Paris PhotoPoems Series, #3 “Big Treats on Little Streets”
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Paris : PhotoPoem # 3 : ”Big Treats on Little Streets”
Restaurants, Laundry, Groceries, Shops, and Churches
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Archway to Small Street © Felipe Adan Lerma
(more images below poem)
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“Osmosis, Infusion, and Just Plain Sharing”
small
streets in paris
overlaid – criss-crossed
grid-like
by haussmann’s grand boulevards
still feed
the avenues and wide expanses
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shops and wines and flowers
carts art and baguettes
crowd the narrow
cobblestoned
tiny lines
(on the map)
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veins and arteries
head and heart
in
one city
yes
2012 felipe adan lerma
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linked to dVersePoets prompt : Open Link Night ~ Week 70
hosted by joseph hesch where he contemplates sources of his poetic inspiration
“Sometimes it starts from something I saw that morning, or it bubbles from a memory or other sensory charge that flashed to me in the previous 24 hours”
and talks about what he changes, and doesn’t, and why
my own work above, ”Osmosis, Infusion, and Just Plain Sharing” is definitely spurred by my wife and mine’s stay in paris right now
i hope you enjoy the verse and images, as i continue my photopoem series, and also visit dVersePoets where you can either also post a poem, or simply visit the many other folks sharing their work and visits with each other 
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paris is of course well know for its grand boulevards, such as Avenue Champs Élysées and Boulevard St Germain, among many many others -
but as enjoyable, and more so within certain contexts, moods, and needs, the side streets of paris are just as much a part of what makes this city so interesting
and, as the agent-gentleman who we worked with for our small apartment here in paris first said to me, when we had asked him where to find a nice yet inexpensive salad, “big street, big price, small street, small price….”
below, are just five of places we’ve enjoyed (or needed) finding along the small narrow streets off the wide avenues – all in the first week!
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Carrefour
grocery stores, at least here in paris, aren’t quite what we’re used to, either in vermont (shaws, price chopper) or texas (randalls, heb) -
carrefour is a good example of the type of small grocery stores here
there’s an express just down from our apt, and a fuller size store just a bit further down onto the narrow streets pictured below
some places for food charge for a bag (not much, .03 euro) while this chain doesn’t
as with most of the places we’ve visited since our first visit in 2002, there is “usually” one or more people working there who understand pretty good english, and appreciate a good-hearted attempt to speak french
there are also of course street markets and carts offering everything from fruit to sweets to live shrimp – all worth exploring if you wish
and, if you love art, the st germain de pres art district begins in full force down the rue de seine, the street which leads to carrefour’s front entrance as that street shoots off the broad grand blvd st germain
art and food, ahhh
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Picard
unique to my wife and i, used to hunting the frozen food sections of the texas and vermont stores i mentioned above, picard frozen foods (google does a nice job of translating the stie from french to english) is described by the site “girlsguidetoparis” as :
“The goods at Picard are such high quality that even the chef at the Ritz Escoffier cooking school buys his pastry crust at the Picard grocery shop in Paris, where he is sure that everything will be 100 percent pure butter and margarine free.”
the bottom line for my wife and i is, authentic french cuisine packaged in modern frozen easy to heat packages that preserve flavor and texture
packages are extremely well sealed, self-vent steam, and are worth keeping for storage re-use, etc; not bad for traveling, or at home folk!
the picard nearest us is on a tiny tiny street we enjoyed being challenged to find
as parisiesnsalon says:
“Now, for those like me who have popped a Healthy Choice or Stouffer’s into the microwave back in the U.S., you need to know that Picard is like gourmet food that’s been flash frozen. It’s nothing like the preservative-rich stuff that often makes airline food taste delicious by comparison.”
