Paris Plage opens today

For the past few summers, the banks of the Seine in Paris have been transformed into a beach-- Paris Plage. This offers Parisians and tourists a rather surprising plot twist when strolling along the river.

For several weeks, the roads along the Seine are closed, and a "beach" is created. Tons of sand are crated in, potted palm trees are placed, beach chairs and umbrellas are arranged. The typical Paris dress code is reduced substantially. :-0

This year, the plage visits Paris for a month, from 21 July to 21 August 2008. Don't forget your bathing suit!

UPDATE: To kick things off there's a free concert tonight (by the Ensemble orchestral de Paris at 6pm, followed by a giant picnic. We may be going.

Disneyland Paris

I spent a fun day with Gladys, her 3 daughters and her nephew at Disneyland Paris; We had a ball - even though I found the Space Mountain attraction rather jolting!

The weather was just splendid and we did most of the major rides - including some I hadn't done before (waiting on some lines can be noxious however, as attested by the "Buzz Light-Peo" incident!) ...

I left a bit earlier than the others as our friend jean-Yves arrived sooner than expected from Uzès (and I still had to do my training run - which I finished just before midnight).

Thanks to Josean for the photo here which I "borrowed" from his facebook album.

Ingrid Bétancourt ¡libre!

After over 6 years of captivity at the hands of the FARC in Columbia ... Ingrid has been freed.

Celebration starting at 5pm at the Paris City Hall . We'll be going ... see you there?

Ciao bello ... and come back soon!

Rob heads back to San Fran tomorrow so we're having a final drink and then dinner near his place on the rue Montorgueil.

After drinks at the outdoor terrace of L’Esplanade Saint-Eustache we checked out a couple of places very nearby (including a Russian restaurant that looks promising - especially in colder weather) but finally we ended up halfway down on rue Mandar, a few minutes walk north, at Dar Wafa, for a very nice and convivial Moroccan dinner.

Marche des Fiertés + Happy Birthday Regina!

We're off to take a quick look at this year's Gay Pride Parade (which takes off from nearby Denfert-Rocherau) then taking the tram east (a bit beyond Chinatown) to celebrate our dear friend Regina's big 5-0!

UPDATE: On the right a photo of Regina and the collective birthday gift we all gave her - a spiffy, red scooter to run around Paris! Optimo!

Fête de Musique 2008

The 27th annual Fête de la Musique will see us around 8pm near Métro station Avron to hear our Brazilian friends play at the French Kawa bar in the 20th arrondissement (go east one block on Avenue d'Avron to 6 rue Planchat) - hopefully we'll see (some of) you there tonight ... or elsewhere, as it promises to be a loooonnnggg night.

Only good luck...

The "Gros Caillou Quartier d’Arts" association is holding their annual art event called "Jardin d'Arts" and this year there is a good selection of artists, including our friend Eva gathered around the theme of "Art Environnement".

As usual it takes place in the gardens surrounding the church called l’Eglise Saint-Jean, at 147 rue de Grenelle, in the 7th arrondissement.

The vernissage is tonight Friday 13 ( a good way to fend off any bad luck vibes) from 6pm until 9:30pm - the show continues tomorrow from 11am to 8pm. See you there tonight?

La Ménagerie

This afternoon we did a short visit to the zoo at the Jardin des Plantes with our friends Anne-Marie and Christian. We especially enjoyed the orang-outans.

We also visited the expo about the atoll Albabra - very biodiverse!

Say "cheese", Pop!

The method for creating Roquefort cheese was discovered in Roquefort, France on this day in the year 1070. Which leads to a thought for my father who, unlike me, just loved Roquefort and, indeed, all bleus. He used to tell me, as I grimaced when he offered me a nibble, "Your taste is all in your mouth!" ... ¡Bendición , pai!

Out for a run

I've come across an aid for my running - the Google Map Pedometer at this address. An example of what I plan to run today is here. It may be of use to you other runners (walkers, hikers) out there - let me know.

UPDATE: Actual route run (using another tool) is below.

Eva @ Cachan

The town of Cachan, just south of Paris, has the opening of their 20th Art Bienal tonight. Our friend Eva has several works on display.

For those Dear Readers in France: if you're free and want to drop in for some fine "land art" type works please let me know and I'll get you an invite. See you there!

UPDATE: A great turnout for this interesting show - with Eva's works (see photos below) being very well admired. A tip of the hat to another work, of animation - entitled Bâmiyân, by Patrick Pleutin that we liked a great deal (see him at work here). Over 60 artists are exposed and the expo runs until June 30 so stop by if you are nearby.










Visit Eva's website at: www.bony-tourtoglou.net

La fête des voisins

PLANNED: click title

Entre les murs

The film adaptation of the book "Entre les murs" has just won this year's Palme d'Or at Cannes. It was produced by our friend Fanchette's son, Alexis - bravo mon p'tit !

