Paroissien’s in Paris

and the rain has started while I was writing – and there is an enormous puddle on the floor – and all the flower boxes on the window sills are loving their drink.  Red and white geraniums seem to be the popular plant this summer – and they are very generous – ask for little water and bloom for months.

Off for a glass of vin rouge and to cook some dinner.     My friend Pat, whom I meet for coffee each morning, is giving me French practice - so I must away and learn a few new phrases although I don’t hold out a lot of hope for an actual conversation.  I took some train tickets back to the SNCF office yesterday – and had to go back this morning to find someone who spoke a bit of English to find out if I had a credit to my Amex account, or a credit to buy more train tickets!!!

A bientot

Barb

And I will tell you about the marshmallows next time…

And the SOLDES (sales) have started with a huge bang – every shop has huge signs across their windows and the discounts are quite extraordinary – sometimes as much as 70%, sometimes less of course, and by the look of the girls swinging along the Rue de Passy yesterday, laden down with bags, they haven’t heard of  the financial crisis!!   The Government sets the start and finish of the Solde and absolutely everybody has a sale – from the huge department stores of Galeries La Fayette and Printemp, to the tiniest shop selling accessories, they all have the Solde.   And I must admit it is hard to resist – you can imagine, that hand bag that was a couple of hundred Euros 2 weeks ago, is now only E100 – how can one resist!!

Well it is sometime since I wrote my blog – so where to start…

We travelled on the Eurostar to London and then train to Uppingham to join Iain and Yvonne, our very good friends of long standing (one can’t say old now!!!)  to help Iain celebrate his birthday.   Yvonne and I met when we worked in Corby, a steel town nearby, way back in the 60’s.   

With brilliant organising, Yvonne had hired a chef to cook dinner – and what a gem he turned out to be.    Nothing was too much trouble – a variety of hors d’ouvres, entree, and the piece de resistance – Beef Wellington.    For those of you old enough, this was the mainstay of dinner parties back in the 70’s and 80’s – an eye fillet wrapped in pastry, and cooked to perfection with all the trimmings.
And of course the amazing meringues and raspberries for dessert.

So a very happy evening for everyone and will be remembered for hopefully many years to come.

After a relaxing Sunday, exploring nearby Rockingham Castle – which Charles Dickins wrote about in Bleak House, Ian and I hired a car and drove to the Cotswolds to stay with Linda and Roger Speddy – we met in Lae, PNG in 1983 and then again in Jakarta a few years later.   And what a treat to find that Maureen and Greg Nairn, also from Jakarta days, were staying.    They had just completed a 5 week cruise from Perth and then a 3 week coach tour of the UK – I felt exhausted just hearing about it.

The guys played golf, we did a little bit of shopping (lovely cashmere in Stow on the Wold) and we did much chatting and drinking of wine.     But all good things must come to an end, and Ian and I went to London for the weekend before he took off for Amsterdam and more work – well, someone has to do it!!!

Gave Regent Street a decent look, and discovered the best Amaretti biscuits outside Italy – in Heddon Street, a little lane off Regent Street. They are  made with almonds, have no flour,  and are chewy in the middle and crisp on the outside.    I have since Googled for the recipe – isn’t the internet amazing!!!

Explored some lovely gardens, open to the public for the weekend,  hidden behind the law courts and Westminster Abbey  and in the squares, ate at Rules, London’s oldest restaurant, saw the musical Le Cage aux Folles – fabulous dancing with the guys in drag, went to the Tate Modern which I didn’t much enjoy, and did a lot of walking.

Back to Paris the next day with Jenny King – who had just had a wonderful trip to Aberdeen for Amy’s friend’s wedding – in a Castle!!! – my apartment will be pretty small after that!!!    Jenny spent the next few days exploring, shopping at Zara - her favourite store,  walking and occasionally getting lost, and certainly getting sore feet.  We even managed to hear Mozart’s Requiem at the St Germain de Pres although the chairs were those little cane ones – prone to make one a little fidgety!!

We then met Amy (Jenny’s daughter) in Aix en Provence – a medieval town in the south of France and home to Cezanne (when he was alive of course), and after a couple of days in Marseille, Jenny and Amy have gone to Nice and I am back in Paris – catching up on the washing and ironing (someone has to do it!!) and getting ready for our last week before returning to Melbourne.

Sally Schonfeld is in Paris tomorrow – so we will have lunch and she will tell me about her wonderful 3 week trip around the chateaux and gardens of France.

