After two months of perfectly awful weather – rainy, cold,
and dismal – Paris has finally coughed up two days in a row of sunshine, and
everyone is beginning to smile again. It
is still a good deal cooler than it ought to be for June, but it is possible to
believe that summer will arrive on schedule.
This morning, I successfully conducted a scientific experiment, although
my readers will probably be less impressed with it than I was. A word of explanation is required.
The Seine, as you might expect, flows west to the Atlantic
Ocean, a fact that totally disorients an East Coast type like me, just as I am
disoriented whenever I visit my grandchildren in San Francisco. If you are sitting on a boat floating down
the Seine, our neighborhood will pass to your left, which is why our part of
Paris is referred to as The Left Bank.
Thus, when I crossed over in front of Nôtre Dame this morning at
six-thirty for my daily walk and turned left along the Right Bank, heading for
the Louvre and the Jardins des Tuilleries, the Seine and I were moving in the same
direction.
I noticed a fairly large piece of wood floating downstream
up ahead of me, and by the time I had passed the Louvre and was striding [hem,
hem] alongside the Jardins, I was a bit ahead of the piece of wood. I thus was able to deduce that I was walking
slightly faster than the Seine was flowing, which allowed me to conclude that
the Seine flows at roughly 3 ½ miles per hour.
That is enough science for today.
I have just finished my lunch, a two egg omelet with a
mushroom and some cheese cut up in it, all cooked with butter and flavored with
salt. Eggs, butter, and salt – three things
I simply never eat in America, thanks to the necessity of keeping my cholesterol
and my blood pressure down. However, I
permit myself this indulgence occasionally in Paris because I have read that
for some mysterious reason, eggs, butter, and salt are actually good for you in
Paris, even though they can kill you in the United States. Apparently it has something to do with the
Gulf Stream.
Tomorrow Susie and go to rue de Pot de Fer for our appointment
with the English speaking French doctor.
I shall report.
2 comments:
Perhaps after your appointment on the rue de Pot de Fer you should make a lunch of a pot de feu (perhaps cooked in a pot de fer).
Thank heavens for the Gulf Stream, for without it, Scotland would be as cold as Nova Scotia :-)
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