Swimming, Sunday and the Metro
France has put on quite a show. In every neighborhood there are fenced off areas where people can play games, have a lunch, hang out with the community and watch some of the competitions on a big screen. We saw the same thing, although a bit different, in Vienna outside the opera house, where people can hang outside and watch the opera on a large screen for free. Huge fan of this.
I also love that throughout Paris, there are water stations to fill up your water bottle. Why can’t we do this in NYC?
Many spots in Paris are closed on Sundays and Mondays, but some embrace this. Brutos serves a whole chicken lunch only on Sundays, and you must book ahead. Chicken, salad, smoked tomato salad with apricots and french fries…the perfect Sunday lunch. The chickens are stuffed with lemons, onions and roasted, and are served already cut, and of course a lemon sauce poured over the top.
The weather finally broke, and we could walk around without being drenched in sweat. Emily and David definitely enjoyed the day.
I strolled over to the Dover Street Market, where there is always a new art installation inside the front area. In NYC and also LA, there are always good sightings, but today was amazing. Rei Kawakubo, the woman beind Commes Des Garcon and Dover Street was walking through the store with a small group discussing the store. Serious iconoclast!
Swimming was our next event. We took the Metro all the way to the end of the line to Le Defense Arena, which was built in 2017. This was an area that we had never been in before. There were lots of office buildings with bad restaurants. These guys were outside taking pics with people. Viva la France!
The arena is huge. We saw a few final races, and relay was one of them. Unfortunately, there were some really obnoxious people yelling all through the meet—insanely loud: USA, USA, USA. I took a video. I was shocked he didn’t have a heart attack, but I will spare any of you reading this the video.
After swimming, we went to the 20th Arrondissement to Lao Siam, no resys. The food is Laotian and delicious! I have been wanting to get there for quite a while. What is lovely about Paris is no matter what region the food is from, you can find top spots similar to NYC.
The day ended, and we returned to the apartment to watch Noah Lyles win the gold!