Back to baking...

 

Ah, the pleasure of being back in my large kitchen with an oven that gets hot without blowing the fuses and the therapeutic kneading of bread.  While some of the family are on their way up from London, we're squeezing in last minute tasks.  Making bread, making apple cake, collecting the turkey and wondering how and earth we're going to fit it in the fridge.  Usually it's cold enough to hide it in the shed for a couple of days but we're having a mild spell so it will have to be refrigerated.  This means piling everything up so that nothing can be found and the whole lot falls out when the fridge door opens.  It's happened! 

 

Recuperating...

...after a packed weekend.

On Saturday, despite the rain, we took the train to Chartres.  Buying tickets wasn't the trauma it was before when we missed our train fumbling with the machine.  We arrived in Chartres about lunch time and started our walk from the station towards the cathedral spotting likely lunch stops.  It was a grey day and the fine drizzle was icy at times.  Peter, ever the optimist, kept glancing up at the sky for signs of it clearing up, but it persisted all day.

We wandered about the busy shopping area near the cathedral and finally opted to go back to the first place we had seen where we had lunch and dried off a bit.

Nativity scene in shop window

Chartres

Then to the cathedral where we bought the audio guides and gave the stained glass and the sculptures our serious attention.  The cathedral is in the process of restoration which involved much scaffolding and shrouding so our appreciation of the nave was limited.  The parts they have restored - returned to their original colouration - were sparkling.    We have been to Chartres twice before but this was the first time we have studied the windows in such detail.

Cathedral

On Sunday morning we set off on foot to try and find a flea market we had seen from the bus.  It wasn't where we thought it should be and we decided it was probably not a regular thing.  Our circular route brought us back to the flat and Peter set off to buy cheese to go with our soup for lunch.   After lunch we set off again, this time by bus and then on foot to the French Lebanese church for a concert of Bach by a choir and orchestra.  The church was huge and packed.  They played one of the Brandenburg concertos and the other three pieces were masses and a cantata.  We quite enjoyed it, though it was best to concentrate on the sound and ignore the words which in some cases were rather gloomy!   After the concert we headed north along the Boulevard St. Michel and crossed the Seine heading for Les Halles and the cinema.  The cinema turned out to be in the labyrinthine building that was Les Halles and is now a shopping mall in the process  of restoration!   We saw 'Mr Turner' and decided we'd both give it 6 out of 10.  Mainly on the grounds of the photography, the interiors and the acting.  In some other ways it left us a little flat.  There isn't the depth of characterisation you usually find in Mike Leigh films.    We came out of the cinema by a completely different route to the one we had entered by and lighted on a brasserie for a late supper.   Walking back towards the Seine to catch our bus, Peter spotted it coming to a stop at the lights right along side us.  We tapped on the door and the obliging driver let us on board.   And home, tired!

New Frank Gehry building...

Louis Vuitton Foundation

Peter bounced off the flight from Argentina on Sunday (that's what an upgrade and 8 hours sleep will do for you) and although the weather was dreary and damp we decided to go to the Jardin d'Acclimatation to see the new Louis Vuitton Foundation building by Frank Gehry.    Well, from the outside it looks like a ship in full sail, an impression reinforced by the water flowing down and under it.  We were intrigued to see what the space inside was like, impossible to deduce from the shapes glimpsed through the sails.  However, that will have to wait for another time as the queue was very long, well past the half hour marker, and just as we contemplated a wait it started to drizzle.  We decided on a brisk walk instead, round the lake and back to the metro.    On balance we weren't very impressed by the building.  It was extraordinary but rather exaggerated.

Another week goes by

Another week has passed quickly!

On Monday I had lunch with Khem at a Thai restaurant where she knew people.  The menus here in Chinese and Thai restaurants have been modelled on the French way of eating.  Entrée, plat and dessert.   The French don't share food so you get one large plate of whatever you order which is rather different from the Asian/UK approach of lots of small dishes shared.  I had a very spicey duck dish. There was a lot of duck and a good bed of bok choi and although I enjoyed it, I could have done with a bit more variety.   I'm choosing the restaurant for next Monday.

