5/18/09, Final Entry, Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport

Marlow writes: 5/18/09, Final Entry, Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. Another great trip is concluding. Wes is a virtuoso planner. Smooth and seamless travel. Thank you, Wes.

This weekend in Paris was intermittently rainy. Not stormy. Just occasional light showers. At times, we bicycled. In the rain. At rush hour. In heavy traffic. And I loved it. During this stay, I became more oriented with the lay out of Paris in a few bike rides than I had during twenty years of travel here in cars, trains and taxis.

We were, more or less, low key. We ate out a few times in local cafés, nothing elaborate. We brought in food. Rose Champagne. Fresh chevre. Baguettes. And two times, Roland prepared meals: artichoke heart, thin sliced with parmeggiano shavings, lemon juice and olive oil; and chicken soup with fresh herbs, tiny pasta, lemon juice, finished with lemon zest and fresh parsley and served with fresh, oven-hot parmesan bread. Thank you, Roland.

Another meal and the reason for us coming to Paris (rather than traveling home from Bruges) was our dinner on Thursday evening with Mr. Bernard Millant and his partner, Sepali. Several months ago, I contacted Mr. Millant and asked if he would join us for dinner in Paris. He was gracious and instead asked us to be his guests.

The venue was in the Bois de Boulogne, a large park--forest really--in Paris. The restaurant was a beautiful and enchanting chalet on an island. We took a boat across the water.

Conversation was lively. The food was delicious. Sepali was beautiful and interesting. And the evening sped by. Afterward, Bernard and Sepali drove us home. Along the way, places of interest were pointed out. Paris after dark, with hosts as excellent as Bernard and Sepali, is a special and memorable experience.

Last night, we were joined for dinner by Joel Soultanian. A Paris violist who Roland and I have known for more than 30 years. When Wes and I last saw Joel it was in the Dordogne in southern France where his wife was born. Her village, Ste. Genies, is gorgeous: rolling green hills, ancient stone buildings, rivers.

We are now aboard our plane: Paris to Chicago. Waiting for the doors to close.

It has been a fantastic voyage. My writing has been far too wordy and too heavy laden with superlatives. But. But how can one not exclaim loudly the beauty, majesty of the Norwegian fjords. Somethings in life are superlative. And their unique and special qualities cannot be overstated. Such was the nature of our journey. Thank you, Wes, for your fine planning. And Sam and Roland for your companionship.

Thank you for reading.

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Panorama from our apartment in Paris

Filmed from the window in Roland's room on the top floor of the apartment building. You can see why we spent so much time in the apartment - the views were just wonderful.

Toasting our last evening in Paris!



Roland preparing lunch

Sunday May 17 - Our Final Day in Paris

Exploring Paris by bike!


Roland enjoying Paris!



Marlow's traveling companions


We've been exploring Paris by bike. Taking advantage of the many "free" bike rental stations called "Velib" located around the City. After registering for a cost of one Euro, you can use any bike for up to 30 minutes at no charge. You can return the bike to any bike station. The service is all automated and you use a kiosk to handle the rental transaction. It is very convenient and makes it easy to move from one area to another. There are hundreds of bike rental stations around the City and each station has between 15 and 30 bikes available for use at any time.

We arrived in Paris on Thursday night and it was familiar enough that it felt a bit like we had arrived at home. We've spent a lot of time just enjoying the apartment. Roland has been treating us to wonderful home-cooked meals. We've been shopping in street markets and pretending that we live here. If only for the weekend.

Tonight we will be having dinner with an old friend of Marlow and Roland's who now lives in Paris. And the taxi arrives at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning to take us to the airport for our flight back home.

Thursday - May 14 - PARIS!

We arrived in Paris this afternoon after a short train trip from Brugges, with a change of train in Brussels to the high-speed Thylys train.  The train travels at a standard speed until it reaches the France border where the train tracks have been upgraded to accommodate higher speeds.  Once in France, the speed of the train almost triples and we reached Paris in just over an hour.  

We are staying in a two bedroom apartment in the Marais.  It is quite large, about 1,100 square feet.  Very nice kitchen and living spaces. The only draw back is the forth floor walk-up.  But the views are incredible.  We look out over the rooftops of the Marais and can see the Eifel Tower and Centre Pompidou from our windows.  

