Paris: The Secret History

The Book List

Paris: The Secret History by Andrew Hussey, 2006

Started reading this in April before our trip to Paris and then read through it again after we returned.  This was a very readable and enjoyable alternative history of the city.

First Communion

It seems like the entire year of first grade at St. Francis of Assissi School evolved around the preparation for the receiving of our First Communion in May. Well, the nuns were also teaching us how to read, write and count but the main thing was communion. This all happened to me in May 1958. Over 60 years ago but I remember it vividly.

There was all the religious indoctrination about the whole process of communion and there was a lot about the ritual of receiving it during the special ceremony. Then there was the procession. That was important for the nuns to get all of these first graders in line and behaving properly for this all important demonstration of faith we all knew so little about. Oh, we knew how to say our prayers of course but what did it all mean? No idea. We were a bunch of six year old kids. I was one of the smallest children in my class and the procession was organized by height. I was in the first row leading the class and I had to know exactly where I was going at any given time. I couldn't just follow the kid in front of me because I was the first kid. Me and Paul. There were three first grade classes and each of the classes had about thirty kids. That's a lot of first communion participants. 

Another memorable thing about that ritual was what the nuns told us about what would happen if for some reason you would spit the host out of your mouth and into your hand. This was long before people were allowed to handle the wafer host. This was the time of taking the host on your tongue into your mouth and woe be to you if something were to happen to the host once it got into your mouth before you swallowed it. 

The nuns instilled the fear of God and they told us the story of old man in the neighborhood who was a little too curious when he was a six year old like us. He wanted to examine the host and instead of swallowing it he went back to his pew and dropped the host out of his mouth and into the palm of his hand. The host burned a cross with a circle around it on his palm and he had that stigmata on his hand for the rest of his life. They didn't tell us his name but said he would show you his hand if you asked him. Nobody wanted to see it.

The other odd thing that happened at this time was our first confession. You couldn't have a first communion without first having a first confession along with a little penance. So they made all these little children kneel before some guy in a confessional and tell him all about their sins. Probably most something like... "bless me Father for I have sinned. I lied six times. We weren't ready for the bad words and "impure thoughts" mantra yet so it was mostly for lying and being disobedient that we had to say our hail marys and our fathers. 

Two years later in third grade we had another long preparation for our Confirmation into the Catholic Church. How does an eight year old make that commitment and decision. Shouldn't we have at least been twelve. 

I reluctantly participated in these sacraments for ten years. My last communion and confession was in 1968. I was done. 

Garden Tools & Gloves

I was rooting around in our garden shed today and realized we had a lot of space to store things that maybe we should really be getting rid of. I made a pile of some random hand tools and then another pile of garden gloves. It certainly looks like we never get rid of old gloves.

We've been fortunate to have a lot of space for garden equipment, lawnmowers, snow blowers, ladders, chairs and lots of stuff. No garage but this will do.

Paris Cafes & Restaurants 2018

Like London we did a lot of research on restaurants and cafes before going on our trip. We traveled with a downloaded Google maps with the results of our research marked. It was very helpful.

52 Faubourg Saint Denis, Saturday 5/12

This was down the street from our hotel. We had great food and wine while listening to obscure classic sounding r&b and soul jazz.

In addition to the bottle of wine with dinner I also had a pint of La Marise, a Belgian pale ale from De Proefbrouwerij. Very tasty.

Le Nemours Cafe, Sunday 5/13

Lunch outside on Colette Square as we watched musicians entertain the crowds.

Interesting and entertaining French waiters. 

I had a pint of Grimbergen Blonde Belgian Ale from Brouwerij Alken-Maes

Le Napoleon Paris, 5/13

Drinking some Cote du Rhone with a wonderful dinner while watching lots of street activity.

Au Virage Cafe, 5/13

Late night hanging out after dinner.

More wine and more classic r&b and the Paris street scene near our hotel.

Cafe Le Petit Pontoise, Monday 5/14

A nice baguette lunch on the Left Bank after a morning at the Pompidou Center and then walking around the Left Bank neighborhood.

Had a nice pint of Bière Speciale Rèmes, a Belgian Blonde Ale from Brasserie d'Orgemont

Bouillon Chartier, 5/14

Serious French food for dinner. Beef stew.

Bottle of rose.

Bistrot de la Banque, 5/14

Hanging out after dinner

Le Fregate, Tuesday 5/15

Lunch with a wonderful view of the Lourve across the Seine

Ancienne Maison Gradelle, 5/15
Enjoyed our last night in Paris with a wonderful dinner and last bottle of wine after a long day that included exploring the Isle St. Louis, the Paris Botanical Gardens, a boat cruise on the Siene, the Musee d'Orsay and a walk through the Tuileries Gardens before dinner at the Ancienne Maison Gradelle.

