KEY: Original Comments; > = quoted; Reply; Response to Reply.
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From: Guy Robinson (guy@*.uk)
Subject: Re: PARIS: Impressions Date: 2000/08/12
Icono Clast wrote:
> San Francisco, a beautiful and exciting city in a magnificent setting with food of great variety and
> second-to-none quality, has long been considered to be the Paris of the Western Hemisphere.
> With all that it is, Paris it ain't!Inspired by this post I though I would compare Paris to the beautiful and exciting Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, which (like San Francisco) is not Paris.
The Seine is a majestic river from which couples view the historic buildings as they break from romantic walks. Not be out done Aylesbury has the Grand Union Canal where hopeful fishermen can be found and abandoned warehouses can be viewed.
A strong point for Aylesbury is the many curry houses it can boast, although the Etoile du Kashmir on the Bd de Montparnasse is a resturant of no mean repute.
History plays a strong part for both Aylesbury and Paris. Paris was gripped by the revolution that was followed by the great terror, while Aylesbury was enriched by last month's taxi strike that was followed by a riot by stranded drinkers.
Such great cities, I am proud to have homes in both of them. :-)
Actually Aylesbury is not too bad (although everything I said about it is true) and has the Roal Dhal's Children Museum, which is complete with a Great Glass Elevator and has lots of things for kids to do.
Guy Robinson____________________________________________________
[all standard disclaimers apply]
From: Robert Buxbaum (bux@*.com)
Subject: Re: PARIS: Impressions Date: 2000/08/12
Icono Clast wrote:
> I'd wager that the vast majority of Paris buildings, residential and commercial, are no taller than
> sixty feet.I'd suspect higher as six story buidlings are quite common and the ceiling heights are often higher than in modern buidlings.
My speculation was based on six ten-foot storeys. So maybe they're 70 feet, still not tall.
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From: Rush Limbaugh (rush@*.com) Date: 2000/08/12
yea...my cousine's building was there in the 1870s (I've got a picture with cannons
on the square), has TALL ceilings (10 feet at least) 6 floors plus the rooms on the
top floor for the bonne femmes...so (6*10)+8+(7*1.5) (btw...the 7 is the number
of ceiling levels...I'm just guessing 1.5' for 19th century stone floor/ceiling levels...
and I'm guessing that the ceilings on the top floor aren't as tall.).
> The food, 'though different from that of San Francisco, is, comparing by price, disappointingly
> no better. Missing from the restaurant diet is vegetables, a matter that became a concern for us.I suspect tourists generally get the a mistaken impression of local food in a short visit. I recall choosing between cucumber salad and tomato salad for my first course of my first meal in Paris. One is more likely to find vegetable appetizers in the little neighborhood restaurants in Paris than in the fancier ones. Still, I think most tourists overlook the simple vegetable dishes in favor of the meat and fish that seem a better buy at the price given our preference for meat over vegetables that always seem to be only a garnish over here. As you noticed, vegetables are taken seriously in France and often of superior quality and price.
The plurality of our meals was at neighborhood restaurants and most of those in our neighborhood, Place de la Nation that, we were told, is a “working class” (like me) neighborhood.
Our tastiest meals, by far, were the two we had at the tiny Greek/Turkish hole in the wall on Boulevard Voltaire across from the Jewish supermarket.
> Unfortunately the graffiti that used to infect Manhattan have moved to Paris.
I associate graffiti with Europe in general and Paris in particular because it has always seemed to be there, at least since 1959. Most of it then was political and I wondered how anyone expected sympathy for the cause when they vandalized a beautiful building.
Unfortunately, “graffito” has lost its original meaning having to do with making a statement, usually political. Today's graffiti are usually just vandalism with no message or redeeming social value. I hate them and fear how I'd react if I ever caught one of those vandals in the act or the rage I feel at what they've done to uglify my world is, I'm sure, far lesser than that which would overtake me were I to see one actually doing it.
The Canadian artist Villaincourt was at the dedication of the wonderful fountain he built across from the Ferry Building. Immediately that it was dedicated, he vandalized his own work with a red political graffito: “Quebec Libre”. Fortunately the fountain has been, and remains, clean for most of its life.
> The French appear to be no taller than Spaniards or Italians and, I presume, Rumanians or
> Portuguese. They're probably not as tall as people in the USA, Canada, Australia, or Scandinavia.
> So why are their public urinals mounted at such a great height?5'-10" myself, but I never noticed. ;-) MMMMMM Robert Buxbaum