We are now back in Vancouver, slowly returning to 'normal' life, so the next postcards we send from St Maurice will be in the Spring of 2011.
Evan and Janice
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
Garden at the CMP
The back yard of the Centre Mennonite de Paris could be described as "leafy". Trees and bushes near the terrace keep it quite private, and the rose bush (with the few last roses of the season) shade the south-facing terrace.
Geraniums on the window sills and in an ancient metal container from a fireplace (??) provide a colorful accent.
In early June, love-in-a-mist plants (nigella) flower in profusion from seeds from the previous year.
The gooseberries are beginning to ripen.
A volunteer is busy mowing the lawn.
Another volunteer has trimmed this tree on the west side of the house, in a way typical in urban areas in France.
The metal slide sits in the back of the garden near the compost pile and a pile of trimmings from the tree and other bushes. Perhaps this is not the most beautiful part of the back yard, but there is a swords-to-plow-shares story here. A former Mennonite worker from North America purchased the slide at a bargain price from the US/NATO forces in the mid 50's when they were requested to leave France by Charles de Gaulle. This sturdy slide has been used for over 50 years in this backyard and appears to be good for another 50!
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Grocery Quiz
This first photo shows a small paper bag, the type that the vendors at the markets use for fresh produce.
Now the quiz-- see answers at the end. Groceries in France look a little different. What are these items?
Answers: coffee, ice cream, (bio=organic) yogurt, butter, bread, & Pringles!
Now the quiz-- see answers at the end. Groceries in France look a little different. What are these items?
Answers: coffee, ice cream, (bio=organic) yogurt, butter, bread, & Pringles!Sunday, June 6, 2010
June 4--Place de Vosges
Dear Mother,
I should add a bit more to what I already wrote about Friday. After leaving Rue St Denis, we headed somewhat south. When we came close to the Hotel de Ville (City Hall), Janice spotted the enormous TV screen that was set up on the plaza. This is quite possibly the one I read about which will show all 60 World Cup games, starting on the 11th. But right now, they are showing some tennis match. Since I'm not paying attention to the news and have not had access to a TV for a month, I am clueless as to which match is being featured. But when Janice noticed that Fed Ex was one of the sponsors, she wanted a picture, so here it is: tennis on the screen, tennis also being played live in the middle of Paris (the court built and set up just for this week), and the Cathedral of Notre Dame in the background. Frankly, I am amazed that they would build a temporary clay tennis court on the plaza, but Parisians like to enjoy city life in Paris.
We concluded our 7-hour stroll Friday with a visit to the Place de Vosges, which we had not seen since 1989. After consulting my compass and map, we found this square, even though it is off the beaten track. This was an old area, once obviously very wealthy, and I believe it was also close to one of the the Jewish quarters. The place (town square) is a large rectangle with a good sized park inside. All around the rectangle is a covered walkway with lots of little shops. Now art dealers tend to dominate, and I sometimes wonder if anyone would ever buy the stuff they show, but just because one has money does mean one also has good taste. The covered walkways are reasonably extensive and offer a number of cafés for coffee and dining, and the uniform archways offer good views of the inner square's roads and park.
It would seem to be a wonderful place to live, though having money would be rather helpful.
All for now, with love from us both, Evan.
I should add a bit more to what I already wrote about Friday. After leaving Rue St Denis, we headed somewhat south. When we came close to the Hotel de Ville (City Hall), Janice spotted the enormous TV screen that was set up on the plaza. This is quite possibly the one I read about which will show all 60 World Cup games, starting on the 11th. But right now, they are showing some tennis match. Since I'm not paying attention to the news and have not had access to a TV for a month, I am clueless as to which match is being featured. But when Janice noticed that Fed Ex was one of the sponsors, she wanted a picture, so here it is: tennis on the screen, tennis also being played live in the middle of Paris (the court built and set up just for this week), and the Cathedral of Notre Dame in the background. Frankly, I am amazed that they would build a temporary clay tennis court on the plaza, but Parisians like to enjoy city life in Paris.
