Bon jour, mes amies,
I walked well over 12K steps today, and I am tired, but I covered a lot of ground and came back with . . . well, I think I'll save that.
It was a chilly morning when I ventured out to the grocery store. I'm improving on the check out machines. A nice employee came to help me scan items and show me what to scan, and I know how to select cash payments, insert my bills and coins, collect any change I'm owed, and to take my receipt. I sincerely feel that my progress in this regard is an accomplishment.
After having put away my groceries, I set out once again for La Marais. Now my dwelling is in a great tactical position. I can walk a lot of places, and this is important because I want to avoid the metro where folks are packed in like unusually cramped sardines. My normal practice was to walk out, do my touristy stuff and any shopping and then metro back. Now I walk back, too.
My first stop was the Museum of the History of Paris also known as the Musee Carnavalet, beautiful hotel particulier or private mansion, once owned by Mme de Sevigne., who.se letters are an important cultural artifact. Entrance to the museums is free, and it's worth a visit for the lovely building itself. What I enjoyed most are the beautiful period rooms including Marcel Prost's bedroom where he did most of his work and Gertrude Stein's study. There's also some interesting archeological. One disappointment: I couldn't get in to the French Revolution section because a tour group was taking it up, but I had seen it before.
Not far away is the Musee National de Picasso, and I used my museum pass. I very much like Picasso's paintings--the sculptures and ceramics not so much. When I taught Art History, I would show the students some of his very early representative work because I wanted them to understand he was classically trained and was highly skilled and conscious of the effects he wanted. The museum is newly renovated, and there's a fascinating exhibit of his numerous portraits of his daughter Maya. Once again the museum is in an historic hotel particulier, and even if you don't care for Picasso, you might like the building and the neighborhood.
But I was not done. I had a mission, and it involves cheese and butter--two of my best loved comestibles. Oh yeah! I went in search of my favorite French cheese shop. I came away with some raw milk demi sel beurre--which is divine, but you are going to have to wait for it and some goat milk cheese called Valencay. Now being me, I feel that any fromage goes down better with an historic association. In this case Valencay was the estate of M. de Tallyrand, the gifted diplomat and survivor who managed to serve the ancien regime, spent the Reign of Terror camping out in the forests of the United States, and then returned to serve both Napoleon and the restored Louis XVIII. Obviously, he was a very flexible person of tremendous ability.
Having obtained these treasures I faced a long walk home, but here I am. And, yes, there's a bike race, but the spring classics are over, so we have stage races with shorter distances per stage, so I need not hurry back. On the other and I do not want to tear myself away from the race to watch or stir a pot, so we are having apero dinatoire otherwise known as an apero substantial enough to serve as dinner.
Having rehydrated myself and taken off the contact lenses and shoes I had a kir royale. It's my favorite aperitif, but since I'm here, I think I ought to branch out a bit.
I am using the tuna mixture I got yesterday for its intended use as a sandwich spread, and very nice it is, too, providing me with flavor and Omega 3s. I also have some peanuts and dried fruit with some tree nuts courtesy of my gracious hosts at Citadines.
Valencay is a raw milk cheese. You are unlikely to find it in the United States. It has a rind created by mold and rubbed with charcoal. The texture is firm, and I really like the strong, complex flavors. It does not come cheap, by the way, but I think it's worth it.
A demain
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