Pedestrian Paris

St Jacques Park

Midday, and I am sitting in a park in the centre of Paris and it is relatively quiet. Not silent, but quieter than normal.

It would be a very pleasant autumn day but for the slightly chill wild that accompanies the sunshine.

Today is traffic-free day in the Paris centre. The trouble is that I appear to be on the edge of the free zone. Still, I have already walked through some quiet streets where the major hazards are bicycles.

It is not "no traffic" as busses, taxis, and delivery vans are still present. All these are supposed to go at 20kph max but by my assessment they are doing more than 12mph. Still, it is a big reduction in cars and quite an explosion in bikes (with children on scooters too).

So where is the park? It is a little one associated with the Tour St. Jacques (click for map).

Tour St, Jacques

Empty road (of cars) 

Hardly ever noticed this clock before, always too busy
trying to cross the street, but not today!

Even the police are on bikes

The new garden by the town hall. 360 degree view.

Originally sent by iPhone using WiFi in the park.
Updated with camera snaps.

Early Bastille

Just why aircraft should be associated with Bastille day I am not sure. At the time of the Bastille event, as far as I know, no-one had yet taken to the air (except Icarus), but the much anticipated fireworks could be symbolic of the combat.

Be that as it may, there was a practice run today over Paris. I counted 5 pairs of fighters, 3 cargo planes, a tanker with pursuit fighter, and even an AWACS which came close overhead and quite low. Most impressive with its rear-mounted disc radar slowly rotating as it passed.

But I had my camera out only for a few shots, of which these are the best. No zoom, just as good as you can get with your phone.

We will see more on the 14th I'm sure.

Bastille day official website in English

Ps. there are celebrations in London too.

Fast learning

Some of you may recognise this type of car. The low one in the front, coloured red of course.

On reflection, I have never seen them any other colour.

Ready to roll

This one was snapped from my balcony. And there is nothing particularly remarkable about it you may think. But I know that there are other cars often parked where this one is, and they all have only one purpose. Driving lessons!

You see, the car is parked outside the driving school. And if all goes to form, a student will soon come out for some on-the-road lessons. Usually it is a Micra or similar, but not today.

Time to sign up for some lessons......

Goodbye Tapas

Thursday night, and that is Martos' night for going out. On Friday people go home, like me.

And for the foreseeable future, this will be the last time. So I went out by invitation to sample some Tapas in the way only the Spanish know how.

The 9pm start was a special early concession for me. And a very pleasant evening still ended at half past midnight.

Now I know that Tapas is standard stuff in Spain, but when I try to order it I find it difficult to chose good dishes. On a night out with the "team" the dishes come fast and frequently. "Do you order all these or do they just come?" I asked. It appears that some are ordered, and others just arrive with the drinks. There was certainly a good verity.

The photo attached is missing one guest and has less Tapas on show, but it is the one where we were all smiling! And, of course, I was the wrong side of the camera.

When I arrived at the hotel, the door was locked. I rang the bell. Juan is on duty all night and he soon arrived and let me in. What time is this? He asked pointing to his watch. The ladies (wife & daughter) were wondering where you were.

I explained as he steered me through to the bar. He presented me with a wrapped memento of my 2 years of staying there. And he made me unwrap it so that he could show it to me. It was a presentation clock with my name and nice things written in Spanish on it.

It certainly will be a good reminder of the hotel, but also, as he put it, my adopted Spanish family in Martos.

It was more "leaving" than I felt able to cope with.

Terry
Envoyé de mon iPhone

Orange

Here is a photo if some oranges on a tree. In fact there are 4 trees, all heavily covered in large oranges.

And nobody has picked them.

Indeed, they fall to the ground and are left there. I commented on this, and there is a secret that the Spanish know that I did not.

The oranges are inedible.

Why anyone would grow inedible oranges I cannot guess, but from the looks of things, these fruit are totally useless. No one ever gathers them.

For the trivial persuiters, did you know that the colour orange did NOT give the name to the fruit? In fact it was the other way round. The fruit defined the colour orange and so distinguished that hue of "red"! The word orange was a fruit first.

