Entre Les Murs

Out and About

We spent Saturday afternoon downtown, around the 1st and 2nd arrondissements. The area around the department stores had been blocked to traffic for a demonstration - this one to do with new immigration laws - and it made it much easier to get around. One has to appreciate the French respect for political demonstrations. This one, or what we saw of it, seemed quite large, but even so the area of the downtown core that had been barred to traffic was so ample that many blocks became effectively pedestrian boulevards, for the shoppers and tourists to enjoy. The police seemed to be handling it smoothly, with traffic efficiently re-routed and, contrary to our experience from the news and around our sports stadium, no over-bearing show of force to remind people to behave.


Passing from the main shopping area on Haussmann down to the Boulevard des Capucines, we discovered that the cow sculpture mania has made it to Europe. In Toronto it manifested mostly as life-size moose. Here we found some unusual cows posed on the Opera plaza.


We were downtown shopping, of course, but we have also signed up for an introductory wine appreciation course at Lavinia, a large wine merchant oriented to the serious caviste rather than the casual tippler (It turns out there are many of the latter in France. One has the perception that all of the French have sophisticated tastes for wine and food, but we have learned, from our observations in the supermarket, cat-sitters leave-behinds and other sources, that the French are just like North Americans, and in large numbers opt for convenience over quality). The course is two hours on Saturday evening for three weeks. The subject was white wine this week, and included tastings of three wines that were each a little unusual. The other participants were couples and single young men of the well-groomed sort.

posted 14.5.06