#paris bar

Asparagus is the new salad

… or something like that. We had a lunch with a new friend of ours who lives in Charlottenburg. He recommended the Paris Bar, a few minutes’ walk from my hotel.

A Berlin institution, the Bar has been a meeting place for artists and writers for many years. Jo thought it would be a great place to have a lunch. He was right. For the third time on our trip, asparagus was a special on the menu, and once again, it was aspara-tastic! Jo said that Berlin is surrounded by asparagus fields and they are in season. Thank you, asparagus fields.

 Camera Work and so should we!

Jo had to run, but directed me in the direction of an art gallery. I’m so glad he showed me the way, because I wouldn’t have found it myself. “It is common here that galleries are situated across courtyards and on the other sides of houses,” Jo explained. Sounds good to me. The current exhibition was a collection of Vincent Peters shots. The stark black and white shots had a way of simultaneously jumping out of their frames, and quietly inviting you to step closer.

You must take the Book Train

Bücherbogen Savignyplatz is only a few blocks away, but walking through the archway feels like walking through the wardrobe. Built under the U-Bahn, this store is filled to the brim with great art and architecture books. From time to time, the whole building shakes as the train passes over. An hour later, I walked back into the “real world” with some great books, including one that collected photos of people living in Berlin, along with little stories about each of them.

Please refrain from coughing, if possible

…and we did! Between movements, an incredibly polite explosion of permitted coughs filled the Berliner Philharmoniker.  Before the program began, there was an announcement that the audience stay as quiet as possible. I love this about classical music performances! The silence was complete as Alan Gilbert conducted the orchestra. Adès and Mozart and Debussy (Images pour orchestra – yes!!!) – OH MY! Such a brilliant night of music. I was seated behind the orchestra, which was new for me, but so wonderful. Watching the conductor’s expression throughout the pieces was fascinating! Wenzel Fuchs brought the house down with Mozart’s “Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra in A major.” Flowers were delivered, and the applause was THUNDEROUS.

Kat Kaufmann and Sascha Ehlert for das Wetter

Mo. Mai 29

I’m nowt if not predictable, so I whisk @laurenmary02 away to the glitz and glamour of well-heeled Charlottenburg. Or so I imagine. Reality has us pop up from the U-Bahn and toddle non-plussed along a street largely comprising vacant shopfronts and facepalmingly-named Asian eateries. (If any proprietors happen to be reading, a marketing tip gratis: no-nonsense as ’China Food’ may be, it’s not sufficiently valuable to deposit into the average memory vault.) 

Fortuitously (and not at all accidentally) we soon find ourselves in front of the eminent artistic enclave that is Paris Bar. The Oblique Strategies card Lauren and I drew for today told us to be decadent, so obediently we tuck in to the city’s finest steak frites and French red.