We concluded our 7-hour stroll Friday with a visit to the Place de Vosges, which we had not seen since 1989. After consulting my compass and map, we found this square, even though it is off the beaten track. This was an old area, once obviously very wealthy, and I believe it was also close to one of the the Jewish quarters. The place (town square) is a large rectangle with a good sized park inside. All around the rectangle is a covered walkway with lots of little shops. Now art dealers tend to dominate, and I sometimes wonder if anyone would ever buy the stuff they show, but just because one has money does mean one also has good taste. The covered walkways are reasonably extensive and offer a number of cafés for coffee and dining, and the uniform archways offer good views of the inner square's roads and park.
It would seem to be a wonderful place to live, though having money would be rather helpful.
All for now, with love from us both, Evan.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
June 4th--Passage du Grand Cerf
Dear Mother,
The past week has been a bit hectic with library work. Janice has been working most days during our stay(while I frittered away time taking photos). She and Yves built up quite a pile of newly-catalogued books needing numbers to the spines, pockets for borrowing cards, borrowing cards, tape, etc., so I essentially spent all day M, T, Th on that project and possibly processed several hundred books. Janice's primary goal for this visit was to recatalogue all of the Amish materials. They had been spread all over the collection, but a newly released cataloguing system makes it possible to bring those materials together. Since the Amish and Hutterite portions of this library are unique to collections in France, the Centre thought this project would be very helpful. In a year or two, it is hoped that the software will be finished so that the Centre's catalogue can be dovetailed into the national catalogue at the BNF (French National Library). This will then let scholars all over France (and beyond) know about the Centre's holdings.
On Wednesday I went with Neal to the Protestant Seminary at Vaux and took another some 400 pictures. The pictures will have to await my return to Vancouver so I can process them correctly on the calibrated monitor (dark skin against bright background is very tricky and requires many adjustments in postproduction). The seminary was very gracious about last year's photos, showing me several instances in which they used them in publications. The IT volunteer looking after their website had to leave school during the economic downturn in order to devote more time to his young business enterprise, so they are looking for another volunteer, who they they hope will mount quite a few of my photos. The Dean also told me that he wanted to use my shots in powerpoint presentations faculty and students can take around to the various churches, promoting the work of the seminary. Marie-Claude had quite a list of specific types of shots she wanted, but I only got partway through. They were very pleased to hear me talk about returning for several more years; that sort of takes the pressure off and allows them to rethink photo ops for me.
Yesterday (Friday), Janice and I worked again all morning. She did some more library stuff and I mowed the lawn (not a big deal, 15 minutes max). She also did two loads of laundry while I finished adding numbers etc. to the remaining books and processed some photos for Neal and Janie to use.
Then Janice and I set off for République for lunch. We didn't see anything we particularly liked, so we kept walking until by 1:30 hunger truly took over. I commented that we were likely the only people in the universe who could not find a place to have lunch in Paris, but we were fussy and apparently kept making bad decisions on which streets to take. We wanted something better than a fancy bar and yet not a full-fledged restaurant, wanted to sit outside but not in the sun, wanted a street with interesting activities and lots of pedestrians but not on a sidewalk so tight that people would almost brush our table while walking by. We finally settled on a restaurant which met our requirements and was also very busy (good sign). Although this picture was taken well after people returned to work at 2 p.m., we were lucky to get the next-to-last table on the left, front row. We shared a tiny round table, making it even smaller by sitting on the same side of the table, so we could both see the street activities, which is what people do. This made me realize the our dining room table is perhaps 10 times as large, quite possibly a waste of space, and that we hadn't sat that close together to eat since our courtship years, when food was hardly my primary interest.
We watched men pushing carts of carpets, carts with bolts of cloth, racks of clothing, etc. This looked just like the garment district in the old New York City, at least the one we so often enjoyed seeing in the 1960s.
After lunch, we walked further along the Rue St Denis, the patron saint of Paris and the road which used to lead pilgrims to the famous basilica, St Denis. I had forgotten that this was also a kind of red light district, and there were some truly sad looking women plying the ancient trade that Friday afternoon (payday?) None of them said anything to me because they could tell I had a wife keeping close tabs on things!