so a special thanks to a friend of my wife’s who had worked together at one time in texas
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Traiteur
translated to caterer, Jsfp Traiteur, attracted my attention as we exited a side door from carrefour onto a different narrow street from which we had entered it -
specifically the eye-catching pig in a bucket sign
inside, aromas filled the shop and we chose roasted chicken pieces and a small container of roasted chopped potatoes -
the surprise, like several others (french wines are “so” inexpensive over here vs in the u.s.) was that the price of a small selection of potatoes almost equalled the price of the fairly large chicken pieces! some items, i am guessing, are just harder to come by here, or the cost of living involved in certain food items is just hugely less, i don’t know, but never-the-less, surprising
this is a nice fresh foods (meats and sweets) gourmet shop i’m glad we found and tried
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Restaurant Le Latin
on the other side of where we’ve been staying, east, but still along the left bank, we were searching for a (french) pasta restaurant we had seen one evening coming back from a night visit to notre dame, found it closed (til evening) with the help of the man running the restaurant le latin -
the gentleman gave us the info as to when the other restaurant would open, replied he thought their food was good when we asked, and generally let us enjoy milling around the small narrow street near the church of saint severin
sheila noticed his restaurant also offered the pasta she was interested in, and we went in for one of the day’s three piece formule lunch items (appetizer, main course, desert)
i’d been hesitant to go in because the interior looked so nice i assumed the prices were much higher, but they weren’t, basically the same!
exposed stone walls sprinkled liberally with tiny shaded wall lamps, and a smattering of wall hangings (utensils, garlic clusters in mesh bags) added a comfort-feeling
the food itself was delicious, true french cuisine as far as i was concerned, with a small partially visible kitchen off the dining area, where the cook (chef) prepared the food where he could look out, often smiling at folks (like us) hearing the sizzle of aromas being released
this is on a tiny street clustered with a huge variety of other food choices, and a short walk from notre dame, so location plus ambience with great tasting food at a good price makes this a place we’ll be sure to try to return to
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Laverie Julice
back near the head of the street where the grocers and art galleries were, rue de seine, is my last important find, the laundromat, or as we say in texas, washateria
this is where, as i prepare to finish this photopoem + commentary, we’re headed next
many extended stay furnished apartments (in our price range) have washers, but no dryers – and though clothes racks for drying are often provided, in off-season (less sun, colder) some of our clothes are going to need a little help from modern technology
i’m assuming that washing at laverie julice is similar to other laundries here in paris, in that one places one’s clothes into the washers to be used, adds detergent, sets the settings, then goes to a wall box where a person pays for the wash by inserting the money and selecting the number of the machine being used
the same procedure is followed for the dryer and detergent dispenser, the latter of which also has a number for inputting with payment
we haven’t tried all this yet having just found this useful gem a few days ago and scoped out how it would work
if anything weird happens i’m sure i’ll add it in another post
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Final Thoughts
that’s about it for now, this is an unusually longer post, but i felt the small narrow streets, with such varied interesting life, differing from the equally varied interesting life on the wider grander boulevards, needed exemplifying
it’s possible i’ll have a followup “big treats on small streets” post before we’ll all done here
hope everyone’s well, and is having a good entry into the holiday season
adan
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Small Street View, a – © Felipe Adan Lerma
An Early Morning Start
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Small Street View, b – © Felipe Adan Lerma
An Early Evening Start
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Small Street View, c – © Felipe Adan Lerma
Waning Evening on the Small Side Streets
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Small Street View by Saint Severin, © Felipe Adan Lerma
Time to Head Home
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Small Street View, d – © Felipe Adan Lerma
Still a Few Out and About
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Small Street View, e – © Felipe Adan Lerma DSCI5645
A New Morning, Another Day, Another Start
New Hope Rises with Each New Walk
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Tags: Boulevard Saint-Germain, Carrefour, Felipe Adan Lerma, Grocery store, Labarie Julice, Paris, Photo essay, Photography, Photopoems, Picard, Restaurant Le Latin, Small Streets of Paris, Traiteur, travel