Started with an incredible pine nut salad then had sea bass, chicken in brown sauce and nice desserts.

Great wine too.

Le Dellec, 5/15

After dinner stopped by for one more.

Had a pint of Vedett Extra Ordinary IPA, a Belgian ale from Duvel Moortgat

London Pubs & Restaurants 2018

Here are the restaurants and pubs we visited during our trip to London in 2018. Before the trip Becky and I spent some significant time researching the pubs, cafes and restaurants of both London and Paris. We marked good places on a Google map that we would later download to our phones to guide us in these cities. We also marked museums and other attractions and then selected nearby places to eat and put them on the map. It all really helped.

Coco Momo Kensington Cafe Bar,  Tuesday, 5/8

Down the street from our hotel. 

Nice lunch. Cod and salmon cake, sweet pototo fritters with beet salad.

Had a Camden Yard Ale on tap.

Note: we liked this place enough to go there again a year later in 2019.

Tapas Brindsa South Kensington, 5/8

We had dinner here at another nearby restaurant that specialized in Spanish home cooking and particularly tapas.  We ate carbaciho pork, choza and pate dipillio among other things.

Spanish white wine too. The Spanish people running the restaurant were very nice and gave us extra bread with the dip.

Of course our Spanish waitress knew we were visiting Americans and she said to us "I want to come to America some day. I love New York. I know it very well. I've seen the movies."

 

The Hoop and Toy, 5/8

Cask beer and football... a classic pub for some after dinner drinks.

Had a Band of Brewers IPA cask from Greene King Brewery. Very nice and at room temperature like the English like it.

Stanhope Arms London

Across the street from our hotel so it was hard not to stop by

Had some Fuller's ESB cask and some London Pride cask.

Adore Remo. Wednesday, 5/9

Italian restaurant with some nice pizza for lunch after a bus tour that took us to Buckingham Palace, Fleet Street, St. Paul Cathedral, the and a bunch of Royal stuff.

After lunch we went over to the National Gallery by subway... mind the gap.

Dishoom Kensington, 5/9

Wonderful Indian tapas style dinner in a Bombay themed art deco restaurant with live jazz. Incredible.

Had a Kingfisher Ultra Indian Lager

It was a nice easy walk from our hotel too.

The Hereford Arms South Kensington, 5/9

Fine warm cask beer and a rowdy football crowd in another London pub. Multiple screens, multiple games.

This was a Fuller's Pub so naturally I had a cask pint of Fuller's London Pride bitter.

I also had a Pumphouse Pale Ale Cask from Sambrook's Brewery, a London micro-brewery.

Hiba Lebanese Restaurant, Thursday, 5/10

Probably our only disappointment eating in London. We stopped for lunch between museums. It was OK but not great like everything else have had up to that point.

Lots of running around to museums, etc. Riding the subway.  The British Museum. Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, London Bridge, etc.

Bumpkin South Kensington, 5/10

Pub food in London. Fish & Chips, Shepherd's Pie, Pudding

Wonderful dinner just a few blocks from our hotel.

Victoria and Albert Museum Cafe, Friday, 5/11

We had a wonderful lunch of baguette sandwiches and their fantastic carrot cake.

The restaurant also had amazing decor.

Ye Olde Cock Tavern, 5/11

On Fleet Street and part of a Taste of London Tour.

It was our only meal with a tour group and probably not the best but it was interesting.

Steak pie, fish & chips, dessert with liquid ice cream

Had some Greene King House Bitter Ale cask pint from Greene King Brewery.

Afterwards we had a long bus trip through Friday London rush hour traffic.

Stanhope Arms

Our last night for an English pub so after our boat tour on the Thames we went back to the pub across the street from our hotel for a nightcap. Tomorrow would be a busy day taking the chunnel train to Paris.

In the Shadows of Statues

In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History by Mitch Landrieu, 2018

Read this in May 2018.

A fascinating book by the former mayor of New Orleans who sparked a national debate when he made the decision to remove statues of Confederate officers including Robert E. Lee. 

It was an interesting account of his life that led him to this point in his life and included his personal journey through the race issues of his native city where his progressive father was a state senator and also a mayor responsible for desegregating New Orleans in the 1960's.

Baguettes in Paris

During our recent trip to Paris we often found ourselves enjoying some of the best baguettes we've ever had anywhere at anytime. They were always just wonderful. We actually began our new love of baguettes in London the previous week with baguette sandwiches we ate from the lunch counters at some of the museums we visited. They were always affordable, available and delicious. 

We speculated that the baguettes in London were so called because of the only two hour train ride from Paris. People were going back and forth between London and Paris all the time. London was getting the advantage of Paris food including baguettes.