Tonight we had dinner in a restaurant in the Bois de Boulogne located on an island in the large lake.  We took a short two minute boat to reach the restaurant that is located in a swiss chalet reputedly moved here by Napoleon in the early 1800’s.  

Bruges - May 13

Wednesday, May 13, 2008, Brugge. Today, in the largest of the town squares, (in front of the 250-foot tall bell tower built in the mid-1200's), is the open market where vendors have come in large trucks (that convert into stalls) to sell  vegetables, butchered meats, rotisserie cooked meats, waffles, fresh flowers, etc. The produce is international, from around the world, not locally grown, but the shoppers are local. They are the "bruggelings," some of the 25,000 year-round residents of historic Brugge who, on market day,  stand out in relief against the tourists.  Lots of older couples. Holding hands.  Walking slowly.  Toting their bags of fresh produce and flowers wrapped in paper. And many shoppers on bicycles with baskets brimming with goods. Next, at 11 a.m. we took a boat ride through the canals. Though we were in a motorboat with two dozen people and the driver continuously broadcast comments, in spite of that, It was a calm, lilting and beautiful ride gliding amidst cool tree-lined shady glades, going under low slung 14th-Century stone bridges, seeing on the grassy banks the swans tending their fresh hatched fuzzy off-spring and other swans sitting on twig beds off melon size swan eggs. And the buildings, made of stones and bricks to last centuries. Some with boat docks. All, perfectly in balance with each other, two, three four stories at most.   Lunch was eaten at, Den Gouden Karpel, a family-operated fish store and cafe. One of it's entrances, to a sit-down waiter-serviced room faces our hotel. The other entrance, to a take-away bar with 12 tall stools, faces the rectangular, colonaded Fish Market, built in 1800 and housing about 36 permanent stone stalls.  It is represented as an active fish market, but during our visit only one stall was occupied.    Our meal in the take-away area was fresh, very fresh and tasty. We had:   House-smoked halibut; Eel in a sauce of pureed spinach, basil, chervil thinned with a delicious broth; Lobster bisque; and Mussels. (Roland bought a take-away sandwich of silky, thin-sliced, smoked halibut for the upcoming train ride to Paris). Next up is a visit to the Groeninge Museum. It houses items related to the era of Charles the Bold, his daughter, Mary of Burgundy and her son, Phillip the Handsome. (I wrote about their tombs earlier). The era was from about 1450 to about 1550. The exhibits are laid out in categories beginning with personal effects (clothing, armor, jewelry), then fraternal orders (official seals, ceremonial crystal vases, large books illustrating colorfully the tales, rights, obligations,  duties and punishments of a particular order of Knights which, today, still exist), then tapestries (Cesar, Alexander the Great, etc. were studied as examples of how to amass and wield power, their actions were illustrated in enormous, spectacular, action-packed tapestries)(also on display are miniature tapestries, 14"x18", executed by Rogier van der Weyden), finally there are paintings, colorful, realistic, show stopper, larger-than-life, ordinary size and very small paintings by Jan van Eyck, Memmling and again Rogier van der Weyden. For lovers of 15th-Century Flemish masterpieces this is heaven.   As extraordinary as all the artwork was, one image was very special: an elderly grandfather, with his grand-daughters, about 6 and 8 years old, he kneeled beside them, and kindly, and gently, told them, as if they were sitting before bedtime on his knee hearing a story, he told them the stories that the large colorful tapestry was telling. It was a precious, priceless, sweet and affection filled moment. Afterward, Wes, Roland and I met in a pretty and small plaza to by chocolates at Madame Dumon: dark chocolate covered cherries--with pits; thin sweet orange slices, half-dipped in dark chocolate; and thin apple slices covered in milk chocolate. For dinner, we looked on the internet and came up with, Saint-Amour. We lucked out. It is a small restaurant. Underground. The ceilings are old brick and vaulted. The young chef who won the Best Flemish Chef of the year award, greeted us at the door and for the first hour we were the only customers which meant he was cooking for us only. The menu was fairly traditional with just enough of a modern touch to make it extra eye-catching. The starter: "2xTuna and 3xWhite Asparagus" was tuna prepared two ways(tuna tartar topped with thimble-size scoops of white asparagus ice cream and an edible purple pansy flower) and white asparagus tips prepared three ways. There was also a Mackerel starter and a starter of Three Langoustines on Risotto. (This is the European season for white asparagus. It has been on every menu. And we have eaten it daily. With great pleasure.) The main courses were Gigot d'agneau and Ray-Fish Wing Stuffed With Shrimp. Then came cheese plates with creamy and pungent Epoisses running over the edge of a tiny spoon. Also a cheese tasting of having been bathed in walnuts. There were four other cheeses, all good, but their individual descriptions now blur into one memory of pleasure. Tomorrow we depart. Sam begins his journey home, to Santa Fe, NM, apart from us. We, Wes, Roland and myself are taking trains to Paris.

