Travel journal from trip to France Summer 2001

Mary Magoulick

Sunday, July 15

Paris is great, though it was pretty overwhelming for the first several days. After the relative calm of Milledgeville, it felt strange and stressful to be in such a big, vibrant and not entirely clean and shiny city. I=ve succumbed as well to the usual culture shock of being in a foreign place, though perhaps not as deeply as I did the first time I came here. The most noticeable thing so far has been that every tourist attraction, from churches and monuments to museums and cabarets, cafes and boulevards, are full of tourists. In these first 5 days I have been to Cluny, the Louvre and Orsay (impressionism) museums, to Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur churches, and for many walks along various interesting (though touristy) streets. I also visited the Sorbonne and the Pantheon (a kind of non-religious cathedral to the state).

The stress of getting here was intensified by 2 late flights on British Air (necessitating a very long 6 hour layover in awful Gatwick airport in London), and missing my shuttle in Paris. So I jumped right into public transportation and (so it felt dragging my backpack and weary self onto the RER) into the old backpacker=s life. My first reaction to my hotel is that it=s a dive, but now that I have walked around Paris for a few days and encountered so many tourists in most places, I'm actually happy with my hotel and neighborhood because neither is especially touristy, but rather residential.

Amar, who happily doesn't speak any English, owns the hotel where I=m staying (Residence Cardinal) and has told me that F. Scott Fitzgerald lived in this same residence / pension / boarding house back in the twenties. It was then owned by an American named Ralph, he said, and was thus called "Residence chez Ralph" (now it=s Residence or Pension CardinalCfor the street it=s on, rue Cardinal Mercier). In spite of my portrayal of it as dumpy, it does have some nice features, like a staircase with a Cherry Wood railing and a Persian design carpet running along the steps B all the way up the 6 flights to my floor (there is a little elevator just big enough for 2 people). It also features some nice decorative art in the plaster ceilings and flower boxes filled with Geraniums in all the windows. Only parts of some floors of this huge apt building house the hotel (or rather boarding house)Bthe rest is split into private apartments. I feel sure Fitzgerald did not live in my room. In fact the owner does not know which room was his, though he guesses it was probably the "big room" (which I haven't seen). The rooms on the other side of the hall from mine are larger and have balconiesCand at least one of those also has its own bathroom. Omar says he gets a fair number of American professors (he told me all this after I told him I'm a professor) of American literature who come tracing Fitzgerald's steps in France to seek out this place where he lived.

This residence where I=m staying is in the 9e (Paris is dividing into 20 arrondisements spiraling out from the center B Isle de La Cite, where Notre Dame de Paris is now). I=m just off rue de Clichy between Place de Clichy and Gare St. Lazarre, closer to Place de Clichy. As I said, I've become rather fond of the neighborhood, lots of shops, bakeries, bookstores, laundries, cafés, restaurants, and apartments, even though just a few blocks away is the infamous and openly seedy Pigalle (sex) district, including the Moulin Rouge. And there are some positive features of my room: it has a French window, with an iron grill holding a window box of pink geraniums that gives plenty of sun (and Apuddling@ velvet curtains), a fireplace (blocked up) and an interesting rosette decoration in the plaster ceiling (pressed from a mold not hand-carved).

It=s less appealing, dingy features include a dripping faucet (on the sink in my roomBwhich most if not all French hotels have), a long, lumpy oreiller (cylindrical French pillow), very ugly wallpapered walls, ugly, cheap, rickety furniture, a kind of hole in one part of the wall that shows some pipes, and a general feel of griminess in the rooms housing the toilet and shower (both of which are in the hall and which I share with guests in four other rooms). So overall my living space has both charms and detractions, but definitely fits into the extreme Abudget@ hotel category. But it is a single room in Paris for only about $26 a night (including breakfast of baguettes, jam, butter, tea and orange juice). Hard price to beat for a single room (I triedBbut might splurge for something a little nicer in future years).

     There are so many tourists here that it's a completely different experience from other times when I've been here. For instance I used to love the Musée Cluny, partly because of the art (from the Middle Ages) but also because it was so calm and virtually empty every time I went there (13 to 20 years ago). This museum displays some very fine tapestries, paintings, furniture, and other objects (combs, jewelry, calendars, etc.) in a building that also includes 2000 year old Roman baths. Some rooms (like the one housing the famous Lady and the Unicorn series of 6 tapestries) were full of 20-100 people while I was there, meaning you had to crane your neck just to see the art sometimes. Other rooms only had half a dozen people in them, but you nonetheless often had to wait to get a good look at things displayed (or their captions). It felt extremely crowded until I went to the Louvre where I had to wait an hour just to get in the door. Cluny is on the Left Bank of the Seine and is surrounded by a wall enclosing a garden as well as the museum. Paris often delights one with such gardens and calm spaces within even its most crowded and touristy spots. I spent an hour in the garden that first sunny day, before walking around the Left Bank for another several hours. I stopped at the Sorbonne and the Pantheon for visits.

