The Metro

Paris is such a great walking city. Like Chicago, it's made up of neighborhoods, each with their own distinct character and feel. I am living in an area called "Les Halles", described by Emile Zola as "the belly of Paris". Doesn't sound too attractive, but Zola was referring to the meat, vegetable and fruit markets in this area since 1183. In the 1960's congestion forced the market outside the city, but the area is still known as Les Halles. There are lots of shops, bars and restaurants here; it's a vibrant area. Also home to the Pompidou Centre, which looks like a building turned inside out since it has air ducts, heating ducts, escalators and even steel beams that are the skeleton of the building, on the outside. Inside is the Musee National d'Art Moderne.

I walked around the area this morning, since Juliet's godmother was visiting at their apartment, and I had the morning "off". It's a pretty cool feeling to imagine that you're getting to know "your" part of town. I'm looking forward to Tom's visit next week, so we can explore together. I know the guidebooks say this area is kind of seedy, and will be renovated over the next four years, but I like it. And it's certainly central enough to be handy to other parts of Paris.

I've been thinking about the Metro today. I tried a new way to Matt and Jeanne's apartment today, via Chatelet metro station. It is just huge. I felt like I walked four blocks underground just getting to the proper metro line. I was trying it out because when I'm coming back to my apartment late at night, I would only have to walk two blocks from Chatelet, whereas from Reamur-Sebastopol it's about a 15 minute walk. And even though I feel safe, it is dark and I am a woman alone. I'm very careful; I put my nose in the air and throw my shoulders back and try to look as though I could kill you with a glance if you tried to pull something funny.

A couple of other thoughts about the Metro: (1) If you are someone with a cough or a sneeze, don't think about sitting next to me because I am a grandmother now and I don't want to expose my granddaughter to any illnesses, so I won't even bat an eyelash and will just move right away from you; (2) Who draws all the graffiti between the Metro stations? There are just miles and miles of tracks, to say nothing of a limited time in which to actually work since the Metro's only closed for a few hours at night, yet the entire area between stations is covered with graffiti. I'm a little bit in awe of someone who would put that much effort into something that doesn't pay and in fact could get you in a lot of trouble.

Juliet has a big day tomorrow; a visit to the pediatrician in the morning (one month checkup), and Jeanne has a hair appointment in the afternoon. I guess the hair will take several hours, so Grandma and Juliet have to go along, as there will be breast feeding at some point. Stay tuned and we'll let you know how it all turns out.