Vincenne: The hood

Thought I'd show you a few pics from right around where I'm staying in the ville of Vincenne just southeast of the 1000-hectare Bois (forest) de Vincenne, in the 12th arrondisement of Paris proper. I haven't really explored it yet, but it has a zoological park with a man-made mountain for the zoos population of alpine goats, plus 134 other species, plust a buddhist temple, a Chateau (the Versailles of the Middle Ages), and two sets of lakes. I've only been in a little corner hardly anything at all, just a shortcut to get to the Metro, but above is a guardhouse within that shortcut, to give you an idea of the trees and greenery that abound. Here's a website about the Bois de Vincenne you can look at if you want: http://www.boisdevincennes.com/site/index.php3

To the right is a photo of the block I'm staying in from the vantage of a nearby bistro I found.

And to the left is the building I'm staying in. Valerie's place is on the top floor, right-hand side with the balconies.

I told my son Zeb about the elevator I take up to the 6th etage (i.e., 7th floor) to get to the apartment. It's sign says it can only hold three people maximum (or 225 kilos), so he was curious about what it looked like. So this pic's for you kid.

I go to sleep and wake up to the sound of French family life, the nearby express train, an occasional police siren with it's distinctive two-tone sound, and the billing and cooing of these two pigeons, who rule the light well.

Towards the afternoon, these two are very active flying from window sill to window sill caressing each other I think. Doesn't quite look like mating, but I now know what "billing" is. Tried to get a pic of it, but this one actually turned out pretty well. This is definitely their territory, though there are needle-like spikes on quite a few of the sills where they can't land, including just below my window. I asked, and evidently they never actually fly in, though there are no screens on the windows, just metal shutters.

On the way to the Super Marche (aka supermarket, about the size of the old Fresh Mart up on Duffus in my neighborhood at home), I saw these cows. Couldn't resist taking a pic, since I seem to be in an animal mode.

I kind of got into checking all these things out because my expectations of what I was coming into and what was actually here were somewhat at a disconnect. I've not had a roommate particularly since possibly in college -- somewhere back in antiquity, so didn't have quite the right approach, plus I was in a somewhat vulnerable condition and needed a bit more help than what my roommate expected to have to give, so I listened and rested a lot and stayed in my room more than I might usually, so you're getting the benefit of all these weird details of my environment, besides the fact that weird details are some of my favorites noticings. We seem to be doing quite well now as I've become more independent and gone from the neighborhood for most of the day. I'm quite liking Vincenne though. It's rather nice not to overhear so much English.

Ah, one last thing. I did go on Tuesday evening with Valerie, who had returned for a few days between trips to the country, to the evening sitting at the Kalu Rinpoche's centre, which is where the Paris Shambhala Centre is located at the moment. It was quite a beautiful room (didn't take pics) with a large life size gold finished statue of the Shakyamuni Buddha in touching the earth mudra pose and lovely thankas around the room. Nice bright prayer flags hung around the sitting area. Afterwards there was tea and cookies, though rather nice ones and a little bit of leftover sake from the previous weekend when Herb Elsky led a dharma art weekend. They're slowly looking into renting/buying/finding a house sort of centre, which seems to be the preferred mode for European centres these days (rather than office space).

I've arranged to go over to a sangha member's house tomorrow evening for a viewing of the Sakyong's DVD and am looking forward to doing my first Werma sadhana in French. I'll try and catch up with you on my tourist activities tomorrow.

[Note: If you want to see a larger version of any of the pics, you can double click on it and it will come up in a separate window. I'm also going to set up a "slide show" connected to the blog where you can just look at the photos.] Aurevoir for now.

July 8: Into the Fray, Le Champs Elysee

8 July 2008

(One note I forgot about the inimitable Dr. Dickenson is that he was tall, thin, dapper, and I found out had delivered all of his six children. A very energetic and efficient fellow.)

To the left here is a pic I took at the bottom of the stairs going down to the Metro from the Chateau de Vincennes stop. A little old lady hobbled up to me on her two canes demanding to know whether or not I'd taken her picture, but no, unless she looked like a shark, it wasn't her. I don't think she entirely believed I'd take a pic of ads, but I think they're interesting. Maybe because we don't have undergrounds in Halifax.

I finally made it into Paris proper on Tuesday, i.e., to the Champs Elysee, saw the Arc de Triomphe in the distance. Didn't actually go further up the rue than this for now.

Ate some boeuf bourguignonne at the George V Bistro, which was really good. I wasn't entirely sure what it was really -- beef stew? But this was what it's supposed to be, rare and tender even covered with a tasty gravy, potatoes and carrots cooked perfectly, al dente.

Actually, I went to the Champs Elysee to see if I could find the Viator people at Planet Hollywood, who were supposed to give me my "Paris Pass"-- admission to 60 different places, like the Louvre, or the Bateau Mouche--which translates to Boat Fly, if you want to know, because the two windows in the front combined with the pointy prow look like a fly--which sails up (or down) the Seine (it's now called the Batobus, pronounced bat-o-boose). All need to be seen in a six-day contiguous period, for only $US243, which includes a few free coffees and a pass on the Metro. But, I've now bought a month's pass for the Metro for $52 Euro (add 30% for C$).

Well, Planet Hollywood, which by itself didn't present too much interest for me, closed two months ago. To the left is a pic of what's there now -- Starbucks. The only other Planet Hollywood is at Disney Euro, which is about 40 km from Paris, and not a place I want to go. So, I called my travel agent who booked it, to cancel it, since it is still within the 7-day advance notice period. (Update: did get a full refund! Note: You can get passes like that in Paris, at least at the Louvre, for about 45 Euro, so you're better off waiting 'til you arrive.)

Also, I figure that I'm so slow that there's no way I could do all those things that fast and have it be worth the price, even if it means I wouldn't have to stand in line, which is why I considered it.