September 11, 2018 (Paris)
The jet-lag is starting to be a bore. I spent the entire day in a daze, and I wasn't clear where I was most of the time. There has been a series of meals that went from one place to another, usually a combination of great walking and metro riding. I have been here for five days, and today is the first time I've used the metro. Getting around is not that difficult, but one thing that I find hard to do is the procedure of getting a ticket or even opening a door. Most gates and doors all have codes, so you have to push a series of buttons to get into a private residence. If you want to leave that space, then you have to find a button that will open the door for you. The same for getting a metro ticket. You have to select what you want, push, and then you think this is the time to put your credit card in, but alas, you have to push another button to give one that option of payment. It's consistently pushing, wait, push again, etc.
We spent the day with our nephew from Tokyo, who will be moving to Europe with his finance soon, and I wanted to go back to this vegetarian restaurant Le Potager du Marais ( 24 Rue Rambuteau, 75003 Paris). The food there is delicious. I had spinach lasagna, Lun*na had a plate of steamed vegetables with brown rice, with soy sauce on the side, and my nephew and his soon-to-be-bride had buckwheat crape with carrots and other vegetables. One can have wine, but I decided on just having water, due that my brain wasn't working fully. They had very elaborate plates, such as my lasagna, which was a considerable portion, and mostly covered by the spinach. I can see the pasta through the jungle, and taste it quickly enough, and I finished the plate with satisfaction.
We went back to the Frank Elbaz gallery (66 rue de Turenne, 75003 Paris. Open from Tuesday to Saturday, 11:00 A.M. To 7 P.M.) when no one was around to take photographs of my family in the court. Lun*na had the code to get in through the gates. The gallery was at one time a place for horses, and you can still see the design/architecture of such a place. The main gate from the street is from that period, a few centuries ago, and basically what the gallery did was put in walls, but there are huge windows in place as well. So one can easily see the exhibition from the courtyard. After we took the photos, we went for a long walk, and then hopped onto the metro to go to Epicure 108 (108 Rue Cardinet, 75017 Paris).
Epicure is a traditional restaurant, but the chef and owner are a couple from Japan. They had this restaurant for numerous years, and will by the end of this month retire from the business. It's small, unpretentiously elegant, and the food is incredible. I had a three-course meal. The starter was a shrimp avocado dish that two large shrimps on a small layer of Salmon with a soft potato substance that was avocado, shrimp, and sauce. The main dish was a risotto with squid. Both dishes were perfect with bread because I enjoyed dipping the bread into the sauces, which was a total delight due to its taste. We drank wine kif, as well as a glass of white wine and left the restaurant happy.
My nephew and his bride had a friend to meet, and we agree to meet up at our residence because we are holding their luggage for them. They are going to Italy tonight, but they have to spend time at the airport because their flight is early in the morning. We are planning to visit an old friend who is here just for a few days. We agreed to meet at a cafe near the Norte Dame. By my google map, it says a 50-minute walk, but of course, it became a longer stroll due that we were taking photographs every few minutes or so. I have never been to this part of Paris before, and of course, even with a google map, I got lost here and there. About halfway through our walk, we realized we needed to take a metro, or we would be late in meeting our friend. That was an ordeal as well because we had to figure where to get off, to get on to another line to reach St. Michel station. Once we arrived at the Left Bank, it was a 15-minute walk to the cafe. John, our friend, was waiting for us, and I felt terrible for being late for our arranged meeting time.
At the cafe, Lun*na had two glasses of beer, I had three glasses of wine, and John had orange juice and two glasses of wine. I first met John in London when I was eleven years old, and we haven't spoken to each other since then. We only made contact through Facebook for the last few years. John was someone I want to connect with because it was part of my youth that is slowly disappearing. Also, I remember liking him a lot as a kid. Now that I'm much older he is still the same as I remember him. John makes his recipe with a combination of different type of tobacco as well as putting a filter in the zigzag paper. Sitting by him, the smoke is mild and not as irritating as a commercial brand of cigarette. We talked about what happened today, as well as touch on politics, and my dad's exhibition. It was an excellent connection to visit Wallace's (Berman) show and having John there. Karin, a woman we met at the opening of the show, came by the cafe and had tea. She has lived in Paris for 15 years and is from England. She is from the same town as John, but they are many years apart. She met John at the opening as did we, and now we are back together again.
John got an uber to go back to where he's staying, and Karin offered to walk us back to our place so we can get my nephew and his soon-to-be-bride their luggage so they can leave for the airport. On the way there, we went to a convenient food market to purchase salad and bread for our late snack that night. Every step to our residence became an effort for me to stay awake. The jet-lag was hitting me at this time, and I have no clear memory of what I said, but we did make it to the apartment in time to see my nephew there waiting for us to pick up his luggage. I often think of time as an edited movie, but in truth, there are the little things that make time so important.
- Tosh Berman
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