Perhaps the first fruits were all inedible and in this way they made the word more useful?

Terry
Envoyé de mon iPhone

Franglais and all that

There are, I notice, lots of French words in the English language. I sense that the English rather enjoy it. And whilst most of the French people I know appear to use English words when it is convenient, I also hear French voices raised in a passionate, sometimes almost shrill, objection.

Protection of French-ness it would appear.

So it was with some interest that I noticed an article in the free paper "20 minutes" entitled " On parle tous « franglais », so what?" (We all speak franglais, so what?)

The argument in 5 steps went something like this:

▪ because it's too late
▪ because you should not ban all franglais
▪ because France is weighed down if you do
▪ because it is a "win win situation"
▪ because certain anglismes disappear

I was particularly interested in the section under "win win". I have long been of the opinion that much of our English has 2 sources. Hence "Anglo-Saxon". And this has assisted me in picking up French as a language. I started to use posh English words with a French accent for anything I didn't know. It doesn't always work, but then again it is successful more often than you might expect.

I reasoned that this came down to a certain Frenchman in 1066 becoming king. So it was with interest that I read the following:

■ «Amour propre », « cliché », « déjà-vu » sont quelques-uns des mots intégrés à la langue anglaise, rappelle Paul-Romain Larreya, Et ce depuis 1066, quand la bataille d'Hastings ouvrait à Guillaume le Conquérant le chemin de Londres.

■ «Amour propre », « cliché », « déjà-vu » are some words integrated into the English language, recalls PRL, ever since 1066 when the battle of Hastings opened to William the Conqueror the road to London.

Exactly.
But now it is not just me who thinks so.

It appears that French has also acquired some English. William must have gone home from time to time. 

Terence Westoby

terrywestoby@gmail.com

+33 6 75 91 87 71

Sent from Samsung tablet

Sugar and Spice and all things Nice

I hope you like a good laugh! 

To explain. The church I go to has mid-week groups, usually in someone's house. This is a great way to meet people, and here in France, for me it is a chance to see French families at home. This happened with the church in England too, but of course the French do things slightly differently. 

The French like to eat. 

And eating together is very biblical. But I sense, rightly or wrongly, a little pride in the meal quality. Or it could be very ungenerous of me, since it is clear that the French prefer to make something to take, showing they made an effort, rather than bring something bought. 

Today is a meeting day, so yesterday I made an effort. 

I was really pleased to find some "yoghurt cake" recipes that were quoted as "very easy". They were in French, but still not too hard. I looked and found I had a lot of the ingredients;  flour, sugar, oil, and even yeast! I needed yoghurt and eggs, and some cocoa products;  and a lemon for the second recipe. 

With all this bought, I set about following the simple instructions. Mix all the ingredients together and bake. It really was not hard. I watched expecting the yeast to take effect but little in the way of rising happened. I reasoned it was yoghurt cake after all. 

Being cautious, and not wanting to take something that tasted bad, I had put a little mixture in a cup-cake at one side. This allowed me to sample my effort without cutting the cake. It tasted ok, even good! Encouraged, I set about making the other flavour too. At a little after bedtime, I had 2 offerings to take the next day. 

But I did wonder why the yeast had not worked. The recipe called for "levure chimique" and levure is yeast. I checked. Chimique is chemical. So I needed a sachet of "chemical yeast". Cleaver these French, yeast is usually living. I checked the whole phrase in Google;  chemical yeast. But French Wiki had a different slant;  baking powder! I pondered my options. Try again: not enough time. Buy something: preferably not. Take it and see if anyone suspects. It tasted ok so I thought I would try it! 

So tonight I turned the first one out. The top looked lovely but underneath it was uncooked! The cup cake was small enough to be ok, but without rising, the middle had failed to bake. Everyone would notice. 

So I have eaten at home and I will go for the meeting part of the evening advertised an hour later. Once I had a wife who made all this stuff look easy, but my easy recipe had failed and you are allowed to laugh. 

But next time I will get it right! 

Terence Westoby

terrywestoby@gmail.com

+33 6 75 91 87 71

Sent from Samsung tablet