Cafe Fleurus Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 24 x 18 inches  COMMISSION

HAMBURG: Dry Dock Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 16 x 12 inches SOLD

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The AMERICAN FRIEND

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When Blair and I were first dating (before the Internet), we shared the same favorite movie: The American Friend. It was filmed by Wim Wenders in Hamburg, Germany. We always planned to go there, and after 30+ years, we finally made it.

Our hotel, on Steindamm, was sandwiched between the Islamic cultural center of Hamburg and the chic Alster lake. Our street was home to a variety of peep shows and gender shops. Between the hotel and the lake was a gay men’s community. We were walking distance to the central train station – I recognized settings from the film. Luckily we had a quiet courtyard room, where Harika lounged in the cozy down comforter most of the day.

Hamburg had always been a culturally diverse city, still evident in its Portuguese, Turkish and Italian restaurants. The Portuguese were Sephardic Jews, fleeing torment on the Iberian peninsula in the 17^th century. Hamburg likewise welcomed Protestant refugees from France and Netherlands.

Hamburg was founded in 808 by Charlemagne. The port really came into swing in the twelfth century. Hamburg was designated a free imperial state and was allowed to operate its port “toll free” on the Elbe. It suffered during WWII in a particularly brutal air raid using phosphorus. After the war and before reunification of Germany, Hamburg’s port services were limited. It is again on the upswing.

The Beatles played their first gig in Hamburg. This seemed evident to me in the very good radio stations -- choices were limited on the car radio between the French border and Hamburg. I always think you can tell a good place by its radio sound track.

50 miles from the sea, the port of Hamburg is the second largest in Europe after Rotterdam (Antwerp challenges Hamburg, depending on who is counting). At a fish restaurant, we looked out on a container ship in dry dock; a number of ferries and tugboats; pleasure and tourist craft; cranes as far as the eye could see. The scale was magnificent. The working port has always been one of our favorite venues.

The weather was cool and damp, and the grey sky set off the fabulous brick architecture of Hamburg. Blair and I found great details in doors and hardware: near our hotel was a building with wonderful metal details from 1930. On the lake where we took our morning walk, a small white and red wooden boat ferried passengers. Huge architectural development, hopefully sensitive, is slated for a rapidly growing Hamburg.

We were in Hamburg for the Aircraft Interiors show, which Blair’s company took part in. We spent our daytime hours working the show, and our early morning and evening hours seeing Hamburg. I didn’t get a chance to paint while I was there, but painted my impression by memory and photographs.

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May in the Luxemboug Gardens Laurie fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 16 x 9 inches

Fleurus: next booth Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on wood 5 x 13 inches

Fleurus: In Love Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 6.5 x 9.5 inches

Fleurus: At the Bar LFP Acrylic on wood 7 x 13 inches

Tricyle Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 9 x 5.5 inches

MARKET: Selling Vegetables Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 9 x 16 inches

Sunday Papers in the Park Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on wood 6 x 9 inches

PARK: Men at the chess table Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 16 x 9 inches

Fleurus: Postcard Stand Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on wood 5.5 x 12 inches

Fleurus: Glasses Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on wood 6.5 x 9.5 inches

Fleurus: Pierre and Eric Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on wood 6.5 x 9.5 inches

Fleurus: At the Bar Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 5.5 x 9 inches

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SET 'EM UP, JOE

There is nothing quite like an espresso in Paris. All coffees are not equal: one must find a café that cleans their espresso machine daily. Otherwise, the bitterness of old oily coffee spoils the taste of the new. We have a few choices in our immediate vicinity:

The Hippocampus (seahorse), a jazz bar on the weekends, serves coffee and croissant in the morning. It’s in our building, so we like to keep our oar in the water there. On Friday morning this week they hadn’t yet gotten their croissants, and sent us out to pick them up. We got two for free.

The Tourne Bouchon, a delightful hole in the wall that serves coffee and croissants, beginning at 6 AM on market days, serves lunch and early dinner until 8. On Sundays, we go there for coffee with the organic market crowd, who’ve been up since 2 AM. Towards the end of the market, the entire sidewalk fills up with diners at mismatched tables and chairs for lunch that lingers until six, at least.

The Petit Lux has a wide variety of pastries, and Bruno makes a perfect noisette, an espresso with just a dollop of hot foamy cream. From a fabulous butter croissant to pain au chocolate, pain au raisin, abricotine, or chausson au pomme, all is deeeelish. Xavier is there, and Yannick the florist, always asking us what’s new.

The Fleurus is our usual hang-out, with excellent espresso and good croissants. Harika adores Pierre and Andre, the proprietors, and she gets to sit in the booth sometimes. Right now, I am painting some sketches as I prepare to paint a picture of the place, on commission.

Here, a young man at the bar talked about how important it was to drink coffee in a cup or glass. “Starbucks,” he groused, “throws an overpriced coffee at you in a paper cup!” Ask Starbucks for a ceramic cup and it is dug out of the confines of a cold closet, with no regard for temperature. A North African man talked about coffee from his country – never would anyone accept a coffee in a paper cup. The whole idea of drinking coffee in Paris is conviviality – to connect with other people. “To go” is a rare request, but it is not unusual to see the waiter walking down the street with two cups of espresso (ceramic of course) and sugar on a tray.

We drink at the bar for conversation. Monsieur G lets us know how France and America differ (he likes America, where his son owns a restaurant). The Tunisian grocer comes in (they are all from Djerba) and greets Harika, pronouncing her name like the fishermen did, and she cries and leaps with joy. Mario, the tennis pro at the Luxembourg Gardens comes in for a quick coffee then goes outside to smoke. Pierre passes us the newspaper.