The following rainy day at the Louvre I arrived early (shortly after the 9 am opening time) only to meet a huge line of people wrapping around the square where the famous I. M. Pei pyramids form the entrance. This was the first time I=d seen this new entrance (it was just being constructed when I last visited in 1988). The line to get in continued across this huge square to wind around the colonnades along the sides of the palace. The line seems caused by the fact that they x-ray everyone's bag. Once inside Athe pyramid@ you ride escalators down to the main lobby where there are more hordes and very long lines to get information, buy tickets, visit boutiques, or just to get into various wings (you must show a ticket or id to get into each of 3 main wings). After waiting in line for 15 minutes to buy a ticket I discovered (happily) that with a teacher id card you get into any national museum for free. I went to the area within the Richelieu wing that includes Islamic Art and so-called AOriental Antiquities,@ some of which I taught last summer in my hero=s quest class. This was a relatively empty, calm, and yet quite lovely and inspiring part of the museum. The art from the ancient Near East (Sumeria, Mesopotamia, etc.) includes stylized figures (large and small) of humans (for instance some with very large, roundish eyes), as well as huge doorways and statues in granite (not unlike Egyptian art) and lots of depictions of lions, sometimes in tile. The Islamic art includes among other things many striking examples of pottery, rugs and tiles from Turkey. As this was a beautiful collection, one which I=d never visited, and a comparatively empty section of the museum, I enjoyed it. From there I thought I would wander through the European paintings, but that wing also houses the Renaissance Italian works, including the Mona Lisa, was thick with pushier, noisier, aggravating hordes and throngs of tourists from, it seemed, every affluent country on earth. Throughout that section there are signs at every turn directing one in several languages how to get to the AJoconde@ (Mona Lisa). Just being in that wing and level soon gave me a headache, so I wove my way back through the crowds, the maze of halls, lobbies, boutiques and tunnels into the fresh air and then through the rain, metro, and streets of Paris back to my hotel.

I cannot repeat enough that every place I=ve visited, rain or shine, right bank or left, religious or secular, has been jammed (literally) with tourists. And the locals say that it is not just because it=s summer, but that Paris is like this now all the time. It is distinctly and clearly different from when I visited in 1988 and 1981-2. But I suppose the intense tourism does lead to some good things, like plenty of cyber-cafés, good restaurants of all kinds, bookstores that sell books in English, and longer hours at some of the tourist sites. I=m trying to find the up-side to it.

I've been to about 8 vegetarian restaurants so far (of the 30 or more in Paris I found through internet searches before I left) and a few Asian restaurants, the best of which was a Thai place near my hotel and some hole-in-the-wall place that sells Vietnamese food B the best spring rolls I've ever had. Of course I was really hungry at the time. I have been walking an average of 4 hours a day, plus climbing tons of stairs. I feel like I've walked many miles of metro tunnels alone. If I lived here, I'd be in great shape.

Monday July 16

Cyber cafes are abundant in most parts of town, though especially where tourists are themselves abundant. I found this oneBAClicktown@ (pronounced cleek town)Bin the English language free weekly newspaper in town that had an article comparing some of the bigger cyber cafes. It=s a 15 minute wall from my hotel and costs less than 3 dollars for 78 minutes, comparatively cheap. The French keyboard B with a few letters and symbols in different places from our English keyboards B was very frustrating at first. There are some cyber cafés where you can use English keyboards, but not this one. In fact only one I=ve found had them. But I have more or less adapted and can type almost as fast as usual on these now. Still, I just spent 20 minutes composing a letter only to have my computer crash without saving it (because it was on yahoo e-mail which makes saving a laborious process). I complained (good for my French) but they won't re-credit me the time. So I'm a bit deflated about writing now.

Anyway, things in France are going well for the most part. It has rained 5 days out of the last 7, including today, and more rain and cold are forecast. Maybe I'll go to Chartres for the day tomorrow. I kind of like Cathedrals in the rain, even though the stained glass does not shine as strong. In a way it becomes even more luminous and easier to appreciate, I think, on cloudy days.

