The Novelist

 

Today was sunny and warm.  I walked around the Luxembourg Gardens.  I love that place.  I came across this statue of George Sand.  I knew she was a novelist, but other than that I really didn't know Jack Squat about George Sand.

I've done some intense research on wikipedia and I've discovered that George Sand had an interesting lifestory, which I'll now share.  She wore men's clothes because she found them more comfortable.  In the early 1800's, women had to apply for a permit to wear men's clothes but George skipped the application hassle and wore whatever she pleased when she pleased. After her marriage dissolved, George had a bunch of affairs with men and women.  Her most famous affair was with Chopin. They broke up after awhile and the breakup was not amicable.  She wrote many novels and worked for women's rights.  She was good friends with Victor Hugo, Flaubert, and Balzac but Baudelaire did not care for her and described her with some rude name calling. 

Go soak yourself, Baudelaire.  George Sand doesn't need your approbation. 

She died at age 71 and was buried in Nohant, but later her remains were transferred to the Pantheon which is a big honor.  (FYI:  Josephine Baker, our country woman, has had her remains transferred to the Pantheon quite recently).  Wikipedia mentions a controversy with the decision to transfer Sand's remains, but I'm not sure what the controversy was all about.  Please let me know if you have any additional information about the problem of George Sand's remains being moved to the Pantheon. 

The Dancers?

A few days ago I was walking at the outdoor sculpture museum.  2 men were practicing ballroom dancing on a little square there.  Then today I walked up the curvy labyrinth to the gazebo atop Jardin des Plantes.  2 young people were dancing in the gazebo.  Things usually happen in 3s so all afternoon I looked for more dancers.  Maybe you have seen some dancers today? Please let me know. 

Also, have you seen this beautiful photo?  I find it incredibly moving. It's a few months old, but still a story to ponder. 
 

The Yule

While Paris has cranked up the festive lights, inside the apartment (aka dorm room) we've dropped the ball on holiday decor. Nevertheless, we did a few holiday type of things in our Paris place, which I'll now describe, using a bulleted list format. 

• People in France seem to be eating oysters all over the place around this time of year.  We bought a box of oysters which are sold on the sidewalks and in the bistros. On Xmas Eve, Mari Homme shucked them with a butter knife, after watching a one minute oyster shucking video.  He did an expert job.  I wish we had bought an oyster shucking knife, but maybe we'll do that next year.  
• On a walk along the Seine, I found a plastic dog toy buried in the sand.  This represented my only Xmas gift.  We went off the gift grid this year and come to find out, I really like gifts, so that's a wee downer. I'll compensate for this next year.
• We did buy and eat a buche de Noel.  These loggy cakes are everywhere you look right now.  We enjoyed eating the buche de Noel very much. I wish all cakes looked like logs. 
• We also watched some favorite holiday movies. Elf was awesome once again and Home for the Holidays, which I know focuses on Thanksgiving, is still excellent.
• Sadly, we failed miserably at our jigsaw puzzle, which had 1000 pieces and featured a Van Gogh painting. After a few hours, we gave up.
• We talked to 30 Something and #1 Son who are not here with us in Paris, but are doing fine.  We all miss each other, but we'll see each other in April in New Orleans, so dry the tears, People. 

Even though we're boostered, we've decided to stay out of crowded spaces for awhile, what with the omicron going wild all over the globe. We've taken long walks--- around the Marais and around the Oberkampf neighborhood and around Place Des Vosges and also in the Belleville neighborhood where we saw some cool street art on Rue Denoyez. 

Hope you all had fabulous festivities and I hope you received some fun gifts. 

The Weeks

La Villette

We walked along the Seine earlier in the week, under cloudless blue sky.  I read somewhere that people will be able to swim in the Seine by 2024.  Unlike Joe Manchin and a bunch of other bozos, France is actually doing stuff to improve the environment and work against climate change.