Which film do you recommend to us, dear Reader? Just leave a post here.

Manifestations pour la défense des retraites

We marching,this afternoon, in the big manifestation unitaire starting from Bastille at 3pm.

UPDATE: I was met by Dominique, Jacques, Winky and Joel on the steps of the Opéra to take part in what, for me, turned out to be a rather lackluster "manif" - fewer people than I'd expected and a low "energy level" (maybe because most of us were over 50? Alas, lost youth!) - after a couple of hours of start-stop marching we stopped to have drinks at a bistro near Saint-Sebastien - Froissart then we dispersed.

For dinner at home we had Myriam (back from visiting her friend in Puy-de-Dôme), Fanchette (who's responding well to her treatments), Florence (who showed up with a stapler a patient's little boy had taken apart - we had fun figuring out how to put it back together - good idea for a party game) and also Benjamin came over (after a week in Korea).

Benj was kind enough to bring us a bottle of Dong Dong Ju (in its charming plastic bottle). Dong Dong Ju is a rustic rice wine (emphasis on the "rustic"). It's milky white and a little bit sweet, but not too sweet. Benj tells me they usually serve it up in big bowls, which you then ladle into smaller bowls for drinking. It's not that strong, really, but if you drink a lot of it then it supposedly gives you a warm and happy buzz with just a little bit of CRAZY thrown in. I didn't know better so I had brought out tiny shot glasses to serve us - next time BOWLS!

We had a nice discussion over coffee (OK, OK and more Dong Dong Ju!) about cremation and disposing of ashes in France. Also the rights of burying someone on your own property. How'd we end up on those topics? Maybe I'll hold off on those bowls for the DDJ!

"Du vent dans les branches"

I came across this expo (Artsénat 2008) in the Jardin du Luxembourg on my run this afternoon - the image is of a work by Faz. The expo runs until September 21 for those of you who'll be coming soon.

Happy Saint Yves Day

I walked down the street to our "Comedia" Square where the 14th arrondisement's Bretons (and wannabes) were gathered for today's Fest-Yves Gouel Erwan - bagpipes galore, much dancing and lots of cider and crepes. Fun for all! Next year I'll come earlier and stay longer.

La Nuit des Musées OR Les P'tits Rocks

Well, the idea of staying up all (or most) of the night going from museum to museum (I had a hit-list of 18 interesting spots) was pre-empted by our friends Dominique & Jacques dropping over in the early evening and us all deciding to go to have dinner at Jimmy Le Watt's nearby.

To our surprise the place was packed and a pick-up band of 12-year-olds were wailing away (impressively) on old rock standards (both French and American). High energy, fairly saavy musically and good looks - we were probably at the genesis of the new Rolling Stones (I askd - they call their group "Les Petits Rocks").

Just so you can enjoy a bit of their gig here, below, is a short clip I shot.

Lundi de Pentecôte

We're heading up to Saint-André de Valborgne for the day. Some hiking, some lunching, some fun!

UPDATE: Little hiking, fine lunching, more drinking and talk of caviar (no, we didn't have any ... but did you know it is also produced in France? Yes! See here.)

Lots of kilometers on winding, not to say very twisty, roads ( see below) up from Saint-Jean-du-Gard (where Anne our friend lives - sadly she was not home when we stopped by).

Dinner, en trio, with Jean-Yves followed by viewing the French film "Les Côtelettes" (strange - but then aren't most French film strange for me?) ... where's the action?! Anyway, Death never looked better (well, when she makes an effort).

BBQ Sunday

Twenty of us at la Gare d'Uzès (in the tiny photo on left) for lunch by Polo (excellent BBQ).

Beautifully sunny all day - around 6pm the rain started to set in and it promises to be with us most of the week - nonetheless tomorrow we plan to go up to Saint-André-de-Valborgne. Then return to Uzès on Tuesday for dinner with Christian and Anne-Marie (your easy but mind-blowing recipes gladly accepted - post here, thanks).

UPDATE: And the beat goes on ... after leaving the station around 8pm about a dozen of us showed up at Jean-Yves' place out in the scrublands to continue partying. As a treat below you have a short clip of Bébert going at it (as Odile tells me to shoot "stills", not "film"!) ...

Couscous Delight

Dinner at Bourdic - as you can see from the photo (above) a town surrounded by vineyards - where Carole served us (a jolly band of 10) an excellent couscous liberally accompanied with natural (biodynamic, often) wines - such as a fine red, cuvée Cariña.

Natural wines are growing in popularity - see a map of wine growers in France here.

UPDATE: It took a while but I've found the name of the "petillant" white wine we had before dinner; it was a very agreeable "Moussaillon" Domaine des Griottes (also a link here). According to Carole we can find it in Paris at La Cave les Papilles. And here is a place to taste it direct!