Saturday 6 December - Luxembourg

We spent the entire day looking around the city starting in Place Guillaume II.  The  Christmas market here was supplemented by the Sarurday produce market. Several producers had decorative plants in pots or flats set out on the floor. A lady walked past with a dog which cocked its leg on a nice pot of heather. They will not smell too good. 

These are very pretty but they really should be off the ground - or at least away from dogs

This is the first weekend in December and the skating rink was formally opened by the Luxembourg bus company band. There was a tasteful display of ice dancing which was kept in sync by the big drum. The drum was the dominant instrument in the band and one wonders if this says anything for the bus company. We had some hot red wine and candied almonds.
We looked at the items of interest in this part of town then moved through the cathedral to look at views over the lower town or Grund. The cathedral was large, dark and cheerless. Many of the old fortifications have been taken down.
Lunch was at a restaurant in the Cercle. It was quite small but the staff made us very welcome.  The Maitre'd knew many of his customers and made a point of speaking to everybody. A lady, possibly his wife, came in later to look things over and again, made a point of talking to many of the regulars. Mary had petoncles while I had rognons. Both were very good as was the local reisling. 
There is an elevator which took us down to the river running through the Grund. The walks along the river were very pleasant and the views intriguing with the reflections in the calm water.

The Grund

The Grund.  Beautiful reflections and plenty of ivy

Back at Place Guillaume II the produce market had disbanded leaving a clear view of the Hotel de Ville, the steps of which had been festooned with flats of flowers. I wonder how many had been christened by dogs. A man was pouring spirit out of a bottle on to an open flame near the metal workers - probably better than pouring it down his throat. 

This metal worker was demonstrating how to make a metal angel,

The Grund

The Grund

There were lots of people in the Christmas markets and things promised to become lively later on. We were tired and purchased a couple of items at a delicatessen and came back to the hotel.
The central area and the Grund are all well maintained and there is little litter.  The buildings are in good shape and there is evidently a lot of money spent on their upkeep. It is almost a place for show rather than living and working.
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Friday 5 December - Travel to Luxembourg

It is amazing what the Paris garbage pick up will do. They come round most days. Yesterday they picked up an old chesterfield and today they picked up a toilet complete with tank.

As departure was at 1340 we decided to take food which we would eat while waiting to get on the train. I made myself a sandwich with Serano ham and the remains of the Langres cheese. It stank out the metro and the waiting room at the station. I resolved the problem by eating it. 

Monty Python 

"How do you defend yourself against a man armed with a ham and cheese sandwich?" 

"Eat the sandwich, thus disarming him."

We took the TGV from Gare de l'Est to Luxembourg.  SNCF say they will announce the platform number 20 minutes before departure. It is a stub end terminal so everybody has to enter past the buffer stops. It was finally announced 10 minutes before departure which caused problems for many as there were two TGVs joined together (20 cars) and the front coaches were a long way down the platform. SNCF doesn't care about its passengers.  No water in the wash basins again. None of the trains I have been in this trip have had washing water.
The trip over the high speed line was boring as usual. We changed from left hand to right hand running leaving the high speed line on the approach to Metz.There were several abandoned steel works in the Metz - Thionville area.
The hotel is conveniently situated to the station but it is about 15 minutes walk over a wide river valley to the interesting part of Luxembourg.  There is a big Christmas market in two parts. It has all the usual attractions - mulled wine, junk fast food and slimy Christmas music. We had dinner in this area, it included suckling pig in aspic with roast potatoes.

Suckling pig in aspic with roast potatoes.

Interesting store name

This is an interesting building when floodlit but we did not find out what it was.

Christmas market

Decorations outside the cathedral

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Thursday 4 December - New shoes and old locomotives

I found my street shoes had an unrepairable split in them so I had to go out first thing and buy some new ones. There is a shoe shop nearby so I was quickly able to become mobile again.
With time seemingly running out for the SNCF 170xx vintage (1965-1968) 25 kv electric locomotives I decided to take a ride out behind one to Pontoise. There were several in evidence on the line from Saint Lazare.  They were on push-pull trains with the locomotive at the Paris end. The train I took was a double decker set which included one of the refurbushed cars from the Versailles set decorated with items from  the chateau. Although there were frequent station stops 817061 managed a fair turn of speed when given its head.  Other locomotives of this class were working with the low single deck cars.

At Pontoise

I returned to Paris in one of the new comfortable trains that are replacing the 170xx locomotives. With wide vestibule corridor connections these trains are colorful, comfortable and quiet. Above all they can hold a very large crowd.

