whirlwind weeks

The St. Germaine Jazz Festival lasts most of the month of May and is a fabulous time to be in Paris. The weather has been windy this year, but in general it is sunny and cool. It is actually hot in the sun, though bring a raincoat, but not "un parapluie" because it just can't take the high winds. The jazz is just as big as the wind and also goes from COOL to HOT! We went to three jazz events, and would have gone to more if we had planned ahead. The first one was at St. Sulpice, the Catholic church in the middle of the Dan Brown DaVinci Code story. New Orlean's Marva Wright (We saw her with Mr. Henry Butler on Christmas Eve '00 at the Funky Butt with Lou, and we will never forget it.), Lucky Peterson on the organ, and the London Community Gospel Choir rocked the house, without insulting the powers that be. I am sure the angels were tapping their feet and clapping their hands!

Then, my tricky hoosband, entered a trivia contest, yes, all in french, and won a ticket from Richart Chocolates to hear the Jacky Terrasson Trio. You can't go wrong with fine jazz and chocolate!


Jacky Terrasson plays the piano with all of his soul, and the bassist gave not only an amazing performance, but the emotion that both showed over the course of the evening was wild. The drummer was very fun to watch and to listen to and our seats were so great that we saw everything. You really should get your hands on a copy of their latest CD, Smile or any of them for that matter.

Then, as if that wasn't enough jazz for a week, we finished the week with dinner at Chez Papa Jazz Cafe, 3 rue St. Benoit in St. Germaine. We went for dinner and music, both of which started around 9:30 p.m. We met another American couple and my French French teacher and her friend Lucia, from Peru. Talk about an international evening! It was a fun place to listen to soft jazz, some Sinatra-esque singing and make new friends.

But all that was last week!

So far this week, I have gone to the Jacquemart-Andre Museum, Musee Carnavalet, and the amazing L'Orangerie. The Orangerie was opened earlier this month, after a 5-year period of renovation. There is a short little film about the massive undertaking for this house of Monet, Renoir, Picasso (early stuff), and several others. You really must go see the Monet Waterlillies. I had a marvelous time floating around in the lily pond surrounded by the waterlillies and watching the sun set over Giverny. You have to see it to understand what I mean. I also found a new favorite painter, Maurice Utrillo who painted some spectacular scenes of Paris in the 1920s. TIP OF THE TRIP: Get a Paris Museum Pass if you want to go to L'Orangerie. The line to get in was at least two hours long, and the pass will let you "coupe-file" so it is worth the effort.

All that and it is only Wednesday. Tomorrow is another national holiday, but this one falls on a Thursday. Who wants to go back to work on a Friday? Not most frenchmen, so they have something called "the bridge." The bridge is an extra holiday whenever there is a Thursday holiday, meaning you get Friday off, too. I call it good collective bargaining. So we get a 4 day weekend and are going to have at least a couple of adventures, I assure you.

By the way, here is the id part of the Carte d'Orange.

You add your 1" x 1" photo. I am supporting it as the epitome of transportation convenience, and a great souvenier from your trip. The downside is it only runs from Monday through Sun. and you can't buy one for the week after Wed. The upside is that it is cheaper than a fistful of metro tickets, and there is no confusion about whether or not that ticket was new or used because you just use the same little ticket over and over. It is great.