Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Thoughts from Paris 15e
Reflections arising from a week's trip to Paris via Eurostar.
We got in while the thing still runs from the convenient Vauxhall, rather than the relatively inconvenient St Pancras. In the course of which I was reminded that the area around the Gard du Nord seems a lot more fun for a tourist than the area around Waterloo - which I would have thought would seem like a bit of a dump unless you were equipped with a very good guide. In which role the Michelin A-Z of Paris did very well. Just the right size to tote about and clear enough to read without the support of in-door spectacles.
We did well with our Paris Visite travel passes, nominally valid for 5 days but which in fact did us for all 8 days. I think this must have been something to do with a strike on one day and there being a couple of free days in consequence. The passes might not have been the cheapest way to do things as we made perhaps one Metro journey a day and the passes cost 20 Euros each, but being able to buy them at Waterloo and not having to struggle in uncertain French at the Gard du Nord after a longish train ride was certainly a boon. The Metro also managed to have the doors opening on the same side of the train, all the time I think. Another boon when travelling in the rush hour. Having bits of elevated Metro was a novelty - the Tube in London does elevate a bit near Putney bridge but I think that is about the size of it. And we certainly do not have two level bridges over rivers with road below and tube over. Last but not least, the musical beggars on the Metro were both more common and more tuneful than their confreres on the Tube. Didn't get any money from us however.
The supermarkets do not seem to have made the same impact on shopping in Paris as they have had in London. There are still pots of small food shops - butchers, bakers, cheesemongers, fishmongers, red grocers, green grocers and all the rest of it. (Although I am informed that some of them while looking all very artisanal are actually cunningly disguised chain outlets). And in the most unlikely places - so one can still buy the makings of a decent picnic on the Isle St Louis. The bread was generally very good - unlike that on Vendee campsites which was very variable last time we were there. The standard only dropped, perhaps appropriately, when we bought a sandwich on exit at the Gare du Nord, the bread of which was rather stodgy, despite looking OK from the outside. There were Halal butchers (although called something else) but sadly, we only saw one horse butcher and he was deceased. That is to say the premis had (ceramic) horses' heads sticking out of the wall but no longer appeared to contain horse, just meat of the regular variety. We would, however, have been able to buy rabbit liver by the pound in one of the steet markets - which last were much bigger and livelier than the few that are left in London. The butcher there assured us that it was the finest thing going in the world of liver.
And then there were some odd shops: a suprising number of lock shops (presumably for people who manage to lock themselves out of their apartments after a glass too far) and shops which will actually mend your clothes. The owner of one shop described himself as a master dyer. Saw very few empty shops and no charity shops. The nearest thing to this last was a sort of popular library which ran out of retail premises. Not all all clear whether this was a grass roots thing or an outreach project by the municipal library people. On one day they were selling off lots of stock cheap but again, not up to elbow work on uncertain French.
In peril of sounding racist, the black people were rather differant from those in London. Presumably reflecting the fact that they mostly originated from differant parts of Africa. But differant also included a differant way of dressing: I don't recall seeing any of the loud and expensive trainers, jeans and jackets which young black men in London are so fond of. Perhaps I would have had we strayed further into the suburbs. I wonder if they have a distinctive accent?
We got in while the thing still runs from the convenient Vauxhall, rather than the relatively inconvenient St Pancras. In the course of which I was reminded that the area around the Gard du Nord seems a lot more fun for a tourist than the area around Waterloo - which I would have thought would seem like a bit of a dump unless you were equipped with a very good guide. In which role the Michelin A-Z of Paris did very well. Just the right size to tote about and clear enough to read without the support of in-door spectacles.
We did well with our Paris Visite travel passes, nominally valid for 5 days but which in fact did us for all 8 days. I think this must have been something to do with a strike on one day and there being a couple of free days in consequence. The passes might not have been the cheapest way to do things as we made perhaps one Metro journey a day and the passes cost 20 Euros each, but being able to buy them at Waterloo and not having to struggle in uncertain French at the Gard du Nord after a longish train ride was certainly a boon. The Metro also managed to have the doors opening on the same side of the train, all the time I think. Another boon when travelling in the rush hour. Having bits of elevated Metro was a novelty - the Tube in London does elevate a bit near Putney bridge but I think that is about the size of it. And we certainly do not have two level bridges over rivers with road below and tube over. Last but not least, the musical beggars on the Metro were both more common and more tuneful than their confreres on the Tube. Didn't get any money from us however.
The supermarkets do not seem to have made the same impact on shopping in Paris as they have had in London. There are still pots of small food shops - butchers, bakers, cheesemongers, fishmongers, red grocers, green grocers and all the rest of it. (Although I am informed that some of them while looking all very artisanal are actually cunningly disguised chain outlets). And in the most unlikely places - so one can still buy the makings of a decent picnic on the Isle St Louis. The bread was generally very good - unlike that on Vendee campsites which was very variable last time we were there. The standard only dropped, perhaps appropriately, when we bought a sandwich on exit at the Gare du Nord, the bread of which was rather stodgy, despite looking OK from the outside. There were Halal butchers (although called something else) but sadly, we only saw one horse butcher and he was deceased. That is to say the premis had (ceramic) horses' heads sticking out of the wall but no longer appeared to contain horse, just meat of the regular variety. We would, however, have been able to buy rabbit liver by the pound in one of the steet markets - which last were much bigger and livelier than the few that are left in London. The butcher there assured us that it was the finest thing going in the world of liver.
And then there were some odd shops: a suprising number of lock shops (presumably for people who manage to lock themselves out of their apartments after a glass too far) and shops which will actually mend your clothes. The owner of one shop described himself as a master dyer. Saw very few empty shops and no charity shops. The nearest thing to this last was a sort of popular library which ran out of retail premises. Not all all clear whether this was a grass roots thing or an outreach project by the municipal library people. On one day they were selling off lots of stock cheap but again, not up to elbow work on uncertain French.
In peril of sounding racist, the black people were rather differant from those in London. Presumably reflecting the fact that they mostly originated from differant parts of Africa. But differant also included a differant way of dressing: I don't recall seeing any of the loud and expensive trainers, jeans and jackets which young black men in London are so fond of. Perhaps I would have had we strayed further into the suburbs. I wonder if they have a distinctive accent?
# posted by Jim @ 1:18 AM 
