A better night, fewer meds. needed today, so on the way up I hope!
We all spent the morning comparing diaries and researching What’s On in Paris this Autumn. Baremboim at the Louvre, an exceptional Marionnette theatre giving The Sound of Music, free lunchtime concerts at the Opera at the Bastille, organ concerts at St. Eustache, Bach at the Sainte Chappelle, Swan Lake Ballet, is how far we have at the moment.
I spent about an hour trying to get my computer to add French to my languages so that I can write in French. Finally I managed it but now my computer works at the speed of a slug!! At least that meant that I could e-mail the lady who I hope to be my tutor.
(I hit publish when I meant to hit draft so this will have been seen before it is barely written! Here goes for the rest now.)
After lunch we decided to walk down to Bastille where the Opera is to buy tickets for the Marriage of Figaro and Swan Lake. Being another lovely day we walked, going down to the Rue St. Antoine, past the church of St. Paul-St. Louis:
to the Place de la Bastille.
The Eglise St. Paul-St. Louis was built in 1812 after the demolition of the old church of St. Paul which stood there. In 1580 the Jesuits were given land by Louis XIII to build a new church which was just called St. Paul. When this was torn down and the new church built, the old parish was absorbed by the parish of St. Louis. hence the double barreled name.
The column that stands in the middle of the Place de la Bastille is known as the Colonne de Juillet: it stands 171 feet high and is made of bronze, crowned by the figure of Liberty and is a memorial crypt to the Parisians killed during the uprisings of July 1789, 1830 and 1848.
In the C14 Charles V built a fortified residence here using forced labour recruited by press-gangs from passers-by. It became known as the Bastille prison and renowned political prisoners included Voltaire and the Man in the Iron Mask. It was besieged seven times and surrendered on six of these. However, on the last occasion, the 14 July 1789, a militant crowd rallied and marched firstly to the Barracks of Les Invalides (so called because old and invalid soldiers were meant to be looked after there, they were not and had to beg instead) where they crossed the moat, disarmed the sentries and entered the underground rifle stores and made off with 28,000 rifles, then on to the Arsenal ( cannon factory and gunpowder producer) and thence to the Bastille. By late afternoon they had seized the fortress, freed the remaining seven prisoners and then immediately demolished the building.
The Opera at the Bastille is a modern building officially opened in 1989 on Bastille Day to commemorate the bicentenary of the French Revolution.
However, on arrival we found the box office closed because it was a day of strikes!
So on the cinema instead to see The Social Network about the setting up of Facebook. An excellent and very enjoyable film, I would recommend it.
The others took the bus home but I decided to walk and reacquaint myself with old haunts: in the middle of one street I saw, between two buildings, an old water fountain, now with railings in front.
And closer up,
The place is polluted with fantastic architecture, history and literary associations. You could stay in the Marais for your whole holiday and never look at the rest of Paris! In a ten minute walk I passed by Victor Hugo’s house, the playwrite Beaumarchais’ house, and that of Madame de Sevigne!
To end up I walked along the Rue des Rosiers and passed many elderly Jewish men and one venerable Rabbi taking the the evening air and chatting. On the corner of our street I discovered an ice cream shop. Now redriverpak, get ready to drool. This is no ordinary shop. The ice cream is to die for, it is Italian, smooth, rich, creamy, in flavours you never get to taste normally, topped with various biscuits, meringue, glace fruit, coffee beans, chocolate swirls, nuts of every kind etc. etc.
Buying an ice cream here is to partake in an art form. You want a cornet, two flavours? Well, it is served with the lighter colour flavour in the middle and the other is pasted on around it in several scoops each shaped like a petal, so that the finished article looks like a flower on a stem.
Or, my favourite, you can have your ice cream served in a hot, meltingly soft, sweet roll, covered with a dusting of icing sugar, filled with really cold ice cream of choice, and if you feel really self-indulgent, with chantilly cream inside too. Oh, words cannot describe the taste on your tongue, the texture, the combination of temperatures.
Then just when you think there is no more pleasure to be had, there is a whole window devoted entirely to sprinkles!!
Now these are not your everyday lumps of coloured sugar: here you find real chocolate vermicelli, sweet coffee beans, crystallised flower petals, crystallised real fruit pieces, toasted nuts in flakes or chopped into tiny chips, glace chestnuts, citron peel, real fruit jellies etc. etc. it defies description.
Ice cream lovers, come and save me from putting on three stone in six weeks. No, on second thoughts, just come and join me!
Glad to hear you are hopefully feeling better. Eagerly awaiting a lengthy post on your next fascinating outing. Be safe!
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You are up so early! You caught this before it was ready to post, I had pressed the wrong button. Hope you come back, there is ice-cream at the end!
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Just smiling as I read your posts. What a pleasure to follow you along on this journey. 🙂
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mmmmm! Ice cream! The fountain was so cute! Why would it be fenced? Hope you are able to get tickets for the opera. I would love to hear how you like that. Glad that you are feeling better.
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Sorry I haven’t been “over” sooner. I’ve been spending so much time at the doctor and/or dentist, that I’m behind (but catching up).
Ice cream is my second favorite food (behind peanut butter), so I’m very jealous!
What’s a biscuit? Is that a cookie?
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Yup, biscuit = cookie!
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Your post could almost make me like ice cream!
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