Thursday 25 December - Christmas Day

We got up late and walked down to the 2nd arrondissement for lunch at Le Grand Colbert. It was a great meal. Not too busy when we arrived but it was soon full although the noise level was not too high. We started with a coupe de champagne and had a bottle of Saumur Champigny with the meal. I started with the pickled herring (help yourself from a great tureen), and Mary had the onion soup au gratin. For main courses I had steak au poivre with really good fries while Mary had veau au citron with risotto. Dessert was apple sorbet with vieux Calvados for me while Mary had two scoops of caramel salé ice cream. The entire meal was very good, made especially so by the waitress and waiter who served us. We got into conversation with a couple from San Francisco. She lives here and is applying for citizenship.  She speaks French and thoroughly likes Paris and the French way of life.

 

We stopped in at La Madeleine on the way back to hear an organ concert. In the past these concerts have been somewhat unsatisfactory as the organist has tried to show how loud he can make it play and the tunes are lost in the overall noise. This was a little different. Two organists played works by Albrechstberger, Dandrieu, Gigout, Soler, Daquin and Wagner. They played some at the Choir Organ and some at the Grand Organ (four hands, four feet) and some at both organs together. The Wagner was the only piece we knew - The Ride of the Valkyries. Wagner never wrote for the organ and this transcription suffered from the tune being lost in the general overall volume. The church was well filled.

It was dusk when we came back, the church of St. Augustine  was well lit.

Wednesday 24 December - Christmas Eve

People were out early today doing last minute shopping. The number of baguettes purchased must be  enormous.
It was nice this morning, sunny and mild. After a last minute foray to Lenotre as well as Diva et Chocolats we walked down to the Square des Batignolles via the book store in the rue des Dames where we found the book Chats Parisiennes which has Roxanne on the cover. At Batignolles several little kids were floating sticks through the channel between the two water sections. Kids must have been doing this for almost 150 years. The free roundabout was going well. It stopped at one time when there were no new kids wanting to get on, everybody else sat tight and so it started up again. The kids were really packed in on some of the vehicles - there were eight in the fire truck.

Our Christmas Eve meal. All of this was purchased within five minutes' walk of the apartment.

Pate de foie gras and mousse forestière

Bisque de homard avec gambas sauvage

Ballotine de volaille with vegetables.

Fromage - Cammembert, Langres, Valençay

Le Nôtre, maron glacé (l), celebration (r)

Diva et Chocolats caramel (l), chocolate (r)

Champagne, Sancerre (white), Margaux (red)

Tuesday 23 December - Flaneurs

We decided to go for a walk today bearing in mind the holiday season will soon be upon us. We have found it great fun to choose a Paris street and see where it will take us and find out what it will reveal. We went to Barbès Rochechouart and walked down the rue du Poissonnière. First there was a profusion of wedding and formal dress shops, the more expensive ones are on the rue de Magenta the next street over. Some of the dresses are over the top from bright red to fluorescent lime green.
We made a side trip to look at Trinity church.

These barracks were built in 1932 on the site of earlier barracks.  The soldiers here were originally sent to Nouvelle France or Canada.  The area is now known as Poissoniere or Nouvelle France

We eventually crossed the Boulevard du Poissonnière which runs at right angles to the rue of the same name and passed the enormous Rex cinema which has a roof shaped like a Greek temple. 

This green wall completely covered the end of this building.
See http://www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com/

Rue du Poissonnière becomes the rue du Montorgeuil, a higher class version of the rue de Lévis.
We turned right or west, and walked along Rue Etienne Marcel eventually to the rue de Saint Honoré with its high end shops, embassies and the Élysee Palace. We turned north on rue Miromésnil back to Villiers and home.
Some new streets as well as some familiar ones. Things were quite quiet until around 1330 when a number of businesses closed for the holiday and the shops, restaurants and take outs became busy.

Monday 22 December - Trams

I decided to ride the T8 tramway again today to see the branch to Villetaneuse as well as the main line to Épinay in regular operation. I took first the branchline to Villetaneuse.  Nothing special of note although the section beyond the terminus has a sharp curve and goes to single track, presumably leading to the car maintenance and storage yards. I returned to the main line and rode out to Épinay and back to St. Denis Gare. Many of the traffic regulation problems seem to have been fixed although there were a number that still need attention, maybe the running time could be reduced by a minute or so. Some work has been done at stations although some signs had been placed at the wrong locations so that one station bore two names. A squad of inspectors was out to ensure people were tapping in.
St. Denis Gare is a great place to watch trams with T1 crossing T8, both double track. However there were a lot of people lounging around, deals going down etc. I was very careful where I went and took care getting out my camera. The trams on T1 are short and always crowded east of St. Denis. I decided to go west to Courtiles which is less busy. This section has been open some two years now and has a good interchange with the Metro.

