A Week in Paris. Monday night: La Fermette Marbeuf

Some of my friends might imagine life in Paris in a certain way: cafes, fashion, wine, etc. I know I had a very unrealistic notion before I came here. Now I can tell you that life in Paris can be as varied as you want it to be. I am going to talk about my past week over the next few posts, starting with Paris, moving to experiences around Canada, India, and perhaps others.
 Monday night I had dinner at a beautiful French restaurant, La Fermette Marbeuf in the 8th. http://www.fermettemarbeuf.com/. I can imagine some of you by now are wondering if I do anything except eat. The answer is yes, but much of the social life here revolves around the table. Restaurants here do not expect you to eat and run; instead people arrive a bit late for the reserved time, take forever to order, and are found hours later lingering over their coffees. Conversation is flowing the whole time. Here I never see a couple sitting across the table from each other with nothing to talk about. I am not sure why that is different here but it is.



La Fermette Marbeuf was built in 1900, and contains some of the most beautiful features I have seen, including this beautiful atrium; it has a true ambience. Being there made me think about how I had imagined Paris, la belle epoque, romance, food, wine... c'est la vie!
And indeed this is a part of Paris and part of its history, but not something local Parisiens experience regularly, or at least I don't think so. I am very lucky to be introduced to some of these gems by my friends and colleagues.


Several people at my table had the 5 course menu degustation.  I showed great restraint and had only three courses: Langoustine bisque, filet of salmon, and 3 wonderful cheese to finish. Our waiter had a bit of an attitude, but the manager was wonderful and made everything right. Along with my colleagues, my boss, his boss and wife, we had a very enjoyable evening. \Just as we left the restaurant at 11, the lights on the Eiffel Tower started their hourly sparkle show. What's not to like?

Choose wisely

How are you spending your day? This is the only today you will ever have. Are you looking at something beautiful? Eating something delicious? Spending time with someone who has a positive impact on your life? I can happily say yes to all three questions.

Happiness comes from such simple pleasures. This morning I was on rue Mouffetard thanking Christophe for the delicious chicken he cooked yesterday for the enjoyment of my friends at dinner last night. I bought eggs "plein air", grainy bread from my favorite bakery, and the best yogurt ever from the fromagerie.

Cool metro station

Next stop was brunch with two girlfriends at Nomads, Place du Marche St Honore. Food was good if overpriced - service was indifferent at best. The company though was so good we moved to a bit of shopping, strolling, and a glass of wine at Cafe Ruc. One friend is very happy with where she is right now, the other is having some "life questions" present themselves to her. We doled out to each other in equal measure support and, as Mom would say "a swift kick in the arse".  The main point was, "choose how you want to live your life, who you want to include and let the rest go". Perhaps a second glass of wine would have made us all more profound!

The afternoon concluded with a beautiful walk home along the Seine, a pause at Notre Dame, and a walk back down rue Mouffetard. There really is no place I would rather be.

My advice is, choose what you want to do this very minute. Tomorrow you can do the same thing.

Just another night in Paris

Walking to my friend's apartment in the 1st, I was once again reminded of how lucky I am to live in Paris. First I stopped on rue Mouffetard to buy a hot off the spit chicken from Christophe. I have bought many roasted chickens there, and only today realized there are two different types. I am not clear on the details, but I think it has to do with size. Then I walked past the Pantheon, the Sorbonne, Fontaine St. Michel, Notre Dame, very close to Hotel de Ville, and admired the Eiffel Tower on the horizon. Every city has its charm, but Paris  is over the top on beauty!

Think Globally - Eat Locally

I recently joined this meet up group for open minded food travelers, on the advice of my new friend Nona. The group dines at various places, trying a variety of cuisines, drinking wine, and enjoying each others company. There are hundreds of members, but only 12-20 can attend any one event. The guests are selected by the organizer, Shelley, from a list of those who register. I was somehow chosen for dinner Wednesday!

The restaurant was Thai Lao, a Thai restaurant with Laotian connections I guess. I arrived at 7:30 and introduced myself to Shelley, who immediately picked up on my accent. Sure enough, she is from Antigonish Nova Scotia, not at all far from my home town of Truro. Just goes to show you can travel a long way to meet a neighbor.

We were lucky to have Damdy of Laotian roots in our midst to select the restaurant and menu in advance. We started with a salad, a pork and a shrimp appetizer, then enjoyed rice, fried rice and sticky rice with a spicy ground beef dish and a delicious coconut curry fish dish. There were two desserts - the one I tried was delicious but I have no idea how to describe it. The other was very gooey and apparently also good. All that plus lots of good red wine - who could ask for more? I really enjoyed the evening, and as always met some interesting people from all over the world.

Stay tuned for more meet up encounters

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=38+boulevard+Garibaldi+%2875015%29%2C+Paris

What I Learned on my Sri Lanka Vacation

           1.     It can take 6 hours to drive 200km
2.    Spiders grow to the size of dinner plates (we saw a bigger one than this but it wouldn't fit on this page!   Swear to God!

