Paroissien’s in Paris

No photos still - but Ben and I will have a session when we return to Melbourne in a couple of weeks.
And we still haven’t been able to work out how to have the date written in the English way, ie dd/mm/year - any ideas anyone!!

And making the most of Ian being in Paris and having a few days off, we went to see the Tiffany Exhibition at the Musee du Luxembourg.   What a find - the stained glass of Tiffany is exquisite - remember the Tiffany lamps which we all had at one stage until they went ‘out of fashion’ - well, these were the real thing plus the many glass vases and bowls - made in the early 1900’s.
Then a walk through the Jardin Luxembourg where they are getting ready for tonight’s big weekend event the  ’Nuit Blanche’  the white night, although where it gets its name is anyone’s guess.    It is the night when they open up 3 major areas of Paris - the Marais, the Butte Chamont and the Luxembourg Gardens for music, food and art (we think).     So we are off later to experience this night of music and food - more in the next blog.

But back in time to a few weeks ago, and my trip to London and Buckingham Palace.  After a successful day’s shopping with Yvonne Howie - we didn’t manage to leave Sloane Square and Peter Jones for most of the day!! my ‘big day out’ was my visit next day to Buckingham Palace.  I have visited many grand houses and palaces over the years, but didn’t realise that the State Apartments are open to the public, for 2 months of the year although the Queens Gallery with its amazing collection of Sevres Porcelain, is open all year, and the Royal Mews.   They are also worth a visit - all the very handsome carriages which are used by the Queen for various functions - the Trooping of the Colour, Coronations, Weddings etc.   and of course the stables and horses themselves must be amongst the best in England.      
The State Apartments are very grand and such a delight to wander through - together with people from all around the world from the many languages one could hear, although I suspect primarily the Commonwealth countries !!!  
There was also a special exhibition on the Royal Tours which the Queen undertook and of special interest to me was the 1954 tour - when such excitement was generated by her visit.  No tv in those days, so newspapers were scanned and magazines horded with pictures of her many outfits and ball gowns and the ladies in waiting etc - to us children it was quite the fairytale.
And my family went into the city early on the appointed morning, and waited for something like 6 hours, sitting on our little camp stools with mum’s inevitable picnic sandwiches, etc, waving our flags and waiting with bated breath for her to drive by - and it was so quick!!!  Still, it is imprinted on my memory as  an ‘important event’.   
And whilst the exhibition itself was quite disappointingly small, it did show her ‘wattle’ dress which she wore to the ball at Government House in Canberra, and the Wattle brooch, given to her by the people of Australia.
So after a cup of tea and a scone in the gardens, I wandered back to my hotel, full of memories of times gone by

So back to the real world.    I was meeting Amy King and Martin for dinner - but my luck was in when I wandered up Bond Street to find that it was Vogue Fashion Night and allthe shops were not only open until really late, but they were all serving champagne!!     What an opportunity - the shoes and matching bag were irrisistible, and to find a pair of black pants which fitted was a real bonus.   
A lovely dinner at Piccolinis in Heddon Street - great Italian restaurant in a really buzzy street just off Regent Street, catching up on all their news.    Amy works very hard with her nursing and is being offered all sorts of great jobs.  (Amy and Andrew started kindergarten together)

Au revoir - a bientot
Barb

No photos still - but Ben and I will have a session when we return to Melbourne in a couple of weeks.
And we still haven’t been able to work out how to have the date written in the English way, ie dd/mm/year - any ideas anyone!!

This blog will be in no particular chronological order, beginning with yesterday when Ian and visited the new Renoir Exhibition at the Grand Palais - a beautiful glass building, circa mid 19th century, and situated at the end of the Champs Elysee just where the Tuillerie Gardens begin.
Were a bit clever this time and bought the tickets on-line - and saved the eternal french queueing.   And in true French fashion, the exhibition was fabulous, mainly focussing on the later works of Renoir - the first half of the 20th centure.   He died in 1919 so was painting at the same time as Monet, and the Impressionists, although totally different work of course.

Then lunch across at the Petit Palais - another grand Musee which has some beautiful works of art and is also free.

Beautiful sunny afternoon, with the hint of Autumn in the air, so we walked along  the rarefied air of rue Montaigne with its famous boutiques of Chanel and Dior, Gucci, and Givenchy, enjoying a chocolate chaud at a little cafe before taking the metro back to Passy.