One of the new trains at Pontoise

The new trains have a very spacious interior

I walked across to the Gare de l'Est where I found a 17064 on carriage duties as well as diesel 72141 having just brought in a train from the Belfort direction.

Big diesel 72141 at Gare de l'Est

817064 on carriage duties at Gare de l'Est

The no. 30 bus brought me back home.

Wednesday 3 December - Mr. Turner

We went to see the new movie Mr. Turner at the Balzac Theatre just off the Champs Élysées. It is a well appointed cinema similar to the Bytowne. The seating is very comfortable and there were flowers on the stage. It was introduced by the owner. The movie was quite good . It showed the well known British painter,  J.W.M. Turner as an eccentric who had a formal house as well as a mistress in another house. The movie could have explored in more depth some of the paintings, the only ones shown in any detail were the Fighting Temeraire and Rain, Steam and Speed.

Tuesday 2 December - The Passages

This Langres cheese was fighting to get out all the way home.  I took it out of its wrapping and it immediately started to advance across the plate and laid down a protective layer of gas. We quickly developed a containment plan which consisted of killing off the advance guard by eating it on a fresh baguette.  The sweet, creamy interior was wonderful

 The first order of business today was to restock - white (Sancerre), red (Fitou), vegetables and cheese. I bought a particularly ripe Langre at the fromager on the rue de Lévis - see above.  We walked down to the Gare St. Lazare along the rue de Rome with its many musical instruments. i was particularly taken with one shop that had displays of second hand trumpets, trombones and saxophones.

The piano in the Gare Saint Lazare was being given a very good workout

This intriguing sculpture in the Saint Lazare forecourt has finally been revealed again after a couple of years behind a hoarding

The art deco dome of Les Galleries Lafayette has a beautiful decoration this year.

There are galleries off both sides of the Boulevard Montmartre (Panoramas, Joufroy and Verdeau), some in good condition and some having seen better days. Pamoramas houses restaurants, philatelists, old post cards, coins and antiques such as German helmets with a spike on top. Joufroy has high end shops for jewelry and ornaments. Verdeau is middle of the road with a hotel and some tourist items.

Rue du Faubourg Montmartre

We returned along the Rue du Faubourg Montmartre and back across the Europe traffic circle.  We had to call in at Diva et Chocolats to buy some ammunition to fight the cheese.

Monday 1 December - Brian Returns Home

I went with Brian to the Gare du Nord to see him on Eurostar back to London. The Metro trip was very fast. The station was crowded and the military were walking around. It has been a short visit but a full and exhausting one. I took the rest of the day to catch up on a few things. We took stock after lunch and found we were out of cheese, chicken, ham, red and white wine so we will need to do some shopping very soon.

I think Mary and I must be going native. Today we consumed a croissant and a baguette each.

Gare du Nord, central part, seen from the balcony near the Eurostar check in. Monet painted many pictures here.

 The railway even provided a steam engine so he could get the smoke effects right 

Sunday 30 November - Monge market, rue de Mouffetarde and St. Sulpice

Firing up the rotisserie on rue de Levis on Sunday morning.  There were about six being started early in the morning

The Monge Market was in full swing with the full range of fruit, vegetables, fish and meat.
The rue de Mouffetarde had a a similar range of items but there was a large flea market on an extension at the bottom end.  There was dancing and singing to a piano accordion which was good to see.

These kids were being given a lesson on how to make a gallette

Singing and dancing on the rue de Mouffetarde.

We had lunch at a local restaurant with a friendly waitress. Petoncles/magret and confit de canard - all was very good.
After hot chocolate Luxembourg Gardens were pretty busy and the kids were sailing boats.

We were not sure whether this was a real wedding or just a staged shoot.  The bride wore sneakers and probably felt pretty cold.

One little boy was so engrossed with his pole that he nearly took his father's eye out

Talk about over the top decorations

We walked along to St. Sulpice and were surprised to find that a concert with the Magnifica brass quintette was due to start in 20 minutes. They were accompanied by the the Choeur Cantica de Luxembourg and soprano Shigeko Hato. The concert was excellent. It started well with Handel's Entry of the Queen of Sheba and included a number of well known items by Handel, Massanet, Gounod and Saint Saens in particular. The soprano managed to throw her voice well in this large space although the horn and the tuba tended to become lost in the acoustics of the church. There was a great deal of humour, as when a short man had to use a microphone after a particularly tall man. At the last piece the conductor stopped conducting and just walked away and left the singers and players to continue on their own. He wandered back at the end and conducted a rousing finale. All in all a thoroughly entertaining performance.