Wednesday with the 'craft' group at the club was the usual mix of work and conversation.  The lunch served on Wednesday was particularly good.  There's usually a main course, salad and cheese and then dessert.  We had veal casserole, a good selection of cheese and then a delicious apple and blackberry crumble - and a couple of glasses of wine.   Afterwards Anna and Patsy took me to their favourite café for a coffee.   I keep discovering new watering holes.  They realised that I didn't know about a particular chocolate shop so they have arranged to meet me at a bus stop next Tuesday for some window shopping and lunch.

On Thursday the BCWA had their annual 'outside' Christmas lunch - a get together that's not in the club.  We went to one of their regular venues, Chez Françoise which is next door to the Assembly Nationale and full of Deputies.  We had excellent food and wine and I discovered that the son of the Membership Secretary is the series producer of Holby City!  There was quite a bit of serious gossip on our table about a rather elegant looking woman of a certain age on the other table.  The ladies on my table were delighted to tell me about her barbed wire tatoo and her habit of 'inducting' the teenage sons of friends!   I didn't believe a word of it of course!  The femme fatale is the lady near the window in the white sweater.   I couldn't in all conscience stand up to get a better view!

Lunch at Chez Françoise

Afterwards a small group of us went back to Anna's (that's her on the right) and had champagne.  I managed to lose my gloves on the way home...not being quite myself.

On Friday I played a couple of games of Scrabble at the club.  This is usually a quiet pastime but on Friday we clashed with a 'rehearsal' for the carol concert - which I won't be going to!  I had great difficulty not laughing.  The lady 'singing' is well into her eighties, bless her.  My Scrabble friends were stoical.

Le Weekend

The electrician arrived to inspect the faulty oven - three hours earlier than booked.  No matter, we were at home although the landlady couldn't get here and he had to put up with my explanations in French and my vocabulary on the topic of electrical circuits is limited.   Apparently a trip switch is a déclencheur which I'm sure will come in handy at some juncture.   The electrician diagnosed a faulty heating element and proceeded to fit the new one he had thoughtfully brought with him.  I paid him in cash and he emailed me my receipt.  He seemed concerned that I was paying and not the landlady, but I assured him I would be reimbursed.

Piano tuner at work

We planned to eat before the concert in the evening so wandered about in the general area of the concert hall in the College des Bernadins and decided on a quick meal in a brasserie.  When we arrived in the concert hall, about 20 minutes before the start, we were surprised to see the piano being tuned.
The performance began with the pianist making a short speech of which I caught very little.  It was followed by another softly spoken announcement by a woman who was clearly in charge in some capacity.  We were there to hear 4 Beethoven piano sonatas, one of a series of concerts taking place over the last couple of weeks covering all Beethoven's sonatas.   The pianist played the first sonata, clearly not the one appearing first on the programme and then he played a second and then he left the auditorium and the woman announced a 'petit pause'.  He came back and played a third sonata and then left again.  Everyone sat waiting.  Eventually the woman went to the front and explained that was the end of the concert and everyone filed out. Quite clearly no-one had understood the announcements and we were all equally bemused.    However...his playing was beautiful.

On Sunday we took the 83 bus (I now know the route by heart) and got off in the region of Rue de Monceau.  We were headed for the Musée de Nissim Camondo and on the way stopped at a restaurant advertising Brunch.  For our €20 we had orange juice, scrambled eggs and bacon, followed by whatever you wanted from the buffet, followed by cheese, fruit or cake with bread and croissant on the side and coffee or tea.  Quite a little feast.   At the museum we took the audio guide and completely lost ourselves in the history of the place and its family for a good two hours.  The house is a bit of a spoof, built in the late 1800s in the 18th Century style to house the collection of 18th Century art and furniture of its owner.  It's an interesting house and there were some wonderful pieces of furniture. The son, who was due to inherit the family fortune died in the first world war and as the daughter was more interested in horses than art, the father gave the house and its contents to the people of France - the daughter, her husband and their two young children were shipped off to Auschwitz in the second world war and the family is no more.   There are many wall plaques around Paris, commemorating  French Jews who were deported during the German occupation.  It's a depressing reminder.

Front door

On the wall near our flat

Dining room

Study

Waiting for Romeo!

'Modern' kitchen

The kitchen

More gleaming utensils