I have also just taken part in a course on Memoir Writing with John Baxter, an Australian author living in Paris.

Well, that was very interesting – the first thing he said was ‘stop the blog’ – that’s not writing!!!   There were two other people on the course – Andrea, an American lass who teaches literature but writes poetry, and Brendon,  a chap who has worked in marketing – both of them write so well I will look forward to reading their books in due course.

Memoir writing is not an autobiography nor is it a diary – it  generally revolves around one particular incident or episode in one’s life – eg. moving to another country, or buying a farm in the south of Spain with all its trials and tribulations, or maybe building a yacht in England in the 60’s – the possibilities are endless and the big challenge is to ‘get started’

And as I don’t write the blog when I am home in Melbourne,  perhaps that is the time to start.

So au revoir for now – only another week here and I am looking forward to Melbourne although not that cold weather – see David, playing some golf and mah-jong , and giving Ian’s mum Dot a big hug – we have missed seeing her every day but Jane R has been looking after her really well – for which we are so very grateful.
That is the only drawb

And the SOLDES (sales) have started with a huge bang – every shop has huge signs across their windows and the discounts are quite extraordinary – sometimes as much as 70%, sometimes less of course, and by the look of the girls swinging along the Rue de Passy yesterday, laden down with bags, they haven’t heard of  the financial crisis!!   The Government sets the start and finish of the Solde and absolutely everybody has a sale – from the huge department stores of Galeries La Fayette and Printemp, to the tiniest shop selling accessories, they all have the Solde.   And I must admit it is hard to resist – you can imagine, that hand bag that was a couple of hundred Euros 2 weeks ago, is now only E100 – how can one resist!!

Well it is sometime since I wrote my blog – so where to start…

We travelled on the Eurostar to London and then train to Uppingham to join Iain and Yvonne, our very good friends of long standing (one can’t say old now!!!)  to help Iain celebrate his birthday.   Yvonne and I met when we worked in Corby, a steel town nearby, way back in the 60’s.   

With brilliant organising, Yvonne had hired a chef to cook dinner – and what a gem he turned out to be.    Nothing was too much trouble – a variety of hors d’ouvres, entree, and the piece de resistance – Beef Wellington.    For those of you old enough, this was the mainstay of dinner parties back in the 70’s and 80’s – an eye fillet wrapped in pastry, and cooked to perfection with all the trimmings.
And of course the amazing meringues and raspberries for dessert.

So a very happy evening for everyone and will be remembered for hopefully many years to come.

After a relaxing Sunday, exploring nearby Rockingham Castle – which Charles Dickins wrote about in Bleak House, Ian and I hired a car and drove to the Cotswolds to stay with Linda and Roger Speddy – we met in Lae, PNG in 1983 and then again in Jakarta a few years later.   And what a treat to find that Maureen and Greg Nairn, also from Jakarta days, were staying.    They had just completed a 5 week cruise from Perth and then a 3 week coach tour of the UK – I felt exhausted just hearing about it.

The guys played golf, we did a little bit of shopping (lovely cashmere in Stow on the Wold) and we did much chatting and drinking of wine.     But all good things must come to an end, and Ian and I went to London for the weekend before he took off for Amsterdam and more work – well, someone has to do it!!!

Gave Regent Street a decent look, and discovered the best Amaretti biscuits outside Italy – in Heddon Street, a little lane off Regent Street. They are  made with almonds, have no flour,  and are chewy in the middle and crisp on the outside.    I have since Googled for the recipe – isn’t the internet amazing!!!

Explored some lovely gardens, open to the public for the weekend,  hidden behind the law courts and Westminster Abbey  and in the squares, ate at Rules, London’s oldest restaurant, saw the musical Le Cage aux Folles – fabulous dancing with the guys in drag, went to the Tate Modern which I didn’t much enjoy, and did a lot of walking.

Back to Paris the next day with Jenny King – who had just had a wonderful trip to Aberdeen for Amy’s friend’s wedding – in a Castle!!! – my apartment will be pretty small after that!!!    Jenny spent the next few days exploring, shopping at Zara - her favourite store,  walking and occasionally getting lost, and certainly getting sore feet.  We even managed to hear Mozart’s Requiem at the St Germain de Pres although the chairs were those little cane ones – prone to make one a little fidgety!!

We then met Amy (Jenny’s daughter) in Aix en Provence – a medieval town in the south of France and home to Cezanne (when he was alive of course), and after a couple of days in Marseille, Jenny and Amy have gone to Nice and I am back in Paris – catching up on the washing and ironing (someone has to do it!!) and getting ready for our last week before returning to Melbourne.

