This week in Paris

It's almost a week since my last post.  What's been happening?  Well, we celebrated Simon's birthday last Saturday with champagne and dinner and on the Sunday they left their bags at the Gare du Nord and we explored Parc des Buttes-Chaumont.  It's a beautiful park and well used.

We watched a child hurtling down a steep grass slope lying down on a skate board. He went straight under a park bench at the bottom nearly decapitating himself.  Gallic shrugs from the parents at the top of the slope!  We had a walk round in the almost spring-like sunshine and then had lunch before they departed to do some last minute food shopping and get the train home.

On Monday I attended my first book club meeting.  We had read 'The Miniaturist' and it was not well liked.  We admired the descriptive writing and the evocation of 16C Amsterdam but picked holes in the characterisation and the surreal nature of the miniaturist herself.   The group were mixed English and French and were very welcoming to a new member but I made the mistake of querying whether they thought it was a good idea to choose a book for the next meeting that several of them had already read.   It was seen as a criticism and I was sharply asked what was wrong with re-reading a book! I should have kept quiet.   I'm clearly shallow as I almost never re-read a book...apart from 'David Copperfield' which I must have read 4 times now.  

On Wednesday I went to the 'craft' day at the 'club' where we had a sort of post-mortem on the Bazaar the previous week.  The bric-a-brac stall I was on had done well.  We immediately set to work making things to sell at next year's bazaar!  It's not a really serious undertaking, just a very sociable time. 

On Thursday I had my second Meetup meeting in the Sugar Plum Cake Shop.  Two people showed up, one of them very late and just as I was about to leave.  The woman who was there from the start turned out to be an art dealer from Los Angeles who decided to retire and travel.  She had just spent 5 years in Bangkok and was now in Paris.  She's been here for about 2 years and knows a lot of people from her art buying and selling days.  Apparently she had a exhibition for Hockney a few years ago and bought a lot of his work for herself.  She has it in store.  Well, I couldn't match that!  She told some interesting stories about $100,000,000 sculptures and chasing provenance.   The lady who turned up late, I had met before.  A rather strange woman who talks compulsively, even as you are getting up and going and are half way out the door.  

Later on Thursday I had my last French class at the school round the corner.  The teacher has been getting stranger and stranger and less and less organised and the last lesson was a shambles.  Khem and I exchanged glances now and again as he took off on one of his perorations!  Then he asked us a question about customs in our countries - how do people greet each other.  We've covered this at least once before but we dutifully repeated our answers, then he took off again on another of his pet political topics and we listened politely.  At the end of the class he got up and walked out and picked up his little dog, a fixture in the office, and said not one word of farewell.  I went up to him and shook his hand and said thank you and he made no reply, but his wife seated at the computer asked us to write a testimonial on their web site.  I'll think about it!   Khem and I will continue to meet (we have a lunch date for Monday) so that's a good thing to come of the lessons - and of course I've learnt a lot of French really!  There's a conversation group at the 'club' which I hope to join next week.

Paris gearing up for Christmas.  The Champs Elysees is lined with little white booths selling everything under the sun.

And now the weekend approaches.  Dinner out tonight at a new restaurant and then a concert on Saturday and a visit from an electrician to take a look at the cooker which keeps tripping the fuse and putting out the lights - not to mention leaving the evening meal half-cooked!