Futility Now

Here are some photos presented in a less verbose context.

Hazel and I took a day trip to Arles, which is a pretty cool town. Here is a picture of a cat who hangs out at a cafe in Arles.

Here is a forlorn-looking infants shoe stuck on a tree in the square of Saint Chinian.

Here are some prawns we ate on our last night in Saint Chinian

Here are Hazel and Zia in Beziers, where Hazel and I caught the train back to Paris.

Here is a rather handsome metal door in Beziers.

Last Beziers photo: For various reasons that we don’t really need to go into detail about, Hazel and I were sort of exhausted by the time my mom drove on with Zia. Rather than wait in the train station, we went to a rawther rustic bar and drank Ricard.

Then we went back to Paris, where we belong. Here is the sky from our hotel window.

Here is Hazel drinking wine by the Canal Saint-Martin while we wait for pizza from Pink Flamingo.

Here are the pizzas for which we waited. The one on the left is called L’Obama, and it’s ham and pineapple chutney. Verdict: amazing!

Here is some rubble we saw after eating pizza and before we got on the metro for further adventures.

After stumbling out of the Louvre we tried to go to Musée des Arts décoratifs, but it was closed, because there is nothing the French love so much as being closed. We instead wandered into The Tuileries Garden and had some sort of frozen melon beverage that made Gray’s Papaya look like some kind of fancy juice bar. Thus invigorated we staggered to Musée de l’Orangerie where we looked at a bunch of paintings of a frog pond.

Downstairs from its most famous exhibit, l’Orangerie contains the collection of a man who was more or less the French Donald Trump of the turn of the century (the last turn of the century, not this most recent one which is really only a mid-80s rehash anyways.) It was very charming, except when it served to remind us by comparison of how degraded out times are.

In the evening we tried to go out in the Marais, but we went down the wrong Rue .* Temple, and couldn’t find the place we wanted, and were disappointed in the substitute we tried out. Instead we went to a bar immediately outside our metro stop and had a grand time. Because it was our last evening in the first hotel, I pointed my camera wistfully out of the window.

After The Fleas we went to Montmartre.

Sacre Couer was, as you might expect of a Sunday, incredibly crowded. At first we opted to avoid going into the church itself and just hit up the dome and crypt. While we were in the crypt, singing began in the main level and echoed down the sealed off staircases. The effect was appropriately otherworldly and very beautiful. Hazel warily sampled the red velvet prayer kneeler and one of the old confessionals (sadly, there were no takers for her sound advice).

Ascending the spiral stairs to the dome was, actually, a religious experience. By the way.

(not pictured: Stunt flyers from the Paris Air Show that we saw drawing the French flag in colored smoke.)

On the way down from the dome we realized that we’d stumbled into the middle of a whole-nine-yards type Catholic service, complete with smoking censer, dudes in funny hats and dresses, and a massive singing procession. In addition to the fact that the singing was quite beautiful, the commotion allowed us to sneak into the interior of the church without waiting in line in the blazing sun. We didn’t stay long, but we were pleased to have gotten the opportunity.

We were tempted to check out Montmartre a bit more, but even away from Sacre Couer the whole thing was, shall we say, frantic. As this was not in keeping with our romantic notions, we demurred. Instead, we got a flight to Toulouse via the internet to make up for the fact that we couldn’t get a train to Beziers. I guess that wasn’t terribly romantic either, but there are far worse problems a person could have, mais oui?

The afternoon interlude involved finding another hotel for our newly-extended stay. Luckily our neighborhood was full of the quirky (hommes sleeping on a mattress behind the front counter) places where a room can be had for 50 euros a night, if only you can figure out the strange policies through French conversation. As in, of course you can stay here, but you can’t reserve now, and I won’t take your money for some inexplicable reason, but just come back on the day you need a room, at 2:00. It was difficult not to feel like maybe we were being a little tricked, but mais non. C’est ne pas de probleme.

Then we had tapas, which was notable for the pitcher of sangria. Maybe you know this already, but cold and drink are not by rule a happy couple in France, especially as regards water. The chilly sangria, on the other hand, was basically nectar from the gods. We also ended up going to a couple of bars, one of which was run by a woman who must have been in her late 70s and early 80s. The place (and the madame) were run down. There was a wonderful cat.

There were pictures of the bar from earlier in her career as its proprietor (she’d owned it for 35 years) and it had been quite beautiful. I wasn’t sure if it was magnificent that she was carrying on, or sort of sad to think about how different it had once been. As is invariably the case in such circumstances the right answer probably involves a mix of each, although the exact proportions of important things are always difficult to gauge.

Naturellement.

(For various reasons too boring to recount, you can only name one author per post, but we both worked on this.)

As noted previously, we returned to Ocean Haven. It was, as expected, totally awesome. In comparison to our visit over the holidays, the weather was shockingly accommodating.

Also accommodating: the adorable seals.

So the last time I wrote about Ocean Haven I was too busy wringing my hands to mention it, but it is the birthplace of my second-proudest culinary invention: pizza with smoked oysters and cream cheese. This trip we switched it up by substituting smoked albacore for the oysters. While it was good, I think the oysters were probably better. Next time I think we might work with salmon (in smoked blocks, not lox). I think the oiliness would be appropriate.

The cream cheese was, as ever, totally awesome.