We then happened upon a church I had not entered before, the Eglise-St-Leu-St-Gilles. I had wanted to see the interior in earlier years but it had always been closed, so I was pleased to get a peek and take just a few photos. I want to return and get more next time. I was intrigued by the interplay of light and shadows, and look forward to developing these shots (I'm just giving these to you 'as is').
As we walked further, we came across the Passage du Grand Cerf, one of the largest and best of the Parisian passageways, 111 meters long and some 10 meters high. These are like narrow walkways between buildings, which were covered with a glass roof in the 1800s (?) to protect the passageway year around. The shops looking onto the passageway used to be small workshops which produced various kinds of goods, especially clothing. This passageway was renovated perhaps a decade ago and is absolutely delightful with the lighting from above, the reflections on the windows, the tunnel effect, and the variety of merchandise.
Today (Saturday) we will be at the Centre all morning, doing a few more books and possibly looking at the packing situation. We bought some books and things which are going to require an additional box I fear, but we need to find out now rather than Monday. We will head downtown at noon for a light lunch, then likely go our separate ways for the afternoon. Janice is very gracious about letting me stop unexpectedly to take a shot, or to be quietly asked to "stand back, I want to shoot" (when I have to shoot immediately or lose the composition), but she wants to go to a garden show alone, unencumbered, at her own pace, and I spotted another church or two requiring my attention. Then we will have a light dinner at home.
Hoping you are well and the weather is conducive to your getting out and about on your powerchair,
With love from us both, Evan
The past week has been a bit hectic with library work. Janice has been working most days during our stay(while I frittered away time taking photos). She and Yves built up quite a pile of newly-catalogued books needing numbers to the spines, pockets for borrowing cards, borrowing cards, tape, etc., so I essentially spent all day M, T, Th on that project and possibly processed several hundred books. Janice's primary goal for this visit was to recatalogue all of the Amish materials. They had been spread all over the collection, but a newly released cataloguing system makes it possible to bring those materials together. Since the Amish and Hutterite portions of this library are unique to collections in France, the Centre thought this project would be very helpful. In a year or two, it is hoped that the software will be finished so that the Centre's catalogue can be dovetailed into the national catalogue at the BNF (French National Library). This will then let scholars all over France (and beyond) know about the Centre's holdings.
On Wednesday I went with Neal to the Protestant Seminary at Vaux and took another some 400 pictures. The pictures will have to await my return to Vancouver so I can process them correctly on the calibrated monitor (dark skin against bright background is very tricky and requires many adjustments in postproduction). The seminary was very gracious about last year's photos, showing me several instances in which they used them in publications. The IT volunteer looking after their website had to leave school during the economic downturn in order to devote more time to his young business enterprise, so they are looking for another volunteer, who they they hope will mount quite a few of my photos. The Dean also told me that he wanted to use my shots in powerpoint presentations faculty and students can take around to the various churches, promoting the work of the seminary. Marie-Claude had quite a list of specific types of shots she wanted, but I only got partway through. They were very pleased to hear me talk about returning for several more years; that sort of takes the pressure off and allows them to rethink photo ops for me.
Yesterday (Friday), Janice and I worked again all morning. She did some more library stuff and I mowed the lawn (not a big deal, 15 minutes max). She also did two loads of laundry while I finished adding numbers etc. to the remaining books and processed some photos for Neal and Janie to use.
Then Janice and I set off for République for lunch. We didn't see anything we particularly liked, so we kept walking until by 1:30 hunger truly took over. I commented that we were likely the only people in the universe who could not find a place to have lunch in Paris, but we were fussy and apparently kept making bad decisions on which streets to take. We wanted something better than a fancy bar and yet not a full-fledged restaurant, wanted to sit outside but not in the sun, wanted a street with interesting activities and lots of pedestrians but not on a sidewalk so tight that people would almost brush our table while walking by. We finally settled on a restaurant which met our requirements and was also very busy (good sign). Although this picture was taken well after people returned to work at 2 p.m., we were lucky to get the next-to-last table on the left, front row. We shared a tiny round table, making it even smaller by sitting on the same side of the table, so we could both see the street activities, which is what people do. This made me realize the our dining room table is perhaps 10 times as large, quite possibly a waste of space, and that we hadn't sat that close together to eat since our courtship years, when food was hardly my primary interest.
