July 30, 2008 Part V

The heat is brutal and it is humid- we may as well be back in Virginia and not at 48.86 degrees north. 48.86? Yes, I like to be exact and know exactly how outraged I should be to be hot at this latitude. Home is 37.23 degrees north. We have hardly made good use of more than 10 degrees of northerly movement. The cheap apartment I’ve found in the “whore’s district” has no air conditioning. Why would it!? We’re at 48.86 degrees north and have no continental effect – Paris is regularly washed from the north and west by air chilled by the North Atlantic. That’s air coming straight down from Iceland!

From Paris 2008

Maybe the English have put up a fence or something. Maybe all the new wind farms are slowing down that cool air. Whatever it is, I vow to always ask for air conditioning in Paris in the summer from here on out, and to stay in someplace near rue Cler or St. Germain.

And we went to Versaille today, but, you know what? I’m going to give it a pass. It was nice, but also very easy to skip. Hot, crowded, so huge it is over the top and ultimately sad. And you can read about it anywhere- though you probably won’t read about me bumping into a university of Miami jerkoff who thinks Ron Mexico is still our QB. So, nice picnic there, but I’d never recommend going. At the end of this I’ll write about Chantilly- a wonderful outing from Paris.

From Paris 2008

But coming back from Versaille, we stop by the rue Cler. If you want the quieter, more settled Paris, you want rue Cler. It is a wonderful pedestrian street with outdoor cafes, fresh vegetables and seafood and it is so wonderfully quiet.

From Paris 2008

Oh, and just an FYI- don’t ever get sushi on the Grand Boulevards. For all I know, Paris is not a sushi city- and I base that on a visit to one restaurant. Want Sushi? Go to Osaka or Washington, DC.