Parisians Welcoming me to lunch a touching event

Parisians Welcoming me to lunch a touching event - Monday, May 6 Part 2. (long)

May 09, 2024

When Bernard (Paris Greeter, morning tour of Luxembourg Gardens) and I arrived, via 3' x 3' ascenseur (typical tiny French elevator in apartment buildings) at his home, his wife Francine, impeccably dressed, welcomed me and had me put my little umbrella outside the door. The one bedroom apartment was beautifully appointed, with tasteful furniture yet not large. They have a country place as well, as do many upper middle class French. At first Francine thought I was German (yesterday a Kabyle-Algerian café owner thought from my accent initially that I might be from Luxembourg, consistent!) but she seemed to like me more when I declared my U.S. citizenship.

The "simple lunch of leftovers" served on white linen, and from a silver rolling cart brought from the kitchen, consisted of, to start, tender radishes, filleted and skinned tomato slices, in crescents arranged beautifully in an oval dish, and a unique sort of tabouli, with choice of red or white wine (I chose the red Bordeaux-Médoc). I thought that was "it"; however, followed leftover spaghetti with "palourdes" in the shell, and more slices of of wonderful baguette, that French cultural treasure (UNESCO certified now) of crunchy crust and soft interior. Afterwards, succulent Camembert, and finally rhythmically-arranged slices of orange melon. Beautifully satisfying.

All the while eating, a most interest exchange of details about our families, the joy and frustration of Paris life, and their puzzlement at how so many Americans keep backing that former president.

After lunch, they proposed going to see buildings constructed soon after the 1889 Exposition in a nearby area toward the École Militaire. Here are some snapshots:

"The Lavirotte Building, 29 Avenue Rapp

One of the most unusual places to see in Paris is the door (and indeed entirety of the front façade) of the Lavirotte building at 29 Avenue Rapp in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. Many of the forms across No. 29 are meant to invoke a reimagining of Adam and Eve through Lavirotte’s eyes…

For example, in the very centre of the entranceway, you’ll soon spy a depiction of Lavirotte’s wife, with an animal draped across her shoulder. As you might imagine, the doorway was rather controversial when it was first installed, not least because the doorway is alleged by many to resemble an inverted phallic symbol. " (Lavirote the architect; source: Sophie Nadeau online)

Bernard said the wife was said to have a depressive personality and her face seems to show it.

Here: salamander (?) door handle detail of Lavirote's door into the entranceway.

Another example of Art Nouveau facade

Below, originally built as a school for Italian girls, still a school teaching in Italian.

View from across street of Lavirote building; springtime leafing of street trees and wow the green on the upper columns!

The glass cover of another entrance apparently called a "marquis", was more common when I lived in Paris in the 60's. This is popularly called the calla lily building.

One can glimpse this icon down many neighborhood streets.

So much harmonious over-do!

I wanted to visit the Champ de Mars nearby (because of a charming book I recently read, Perestroika in Paris, about a steeplechase filly who wandered off from her stall at Auteul and hid in the Champ de Mars in the daytime, befriending other animals on her Paris adventures) -- a couple of obstacles reared up: first most of the Champs de Mars, a beautiful park stretching from the Eiffel Tower to the École Militaire, is fenced off in preparation for the Games, and also a temporary Grand-Palais structure (sort of a huge modernized quonset hut-shaped structure, takes up one end. Secondly, due to the visit by Xi Jinping that day, buses had to terminate well short of the park. So we walked and walked almost more than our energy banks could supply, beyond exhaustion, but finally made our adieux. Here are pictures of Bernard and Francine, and Francine and me in front a a curious Egyptian style structure left over from the 1889 Expo.