Hot springs

Now that I have lived in the outskirts of Paris for a while, I have noticed that it is a town which likes to boast a little. After all, it is Paris.

Certainly there are some lovely, or at least impressive, old buildings. Not to mention the Eiffel Tower, and there are modern ones too.

This town likes to be best at most things if it can.

But there are some things that are not usual in a town. One of these is a hot geyser. You see them in Iceland or the great parks in America, but not usually in the road!

But here in the outskirts of Paris they have achieved even that. I had noticed some geothermal activity at this manhole for a while. Now it has erupted and is a splendid display.

I suppose it has been a bit of a surprise, judging by the bollards in the road. A planned geyser would have been in a park. And now the geologists (I presume) are digging up the road to investigate.

I'll keep you posted if and when it becomes signposted as a tourist attraction, as I am sure it must be soon.

Cordialement
Terry

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No idea

I suppose that as I am getting older, it is getting a little harder to keep my weight down. So advises mother. But I intend to succeed whatever the scales say when I get home! 

Of course being in Spain conspires against me a little. Not only do I not speak the language, but I am constrained to "eat out" every day I am away. I combat eating out by buying snacks for my room, and I overcome the worst of the language difficulties with an on-line dictionary (Clare's suggestion). It works for the most part. 

And perhaps I am learning a little. I could see that there is a free town WiFi and the other day I tried signing up. Google helps, it translated the web page for me, so I invented a sign-in name and gave them my email. The next step defeated me! I had to retrieve a password within 3 minutes and sign in. With no Web available there was no way to receive the email with the code in it. I found the email much later in my spam box! 

But today I found I could see both the town Internet and the hotel one if I choose my location properly. With a bit of juggling between networks, I was soon a registered user of a Spanish site! And so a little earlier I was able to call my mum on Skype from the park. 

Tonight I took the easy option and ate in the hotel. I can order the main course and a glass of wine, but in Spain it is not as simple as that! What sort of wine is another question. Fortunately my host is very helpful and today he proposed wine from a bottle that I could see was exceptional. There was no boasting on the label, just a simple identification on a dark bottle full of promise. Uncharacteristically I was asked to taste it, either as part of the necessary ritual, or perhaps because my host was unwilling to part with the liquid if by some chance I did not like it! 

I did like it, it was instantly delicious. Soon along with the wine came the tapas. Impossible as it is (I am told) for the Spanish to drink without eating, so too the meals here come with tapas as a starter. It's automatic. 

But I don't order this dish, it is completely random. Today some toasties with orange paste on and a meat beside it was presented. I had it before and it is much nicer than it looks, and today a cup of something new came along too. I gathered it was a soup and very hot, the warning was in English.

The television is showing English football with Spanish commentary and I have no idea what I ate but I enjoyed it! So you see in the picture all sorts of things, the identity of which is a mystery to me, but they were all delicious. Mum says I am always going on about the food I eat, well it is true, but it is my adventure.

I wish I could point you to these delicious things, or be able to repeat them myself, but I can't. They remain a chance one-off to be enjoyed while I can.

And the brandy has arrived. Yesterday my host suggested this and it certainly was a good night's sleep afterwards! Now the brandy has returned but today it is the promised 1866 version. It is in my hand as I amend this post. 

I wonder what the scales back home are going to say? 

Terry 

Sent from Samsung tablet

Ados

You can see from the first photo, that all that is left from the wedding in the hotel are these flowers that fell from the bridal car. So for more a interesting image, here is a palm from the nearby park. Somewhere to walk off the night before.

Not that I was part of the wedding party. It is just that it started as I arrived at the hotel. I was tired and it was noisy. However, unlike most wedding parties, this one went quiet at about 11pm.

The person who told me what I should have expected from a wedding party, also explained what the Spanish think of when they use the word "adolescent".

It appears that to the Spanish, this word means "ado" as in adult, and "lescent" as in lacking something. So the word is full of meaning. It clearly states these are adults who yet lack a key "something". And this is a society that is very close as families all the way to adulthood; so I assume he knew what he was talking about.

Now I have to report that the 'key something' was never explicitly spelled out to me. It appears that this indefinable thing is both poorly identified and clearly obvious.

So this understanding, 'obvious' as it is, is still no help in coming through this awkward stage.

Cordialement
Terry

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Comments:
The explanation I saw said, “Adolescence is when you are expected to behave like an adult and let yourself be treated as a child!” So it’s not going to be any different any time soon.

White Night

Photo in the Jazz Club.

There has been another "nuit Blanche"here in Paris. I did not know it, but at church this morning, at the early service, it was mentioned. It appeared to me that the attendance was down- the night is an opportunity to visit lots of free events, all night if you want to.

But we did go down to Paris that night. It is our last weekend together and the best opportunity to celebrate the birthday that is soon to happen. So we ate out and then visited the Jazz Club near Montparnasse. Indeed we were out late just because of that. We caught the last fast train home and I wondered at the number of Parisians who crowded the train. I assumed this was normal weekend traffic at the time.

So today there was still lots of people about. On our walk back to the train station we passed dozens of coaches all parked in one street. Posters in the windows of some if these proclaimed a march for families. Details were unclear but it appeared that hundreds of people had arrived to make a difference.

The difference we noticed was that the temperature had dropped dramatically so we dived into the train station and headed home to warm up.

Cordialement
Terry

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