 

Started the day by reading Popova's essay about the book, 4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals.  I've had a contentious relationship with time almost from the get go.  I remember talking at my women's group a million years ago about how I wish I could have just one or two hours extra in each day.  If I could have that, all would be perfect!  A friend said, "Sorry, but we all get the same amount and we all get exactly the amount we need."  I've found this difficult to accept. Even as a kid I was fascinated with efficiency.  I was enthralled with Cheaper by the Dozen, both the book and the movie.  The story is about an efficiency expert father and his industrious wife who are parents to twelve children.  I loved this fictional family.  I was one of 7 children, so you could see how this story might appeal.  When it was my time to pack the lunches, or wash the dishes, I would experiment with ways to increase efficiency.  As a grown up teacher I have consistently taken on way too many tasks with the constant hope, or some might say delusion, of someday figuring out the right way to get things done, leading me eventually to achieve the elusive "work life balance."

 

The author of 4000 Weeks says that a focus on efficiency or productivity is a rigged shell game and no one in the world has work life balance so we should give up on that. We get about 4000 weeks if we reach our 80th birthdays, so I have about 1000 weeks left to live.  

It's time for me to throw efficiency and productivity out the window and to remember that "the price of higher productivity is always lower creativity." Time and I are about to embark on a whole new relationship and from here on out we'll be playing by different rules. Get ready, Time.  There's a new sheriff in town. 

 

The End?

Found some Emenem in Paris

The Steve McCurry exhibit at Musee Maillol 

We went to Musee D'Orsay to see the Signac exhibit.  Signac was a fauvist painter who got quite interested in pointillism. He was also an art collector and his collection is impressive with a capital IM. 

 On Sunday we headed to Deyrolles, a taxidermy shop that's been around since the 1830s.  We saw stuffed bears, tigers, lions, zebras and sundry others. Little drawers of shells and butterflies and beetles were there for the observing.  Veritable cabinets of curiosity.

 We went to Musee Maillol to see the Steve McCurry photography exhibit. It was phenomenal. You know this photo, correct?  That was taken by Steve McCurry.  He's travelled all over the world taking pictures of intriguing persons.

A great weekend, but is all our fun coming to an end soon?  Our fireworks on New Years Eve have been cancelled.  They were scheduled to start at 11:30 pm, so we probably would not have been out there on the Champs-Elysees enjoying the spectacle with thousands of others, but it's the principle here that's important. 

 All the museums and cafes we visited this weekend required proof of vaccination for entry, but some were actually a wee bit on the crowded side. Everyone was masked and we are boostered, but I'm starting to get nervous again about our crazy old world.  It didn't help that we watched episode 1 of Station 11 tonight.  Not the greatest idea we've ever had. In short, we're somewhat freaked out at this point in time. 

The Museums

 I visited 2 museums this week.  Musee Luxembourg where I saw the brilliant photography of Vivian Maier, my compatriot.  I also went to the Picasso Museum, where there was a fab exhibit that showed the ways Rodin and Picasso had some cool similarities to the ways they worked. Today I walked in the 2nd and found a few of the covered passages that were built in the early 1800's. V. beautiful. 

Yesterday I read about working in a public library.  The one nearest to us is in The Arsenal and it's primarily a research library.  We had to fill out forms and talk to different people.  We were lucky because a young French grad student who is doing a PhD at Columbia, but is doing research in France, was there and she helped walk us through all the steps to getting our seat assignments in the research room.  I went back today and I think I'm actually supposed to be using materials from the library to be working there, but when people asked me which books I needed, I just said, "I don't need anything. I'm fine." They let me stay both days and I got a lot done on my new story about two independent girls.  But I might look for another library.  I'm not sure.  

I'm happy for all my good friends who are on WINTER BREAK now!!! Enjoy every second!  Mari Homme and I are toasting you tonight.

Also Happy Birthday to Kyle (fantabulous future son in law) and Rachel (present day perfect partner of #1 Son!  Isn't it odd that the kids' partners have the same birthday?  