And making the most of Ian being in Paris and having a few days off, we went to see the Tiffany Exhibition at the Musee du Luxembourg.   What a find - the stained glass of Tiffany is exquisite - remember the Tiffany lamps which we all had at one stage until they went ‘out of fashion’ - well, these were the real thing plus the many glass vases and bowls - made in the early 1900’s.
Then a walk through the Jardin Luxembourg where they are getting ready for tonight’s big weekend event the  ‘Nuit Blanche’  the white night, although where it gets its name is anyone’s guess.    It is the night when they open up 3 major areas of Paris - the Marais, the Butte Chamont and the Luxembourg Gardens for music, food and art (we think).     So we are off later to experience this night of music and food - more in the next blog.

But back in time to a few weeks ago, and my trip to London and Buckingham Palace.  After a successful day’s shopping with Yvonne Howie - we didn’t manage to leave Sloane Square and Peter Jones for most of the day!! my ‘big day out’ was my visit next day to Buckingham Palace.  I have visited many grand houses and palaces over the years, but didn’t realise that the State Apartments are open to the public, for 2 months of the year although the Queens Gallery with its amazing collection of Sevres Porcelain, is open all year, and the Royal Mews.   They are also worth a visit - all the very handsome carriages which are used by the Queen for various functions - the Trooping of the Colour, Coronations, Weddings etc.   and of course the stables and horses themselves must be amongst the best in England.      
The State Apartments are very grand and such a delight to wander through - together with people from all around the world from the many languages one could hear, although I suspect primarily the Commonwealth countries !!!  
There was also a special exhibition on the Royal Tours which the Queen undertook and of special interest to me was the 1954 tour - when such excitement was generated by her visit.  No tv in those days, so newspapers were scanned and magazines horded with pictures of her many outfits and ball gowns and the ladies in waiting etc - to us children it was quite the fairytale.
And my family went into the city early on the appointed morning, and waited for something like 6 hours, sitting on our little camp stools with mum’s inevitable picnic sandwiches, etc, waving our flags and waiting with bated breath for her to drive by - and it was so quick!!!  Still, it is imprinted on my memory as  an ‘important event’.   
And whilst the exhibition itself was quite disappointingly small, it did show her ‘wattle’ dress which she wore to the ball at Government House in Canberra, and the Wattle brooch, given to her by the people of Australia.
So after a cup of tea and a scone in the gardens, I wandered back to my hotel, full of memories of times gone by.

So back to the real world.    I was meeting Amy King and Martin for dinner - but my luck was in when I wandered up Bond Street to find that it was Vogue Fashion Night and allthe shops were not only open until really late, but they were all serving champagne!!     What an opportunity - the shoes and matching bag were irrisistible, and to find a pair of black pants which fitted was a real bonus.   
A lovely dinner at Piccolinis in Heddon Street - great Italian restaurant in a really buzzy street just off Regent Street, catching up on all their news.    Amy works very hard with her nursing and is being offered all sorts of great jobs.  (Amy and Andrew started kindergarten together)

Well, I think tha will do for now - we are just putting on some warm clothes ready for our night of music and who knows…..

Au revoir - a bientot
Barb

It’s just a week since we arrived back in Paris –  and what is quite miraculous is the ease of our arrival at Charles de Gaulle airport – plane touched down at 6.00am and within 30 minutes we were through Immigration, had collected our luggage and were in a taxi rolling towards Passy on a quiet Saturday morning, when the French are still only thinking about waking, the cleaners have already been around washing the streets, and the Boulangeries are getting ready for the Saturday morning onslaught as everyone strolls down to pick up their baguettes and croissants for their late morning petit dejeuner.

Our apartment is just as we left it  and even the geraniums are still blooming despite all the hot and dry weather.

Weather has been glorious – late summer with a few very hot days when everyone swelters and makes for the department stores or the river – very little airconditioning in apartments in Paris and certainly the Metro does not run to such luxury – just a few open windows – and imagine a crowded train and you can imagine how stifling it can get.   

But now it’s autumn although officially it doesn’t start in Paris until 22 September -  or maybe it’s the Northern Hemisphere but already the leaves are beginning to fall from the glorious Horse Chestnut trees which line many of the avenues, the cemeteries and the River Seine, clogging up the drains and making the paths  gloriously squishy, albeit slippery and messy.  Still, along will come some of the special green clothed street cleaners with their brooms, ready to clean up after nature and the Parissiens.

A quick update on the boys.

David is enjoying his work with Asialink (attached to University of Melbourne), working specifically in their Leadership course and the Mental Health areas.    Has just had a big conference with reps from many of the Asian countries – amazing what projects are carried out by so many different organisations which we really never hear about.

Andrew and his girlfriend Beth are in Central America – on a BIG adventure.    If you are interested his blog site is http://journals.worldnomads.com/para .     They have so far travelled around Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Honduras and are now in Guatemala – learning Spanish in the mornings and teaching English to underprivileged children in the afternoons.    They have had many adventures, especially their experience with a school in Honduras.   Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately!) we only hear intemittantly when they either find an internet cafe or the phone card ‘works’!!    My biggest challenge is not saying anything about the difference between ‘quite’ and quiet’ on his Comment blog.!!

