Ma Vie En Bleu

Paris Postmortem

Le sigh. A week just ain't enough time. The food the food the food. Cheese to die for, mostly camembert (Sorry Kohlmeister) wine, bread, chocolate. My first night there I had this wonderful cassoulet with beans and choucroute, good hearty Southwestern food, at this place called Chez Papa in Montparnasse. It was across the street from, the Cimetaire du Montparnasse where Baudelaire, Susan Sontag, and others I'm forgetting are buried.

Paris is an interesting mixture of cosmopolitan and quaint. I think that's what separates it from a city like New York where quaint is kind of hard to find. Maybe it's the pink apartment buildings with the wrought iron balconies, or the profusion of flower stands. Maybe's just hearing French, which sounds piquant regardless of the speaker. Maybe it's the fact that nobody seems in a hurry. I was always walking far too quickly wherever I went.

I didn't do much in the way of planned sightseeing. I only went to one museum, the Musée d'Orsay, which I missed back in 2001. I've become hopeless when it comes to the regular tourist things. I just don't have the energy for standing in front of a piece of art and really taking it in. But I did see some fabulous Monets as well as Rodin's scupture of Balzac. Cousin Bette is on my reading list for this summer. I call my myself a Transatlantic 19th century person but my French novels are seriously lacking.

Met up with Stanford Dude on Saturday. And he took me to Montmarte and Sacre Couer of Amelie fame. It would have been more charming without the tourists. First week of May is also unfortunately when the beginning of the American/Australian/German/Canadian invasion. My parents were a little jarred by hearing so much English after 5 weeks of feeling the like only Americans around. Walked through the Jardins Luxembourg and then hung out with Stanford's Parisian Scientologist friends (yup) and had the humbling experience of not being able follow a conversation at all. Luckily the language barrier kept me from saying anything scathing about Tom Cruise.

Sunday and Monday were both rainy and largely working days for me. Oh the joy of carting around library books. Note to self: be a better planner.

Tuesday the parentals had to scramble and pack, but we did make it to the Eiffel Tower which was lit blue. We also had another great meal, at La Coupel also in Montparnasse.

Wednesday, after the museum I loitered around the Latin Quarter, popping into bookshops, buying chocolate, eating gelato. The Latin Quarter is busy but in very non-rushing kind of way. Good place for a coffee or carafe of wine. Sit and watch pretty French men with shaggy hair smoke and talk.

I ended my trip by running into Stanford Dude and tagging along with him to a tango class. Nothing quite like trying to learn a difficult dance in a foreign language, but in the end it was a lot of fun, lack of coordination notwithstanding.

So all in all, not a bad trip. I didn't force myself to do a lot, and in the end there was nothing I was especially dying to see. Staying in one place for an entire week is kind of novel for me. Usually my European excursions involve 2-3 days in once city before moving on. Next summer I will hopefully have the chance to stay longer and really soak up the atmosphere.

Pics to follow eventually.

Thoughts After 3 days in Paris

French Scientologists: who knew?

17 Euros is way too much to pay for a copy of Image-Music-Text.

Paris is a lot like New York, only charming.

TBC...