with two of my favorite geniuses – Hélène Grimaud and JS Bach. Her first Bach album is absolutely transporting. The high art of the works themselves and of her insightful and passionate performances successfully overcame the minor irritations of my situation! Ms. Grimaud plays Bach’s original keyboard works and also some transcriptions (Busoni, Liszt, and Rachmaninov) with astonishing skill, intellect, power, heart and transparency. Buy a copy of this CD and support one of the greatest young artists around! Heck, buy a copy of each of her CD’s! You won’t be disappointed!

Quick international travel tip: if you want to speed through passport check, use a cane and limp a bit! Hopefully, some of the staff in the arrival area were scanning the crowd for evil-doers. But at least some of them were attuned to people that might need help. They flagged me over and opened one of the crowd-control barriers for me, allowing me to move right to the head of the line at passport check. I’ve often observed a real graciousness by the French towards handicapped people; this reinforces it!