Sally Schonfeld is in Paris tomorrow – so we will have lunch and she will tell me about her wonderful 3 week trip around the chateaux and gardens of France.

I have also just taken part in a course on Memoir Writing with John Baxter, an Australian author living in Paris.

Well, that was very interesting – the first thing he said was ‘stop the blog’ – that’s not writing!!!   There were two other people on the course – Andrea, an American lass who teaches literature but writes poetry, and Brendon,  a chap who has worked in marketing – both of them write so well I will look forward to reading their books in due course.

Memoir writing is not an autobiography nor is it a diary – it  generally revolves around one particular incident or episode in one’s life – eg. moving to another country, or buying a farm in the south of Spain with all its trials and tribulations, or maybe building a yacht in England in the 60’s – the possibilities are endless and the big challenge is to ‘get started’

And as I don’t write the blog when I am home in Melbourne,  perhaps that is the time to start.

So au revoir for now – only another week here and I am looking forward to Melbourne although not that cold weather – see David, playing some golf and mah-jong , and giving Ian’s mum Dot a big hug – we have missed seeing her every day but Jane R has been looking after her really well – for which we are so very grateful.
That is the only drawback with travelling – one can’t bring all one’s friends with one.

A bientot

Barb

It’s so frustrating but I can’t get the photos on the blog site – where is Ben when I need him.   

White asparagus is everywhere – I think I have mentioned it – it’s quite different to green asperge – fat and heavy and before cooking (steaming or poaching appear to be the best method) it is really important to peel off the stringy outside layers – then delicious with pepper and butter or a hollandaise sauce – yum.

I have been browsing through a book on French restaurants called “Hungry for Paris” – which you will probably not find in Australian bookshops, but it is a real gem.    Alex Lubrano has been a food writer and critic for many years and last year published his book reviewing about a hundred of his favourite restaurants in Paris – and he has sorted it into arrondisements (areas) which helps a lot when looking for somewhere special to eat close to one’s abode.

But I was interested to read his general introduction about eating in Paris and the French attitude to food and drink.    They are serious about it – and will often engage in a long discussion with the waiter about having a well balanced meal and the wines etc.   And of course coffee is usually an espresso – milk a par (on the side) is okay but don’t even think about asking for skinny milk, or decaffeinated.   The waiters will look blank and just non non.

We were having dinner with friends newly arrived in Paris a few nights ago – when our friend asked for coffee at the end of the meal – in her best French she asked for decaffeinated coffee, half strength with skinny milk separate  (which she described it as Why Bother coffee) – well, our waiter just looked at her and said, non non  madame, that will be like dishwater – I couldn’t stop laughing.     Needless to say, she had black coffee, very strong with full cream milk – like we have got used to!!

And a little bit of trivia.  
Why are pothole covers  (and obviously potholes) always a round shape.    Because the lid can never fall in if it’s round.

Kazakhstan – you  might well ask where is Kazakhstan?  

I have just finished a book called “In Search of Kazakhstan – The land that disappeared” – and what an interesting an very educational process that has been.

The book jumped into my hands at the English bookshop in Paris – WH Smith in the Rue de Rivoli and one of the few shops open on a Sunday afternoon when it’s cold and wet. 

Written by Christopher Robbins, an American and author of both fiction and non-fiction works.

This is an extraordinary book – plumbing the depths of a Russian dictatorship – the Stalin years, the atrocities by the all-powerful Moscow on all its ‘accumulated’ lands, the incredible cruelty affecting people from all walks of life – the amazing strength of character of the Kazakh peoples – they say truth can be stranger than fiction, well this must truly rank among one of the best stories.  
And of course the break up of the Soviet Union which has led to their independence.

Even having read Solzhenitsyn’s – One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and the appalling misery of life in a gulag, one cannot begin to imagine how many millions of people had similar experiences.

I had a friend who lived for a few years in Almaty – I had to look this up on the map when she first moved there, and found it on the far eastern boundary with China.    

To give you an idea of the size of the country, it takes 3 days and nights to travel from the border of Russia to the border of China– a country the size of Western Europe – and just under half the size of Australia -  and yet how much is known of it.

I have seen  photos of a city surrounded by beautiful mountains, heavy snow in the winter and wildflowers in summer  – but it is the Steppe which Robbins describes in so much detail – and which is so difficult to imagine – the extent of the grasslands across thousands of miles –the endlessness of it.

