04 November 2015

Un sec beurre

This is a classic French sandwich. It's saucisson sec (dry salami) on a piece of baguette (French bread) that has been spread — lightly, of course — with butter. When I lived in Paris years ago, it was called un sec beurre. It's what I made to take with me as my lunch when I rode the train to Paris at noon on Sunday.


I'm writing this from North Carolina. I went to Paris on Sunday to spend the night there before catching my flight to the U.S. on Monday. So here I am in America. In Paris, I stayed in a hotel near the Sorbonne Sunday night. They put me in a room on the 7th floor. With no elevator. I had to lug my heavy suitcase all the way up there. And back down. At my age, that was a challenge.

Sunday afternoon I went to the theater in Paris. I had decided to buy a ticket to a play in case it was rainy and cold outside that day — November 1, after all — making it not pleasant just to go for a walk around the city. I didn't want to be bored. Sunday afternoon turned out to be fantastically sunny and warm in Paris, but I'm glad all the same that I went to see the play. It was a lot of fun, and something I've done just a few times in my life. More about all that over the next few days and weeks.

17 comments:

  1. Hope you have a nice family visit, Ken.

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    1. Thanks Ellen. I'm glad to be here but my trip got really complicated. I reserved a flight that left at 8 a.m. on Monday morning. I thought I'd take the train directly to Roissy, bypassing Paris.Then Air France cancelled my flight and put me on the 13h30 flight the same day.

      I already had my non-refundable TGV ticket from Tours to Roissy. Finally, I decided I'd rather spend the afternoon and evening in Paris rather than at the airport. I got off the TGV at Massy and took the RER into Paris from there. By then I had found the hotel, as well as the play I wanted to see. Anyway, it all worked out. Hope you and Paul are healthy and happy.

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    2. Ah ha! Ken, I was wondering how you found yourself on the Ligne de Sceaux.

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    3. By the way, when I was tracking your flight I noticed that that earlier flight (which they had cancelled) was flying anyway. it was on the radar screen, having taken off late (like most flights on Monday). What's up with that?

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  2. Enjoy your stay in NC. We'll be there in December.

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  3. What a surprise that you are in the US. I complained about walking two very tall storeys in NY. Seven storeys? Wasn't there a lad who you could pay?

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    1. I don't think there was. I didn't even ask. I lived for three years in a sixth-floor walkup in Paris. I was younger then.

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  4. woa i feel your pain getting any suitcase up and down to 7th floor!! ewww....welcome to NC....we have had drizzly, foggy days recently....hope it's better in the east for you!! we spent the night at the airport Novotel since our flight left at 8 am (must've been same flight....went to ATL?) anyway it was a good time to leave cause we got back at 4:30 to Asheville....but finding our was around the airport is always a challenge....at one point I weas stuck between 2 sets of those automatic glass doors, lol....I can laugh about it now but at the time I pictured missing the plane & broke out into a sweat.......that airport is always confusing to me even tho I've been there many times....enjoy your visit

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    1. If they hadn't canceled my 8:00 flight, I would have hit the ground in New Bern around 3:30 p.m. As it turned out, I didn't get in until nearly 11 p.m. Not so great for my sister and niece, who volunteered to do the two-hour round-trip drive to pick me up. My back and shoulders are still recovering from that 7 story climb loaded down like a pack horse.

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  5. welcome home! i'm always so excited when you are in my time zone.
    :-)

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  6. I hope you are having a good visit, Ken. The weather is quite nice right now. We once rented a place in Copenhagen on the sixth floor with lots of luggage- we will never make that mistake again. Still we got by which is what life is about. Tell MA hello from Lewis and me. Enjoy yourself and eat plenty of seafood.

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    1. MA says thanks for the greetings and sends hers back to you and Lew. Tonight we made French onion soup with bread and melted swiss cheese for dinner. Yum.

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    2. The soup sounds yummy. I bet MA is enjoying cooking with you. Sorry about your hotel with all those flights of stairs.

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  7. Now... did I miss something, or is this the first that you are telling us about this trip? I usually expect to follow your travels to the U.S. around March some time. :) I hope this is all just for pleasure?

    Thanks for that beautiful photo of the sec beurre. I'm just doing a basic food-at-the-café unit with French 1, and this is a great visual I might be able to use :)

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    1. For pleasure, mostly, but some business to be done too. More about that later. Don't forget the jambon beurre and the sandwich aux rillettes too.

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