Entre Les Murs

Ottawa Friend

Visitors again this weekend. This time K, an old friend from Ottawa days who now lives in London, flew over for Saturday and Sunday. We have both acquired spouses since we last saw each other, so it was a chance to meet her husband, R, as well as catch up.

The four of us took a walk along the left bank on Saturday afternoon, stopping at cafés and bistros here and there. And speaking of Paris Plage (as I was in the last entry), we strolled by and can attest to its popularity, even on a cloudy day.



The sun came out long enough to dazzle a scooter driver, who failed to see the left-turning motorist in front of him. They collided in front of our eyes, throwing the scooter's passenger across the roof of the car. She landed apparently unharmed on the other side. Clearly the motorist was at fault - except that Parisians do assume that if they get in your way you'll go around, and even seem to have a fair bit of patience for this. Perhaps the scooter was from out of town.


We finished the day, having walked from the 7th arrondissement to the 11th, with dinner in a restaurant on Oberkampf called Chez Justine. The meal was excellent of course (it's Paris); less common, there was a terrific Spanish jazz singer to entertain,.

posted 21.8.06