This is how The Times described his book:

“Kazakhstan is the size of Western Europe but so little known that few people can find it on a map.  It was closed to travel by the Tsars and sealed tight by the Soviets.   Cosmonauts were sent into space from here, Gulags built and nuclear weapons tested.    Today, against all odds, it is an oil and mineral-rich independent state that has no enemies”.

They have an amazing President who has developed his country into a peaceful and economically viable place and testimony to the power of mankind to rise against all odds.

Enough of book reviews – we had dinner with friends from PwC in Melbourne last night – Noel and Denise Anderson and their son Hamish – they are enjoying a wonderful trip through Russia, Germany, Holland and now Paris – great to catch up on all their news.

And we are now off to London, Iain Howie’s 70^th birthday and then to see Linda and Roger Speddy – and other long time friends from Jakarta days, Greg and Maureen Nairn – this will be a very noisy few days.

Au revoir for now

Barb

A long day at the desk – completed a couple of blogs, Chartres and Warsaw, replied to a few emails, failed to book some train tickets in UK,  failed to get my photos onto the blog, watched Federer win in 5 sets (against Tommy Haas) and now 5pm and time for a long walk.

Walked along Blvd Victor Hugo, a 15 min. Walk from Passy, looking for a shop which I discovered with Julie Bladon when she was here last year.   And did find it, and voila it was open – has beautiful
French china and porcelain and incredible candles – shapes like cactus plants, huge flowers, even animals – plus of course the plain ones which we prefer.   So mission accomplished.

Walked back to our local cafe for a pastis and watched the French at their best – walking along eating their baguettes from the paper, riding the velibs around the intersection (Jane tells me the only safe way to ride a bike in Paris  is to never make eye contact – just ride – and that’s without a helmet!!!);   then a family stopped at the intersection in their car, grandma proceeded to hand over the cat to mum driving, granddaughter hopes in the front and takes the cat – at least 2 sets of light changes – and no one even tooted!!!

So home again – seeing Marguerite and Robert Marshall tomorrow night for dinner (we met in Lae, PNG back in the mid eighties when our children were very small – how time flies).   Then meting some other friends from Brighton Primary days on Wednesday  and then off to London on Friday – more of that later.

Au revoir

Barb

An hour in the train south west of Paris – and what a lovely old medieval city dominated  by and renowned world wide for its beautiful cathedral – the Notre Dame – a pinnacle of 12^th and 13^th century art symbolising the power of the bishops of Chartres and its population in the Middle Ages and now registered on Unesco’s world heritage list as a most complete and well-preserved example of gothic cathedrals – apparently even bigger than Notre Dame in Paris.

But it is the stained glass windows for which it is so well known, a fine collection illustrating the bible, the life of the saints, the heraldic arms of great families and work scenes.    The work of master stained glass makers in the 12^th and 13^th centuries, it is the particular blue colour which attracts visitors – the blue of “Notre-Dame-de-la-Belle-Verriere”, a radiant blue obtained by colouring the pate-de-verre with cobalt oxide – I’m not sure what that means, but the blue is fantastically  vibrant.  It is also one of the rare cathedrals in France which did not lose its stained glass during the Revolution in the 1790’s, and when the Germans were advancing through France in 1940, they sandbagged the cathedral to a great height and removed all the stained glass – kept in the crypt and nearby caves for safekeeping and then replaced after the war – what an amazing feat.

It has an ancient stone labyrinth set in the centre of the cathedral – symbol of the path leading us from the earth towards God and loved and revered  by pilgrims and lay people alike.  Labyrinths are mentioned in the Da Vinci code of course, and are to be found in many ancient cathedrals throughout France – and probably other old cities in Europe.   This Cathedral is also part of the pilgrims trail which leads to Santiago in Spain – a distance of 1 625 kms – a long way to walk!!

And the town of Chartres is also interesting – medieval buildings constructed of timber and stucco, narrow cobbled streets with the River Eure (which flows through Giverny also) silently and peacefully wending its way through the town, with many of the old wash-houses still to be seen lining the river – where the poor did the back breaking job of washing for  the rich!!   There are of course many other churches and old convents and monasteries and whilst this town no doubt suffered during the war, it is sometimes difficult to know where the old stops and the new begins.      But lots of lovely little cafes and bistros and glorious summer sunshine which has brought out many visitors from all corners of the globe – but oh how I wish I could understand more of the French language.