T8 at Épinay

T1 at St. Denis Gare

T8 trams on the diamonds at St. Denis Gare

T8 tram for Courtilles approaching the diamonds at St. Denis Gare

T1 trams at Courtilles.

There was a piece on the TV3 news this evening about fare evasion on RER line B.  When the SNCF put on  a team of fare inspectors the ticket machine receipts go up 40%.  It would seem like a good idea to increase these inspectors considerably.  Jumping over turnstiles and dodging in after a paying customer is endemic in Paris.  It is particularly easy on the Metro because there is no exit check.

Sunday 21 December

The city has set up the free rides for the kids at the Square des Batignoles.

Fred Mills asked me about the famous picture of a locomotive which crashed through the wall of the Montparnasse station in 1895.  There are many pictures and explanations available on the web but one of the most interesting is a dream sequence from the movie "Hugo"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YWpPEZnNq8

Saturday 20 December - Fontainebleau

The recently restored clock tower at the Gare de Lyon.

A Mobolis ticket is really good for a trip to Fontainebleau as it covered the metro to Gare de Lyon, the RER out to Fontainebleau as well as the bus to and from the Chateau. 

This is a peak travel day and the Gare de Lyon was very busy. One interesting innovation in the new Hall 2 was a roped off area for kids with a number of things for them to do with crayons etc. There was an SNCF employee on hand to play with the kids.

We enjoy the parc and chose not to visit the château. The château is smaller than Versailles and the grounds are in scale.  Even so the place us enormous and the grounds very extensive. The reflections in the lake were good and the trees were interesting. Without their leaves it is possible to get a better idea of their form. It is difficult to believe that the English garden was built in the 1700s. It felt cold here, colder than Paris, and we didn't stay too long before returning to Paris.

This "small house" is a gate house

Dinner was at le P'tit Canon. Friendly service and excellent food.

Friday 19 December - The Messiah

Seen outside a bank on rue d'Amsterdam

The weather forecast was for rain today. I went first to the four model shops on the rue du Douai. As the rain had set in I decided to take up the time on tramway T3. At least it was in the dry. 

This tram disgorged about 50 schoolkids and 15 attendant adults

At Porte de la Chapelle some 50 schoolkids, about 7 or 8 years old got off the incoming tram. There was one adult for every three kids and they all had to hold hands. Once off the tram they walked to the front and crossed the tram tracks in front of the out going tram. There was a delay while the last group of three got organized, it was difficult to hold onto three kids and an umbrella in the wind. They all got in to a RATP bus which was waiting.  The schools organize many outings for the children.

I took the tram to Porte de Vincennes and transfered to the tram to Garagliano. At Porte de Charenton the rain seemed to have stopped so I got off to take a look at the SNCF maintenance sidings for both TGVs and suburban trains. There was no yellow postal TGV in sight. The post office is planning to stop using these next August.
I caught the tram on to Balard and back to Villiers.

I had bought tickets for the Messiah in La Madeleine before we left Ottawa. It was an excellent performance although the church was barely a third full. We arrived in good time and found seats in the fifth row in the centre where we found the acoustics to be excellent. Several friendly ladies in the choir acted as ushers and sold programs. They had on filmy long black skirts which blew out when they passed over the hot air vents in the floor. The choir filed in followed by the orchestra and there was an expectant hush. Then it was discovered that one of the lights over the orchestra was not working. There was then a flurry of activity from several men and women in the choir and orchestra, all in formal dress, tracing cables and throwing switches in obscure locations. The conductor took advantage of the delay to promote some of his upcoming productions.  Suddenly the errant light came on to a collective sigh of relief from the audience and smiles from the amateur electricians.

The performance, which was in English, was excellent. All four soloists were good and they were not overwhelmed by the orchestra. The audience was reluctant to stand during the Hallelujah Chorus, maybe because they were not aware of this tradition. After a couple of bars the conductor turned to the audience and vigorously got them to stand. Before continuing he said

"C'est la loi de se lever pour la Choeur Alleluia"

The Hallelujah Chorus after the audience had stood.

My favorite part is "The trumpet shall sound" and this was very well played. The clear notes echoed back from the dome in a memorable manner. At the end, after the applause the conductor gave an encore, something I have never seen before. It was, of course, the Hallelujah Chorus and he made sure the audience stood up. He and the soloists then encouraged us to sing along.

It was a well performed, happy performance which we both thoroughly enjoyed.

The conductor, Paul Kuentz, with the four soloists

From the steps of La madeleine