Paris when it sizzles
 

We arrived in Paris yesterday, and today it is 92F in the shade.

No A/C in our rental, no A/C in the restaurant, no A/C on the bus, though the Metro is cool, unlike the T in Boston. We curtailed our plans, hung out in the Palais Royal garden this morning, moving our chairs to stay in the shade or breeze or sometimes both.

We went for lunch at our favorite wine bar, Le Rubis. There were only seven of us in the hidden dining room upstairs, but they were doing a good business in the bar and on the street, where you eat on top of a wine barrel.

The company upstairs was amusing if small. There is no compromise in the menu for heat. It is French, and it is traditional. A man sat in the corner approving all our choices: oeufs mayonnaise, salade de lentils (our concessions to the heat) and brandade de morue, the smaller portions being their concession to costs but enough to fill us and still leave a bit of room for the splendid pear tart. I am glad he liked our choices because it is what we always have on Fridays.

Closer to us were two friends having what was clearly a never-ending and enjoyable debate on French language, culture, and arts. It is exactly the kind of discussion recorded in the film "My Dinner with Andre" between Andre Gegory and Wallace Shawn. My French isn't good enough to catch it all, but one called the other "a Pangloss", they agreed that Moliere was the key to French language, and they showered each other with "pas de touts". They knew they were putting on a show, and we were an appreciative audience.

After, it was too hot for another garden, so we took the 48 bus through what I think of as Kerouac Country, crowded, multiethnic, packed, back to our flat on the Canal St Martin.

Cooler tomorrow, so I will tell you about our trip, the area where we are staying, and some of the things we do.

a demain

Yikes, 92/33 is not a good number. But the gardens of the Palais-Royal are a wonderful place to pass the time. And just around the corner from Willi's Wine Bar.

If there's a better city than Paris for watching other people, I haven't found it.

Yes, Topaz, I am sitting here looking out the window at our busy corner, where all sorts of condition of humanity are on their way home from work, stopping at the boulangerie, arguing with their parents, heading to the country for the weekend.

And bilboburglar, demain is indeed another day!

Wow, 92? I hope it cools down before I get to Europe next month, although I have booked most of my hotels for July and August with AC (and they are ones I can cancel if I don't need the AC).

You might look into buying a fan if it stays hot.

Le Rubis!!!! we always stop in there. How about a river cruise to pick up whatever breeze there might be.
it was hot when we were there in the beginning of May and spent the afternoon in Parc Monceau with a bottle of wine. i have friends there now, so jealous

The heat is just for this one day. I hope you will appreciate the terrific thunderstorms tonight.

"I hope you will appreciate the terrific thunderstorms tonight."

I look forward to seeing them when they meander over to Switzerland. It was 33 (ok, only 32.6) degrees today in Basel, which means the Rhine is warming up and people have started swimming in it again. My office used to be part of the old photography department, so I have the only air conditioned workspace in the building.

Our worst weather day, according to some forecasts, will be Sunday. The storms may roll in just in time for the Swiss football cup, which takes place here and pits Basel against Sion.

That is what I always fear, hot and no ac, hope you have a fan. But you are in Paris. A river cruise might be good.

Looking forward to more of your well written trip report!

The storms should cool things off. The first one is rolling into our area now. Radar has big red and some purple splotches and we can hear the thunder, so the computer will be shut down in a minute. Enjoy a cooler week-end in Paris!

Signing on for the ride.

We didn't get any storms in northern Paris after all. Grrr!

They had to postpone Murray-Djokovic at Roland Garros, but here on the Canal St Martin, we got only a one or two minute shower, but it has cooled off!

We took shelter in the Petit Palais during a heatwave in Paris a couple of years back . . . beautifully air conditioned, and almost no one there. The crowds were all outside, sitting with their feet in the fountain across the road!

We also decided that it was at least 10 degrees cooler Centigrade) if you walked along by the edge of the Seine, rather than along the walkways at street level. Di

Certainly not an issue today! Like Spring!

No word yet when the next blast of heat will happen. Such things are usually fierce but brief. My apartment is in an old building, so the thick walls did not even have time to heat up yesterday -- it remained delightfully cool indoors even when the thermometer rose to 32°. However, whenever this happens for 3 days in a row, the walls <b>do</b> heat up and it can seem too warm inside for a couple days more.

Photos of what the storms were like in Switzerland. In some places, the piles of hail came up above people's ankles.
http://www.20min.ch/ro/news/suisse/s...urant-24917014

Wow, that was quite a storm. Looked like that hail stone could do some serious damage!

Waiting for more of your adventures in Paris!

Just started reading My Paris Dream and your report. Enjoyed the kerouac country reference and look forward to more of the report. We won't make Paris this year and we are both missing it.

We're in Lucerne right now, where there was a terrific storm, but only a little hail.

This is the second year in a row we've headed north for our holidays, only to find it hotter than it was back home in central Italy. No air conditioning in our hotel either, with a room on the top floor, and 30+ temperatures. The bed, like those in Scotland, has no top sheet; instead it's furnished with a polar-expedition-weight duvet.

Looking forward to reading more about your adventures! If the heat remains, there's always a nice scoop of Berthillon!

" polar-expedition-weight duvet."

Hate duvets! And they seem to be metastasizing. I take them out of the cover and sleep under that.