Metro Pont Marie station

Metro Pont Marie station, line 7, which has it's entrance just in front of the Cite des Arts, no longer has a person to dispense tickets. It only has a person to give out information. It now has one of those dispensing machines. This is what it looks like. One uses the roller bar below the screen to designate what one wants, a ticket, a carnet (10 tickets) and so on. You put your coins into a slot, or your credit card, and the tickets land in a tray below. Once our magnetic strip American credit card didn't work in the machine, another time it did. Best to have coins! Be prepared!  mim golub scalin images and text

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check out: http://mim4art.blogspot.com  

"On ne sait jamais ce que demain sera."

Crowds

This is a crowd of brightly colored birds at the bird market on the Ile de la Cite. Chuck wanted me to post about crowds in Paris. We've experienced this as well as read about it: people do NOT queue up in Paris. They stand around in a group, waiting for doors to open, whether for a bus, metro, or performance, and then they RUSH to get in. Don't be polite if you want to get a good seat at an open seating performance. Now that we've seen it first hand, we know what to expect and move with the crowd. It's just the norm!  mim golub scalin

Light Show

This is the light show that we get in the studio from the passing
tourist boats on the Seine. It's quite a beautiful light show.

Notre Dame in the morning

Metro information

The Metro is changing many of it's stations to information only desks, with machines to buy tickets from. This can be disconcerting if you don't have coins for the machine or if your U.S. credit card has a magnetic strip, as opposed to a chip, and doesn't work. Be prepared, the Metro Pont Marie is such a station. The machines do work nicely with a roll bar for scrolling. They are, however, only in French. If you don't speak French, hopefully, someone else buying tickets will help you decipher it all. Buying a carnet of 10 tickets is a good choice but if you think you'll use the Metro a lot, get a weekly or even a monthly Carte d' Orange. We've used the Metro more this stay because of the weather and my having a sore foot. 

Here's a lovely morning view of Notre Dame one of the days we had some sun.  

mim golub scalin

The Books

Book Shelf - December 2008

 Book Shelf - December 2008

I brought many books with me, as usual, because I am able to read a lot while here in Paris. My suitcase had more books than clothes in it, I think.  I found some great new (to me) books already on the book shelf in the storage closet in 8317 and a lot of out-dated and old books. These older ones I passed along to other people in the Cite. Many are English speakers, here for a long time, on limited budgets, and out of reading material, so they were much appreciated. I read The Secrets of the Seine and Almost French and liked them...thank you to whoever left those. Also, the book about Tractors in Ukrainian, quite funny. I've added 9 new books to the shelf, all current titles, including Clotilde Dusoulier's newest book about Paris customs, food, shops, and restaurants. She has the blog Chocolate and Zucchini which is excellent.  Before I leave, I'll probably finish another book or two and will leave those here. Happy reading to those who follow!  mim golub scalin

Paris 2008

We arrived in Paris on Nov. 10th after Chuck's opening at Ghostprint Gallery
on the First Friday on November.
We were greeted at the Cite with some recognition
as we signed in at the reception.
All seemed the same, the same people signing us
in, the same person doing the inventory with us,
and the studio looked just the same.
A very comforting feeling.
Some things that were different:
Fewer extra glasses.
Many more sharp knives.
Hmmm, any correlation?

We were happy that the last recipient
left clean towels, some toilet paper,
and some soap for us to start out with.

We signed up for the WiFirst wireless internet
and thought we would have no problems.
We were able to sign up without help from
anyone, however, WiFirst has been very erratic.

People in other buildings, C & D primarily, haven't had
any wireless in weeks. We were cut off a few times but
this building isn't so bad. However, there was a lot of
grumbling, so M. Peyrolle sent everyone a letter
explaining the problem.  The little room off the
reception, which at one time was the smoking room,
and another time seemed to be Joseph's room,
has now been fixed up with 2 couches and a
coffee table, as a kind of internet cafe for people
to use since reception is very good down in that area.

I've been taking the French classes with Bethsabee
and wondering why I never did this before. It's lots
of fun and I'm meeting people.

We'll be leaving the studio soon and are already beginning
to miss Paris. It's been rainy, chilly, dark, windy most of the
time, but the sun does occasionally peek out. I was
wishing I'd brought my down coat and warmer shoes
but all in all we prepared well for this time of year.
We had a few snow flakes last week but that's it.

There was an excellent Photo show in the Cite Gallery
when we first arrived (November being month of photography)
and this month there is a very good print makers' exhibit.

Our meeting with Mme Brunau was very nice.
We learned more about the early years of the city
from her.

In the neighborhood, the shops are all pretty much the same.
The grocery super markets Franprix, G20, Monoprix are
as they were. A few more upscale boutique seem to have
appeared in the Marais. Right now, there is an ice rink and
a carousel (Manege) being set up on the Place de Greve
in front of the Hotel de Ville. The 20th of December it starts
up for Christmass. The decorations on the pine trees
at the corner by the Metro Pont Marie and St. Paul are decorated
with Blue and Silver, to recognize France as the head of
the European Union this year.

The Eiffel tower is lit up with blue and sparkles with lots
of lights on the hour for a few minutes. We can see it
from 8317.

Joyeux Fete to all and Bonne Annee 2009







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check out: http://mim4art.blogspot.com  

"On ne sait jamais ce que demain sera."