Jill and Bob McDonald have hit Paris with daughter Fee – they have a great apartment in the Place de la Madeleine – so central to everything, and especially the shops – they are in all directions!!!

Jill and I have just had a very pleasant morning in Le Bon Marche checking out all the fab winter fashions.     We have enjoyed a great Italian meal together and explored around my favourite spots in St Germaine.

Ian is off to Sweden next week so I have opted for a few days in London – and have bought a ticket for “A Royal Day Out’ at Buckingham Palace – I know, groan groan, but having been bought up surrounded by books of the Royals, I am looking forward to exploring the State Apartments, the Royal Mews and the new exhibition of The Royal Tours.    Some of you may remember when the Queen came to Melb. In 1954 – my family waited for hours outside the Prince Henry’s hospital in St Kilda Road – and how exciting it was when she waved to us from her car – yes, we were quite sure she actually waved at US!!!   They are having a special Exhibition of all her tours – with the clothes she wore and the gifts she received.  Shall also catch up with Amy King and Martin, and stay with my friend of many years Yvonne – we will ‘do the shops’ in Regent Street for a few hours!!!

Then the week after I am off to Berlin to meet up with Diana Wolowski for a few days exploring that city – Andrew and Ian spent time there just before we came to Paris last year, and really loved the city and its history – so looking forward to that.

Otherwise, life goes on – we have just been to the fabulous market in Avenue President Wilson – grapes, strawberries and raspberries were high on the list plus Ian’s ingredients for Sunday night’s risotto.    Ian has also discovered the secret to cooking our favourite magret canard – duck, and I have found a recipe for a delicious sauce to complement it – stock, vinegar, sugar and ginger honey – easy, simple and tasty.

 Then over to the American Library for a book sale – and walked back under the Eiffel Tower where the crowds are  lined up for hundreds of metres – high tourist season here.

We are off to explore some art galleries in the Avenue Matignon – however found them all closed on this Saturday afternoon so back to the Champs Elysee and discovered a terrific Cashmere shop – an another scarf for Ian’s collection!!

It’s now Sunday and it was such a beautiful sunny and warm day, we opted to explore the Parc de Villette – in the north east of Paris.    Well, what a find.    It has the most incredible Music Museum with 5 floors of a purpose built building showing instruments starting from the 16^th century – the audio system gives both dialogue and music – it was an unexpected find, although we shouldn’t have been surprised - when the French do their museums quite brilliantly.    The Parc Vilette is at the top of the Canal St Martin so we opted to take the boat back to the Musee D’Orsay down the Canal – through 8 sets of locks and then into the River Seine – a bit slow but well worth the trip.    At one point the canal goes underground – in the middle of the 19^th centure, the Parisians living along the canal didn’t want to look at it, so they ‘just built over it’ – including the whole of the Place de Bastille.

Walked back along the river and now ‘watching’ the cricket on the computer.    Aust. need to get 2  more wickets to win this second one day international.    It’s quite odd how one is really out of the news loop – we have only just got the footy scores but as Melbourne and now Essendon are well and truly out, who cares!!!

Au revoir

9 weeks since we arrived this time – back  to ‘our’ apartment in Passy, and how much easier this time.   I knew where to buy the newspaper each morning, the guys in the local cafe knew my ‘cafe longer avec le lait a par’, and my butcher Monsieur Gilles, greeted me with a huge smile.    I felt part of the community.    And for Ian it meant he could take the metro to work each morning without having to read the map and the signs!!!

The weather of course has been much kinder – no frozen fingers or howling winds as you wait for the bus, but still cool enough for the  scarf – the signature of any French mademoiselle (or madame).

My writing course was terrific – and hopefully will spend more time at the computer during winter in Melbourne.

I have at last found a home for my mother’s fur coat – the one she inherited from her grandmother but never worn – a full length Squirrel and so soft and warm but…..not being politically correct in Australia now, it was a real problem on what to do with it.   So it will go to a French charity who will auction it for their funds for homeless people – you never know where your stuff is going to end up do you!!!

So back to Melbourne this week.     David has been house sitting for us, and I am looking forward to some gardening, some golf, some mah-jong and Solo and Book Club, but especially the garden – my lovely window box in our apartment with its cheerful red and white geraniums is not quite the same.

I have just finished reading “Americans in Paris”- during the Nazi occupation  – can any of us imagine what it must have been like, little food, the black market, distruct, always fear, no heating during the winters   We have much to be thankful for and much to protect.

So au revoir for now – we will be back in Paris in September, so stay tuned.

A bientot

Barbara

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