1. 3 The internet is not to be taken for granted

4.      Frogs and geckos are cute compared to spiders, bats, centipedes and flying cockroaches

     5.      If you sit still long enough someone will offer you exactly what you need, even if you
            don't know exactly what that is.

            

    6.   If you sit still for too long you will have something crawl on you

  

   7.   The moment to make sure there is a flashlight and candles in the house is at least 5 minutes before the power goes out       

                    8.   When a gorgeous young man invites you to party,  

                                      you may be the only invited guest

  

    9.   If a guide offers to show you new construction at a 2000 year old site 

                         there might be something fishy.

1 10. It feels good to be taken care of.

Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage - very sad

We thought we would see rescued elephants; instead we saw elephants who need to be rescued.

The Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage is not an orphanage. It is not a sanctuary. It is a crime scene, where elephants are bred for the amusement of humans. A blind elephant is chained by a front and back foot, forced to stand in one place day after day for people to look at. An elephant who lost part of his from leg from a land mine limps a few steps at a time around the park. Every elephant is “trained” with a bull hook. In order to have tourists pay for photos the workers fetch each elephant in turn by catching them in a tender spot with the bull-hook and drawing them to the unsuspecting tourists. An elephant is persuaded to lie down in the water, and a bull-hook is laid across his neck to convince him to say in place. He lies there for hours. Two young elephants are chained under a roof, too far apart to reach each other. They strain at their chains, trying to reach each other. An elephant is chained at river’s edge, the only one not allowed to enter the water, She spends the next two hours swaying, attempting over and over to immerse herself in the cool river along with all of the others. Tourists feed peanuts to the elephants, who are then chased away by the workers with the bull-hooks.

Elephant with bull hook

I don’t know much at all about elephants, but I know something about fear. These elephants are obviously terrified of the workers, and no doubt they should be. It is brutal and incredibly sad to watch.

This is not a good life for the elephants. It is also bad for the humans. The way we treat animals has an effect on us. By being economically successful with this approach, we become convinced that it is the right way, perhaps the only way. I want to believe these people, workers and observers do not know better. I want us to spread the word about operant conditioning, teaching, real teaching through positive reinforcement. I want us to let elephants live in the wild where they belong.

I ask for your help in educating tourists, so we stop supporting this abuse. We also need to educate the management on how to treat animals, to allow them to live in the wild, and, for those truly injured or orphaned, to offer them the best quality of life possible. Stay tuned for more info.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293961-d587660-Reviews-Pinnawela_Elephant_Orphanage-Sri_Lanka.html

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293961-d587660-Reviews-Pinnawela_Elephant_Orphanage-Sri_Lanka.html

Friday, The Ellerton and Mt Sigiriya

The Ellerton Hotel, 18 km from Kandy is a treasure. Built in the early 1900’s, it offers three guest rooms in the main house. The Valley house, where a small tea factory once stood for bio-organic tea plucked at a certain phase of the moon, houses an additional three guest rooms. The view from the Valley house is beautiful. The estate was originally called Seethevalley, and had more than 1000 acres of tea. There are now only 13 acres of tea planted on the much smaller estate.

There was an interesting assortment of guests, including a couple en route to Autralia following a year in Bangalore, and two Canadian women who didn’t socialize much. Alison's theory is that just as there is a difference between joggers and runners, so too is there a difference between tourists and travelers. We met Jennie and Ed, a couple traveling from a 4 year stint in Shanghai to live in the UK. They are traveling with their 5 year old son and were great company on the first evening for drinks. Friday night we all had dinner together.

We were served a feast of vichysoisses,papadums, curried chicken., curried fish, dhal, aubergine, yam, green beans and rice, There was pannacotta for dessert. A frog sang to us from the window, a spider was retrieved from another guest’s room, and Ed captured a large moth that had been dive bombing us during our otherwise relaxing meal. I will not miss the “wildlife”.

The main adventure of the day was a 3 hour drive to Mt Sigiriya, an ancient monastery built in the third century BC. The mountain itself is impressive; one wonders why anyone would think to inhabit it. The entry includes bricked-in foundations of former water fountains. This was a very early example of Sri Lankan hydraulics technology. Four fountains were fed by two adjoining moats, creating what must have been an impressive entryway.

We were greeted by guides selling their service. Alison explained that she had been there before and was not in need of a guided tour. One guide responded “But you haven’t seen the new parts”. I guess he was right – we didn’t see any new construction in this site built more than 2000 years ago. We did see beautifully preserved frescoes, believed to be at least 1600 years old, and The Mirror Wall, with very faded art, inscriptions and graffiti.

There are 1200 steps to the top of the mountain. It was very hot, and in some places the steps are worn so unevenly you can imagine slipping to a dramatic demise. The view from the top is both beautiful and satisfying for having been brave enough to arrive.