May 30th--Cour St-Emilion

Dear Mother,
After breakfast yesterday (Saturday), Janice started some laundry, which takes quite a while because the washing machine is ever so thorough, heating the water to the precise temperature specified. A load can take nearly two hours (and if not, it just seems like it does). Once the machine was on its way, Janice settled into the library office for the rest of the day.

I mowed the lawn early morning (well, early for me, and possibly also for the neighbours), realizing that it might rain later in the day.  I also knew mowing would be distracting to the meetings planed for morning and afternoon.  I then decided to head off to the Cour St-Émilion to see whether I could find the kitchen store where I got my wonderful plastic holder for camembert cheese last year. Some Vancouver friends expressed interest in getting something similar, and our favourite cheese store in Vancouver would also like to know where it is made so they can sell them. 

This court is in a warehouse district that has been redeveloped in the last few years, being transformed into a very active collection of restaurants. They were advertising that another seven restaurants would join the complex shortly, so the idea is obviously working. I arrived by 10:30, hardly early, but discovered nothing would open until 11:00 so I had some time to look around and shoot.

These warehouses taking up several square blocks of the city close to the River Seine, used to be the central district for wine distribution for all of Paris. That would have been a lot of wine, even in the 1700s. Thousands of barrels would be brought by farmers and delivery men by horse-drawn carts and then stored in the series of uniformly sized warehouses until sold.

Each distributor would sell his particular wines (likely from specific regions of France) to restaurants, cafés and city wine merchants. Since liquids are heavy, the casks would have been received and distributed by smaller carts pulled by horses.  The warehouses were therefore designed so that a horse and cart could enter at one end and leave at the other.

There would also be passageways through the entire complex of buildings, granting the carts access to and from the inner courts.  There would often be three openings for carts, which suggests that traffic could become congested during certain seasons of the year.

I'm uncertain whether the somewhat larger warehouses across the road from those for the wine merchants also dealt with wine, but it would seem that they specialized in other commodities.  Their openings for carts appear to have accomodated larger carts and wagons, and the buildings are at least one or two stories higher.  Obviously, heavy barrels can only be stacked so high, and one would not dare stack them upstairs on a wooden floor, whereas grain and fabric could be piled much higher and be retrieved more easily from below.

This complex of renovated warehouses is now, among other things, a school for future bakers and pastry makers, jobs which see quite secure in France.

Back to the wine warehouses:  These apparently ceased to be used once trucks began delivering wine and the custom of direct delivery took hold of the industry. Fortunately, these particular warehouses were somehow sufficiently preserved to be renovated and be transformed into stores and restaurants, complete with electricity, running water and the like, none of which was originally present. I was glad they also carefully retained the original openings for the carts, at least on the sides facing the central courtyard.  The warehouses were apparently still in use when trams were in vogue; one track still runs down the middle of the central courtyard.

I am fascinated by the use of stone in Paris.  The elaborate government and ecclesiastical buildings use finely chiselled stone, but people with fewer financial resources sometimes used a very porous kind  of stone which is quite decorative.

The older streets used a various stones, including granite.  I liked the variety of stones used in the pavement of this particular courtyard.  These stones would be particularly colourful in a rain, because water always makes unpolished stones interesting.

After this excursion, I went to our favourite market in Charenton, picked up some breaded veal cutlets, flat green beans, potatoes and strawberries, and headed home. By this time, the ecumenical meeting was well underway in the basement, a meeting of pastors and theologians interested in discussing denominational differences in faith and practice, both to understand other traditions better and to explain their own. In the afternoon, a Russian Orthodox engineer who also teaches theology came to explain some of the similarities and differences between his faith tradition and others, as he sees it, and to explain how and why there are different branches of the Orthodox Church. The talk was interesting, though I haven’t thought those issues for a very long time (this helped me remember why!) They graciously let me take pictures for the Centre's eventual publicity, which I did during introductions, coffee and discussion time. Two long-time attendees are soon getting married, so I was very pleased when asked to take a picture of them together.  We went outside for better lighting--they are born models.

Before a rather late dinner, the Bloughs joined us in our kitchen to discuss the day's events, to help me understand some of the theological issues the group has been discussing over time, and to reflect on the very busy past week.  After dinner, we enjoyed a quiet evening with some photo processing, reading, making the beds, and listening to Radio Classique (how I wish every western country had this station).

We hope you are doing well and have a good Sunday. With love from us both, Evan