A Paris Morning

Life in Paris is not all croissants and cafes, foie gras and champagne. Sometimes you have to do the laundry. So I thought I'd share my walk through the streets to do this little chore, and show some not-typical shots. They aren't glamorous, but they're different, and so unlike life here that perhaps they'll be interesting.
Here's home: on one side of this church building on a corner of Blvd. St. Germain are flats the University rents to visiting students and faculty:


Here we go down Rue Jacob on a rainy Monday morning.

It's the day after Pentecost, a semi-holiday in France, so there aren't many people around. We're going all the way down the street and around the corner for several blocks. Rue Jacob is a fairly typical street in this part of Paris: a few hotels and cafes, lots of shops selling expensive jewelry and clothes, decorators, and art galleries. The street originally ran along the northern wall of the Abbey of St. Germain de Pres, which took up most of the land in the area until it was shut down during the French Revolution. Except for the church and the Abbot's Palace the remaining abbey buildings were torn down during Napoleon III's major urban renewal project in the 1860's.


This building predates the destruction of the Abbey, because according to the placque on the front, in this building in 1783 John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and representatives of Great Britain signed the Treaty of Paris ending the American Revolution and establishing the United States.

Now we see some glamor shops: sorry, pictures don't show too well.






Off to the right: Rue Echaude--this used to be the eastern wall of the Abbey. Obviously street widening did not happen here. There are more lovely expensive galleries and shops up there.


Here's the destination. See that little maroon sign? It says "Laverie" (laundry), but the windows are almost hidden by posters, and of course the garbage can in front for pick up doesn't help either. Two years ago, I came with precise written instructions from a friend about how to find this place, but I couldn't find it. I looked for a week, and then--there it was! I hope you can see why I had trouble. (No, it wasn't sideways--blame that on Blogger :))



Here's the inside view. This is it, in its entirety except for three chairs at the front. It takes a lot of patience, good manners, and "pardons" to manipulate laundry through this space. One pays at another machine in the front, not at the machine, which means more siddling back and forth.


After I put the laundry in, I usually went and bought a copy of the International Herald Tribune at this shop. Too picturesque, isn't it? Usually there are so many people around that you don't notice.



And then back home dodging some typical urban hazards:



This round-trip is almost a mile, and I carried laundry in my handy-dandy L.L. Bean tote bag. Then I usually went out again to do the grocery shopping, carrying groceries back the same way. Did I mention we lived on the third floor, no elevator? THAT'S why French women don't get fat.

Hello from Paris

Thanks to everyone for all the kind "bon voyage" responses to my last post. I can't answer individually but I truly appreciate understanding of my trip jitters. We have been in France a week now, Paris since Monday, and all is well. Our apartment is a bit bigger than the one we had last year, although no more elegant. Since the euro is $1.36, I am doing lots of cooking, and we go out for coffee or a drink after dinner. The city is not particularly crowded at the moment and the weather is cloudy and cool, quite pleasant actually. Tonight is a free night at museums all over Paris, and after dinner we plan to go to Quai Branley which is, I think, a sort of anthropological museum, a good thing to see free.

I think of all you needlework/fabric people all the time! The shop windows are full of beautiful bags, blouses, jackets, even shoes with needlework and embroidery embellishments. Jewelry is even bigger than it has been, beads everywhere, and the hot color for spring seems to be a bright green. Turquoise seems to be over, a good thing IMHO. I haven't made it to Le Vouvray fabric shop yet, but intend to, although I won't buy much, if anything.

More Paris notes

Yesterday I went to Brentano's American Bookstore and treated myself to two Japanese quilting/needlework books. They have a huge selection of books in English, French, and Japanese. I bought 156 Original Designs by Yoko Saito and another books with title only in Japanese by Kazue Saburai. This book is mostly embroidery stitches and ideas for using various threads and fabrics in embellishment. I bought it for the beautiful small scenic and abstract works, very much like what we do here for fabric postcards. These don't seem to be postcards, but just small pieces, all by hand. They are exquisite, somewhat stylized and abstract. I think they will be a real inspiration. Both books have instructions only in Japanese, but with diagrams and metric measurements a moderately experienced American quilter should be able to figure them out. The first book also contains wonderful quilted purses, everything in the Japanese taupe fabrics. These books are my main Paris purchase--no designer clothes, jewelry, etc. LOL (I've had good wine though!)

Bon Jour from Paris

After the third week here I have finally made it to an internet cafe to post. Can't do any pictures though because I don't have facilities for that. We are having a pleasant and rather uneventful stay (knock on wood). We're in the same place as last year and so everything seems much more familiar. My French is very little better, but it helps to know the ropes, so to speak. As far as quilty stuff, I have been to the Bon Marche fabric and sewing section, a true paradise, but of course everything is literally twice the price of the US, so I bought only the spool of silk thread I needed. Also have been to Le Vouvray, a quilt shop, but only looked. Went to an actual quilt show, apparently the equivalent of a local guild show. The fabrics used were interesting, not all cotton, some silkies, and the patterns were not like American ones. (I will post when I get home.) Workmanship is not up to our standards though.

Will be home on June 10--will be glad to be home, although it is wonderful here, never a dull moment.

Paris

I'm packing to go to Paris! It's exciting, although right now I'm tired. We will be there four weeks. My husband does some research with a professor at the University of Paris and we stay in a flat belonging to the university and available to their visitors at a very low (Paris standards) cost. It's basic, to say the least, but in the middle of the St. Germaine de Pres area on the left bank and walking distance from most big attractions. Besides the wonderful museums, the neighborhood is full of boutiques and art galleries and other beautiful shops. Window shopping is a real treat--and with prices what they are, window shopping is it!

Deb asked if I was going to buy fabric. "Le patchwork" seems to be of interest to a fair number of people there. I did find two quilt shops, one very near where we stay. You would think that clerks in these stores might speak English, but they don't, so shopping was interesting. I'm sure I'll find something, but I still have last year's purchases unused, and since fabric is about double the price here, I will try to use control! The fabric I bought last year was a very French looking blue provencal floral with a package of 25 cm. squares in coordinating fabrics. The shop sample showed the coordinates made into flying geese in a strippy set with strips of the blue between them and in the border. It was pretty, but not very inspiring, and waiting for inspiratation is ONE reason I haven't done anything with them yet. Interestingly, the Brentano's English bookstore had a larger selection of American quilt books than many bookstores do here. They also stock the French magazine Quilt Mania (which is beginning an American edition), and Japanese quilt magazines. So that may be a possible purchase. I have my circles to applique so that provides the quilting fix.

In case anyone is wondering, my French is very minimal, although I can read it! But we managed before and will again, I guess. This will be our last time for this trip, so I hope to make the most of it. If I can get a crack at my husband's computer for long enough I will try to post. Otherwise, a bientot, mes amies!

Francais

I have been studying French today. (Some quilting too.) We're spending a month in Paris in May and part of June and hoping to be a bit better at French than I was last year, I signed up for a conversational French class at a place called Forever Learning Institute. As the name suggests, it's for people over 50. I am about the youngest student, and also the weakest. And to make it worse, because of family issues I have missed the last two classes and don't even know what we're doing tomorrow. (No way to contact teacher.) So I expect to be a bit humiliated as those septugenarians run rings around me (linguistically of course). The whole thing is taking on a nightmarish quality, like those anxiety dreams where you haven't been to class all semester and don't know where the final is. Zut alors!