Oh, Happy Day!

Tuesday, November 6. No internet connection again this morning so am feeling completely "unplugged" from everything and everybody! Spend part of the morning organizing papers and things (ticket stubs, museum plans etc) that I've collected since my arrival and deciding what to throw out.

Lunch with Ursuline. Take metro to meet Ursuline at her new apartment (she sold a larger apartment earlier this year and moved to this one in March). The way she had described it to Richard, Jay and me, you would have thought she had moved from a fabulous apartment to a store-front hovel. So let me just describe this for you:

First, you walk through an iron-grilled gate into a beautiful, cobblestone courtyard. There is ivy growing on all of the buildings, and most of it has changed color for the autumn. Also there are arbors stretched across the courtyard from one side to the other, also covered with ivy. So you are walking through a wonderland of autumn colors: red andyellow, gold and green. The door to her apartment is way in the back and opens directly onto the courtyard (however, this is eventually going to be her back door and the front entrance will be through a glass door into a small foyer).

Once through the door, you step into a beautiful (and huge, especially for Paris) open space that has the living area on one side, separated from the to-die-for kitchen by a counter-height bar. The living area is large enough to hold a big sofa, two armchairs, a piano, a wall-full of bookcases, two gorgeous chests (one with a marble top) and many beautiful things that she has collected from her travels. Then there's the kitchen: an ebony table for six that can expand to accommodate 8 or 10, gorgeous warm brown tile floor and walls, lovely cabinets with lots of sliding drawers and little storage compartments, a black ceramic cooktop, a black ceramic oven, a microwave, a trim but nearly full-size refrigerator. Then there's her bedroom. And the drop-dead-gorgeous bathroom with a fabulous shower (and the washing maching tucked in a corner). And the separate WC. I would happily cut off my left arm to have an apartment like this in Paris! Let me just say -very clearly - it it NOT a hovel!

After I manage to stop gawking at everything, Ursuline takes me to lunch at a wonderful restaurant in Belleville that has Vietnamese, Thai, and Chinese cuisine. As we are leaving her apartment to walk to the metro, Ursuline says, "All of the clothes that you see in all of the shops on this street are made by two sisters. Their names are Polly and Esther." (polyester, get it?!) Well, I fell for it hook, line and sinker. I have got to be the best straight man in the business! Just call me gullible.

It's tough to choose from the extensive menu but finally Ursuline orders shrimp with caramel sauce, and I order crab with ginger. It turns out the shrimp is completely unpeeled, the crab is served whole, and both are covered with sauce. (Janet, if you thought I was a mess when I finished eating the mussels, you should have seen me today!) We also have broccoli and cantonese rice. Ursuline takes one look at my crab and quips "If I had a hammer . . . ." (can you tell she's a singer?) Everything is delicious, and when we're through, we need more than the two "handi-wipes" they had originally given us.

Back to Ursuline's apt for tea and cookies. When I finally think to look at the time, I can't believe how late it is! We have had a wonderful afternoon. In case I didn't mention this before (when Richard and Jay were here), Ursuline is gorgeous and glamorous, she starred in Bubbling Brown Sugar on Broadway which then went on tour to Paris where she was offered a two-week contract singing at the Paradis Latin where she stayed for the next 18 years! Why can't these things happen to me? (OK, because you're not gorgeous, glamorous, and you can't sing?!) :)

I take the Metro to the Arts & Metiers station which looks for all the world like a submarine. The walls are bolted copper panels arching from one side to the other with portholes set into them! Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea? It's fabulous. I'm here because I want to go back to the Musee to get the little book on concrete that I saw when I was here before. Ok, I'm crazy. I know. A book on concrete in French. But it has great pictures!

Back down to r. Rambuteau to pick up sheet from the Pressing. It's clean and folded and swaddled in plastic. Stop at market to buy fruit. Home. Internet is up and running. Hooray!

Later: Email from the rental agency that two of the apts I liked are available for March, April and May. One is right around the corner from where I am now, a little smaller maybe but with lovely furnishings and all the really essential things (washer/dryer and internet!). Nice bathroom and kitchen too. The other one is in (on?) Montmartre, which would also be an interesting place to live. Let's face it, I could be happy almost anywhere in Paris.

The title of today's blog entry is in honor of Ursuline (it's the name of a gospel song) and in reference to my having found another apartment in Paris. It will be much easier to leave next week knowing that I have a place to come back to.