I am reminded of how men used to go to bars in America to visit and relax , and I hum: Set ‘em up Joe.

Marche aux Puces Vanves: closer inspection Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 5.5 x 9 inches
Marche aux Puces Vanves: Document Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on wood 6 x 10 inches


Marches aux Puces Vanves: buying Jewelry Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 5.5 x 9 inches

“You must go,” our friend S says of the market at St. Denis. “Look at this swimsuit I got for 5 euros! It would be at least 40 in the regular store.”

So Tuesday we went to the marche St. Denis. We had to change trains at St. Lazare, one of the most circuitous stations, but the market was everything she promised. Our first purchase was battery-powered lights for our closet and “cave”(cellar).

Outdoors, around the main building are stands selling everything from bathtub stoppers to Tunisian sandwiches. One booth was entirely dedicated to sewing supplies: a thousand colors of thread; a multitude of needles, fasteners and details. Other stands sold fabric (there are certain styles one can’t buy ready-made). Jewelry abounded and women held out their arms to admire their bling. There were all sorts of clothing – I bought a skirt with (rather loosely attached) sequins for ten euros. There were stands featuring large sizes – some things I’d never seen so big!

We were there for a couple of items: the lights, and window treatments. I had hoped to find rollers for roller shades, to which I could apply “panel” paintings (full body portraits of Vladimir Nabakov, Amelia Erhardt, and a Pilgrim I just happen to have around). We didn’t find them. Instead we purchased yellow-green draperies for 10 euros a pair. I will attach butterflies and flowers to take the curse off the plainness. But now, dear readers, if you come to visit, drink too much champagne, and miss the metro, you can sleep in the living room.

At the same stand as the curtains we bought (mid-size) bath towels for 2 Euros each. Our bathroom is white with an icky orangey-brown glazed tile. Our current towels are green and blue. After much discussion we settled on one towel in a red, orange and white argyle, and my towel in the same shades but striped.

We still hadn’t attacked the food hall. It is an enormous production. We decided to eat sandwiches first, so we wouldn’t buy out of hunger. Chicken or tuna stuffend into that wonderful flat middle-eastern bread, made fresh that day. The bread itself was the biggest seller at the stand, or you could get it with an uncertain reddish filling that looked as if it could be spicy.

The food hall held meats, vegetables, spices and fish. It was hard to select a stand, and by noon, some were completely sold out. One could purchase a whole sheep for 60 euros, an entire goat for 49. We bought a rabbit and a guinea hen at the poultry stand, 4 euros each, a far cry from the 10 to 14 at our local market (for rabbit). We bought some potatoes and onions, shallots and garlic – for a very small price.

Armed with our purchases, we descended the subway and turned toward home. Harika was thrilled with our meat choices, which we cooked up tout suite.

The next morning, I popped in the shower, eager to use the new towel. When I turned over the tag, it read, “made in the USA.”

Waiting for the Green light Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 12 x 12 inches

Yellow cap Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on wood 7.5 x 12 inches

French bulldog Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 9 x 5.5 inches

Harika Resting Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 9 x 5.5 inches

2 Footballers resting/Louvre Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on wood 12 x 7.5 inches

Telephone St. Sulpice Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 4 x 13"
Scooter St. Sulpice Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 12 x 12 inches

Red Jacket Yellow Folder Laurie Fox PESSEMIER Acrylic on canvas 6 x 10"

My easel arrived this week. The acupuncture doctor relieved my sciatica. Amazing result with rocks and pins. Super good weather I painted outdoors. The jazz club has new management (just as I was getting used to the “old”). I cooked a roast in wine. Harika and I both think it’s great.

I’ve been reading a book called “six word memoires” after Hemingway’s shortest novel:
“For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.” I am not sure any of the sentences in the paragraph above qualify, but how about: Living in Paris hip hip hooray!

We went to the flea market today and bought a table for the balcony (ten euros – very solid old rattan). We’ve one chair and will make do with the stool until another seat makes itself available.

The good weather and long days lured us to the grassy field near the Louvre where Harika can run free, just before sunset. If there are other dog owners present, they are a lighter, less nosy crowd than at the Luxembourg Gardens. Yesterday she ran around with Enzo, a ten-month-old King Charles Cavalier (the owner spent a lot of time telling me the different between just a King Charles and the King Charles Cavalier, and I must have looked dazed, because she offered to repeat it in English. I smiled, enjoying the breezy sunshine.)

On Thursday, we had a business lunch at a restaurant near the Gare du Nord. During the forty-five minutes we had to kill before our reservation, we sat on a bench in a church courtyard where cherry blossoms fell on our heads. Later on, I enjoyed looking at us bedecked with pink petals – no matter how serious business might be, we’re all human (spoken like a true salesman). The scent of lilacs and lily-of-the-valley permeate the air in Paris, as we celebrate the May Day holiday.

It was a Bretagne style restaurant, but with interesting variations on traditional dishes: I had salmon marinated in the manner of herring, delivered in a glass canning jar beside a plate of mache (lamb’s lettuce). Roast pork followed, cooked perfectly, not dry, but the real coup de grace was the “Paris-Brest” dessert – a buttercream and nutty crunch filling in a round puff pastry. Although I am not a big dessert eater, with a restaurant meal “all’s well that ends well”.

I was delighted to hear an outsider’s point of view on Paris. He saw the Gare du Nord neighborhood as diverse and interesting, easy going. Formerly, I’d thought of it strictly as the train station, a bit offbeat, a place to buy electrical replacement parts and Indian spices. As our guest pointed out the things he saw, I saw them that way, too. It is such a good argument for having guests. I hope you will come visit ; show me something I have overlooked.