The Sheep

 I went to a cheese shop yesterday on my walk home.  I told the woman that I had been in France for several months and want to try some new cheeses.  She asked, "goat? sheep?"  I said "sheep" for no particular reason. I like them all.  I added that I do like a cheese with a sharp taste.  So she brought me over 2 cheeses.  She said, "These are from the summer when the sheep were out eating the grass all day. Both are very good tasting." 

The one I bought was a little pricey, but v. delicious and don't you love the image of the sheep outside this past summer enjoying their grazing and their friendships?   I can't remember the name of this cheese, so that's my bad and I apologize because I know for a fact that you would really like this cheese. 

The Ashes

 

We walked through that famous cemetery on Sunday, after we got our boosters.  There's a grassy area near the back wall, where I could see flowers laying on the grass in random spots and long straight lines of gray gravel strewn about.  When I came closer I found these lines to be cremated remains. A whole new model for the cemetery experience.  I like the idea of spreading ashes on top of the grass somewhere, in a long line or maybe in a circle. I think I'll have Mari Homme make a line of my ashes across the front lawn on High Street.  You can think of me whenever you pass the house and toss out a flower or two as you drive by.

We found the shared grave of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.  I have always loved those two. Not sure how I missed the information about Gertrude collaborating with the Vichy Government during WWII, but this was news to me in my internetting when we got back to this apartment. I've read biographies in years of yore, but maybe I had some selective memory thing going on. At any rate, this reckoning resulted in another hero being brought down to the familiar level of flawed human being. I can't say I wasn't disappointed, but there's probably something to learn from this experience. 

This morning I took 2 subways to the Eiffel Tower.  First the 5 and then the C. I liked looking up at the huge structure above me and then looking down at tiny towers being sold by vendors on the grounds below me. After a good visit with ET, I walked on home.  It was a long walk and as I've told you in the past, I do not walk very quickly. I try not to compare my walking pace with others because as some unknown person once said, "Comparison is the thief of joy."  Slow or fast or somewhere in between, I focus on enjoying the marvels seen on my morning sojourns. Paris continues to please. 

La Coulee Verte

 Today Mari Homme decided that he had had more than enough of the working world and so he decided to join me on my flaneur adventure of the day.  You probably already know that a flaneur is someone who saunters around observing society. 

In our neighborhood is the beginning of the Coulee Verte, an elevated walking path that stretches out for about 3 miles.  The Coulee Verte was built before New York's High Line, so let's give credit where credit is due.  We didn't walk all of it, but we walked a goodly amount.  So pleasant.  

FYI:  I'm working on a new short story about a kid who wants the right to vote.  There are organizations of people who believe that kids at age ZERO should have the right to vote.  Their parents will have a half value proxy vote for them until the family feels the kid can deal with voting.  I was somewhat opposed to this whole concept but now I'm on board. Kind of.  I'm still learning about the whole thing. Do you think it's intriguing?  

The Evolution

 I walked down to the Jardin des Plantes this morning.  Lo and Behold they're having an outdoor exhibit called Evolution Illumination.  Whole sections of the gardens are filled with prehistoric figurines and there's some good signage about when these beings lived. I was quite charmed by it and will go back in the evening when the displays are well lit.  

We went to the market this morning that's around the corner from the apartment.  I had my mask down for a taste of tangerine and forgot to put it back on.  The vendor whispered to me, "Madame, Madame, your mask!" Then he took a sidelong glance to the left.  When I looked over, I saw the gendarmes approaching and quickly reapplied my mask.  The vendor and I laughed like we had pulled a fast one, but really, I have no problem wearing a mask and of course don't want to be associated with anti-maskers. Covid's warming up a bit over here, but Mari Homme and I have appointments for boosters this weekend. Hoorah!

The Pace

 Yesterday I walked to Rue Mouffetard.  Today I walked for a longer time, west toward the Tuileries Garden.  Catherine De Medici had these gardens built near her palace back in 1564. I spent some time reading about her this afternoon.  She kept busy, let me tell you.  