We had many meals in Paris where baguettes were served and we had sandwiches with them for lunch at cafes several times. We loved the meats and cheeses served with them. 

On our first full day in Paris we came across a baguette baking festival across the way from the Notre Dame Cathedral located in a temporary building and tent. We walked through the exhibits and marveled at all the baguettes not only from Paris and other parts of France but from all over the world. There was even a group of bakers from the US making baguettes. 

Beauty is in the Street

Becky and I were visiting Paris recently and May 2018 was 50 years after the demonstrations and uprising in the streets of Paris.  On May 10 a million people marched in the streets of Paris. We had not realized we were there on that particular anniversary until we were there and I had seem some info about it in the American press. We really didn't seen anything about it in Paris itself.

It was fascinating walking through some of those same cobbled streets where the riots had taken place. There were no memorials anywhere and there were no events making the anniversary of the uprising. It was like if officially never happened and even the people of Paris seemed to want to forget about it. Very strange. Although the events of May 1968 have continued to influence French society and that period is considered a social, cultural, and moral turning point in the history of the country. It just didn't seem that way as we walked those streets 50 years later.

And we did  walk along the narrow streets with their smooth cobble stones. Some were loose and you could how people would have picked them up to throw at the police or the army. Parisians have had a long history of throwing their street stones at authorities. There were also many streets where you could see that the city had paved over the stones with asphalt since the 1968 riots in an attempt to take away the opportunity to throw the rocks.

I very much remember the riots in Paris as they happened in May of 1968. It was very mesmerizing and somewhat different from the race riots that were happening around America at the time or the protests against the Viet Nam War. These were students and workers marching for economic justice. I was just finishing up my junior year at North Catholic High School. 

The graphic here was taken from some street art at the time of the 1968 uprising and celebrated the beauty of the stones that was the streets of Paris.

Our Paris Hotel

Hôtel L'Échiquier Opéra Paris 

We stayed at this boutique hotel in Paris in the Grand Boulevards district near the Opera and the Louvre. We loved it although the immediate neighborhood was a little iffy. 

The hotel used to be King Henry IV's hunting lodge before it became a convent and eventually a hotel in 1850. We had a very nice room and the overall accommodations were satisfactory. This is a picture of the tiny elevator in the hotel lobby. 

The regular breakfast they served every morning was spectacular. 

Paris Day Four - Isle de St. Louis and the Botanical Gardens

We began our fourth and final day in Paris in our hotel as usual having a wonderful breakfast from the extensive buffet spread. We still had many places to see on our to-do list and we knew we couldn't see everything but we were going to give it a try. We had seen a lot over the past three days but also knew that someday we would love to make another trip to Paris.

We wanted to explore more of the Left Bank so we walked south of our hotel toward the bridges over the Seine River. We walked through the Le Marais neighborhood using a similar route to our walk the previous day and once more crossed the river near the Cathedral of Notre Dame. We somehow kept getting drawn back to that magnificent structure.

Then we crossed the small bridge Pont Saint Louis on to the little river island of Ile Saint-Louis which we explored the tiny island by walking the length of it down the main street where there were a few shops and lots of pricey homes. We circled around and then crossed another bridge on to the Left Bank.

We walked through the campus of the Sorbonne University and the Latin Quarter and then entered the gardens known as the Jarden des Plantes. This was the main botanical garden of France and was also the national botanical school. The gardens were magnificent and it was an unexpected pleasure. There were beautiful poppies and other late spring plants in bloom. We saw many students tending the gardens and putting in tropical plants and grasses for

the summer. Afterward we stopped at the National Museum of Natural History for a brief visit. We walked around the main floor but we really didn't have time to this spectacular museum it's due. The Grand Gallery of Evolution is in the background of the picture of the gardens here.

We decided to take a boat tour on the Seine which we had passed along the river while going into the Left Bank. The sky was clearing and it looked like it was going to be a pleasant day at last. We started walking back along the river to where we would take the boat tour.

Paris Day Four - Boat Tour of the Siene

We walked over to the river and down to the dock with the tour boats near the Pont Neuf Bridge. We got on a tour almost right away and then we were off cruising down the Seine as the sun was shining. The tour overall was very pleasant although it was a little difficult to understand the French tour guide and there were some slightly obnoxious Brit teenagers near us.

First we went a little east on the river than turned around and headed back west toward the Eifel Tower. Along the way we saw many spectacular buildings including Notre Dame once again. We also had a great view of the Louvre Museum as we cruised past it. I was surprised at how many houseboats there were along the river.

We also realized while on the boat how close the Museum d'Orsay was to the boat dock that we would be returning to and decided that we should get over there and see it too after lunch. It certainly was on Becky's list of art museums.