Day 74–A Walk, Some Work and Serious French Conversation

We had a slow start this morning. At the gym, Sandy had a dispute with one of the cleaning staff, complaining that Sandy hadn’t put her towel in the right place, odd since we’d never been told there was a “right” place and many other members apparently leave their towels in the locker rooms. Fortunately, no fisticuffs ensued but there were a few tense moments.

Otherwise, no French or art, just work as in law and law-related work.

Across the street, we discovered a Jewish cultural centre; seems fair, after being at the Vaugirard place, across from the Catholic Institute for a couple of months.

We paired an excellent sandwich (on foccacia) from the Fish-owned Cosí, 54, rue de Seine, with a ridiculously-good Burgundy for reasons too complicated to explain and then, after we had each done too much work, went to the excellent Warhol portrait show at Grand Palais, Warhol’s whole point being, I think, that both fine art and commercial art are commodities.

Walked down to Angelina for a hot chocolate. (Jessica, the Pompidou statue is the one we couldn’t find the other day when you were here.)

We see many young children on Wednesdays as they have the Wednesdays off school. Preparing them for a 35 hour work week, I guess. On second thought, living in Paris with a 35 hour work week wouldn’t really be so bad.

We had met the very elegant Christine at our friends’ dinner a month or so ago, and she had called to say if we wanted to practice our French, we should call her. So we did and ended up going to her place in the northern Marais and then to Le Pamphlet, 38, rue Debelleyme, 3rd arr for a challenging but thorougly enjoyable dinner. Christine speaks quickly, like many French although her English is very good. I have to say that this was 4 hours of solid French and I am pleased to say that Sandy probably got 95% of it, I, something less, but enough to take part in the conversation. I guess this is what 3 months in Paris does for you.

PS This particular chef also has a companion, lower priced, resto called Le Petit Pamphlet, 15 rue Saint-Gilles, also in the 3rd arr, but we haven’t tried it and won’t get a chance this trip, I’m sure.