Paris - Day 1

29 March 2008

Today was an "organizing" day. We started out by going to our local Internet Shop where we checked e-mail and bought time for the next month. We then walked down to the Rue Lepic and bought a shower curtain since the one that is in the flat was in pretty bad shape. Rue Lepic is a lovely street, with a wet fish shop at the top with the greatest variety of seafood imaginable.
We continued our walk down to Les Abbesses and since it was rapidly approaching lunch time we ducked into a little bistro. I had a Croque Monsieur and Virginia (always the one for healthy fodder) had a salad. Naturally this was accompanied by a glass of wine; we are in Paris, after all.

Next came the challenge of getting our Carte Orange tickets for the month of April. There is something a bit daunting about putting fifty euro notes into a machine in a country where your command of the language isn't as good as you might wish. Anyway, we were successful and wound up with our tickets. While the Carte Orange is expensive, it is still significantly cheaper than paying per trip. It entitles you to access to the Metro, the busses and the RER within the Paris metropolitan area.

In the afternoon we went down to the local shops. Most of our shopping was done at Monoprix, a French version of Big w, albeit classier. Despite our good intentions to avoid cheese the Roquefort looked too good to resist and the very idea of resistance to temptation in Paris seemed suddenly to be an absolute nonsense. We picked up cheese, ham, tomatoes, wine and a baguette for dinner which, I am sure will more than make up for Virginia's virtuous lunch.
We also got some magnificent strawberries. Think of the largest strawberry you ever bought in Australia and increase the size by at least fifty percent. More to the point think of the best strawberry you ever tasted and increase the flavour by at least fifty percent. These were EU strawberries from Spain and were wonderful.

When we got to the bus to go back to our flat, we found that services were cancelled from 2.00pm to 6.00pm. What to do? When in doubt, in Paris, go to a Bistro and have a drink while you think out your strategy. Well, by the time we had a drink and (dare I confess) some chips, the busses were running again so it was homeward we were bound.

Now, for those of you who have followed these blogs in recent years, you may remember the saga of Monsieur who dines most evenings Chez Yang, the Chinese Restaurant just opposite our flat. He is still alive and well and living in Paris and dining every evening Chez Yang. We know no more about him, but having eaten at the restaurant ourselves on one occasion last year, we think he must be a man of limited discernment for the food was not very good. Virginia tells me that he is right-handed and a man of regid habits who dines at the same table, wears very much the same looking clothes, carries a bag with him and walks the same route. Every night he arrives and departs at the same time.