We watched men pushing carts of carpets, carts with bolts of cloth, racks of clothing, etc. This looked just like the garment district in the old New York City, at least the one we so often enjoyed seeing in the 1960s.
After lunch, we walked further along the Rue St Denis, the patron saint of Paris and the road which used to lead pilgrims to the famous basilica, St Denis. I had forgotten that this was also a kind of red light district, and there were some truly sad looking women plying the ancient trade that Friday afternoon (payday?) None of them said anything to me because they could tell I had a wife keeping close tabs on things!
We then happened upon a church I had not entered before, the Eglise-St-Leu-St-Gilles. I had wanted to see the interior in earlier years but it had always been closed, so I was pleased to get a peek and take just a few photos. I want to return and get more next time. I was intrigued by the interplay of light and shadows, and look forward to developing these shots (I'm just giving these to you 'as is').
As we walked further, we came across the Passage du Grand Cerf, one of the largest and best of the Parisian passageways, 111 meters long and some 10 meters high. These are like narrow walkways between buildings, which were covered with a glass roof in the 1800s (?) to protect the passageway year around. The shops looking onto the passageway used to be small workshops which produced various kinds of goods, especially clothing. This passageway was renovated perhaps a decade ago and is absolutely delightful with the lighting from above, the reflections on the windows, the tunnel effect, and the variety of merchandise.
Looking straight up, you see (through the glass ceiling/roof) that people live several stories higher.
Today (Saturday) we will be at the Centre all morning, doing a few more books and possibly looking at the packing situation. We bought some books and things which are going to require an additional box I fear, but we need to find out now rather than Monday. We will head downtown at noon for a light lunch, then likely go our separate ways for the afternoon. Janice is very gracious about letting me stop unexpectedly to take a shot, or to be quietly asked to "stand back, I want to shoot" (when I have to shoot immediately or lose the composition), but she wants to go to a garden show alone, unencumbered, at her own pace, and I spotted another church or two requiring my attention. Then we will have a light dinner at home.
Hoping you are well and the weather is conducive to your getting out and about on your powerchair,
With love from us both, Evan
Thursday, June 3, 2010
June 2nd--recalling our meal in Port Dorée
Dear Mother,
Sunday was Mothers Day in France, so in the evening, Neal and Janie invited us out for a multiple celebration: (1) Mothers Day, (2) their wedding anniversary, which will come up in about a week and (3) to thank us for our work at the Centre.
The four of us set off a 45-minute walk through the Bois de Vincennes, similar to the route our family used to take 21 years ago when returning from the Centre to our home Sunday after church. Porte Dorée is one of many former 'gates' into the formerly walled city. We used to live very close to Porte de Vincennes, which was one or so gates to the north. The Bistrot de la Porte Dorée is likely our favourite restaurant in Paris, mostly because it is both affordable and celebratory, and has been our destination restaurant with the Bloughs every time we have come to Paris, starting back 1988-9. They have a fixed-price menu that provides absolutely everything associated with a good meal in France, three courses, café at the end, the works. The owner knows the Bloughs well by now, and has been there for as long as I can remember. He now even adds that he looks forward to seeing us again next year, which is nice.
We were among the first to arrive, going at the very early hours of 7:30, so we got a lovely table by the front window. I keep forgetting that the French and Italians prefer to arrive at 8:00, which is not quite your typical Greencroft meal schedule, but the Swiss and I like to eat a bit sooner.
The meal here always begins with freshly toasted slices of whole wheat bread (with crunchy grains), on which you spread a textured pork pâté.