Bruges - May 12

Tuesday, May 12, 2009, still (happily) in Brugge. Leisurely morning. Slept until 8:15 a.m. We all convened downstairs in the hotel dining room at 9:00 a.m. for breakfast. The food was serviceable, but the setting was posh and formal. Brocade upholstered ceilings, brocade draperies, old world elegance for our frosted flakes, dannon yogurt and oj from concentrate.

The day was spent visiting museums and wandering within the historic area. Total pleasure as every where you look your eyes fall on something aesthetically pleasing whether it's the swans sitting on the canal banks on their nests which are full of large eggs, or a long row of tall shady green leafy trees, or a row of graceful well proportioned buildings with large bent iron numbers on the facades indicating year built: 1521, 1644, 1716 and some as old as 1200. The old district is criss-crossed with canals and twisty streets that here and there surround cobblestoned, leafy plazas.
We ate lunch at an organic restaurant, Salade Folle: duck salad, quiche fresh-made-to-order, salad with bacon, white asparagus salad, a broth of pureed leeks and chicken stock. I loved it and became irrationally exuberant.

One museum exhibition was funny and weird. Okay, it goes like this, we are standing in a 13th-Century church in Brugge, before us there are two tombs, marble caskets, on whose lids are life-size reclining bronze statues of the casket occupants. In one is the father, Charles the Bold. He died in battle in 1477 in Nancy, France. His corpse, frozen in river ice, face eaten by wolves, head cleaved in half, lances through his body, was kept in Nancy, France as a trophy. Eventually returned to Belgium, it now resides in the solemn marble coffin in that stood before us with a handsome bronze statue of his metal-armored body, helmet at his side, his armor-clad feet resting on a lion. Beside his tomb is the marble coffin of his daughter, Mary of Burgundy. Mary died five years later in a hunting accident. She, too, has a pretty casket and a nice statue, her feet are resting on cute doggies. Her son, Phillip the Handsome, died in Spain twenty years later and was embalmed so his wife, Ann the Mad, could tour Spain with his "handsome" corpse. Before Ann the Mad could parade him around Spain his heart was removed, put in a small and simple lead box with a pretty prayer inscribed on it and placed in his mother's marble casket the one with the nice statue atop. Today his "heart" box is out of his mother's coffin and is in it's own glass display case on his own pedestal next to his mother. This is a very thin slice of the dense history that is typical of every European city.

Late-afternoon, we sought out "belgian waffles" and Belgian "pommes frites". Now we can cross them off our list. They were good, but in the end they were just waffles and just fries.

For dinner we ate in the hotel and, a day after the fact, Roland feted us, in honor of our 25th anniversary, with champagne and a few quotes about relationships. We loved it. Thank you, Roland. Here are the quotes:

"Definition of a spouse: someone who'll stand by you through all the trouble you would not have had if you'd stayed single."

"The Japanese have a word for it. It's Judo--the art of conquering by yielding. The Western equivalent of Judo is, "yes, dear."(J.P. McEvoy)

For dinner our table had: lobster salads, white asparagus ravioli, gigot d'agneau, a veal dish and Roland's generous, thoughtful and tasty Mumms Champagne.

We've decided to extend the anniversary day into a month of celebrations. Thanks again, Roland for starting it off in Brugge with the great toasts.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Brugge.
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