Day 30–Monday, A Month Later

Sandy added the last bit of yesterday’s blog for those of you who have been awaiting her comments.

We’ve been here a month, hard to believe. Monday is my day off, Sandy has French class. Got our baguettetoday from a tea salon near here called Bread & Roses, 62, rue Madame. Even better than Boulanger Madame.

Today was an architecture day. (Brigitte, I trust you are reading this.) This afternoon, we went to the new library, another Mitterand projet. The 4 buildings, designed by Dominique Perrault, are L-shaped to look like open books, with a lovely park in the middle of them.

We then crossed the river and sauntered over to the Frank Gehry “American Centre” as it was originally called, it’s now the Cinémathèque Française. Has the Picasso-esque three-dimensional structure on the parc de Bercy side and the traditional (or, as the architecture guide calls it, “parallelpieds”) relatively-straight Parisian frontage on the rue de Bercy side.

A few weeks ago, we were at the Promenade des Plantée. Underneath it, along Avenue Daumesnil are diverse boutiques of various kinds, kitchenware, fabric, art, etc.

After dinner at a cheesy, touristy but friendly-enough place (built in 1591 or some such) a friend recommended, Au Vieux Paris d’Arcole, 24, rue Chanoinesse, www.auvieuxparis.fr, we went to a sensational jazz gala at the lovely, old Théâtre du Châtelet, and heard Joe Lovano, Ron Carter and some other great musicians. The two pianists were beyond description.