On my way to the Marche Bio, I could barely make out the Tour Montparnasse but no matter.
On this trip, our days aren’t so structured as they were last when we both had French lessons and I was trying to learn to paint. So each day this time is a little more of an ad hoc decision as to what we might do, where we might go (apart from the gym or the Jardin where Sandy runs/works out on the TRX). Toronto seems pretty remote, at the moment anyway.
We went to an excellent Bob Dylan exposition–L’explosion Rock 61-66–at their Music City, www.citedelamusique.fr, at Parc de la Villette in th19th arr., the northeast corner of the city. (The ethnicity dramatically changes on the Metro the farther along you go that way.) The show finished with clips from the 1965Newport Folk Festival (a year before Sandy was born) showing him singing “Maggie’s Farm” and “Like a Rolling Stone” (translated here as “Comme une pierre qui roule”).
Finished the afternoon back at Odeon with a chocolat chaud from Un Dimanche a Paris, a new tea salon/resto in the Cours de Commerce off Blvd. St. Germain. Pretty disappointing, frankly, so we don’t know what the Paris By Mouth readers were thinking but here is their Top 5 list: 1) Jacques Genin; 2) J.P. Hevin; 3) Un Dimanche a Paris; 4) Patisserie Viennoise; and 5) SIP Babylone but no Angellina!!!! Here is our list: 1) Angelina; 1a) Jacques Genin (close, but no cigar); 2) Patisserie Viennoise; 3) SIP Babylone and the others don’t even remotely make the cut, no doubt having put on several pounds finding this out. I posted a note on the Paris By Mouth website about the injustice of this and they posted back saying that it’s good someone was “sticking up for the sludge.”
Tried to go to a Moroccan resto in Montparnasse but it recently started closing on Sunday nights, who knew? So ended up for another silly dinner at Relais de l’Entrecote (see my sabbatical note on this resto; apart from the wine, the only question you’re asked is how you like your steak?) and came home to find the Jays had lost to the Mets. Poured rain as well but, hey, this is Paris. Meanwhile, I think one of these places (there are 3 here) has opened in Toronto; maybe the famous “secret” sauce is the same?
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- At the corner of Mezieres/Rennes, this place has lineups all day.
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- As you see, shrouded in fog (as is the Eiffel Tower as I write this).
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- Much colour at the Marche.
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- This guy sells tarts, etc. but most people line up for the potato/onion/cheese galettes (think latke with cheese) he’s making here. Part of a hearty breakfast,though not more than once a week, I would say.
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- Photo of Hibbing, Minnesota. They had Dylan’s high school yearbooks when he was known as Robert Zimmerman, of course.
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- The Robert Shelton article in the NYT that really started his rise to fame.
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- The Music Museum itself has a collection of historically important and beautiful instruments like this clavichord (I think). They also have an interactive program/guide that if you wanted to learn about the history of music in a few hours, this would be the way to do it.