Tom Douglas

Hi from Paris/ by Tom Douglas

We’ll always have Paris.  That famous line from the movie Casablanca, words that are now a cliché, yet strangely, even encouragingly, optimistic.  Jackie and I are beginning our third week in the French capitol city during a surprisingly fantastic streak of fine weather surrounded by the requisite tourist mobs, literary melancholy types, sidewalk hogging femme fatales, and most ubiquitous of all, cigarette smoking university students wrapped in tangles on every park bench and café chair.  The G20 summit is strangling traffic with motorcades of important folks “guessing” as how to solve the world’s financial crises, or inciting riots by those who believe they can better fix what the G20s have already screwed up.  This gathering is happening in a country where the 35 hour work week is a sacred right, and the new retirement age of 62 from 60 is likely to bring an end to Sarkosy’s stay as president of France.  While preaching the need for enforced thrift or “austerity,” our walks on the cobblestones of Paris suggest that only the finest hotels, absolute bastions of haute couture like the Crillion, Meurice, George V, or Ritz will do for the international money “managers” stay in the City of Light.

We’ll always have Paris.  Streets, the Metro, and, of course, the Louvre- all are choked with tourists and locals alike.   Cafés are jam packed, and this city is packed with cafés.  Eating and drinking establishments are categorized by menu and hours into bistros, brasseries, restaurants, cafés, and let’s not forget those distinguished by their Michelin stars or lack there of.  Some of the hottest cooks in town are either foreign born or have staged in other parts of the world including the States.  Some of the worst cooks in town (yes, it is a cliché that it’s hard to get a bad meal in Paris) man the kitchens of many of the “cuisine traditional”  restaurants dotting every corner of most every street.  These restaurants rely on the sheer numbers of people who need to be fed three meals a day plus coffee breaks and afternoon respites from shopping or indoor smoke free environments.

We’ll always have Paris.  Our apartment for the month is situated in the 6th on Rue du Tournon just a half block from the Luxembourg Gardens, home of the French Senate and some very persnickety pruners. The kitchen is newly remodeled and suitable for cooking dinners for up to 10 people.  Being able to invite newly made friends or old acquaintances over to share a meal out of the hustle and bustle not to mention crammed quarters (I am too big for this place) of the city’s restaurants is a treat.  Shopping in pop up markets and our own Marche Saint Germain for food instead of trinkets feels very Parisian and indeed makes me feel sorry for those poor souls stuck in hotels no matter their pedigree.  Our terrace (the envy or our local friends) looks towards the 7th and is flashed every minute or so by the revolving spotlight of the Eiffel Tower. Is now an appropriate time to give thanks to all of my coworkers for this time away? THANK YOU!

We’ll always have Paris.  Jackie and I planned this trip back in February during construction on the Terry Avenue Building as a light at the end of our new restaurant tunnel.  6 restaurants, 2 bakeries, and a bunk house/barn at Prosser Farm were never meant to coincide over just 1 year, but that’s the way things happen sometimes.  Our journey coincides with Jackie’s birthday, our 28th anniversary, and our last parents’ weekend at Colgate University where daughter Loretta is a senior this year.  Is now a good time to thank you, our loyal customers, for affording us the opportunity to send our kid to college? THANK YOU!

I will be back in touch before we finish our travels with specific recommendations on places to eat around town and you are welcome to add a comment here with some of your own suggestions (we still have 11 and 1/2 days: that’s 35 meals, 23 snacks, 12 espresso breaks, and countless pastry treats.)  And so, in the words of so many before us who have snuggled on the Tuileries park benches, lived under the eves of five story walk-ups, cruised the Place de Madelaine for Dior or just sat and watched the world go by at Deux Magots… We’ll always have Paris.

October 17th, 2011