New Friends & Other Paris Stuff

One rule of travel is never miss a chance to make a new friend. Last year, just as we were finishing our lunch at the Foyer de Madeleine, (a lunch place in the basement of the Madeleine Church) a priest, Father Mc Carthy introduced himself to us. He was part of the Church here, but a Yank from Salem, Mass. (the state, folks). We chatted briefly, he gave us his business card & we parted.

Fast forward to early this August when I emailed the good Father suggesting we have lunch upon our return to Paris. LSS, here's a pic of four of us having dessert. The other lady is Laurie, a former Navigator volunteer at Sky Harbor Airport. She has a very long connection with Paris & spends her summers here, the other seasons in Scottsdale.

The Foyer is one of those off-the-beaten-track, non-touristy Paris places. It is a charity run by the Madeleine Church (food & supplies donated by businesses), womaned by kind, gentle, delightful elderly volunteers. For 5 euros, you buy an annual membership. Then for 8 euros you get the cheapest three-course meal in Paris. Nothing fancy, mind you. But very good. Laurie is a vegetarian; they were happy to accommodate her. Most of the customers are nearby office workers.

Father Mc Carthy is an interesting, interesting man. A priest surrounded by Jews. Since we have no theological connection with him, he can just be a regular guy with an interesting job. I think he liked that. He's been in Paris 11 years & loves it. He is the vicar of the Madeleine Church, 2nd in command after the pastor. Prior to that, he was chaplain at American Univ. in Washington, DC & Gallaudet Univ. (college for the deaf) also in DC. As a result of all this, not only is he fluent in English & French, but also fluent in both English & French sign languages.

He filled us in on snippets of church history. The building was built but the French govt. didn't know what to do with it. Making it a church was late in the game. Chopin's funeral (1849 if memory serves) was held here. When Hitler came to Paris, he pitched up at the church but the pastor refused him entry. So he left. I guess he was willing to mess with the whole earthly world not with God.

What we didn't know & were surprised to learn is that all churches built before 1905 (that would be most of them) belong not to the Church, but to the French government. Therefore entry by anyone is assured. Those long steps in front of the Madeleine always intimidated us. But no more. Gots to get over there to see the church.

It was raining that day, so unfortunately I couldn't take a shot of the front of the church without getting wet. It's the one that looks like the Parthenon. Also, Father McC had to run off to another appointment so no church tour this time.

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As mentioned above, the day dawned rainy & cooler. Rain comes in a number of flavors. There's the soaking wet downpour we got caught in in Montreal. No fun, fortunately that apartment had both a clothes washer & dryer. Then there's the steady rain. Still not alot of fun. And there's today, a light steady rain...wet but survivable; it changes the character of city & in a good way, actually.



Here's a shot of Opera Garnier, Paris' original opera house. Operas became so grand, they outgrew OG's stage so a new opera house was built at Bastille. The Parisians universally hate the architectural design of Opera Bastille, as it is called. OG now does mostly ballets.





Maybe seeing this in B&W captures the mood better.












For comparison, here's a late afternoon shot of the Bastille Opera behind the July Column. Does that look to you like a shrine to the fine art of opera?























In the same B&W vein, here's a shot in the opposite direction looking down the Avenue de l'Opera.










Graffiti as art. The figure is holding two paint cans & drawing a heart. Is he trying to cover the previous graffiti with love?





















For the life of me, I can't figure this one out. What would you title it? "Walking My Dog While My Other Dog is Walking Me"?

















As I mentioned at the beginning of our trip, blog fatigue tends to set in towards the end of the trip & I can feel it coming on. That makes them come less frequently. However, I'm several blogs ahead & will publish two of them today. Also we went to a sight that Susanne really wanted to see. She took photos & I'm encouraging her to blog about it.