Some of you have heard me say that one of the joys of
coming to Paris regularly is that things feel comfortable, familiar and stress-free
since I’ve in years past figured out most of the logistical “stuff” for getting
around, the kinds of things I do & don’t want to see/do, etc. So if I want I can just hang out in cafés all
day and read & write, or watch the world go by, or take frequent naps, or whatever. Of
course there are always new things I want to see or do or experience or
eat/drink or learn and other things I want to re-experience, but I don’t have to be running at a break-neck pace every day. Which is good because if I attempted to run I’d
probably break my neck.
Well, today I got to experience a bit too much of that
doing-nothing luxury. After running a
few errands in the morning I came back to the apartment feeling kind of crappy. And without going into a lot of detail, let
me just say that I thought it would be wise to stay close to the bathroom for
the rest of the day. So bang went the
plans (other than napping).
The good news is that I learned something about Paris in
my afternoon of lethargy! Think what you
might about Baron Haussmann ripping up much of medieval Paris in the 19th
century to install broad boulevards and make many other then-controversial
changes, he had significant foresight relative to the city’s
infrastructure. For example, he had two public
water systems installed underground – one, potable drinking water that flows
into taps, the other untreated, non-potable water from the Canal St-Martin and
the Seine that is used to clean the streets (by those nice guys with lime green
brooms in lime green uniforms and by larger scrubber vehicles [some of them
made by my old employer Tennant!]) and flow into the sewers. Read more of the
story in Heather Stimmler-Hall’s blog post (she’s the one who also clued me in
to La Maison du Pastel) here: Dual Water Systems
In the evening I felt well enough to go out for some
salmon and risotto at Café Cassette about a block away. Very tasty, but I could
eat about half of it. And happily, I was close to my home base for luxurious doing-nothingness-for-a-week!
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