I would like to return with Ian (he is in Lausanne today) – perhaps on a Saturday when the market is held in the centre of town and there is a guide called Michael Miller, who does wonderful tours of the Cathedral – full of knowledge and anecdotes –( but not on a Sunday )

(I have some wonderful photographs – but with my new Operating System Vista, I have yet to work out how to get them onto the blog!!)

Hopefully I will be in touch with Ben in the next day or two and will work this out.

A bientot

Barb

WARSAW

The essence of a city is its people – and like any big city, life trudges past for some and skips by for  others – walking across the plaza near our hotel,  people are hurrying to work whilst others sit forlornly on the park benches – I wonder what life holds for them – a bite to eat hopefully, a cup of coffee, a few kindly words;   and the man playing ‘sticks’ (a type of drumming!) at the metro, hoping for some loose change to be dropped in his hat – enough for a coffee and a bun maybe – who knows. 
Cars and buses everywhere – with police sirens wailing their way through the traffic as they twist and turn – I wonder where they are headed.   Enough philosophy!!

Impressions:    wide tree-lined boulevards, the Royal route lined with beautiful ‘old’ buildings – embassies and government offices, the whole city  rebuilt  at the end of the war using old photographs, plans and memory, after 75% was  destroyed by the Germans at the end of the war.

Huge park with the President’s summer palace built on a lake and many memorials to the thousands of Jews who were sent to Auchwitz (near Krakow) from here – a very sad time in Poland’s history, perpertrated by the German Nazis.

 Poland is a relatively stable country and does not fear from neighbours, but its history over the last 1000 years is amazing – so many countries invading it and taking bits for themselves –(and probably vice versa – but  at one stage Germany and Russia invaded and divided it up between themselves and it completely disappeared off the world map – incredible.

I have walked down to the Holy Cross Church – in the tradition of the day, Chopin’s heart was removed from his body before burial in ………………. and has been placed in this lovely old church.  After the outbreak of World War II, it was illegal to play Chopin’s music and in fact people were sent to Concentration camps for playing his Mazurkas or Polonaises – so hard to imagine the brutality of those times.   And whilst I referred to it as an ‘old’ church – it looks so ancient, like most of the other buildings in Warsaw, it was only built 60 years ago.

The Old Town was rebuilt in the same way it had been built in medieval times  - lovely market square and cobbled streets, the Royal Palace, and  its traditional Polish restaurants, cafes and shops.    Unesco placed it on the World Heritage List in the 70’s.   

Warsaw’s ‘New Town’ – originally established in 1402 was also completely rebuilt after the war and has many fine buildings – the town hall, opera house, and the Royal route  with its many embassies and  the palace built by Lech Walesa when he was President. 

I have seen many statues – very large and reminded me of the statues found in Jakarta and ‘donated’ by the Russians – very large and very heavy.    
And many beautiful memorials to all the Jews who perished under the Nazi rule.

But,  it’s the Asparagus Season – everywhere, on the blackboard of every cafe, from tiny bistros to large restaurants, they are advertising asparagus – and I must say, it is delicious.    White asparagus is very popular in Europe – but be warned, if you are cooking it, it must be peeled really well first.

I am sitting in a rather snazzy restaurant I read about in The Age in Melbourne before I left called Sense,  and enjoying asparagus (of course) with prawns and a tomato and basil sauce – biggest problem is the height of the tables – they are too high or the chairs too low – my chin is nearly on the table – but I suppose it would prevent the kids from putting their elbows on the table – the bane of my life – and probably theirs!!!

I found an interesting shop selling jewellery in the Old Town – I thought it was topaz, only to be informed that it is Amber – beautiful colours from dark yellows to the lighte pale yellows.    Amber is found in great quantities and in fact is not a semi precious stone but is a fossil resin, derived from extinct coniferous trees which once grew where today is the bottom of the Baltic Sea – 45 million years ago!!    So many shapes and colours – fascinating.

And just across the road from our hotel is the huge Palace of Culture and Science – built in tiers like a huge ‘wedding cake’ and given to Warsaw by Stalin in the 50’s – and according to my guide it is much disliked by the Poles because of its origins – can understand really.      And apparently all of the countries controlled by Russia at that time were ‘given’ one of these enormous palaces – Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria etc.

It is difficult to imagine what life must have been like through Nazi rule and then under the Communist regime – and the struggle through the Solidarity Union to eventually change to a democratic system.    And this writing is just a small snap shot of a very interesting city and I am pleased that I have had the opportunity to visit.   The countryside looks so beautiful but that will have to wait for another time.

So, a bientot for now

Barb