Our entrées were selected from a full page of offerings. Since it is a fixed-price establishment, you don't worry about one item costing a bit more than others. After much changing of mind, we settled on things like smoked salmon and avacado salad,
Then the plats, again selected after much musing aloud, a bit of whistful negotiating, and finally whittling it down to three choices, hoping the gods would decide for us by the time we had to order. This year I finally remembered that waiters will not come to take your order until each of us has closed the menu, signalling that you no longer need to study the offerings and are ready; never mind that I need multiple fingers as bookmarks to help me remember what I decided upon. Neal decided with the most ease of the us all, settling on the duck confit with what I would call rostis (new potatoes boiled and then sliced and finished in butter and oil, quite likely in the oven).
I'll spare you a picture of our four tiny espressos, served with little chocolates.
Well, all of this reminds me of Dad's letters telling in some detail about yet another of your delicious meals, course by course. He enjoyed eating, as do you and your descendants. I was actually anticipating this meal even before purchasing our plane tickets, and I'm already looking forward to the one next year.
With love from us both, Evan
Sunday was Mothers Day in France, so in the evening, Neal and Janie invited us out for a multiple celebration: (1) Mothers Day, (2) their wedding anniversary, which will come up in about a week and (3) to thank us for our work at the Centre.
The four of us set off a 45-minute walk through the Bois de Vincennes, similar to the route our family used to take 21 years ago when returning from the Centre to our home Sunday after church. Porte Dorée is one of many former 'gates' into the formerly walled city. We used to live very close to Porte de Vincennes, which was one or so gates to the north. The Bistrot de la Porte Dorée is likely our favourite restaurant in Paris, mostly because it is both affordable and celebratory, and has been our destination restaurant with the Bloughs every time we have come to Paris, starting back 1988-9. They have a fixed-price menu that provides absolutely everything associated with a good meal in France, three courses, café at the end, the works. The owner knows the Bloughs well by now, and has been there for as long as I can remember. He now even adds that he looks forward to seeing us again next year, which is nice.
We were among the first to arrive, going at the very early hours of 7:30, so we got a lovely table by the front window. I keep forgetting that the French and Italians prefer to arrive at 8:00, which is not quite your typical Greencroft meal schedule, but the Swiss and I like to eat a bit sooner.
The meal here always begins with freshly toasted slices of whole wheat bread (with crunchy grains), on which you spread a textured pork pâté.
Our entrées were selected from a full page of offerings. Since it is a fixed-price establishment, you don't worry about one item costing a bit more than others. After much changing of mind, we settled on things like smoked salmon and avacado salad,
or the restaurant's composed salad which changes regularly. This time it featured chicken rolled around foie gras, a slice of their duck terrine, artichokes (alas, not the kind diners in Rome will soon be consuming) and cold veggies.
Then the plats, again selected after much musing aloud, a bit of whistful negotiating, and finally whittling it down to three choices, hoping the gods would decide for us by the time we had to order. This year I finally remembered that waiters will not come to take your order until each of us has closed the menu, signalling that you no longer need to study the offerings and are ready; never mind that I need multiple fingers as bookmarks to help me remember what I decided upon. Neal decided with the most ease of the us all, settling on the duck confit with what I would call rostis (new potatoes boiled and then sliced and finished in butter and oil, quite likely in the oven).
Janie ordered the scallops St-Jacques, I think they're called; anyway, scallops done just right in butter, with a fruit sauce, some prawns and veggies.
Janice and I both opted for duck breast with peach, roasted stuffed tomato, and a nice peach sauce. I was so pleased that nothing was over-salted.
Desserts were next, after an appropriate pause. I liked Janice's colourful plate which offered a selection of goodies, fruit (for the conscience), two kinds of chocolate (for comfort), and a rich creme anglaise (oh, why not).
I got what I always get here, their crepes flambées au grand Marnier and sugar, drenched with melted butter. My back was turned, so I did not get the camera in time to catch the flambée bit, but the flames I saw went about four feet high--impressive.
I'll spare you a picture of our four tiny espressos, served with little chocolates.
Well, all of this reminds me of Dad's letters telling in some detail about yet another of your delicious meals, course by course. He enjoyed eating, as do you and your descendants. I was actually anticipating this meal even before purchasing our plane tickets, and I'm already looking forward to the one next year.
With love from us both, Evan
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