My walking pace appears to be slower than some pedestrians who click by in a rush. I don't like to be an impediment to the progress of others, but in the end, everyone needs to do their best and forget the rest. 

The garden was lovely under a sunny blue sky. I walked through the Christmas Market and considered buying some aligot for lunch, but maybe that will happen on another day.  

 I love the green metal chairs placed all over Parisian parks.  Why can't we have those in Bloomington? Would people abscond with them?  Is that the problem? I'm going to start a campaign for park chairs when I get home.  I hope you'll join me. 

The Proprietor

 On our last day in Lyon, we went to lunch at a Vietnamese place we loved, Le Petit Grain. 

The proprietor recognized us and gave us spring rolls in addition to our orders. We told him that this would be our final meal at his awesome restaurant. He asked us some questions and gave us some of his story.  Come to find out, he has family and many friends in the U.S., in Houston, San Francisco and Indianapolis.  He also has family in Montreal.  "After the war, Vietnamese people moved all over," he told me when I expressed surprise that he had so many connections in our country.  He said he doesn't visit them often because the U.S. is a big country and it would take so much time to visit all these places on one trip. 

  The proprietor is concerned about gun violence in the U.S.  His friend in Houston has 5 guns.  The proprietor fears that this friend might accidentally shoot his wife one of these days. He also told us that he thinks it's too bad that people in the U.S. need cars to get around.  He says that's why old people in the states get lonely and depressed.  "They have to stay in their houses all the time.  When I need bread, I just walk down the street."

This fine man made some good points.  After we ate our delicious lunch, we said our good byes.  Then we walked the two blocks to the train station and headed north for Paris.  If you're ever in Lyon, check out Le Petit Grain.  Highly recommend. 

The Settling

It has taken a few days, but we are now settling in nicely. We live about a half block from the Bastille statue.  It's fun to see it shining like a beacon when we walk out the front door in the morning.  Yesterday we saw House of Gucci at one of the several movie theaters in the neighborhood and then ventured over to the small Christmas Market on Place Bastille.  We had some vin chaud and talked about the movie, which we both enjoyed a lot.  We saw Santa there as well.  He was ringing a bell and walking about randomly.

It rained a lot yesterday so my shoes were quite soaked when I met Mari Homme at the movie theater, but, like a U.S. Mail Carrier, I'm determined to walk the streets of Paris in any/all types of weather.  As long as some vin chaud is waiting for me at the end of the day, I'll be fine.

I started the day with a much needed haircut. That went fine though there were language issues. There was no rain in the morning so I walked a good long way, over to Les Halles, down to the Louvre, across the Seine, back to the Bastille.  It was fun to see a classroom of little kids strolling through the Plaza of the Louvre like they owned the place, with their little backpacks and clip boards, ready for the field trip of destiny.  Field trip to the Louvre!  What a wild world. 

I found a pleasant cafe in the afternoon where I had cafe creme and wrote in my notebook.  Even though the terrace said no smoking, when the afternoon rain appeared, some people came in to the cafe and they started smoking. No one seemed to care a fig about it.  Except me.  Maybe if I had better language skills I would have staged an intervention, but I'm trying to bridge cultural divides, not stir up trouble.

A fine Monday here in the 11th arrondissement. 

 

The Bastille

I did not take this photo

We're in Paris now, my friends. We live right next to the Bastille statue.  We see it from our front door.  Our apartment is okay, but I wouldn't describe it as "charming" as the people on AirBnb have suggested.  But here's the thing.  I walked out today and strolled along the Seine and visited Notre Dame and walked into  Shakespeare and Company and bought Oh William by Eliabeth Strout and now Mari Homme and I are walking 5 minutes to a pleasant place for dinner that's called Chez Paul. Right in the neighborhood.

It's all going to be tres bon. Tomorrow I'll buy some flowers at the flower market and our apartment will move toward charming-er. Basically, I'm thankful to be in this beautiful city with the homme of my dreams.  Merci et au revoir a Lyon and  merci et salut a Paris!