Writes of Passage

Having missed a month, I’m back. The water is dotted with boats …

The Old Opera House
Opernplatz 1,
60313 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

The music is wonderful, so is her performance. Her demeanor is so different from when she was in Shanghai in 2016 when and where she talked to her pianist all the time. The hall looks plusher – did they get a facelift?

Her Mozart night:

1. Violin Concerto No. 2 K.211, D major
2. Violin Concerto No. 3 K.216, G major
3. Symphony N. 1 K.16, E flat major
4. Violin Concerto No. 5 K.219, A major “Turkish”

She gave two encores, one was six minutes long and one was four minutes.

The company that manages or sells the tickets frankfurt-ticket.de is responsive but charges €5 if you don’t print your ticket bec the barcode in the email doesn’t work. What the hick??? Why wastes paper!!!???

52 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis
75010 Paris, France

Will return. Their wine glasses caught my eyes.

It’s on a small street – St. Denis – that’s filled with restaurants and cafes and bars. This one has both indoor and outdoor seatings. We sit inside – I can’t take the smokers. French music. Great food, bread, and great wines. They let you taste the wine first – which is great.

The mozzarella is just simply wonderful. The table next to us – threesome order two -:).

Also they have teas from China – no I didn’t try.

The only down side is – they provide too much bread – I almost eat them all -:) of course it’s their fault ha ha ha

In general I find restaurants, acafes in that matter have less waiting staff and they work very efficiently. They don’t come to chat. They serve and don’t brother you unless you signal them. Well it’s a profession in Europe … working seamlessly is beautiful to watch.

Seen on the Avenue de l’Opéra in Paris. This term or demand isn’t new. If France is out, the EU is over.

Being the big brother isn’t easy, and absorbing their eastern brothers and sisters isn’t easy. Maybe they over extended themselves? Forming the EU isn’t easy either.

German’s two wars had dethroned British dominance in the world. Is the Brexit a payback to the Germans?

Le théâtre musée des Capucines
39 Boulevard des Capucines
75002 Paris, France

My goodness, perfume becomes a hot commodity for the Asians? They don’t even have a habit of using it. The shop at Fragonard Perfume is packed like a refugee camp. Mostly are Indians but a few signs in the small yard are in Chinese only … I’m embarrassed.

Carrousel du Louvre
Address: 107 Rue de Rivoli
75001 Paris, France

The Napoleon’s throne.

MAD is next to Louvre but smaller and much calmer.

We were lucky: it poured while we were inside, that caused some light flood in the area.

… and the exhibit of Chinoiserie, the Europeans’ imagination, imitation and interpretation of Chinese and Eastern Asian. It is rare to see black porcelain; western paintings with Chinese features.

Paris‘ Saint Denis Gate & Saint-Martin Gate (Porte Saint-Denis and Porte Saint Martin) are twins, on Boulevard St Denis, separates by Blvd de Strasbourg, in 10th arrondissement‎. They were both part of the old city wall.

Saint-Martin Gate

Saint Denis Gate

A couple of blocks south on rue St. Martin is the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers / Musée des Arts et Métiers (Museum of Arts and Crafts) 国家艺术与音乐学院 / 工艺美术博物馆. Further down is Eglise Church

We take the RER – Réseau Express Régional to Paris from CDG to their north station (Gare du Nord). It’s about 40 min ride and cost €10.30 – include one entry to the Metro (subway; which is €1.90). The ticket machine asks for pin for my credit card. I use my zip code which worked.

Get to see a little suburb of Paris. The Gare du Nord has far more shops than Grand Central and Penn in New York.

We checked in together but the desk agent (no kiosks) assigned us to two different rows. And of course I didn’t check, till boarding. The reason is I didn’t pay $33 to pre-select my seat, so here we go. Some airlines charge such fee.

The flight attendants are nice and quickly switched us. Mind you my husband almost has a heart attack to see me so soon, ha ha ha – we took off together. Thanks to them.

The ride into Paris is easy with RER.

220-33 Northern Blvd
Bayside, NY 11361

Old fashioned Spanish eatery. 47 years old and one of staff has been there for 40 plus years.

I pass by it all the time and never thought of dine there – like an old furniture – ha ha ha – Will return.

Service and food are great. The Paella is good.
A Semi basement but the ceiling height is good.

String beans are soft
Bread is great
Like their mini decanter (not the glass tho)
Sauces are delicious that we nearly finished two basket of bread – don’t supply the second basket pls.
Bathroom is clean – the only complain would be three stalls making it too tight and unnecessary – two would have been a better choice.

Tiles – one wrong (are you thinking the Glazed Tiles …) – not a complain – just something you can look forward to -:)