Plus, somehow the somber weather seems appropriate lately, I guess because I am often exhausted and overwhelmed with all I have seen and all the tourists I=ve pushed my way through by the end of the day. I repeat what seems remarkable: that every museum has been crowded with throngs of tourists, although it has definitely seemed a little better now that it is the middle of the week than it did last weekend, where one mob I was in just pushed its way around the transept of Notre Dame snapping away photos and ignoring the lectern who kept asking for "silence."

Nonetheless, it has been really fun and inspiring to see all this great art and architecture again. I have been going to about 2 sights per day, broken up by lunch at a vegetarian restaurant. Although France is a delight to meat-eaters, it=s also gotten into the health food fashion to some extent. The veggie food in restaurants here is good and healthy, but after sampling six or seven, I'm realizing that you often get more or less the same options, flavors and even presentation in all the veg restaurants. In other words it seems less original and inspired than other French foodCbut trust me when I say I am not complaining. Tonight I'm actually just eating bread and cheese and fruit (good bread, good cheese and good fruitBraspberries, strawberries, pears, nectarines, avocados, cherry tomatoes), and have enough of all that I will probably do that for several more days. I found a street (rue Lepic) not far from my hotel where there are all kinds of little shops selling all of the above and more, including a cheese shop with more varieties of cheese than I could quite take in quickly enough to make my selections and let the other customers (who seemed to know exactly what they wanted) get on with their shopping. So I finally just picked four cheeses that caught my eye. And though I asked for little pieces, I wound up with plenty. Some have appealed (raclette, gouda with cumin and a creamy cheese with mustard seeds) more than others. So lately it=s been lunches out, dinners in. I usually go down and eat my dinner in the hotel Adining room@ (it would hold a maximum of 13 people) where breakfast is served on the 2ieme etage (3^rd floor) near reception, with big windows, geraniums, white tablecloths, paintings on the walls, a big bookshelf of books to trade (in English and French), and a little television and radio. I don=t see too many other people ever, although as it is a boarding house, there are some long-term French residents whom I run into almost daily.

Tuesday, July 17

I went to Centre Pompidou yesterday, which houses the national museum of modern art and sits on a APlace@ full of artists and street performers. The modern art collection is so huge that I'm sure my 4 hours there I didn't do it justice. But I was happy to see what I did. There is a lovely sculpture garden near the top of this huge structure with a very nice fountain (water sculpture?) and spectacular views of Paris. I wanted to stay in the sculpture garden longerBit was calm, sunny, and inspiring, but by the time I arrived there (after looking at hundreds of painting, sculptures and exhibits) it was around 2 pm and I was ready for lunch. By the way, in France restaurants are open only during meal times. So if you miss lunch hours (usually from noon until 2:30 or 3 pm), you really miss your chance to eat until they open for dinnerCwhich isn=t until 7 p.m.

Today I ate at another veggie restaurant, this one named Aquarius. But peace and love were not on the menu that day. The waitress started shouting obscenities and general angry comments toward the end of lunch hour when the restaurant was still full. First you could hear her shouting in the kitchen, then she came into the dining room to address her complaints directly to the patrons. I had by then almost finished eating. She was volatile in telling us all what disgusting pigs (chauvinist and otherwise) the cooks / bosses are, that they treat her like shit and the kitchen is filthy, the food fake (not all cooked on spot) and so on. She went on for quite a while, until finally the head cook persuaded her to talk with him in another room, where you could still hear her yelling. Finally they threatened to call the police. Once it seemed like she was leaving so the others went back to the kitchen. She then went and took money from the cash register and then started loudly berating them and the restaurant again in the middle of the dining room. Finally the cook came back in and literally shoved her out the door. So she managed to steal some money before leaving, which made the cook furious at the other waiter who was in charge of the cashCbut who was of course doing double duties during the bedlam (there were only the two wait staff members). I was translating and explaining it all (quietly during the Abreaks@) to the Americans sitting next to me who didn=t speak French. That's the biggest drama I've seen so far in Paris. Most of the French patrons walked out, especially after the cook physically pushed the waitress out (pretty harshly).

The food did not seem bad to me, though as I have said, the food at all the vegetarian restaurants is so similar that I wonder if she is right about them going to some store in town and buying it ready made. Usually on the plat du jour you get two scoops of grain, a scoop of beans, another of lentils, and some grated beets and grated carrots with vinaigrette on them, and sometimes a potage to start it off. Restaurant after restaurant shares this menu and style.

After that drama I walked down the road to the hotel de ville (old city hall), which also has a big public square with some gardens and fountains. Many Parisians and tourists were hanging out enjoying (finally) some sunny weather. I sat there for a while and then took the metro to the Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe, actually in order to change tourist checks at the American Express office there. I walked along the Champs for a while and tried to get into the spirit of window shopping, but I am just not that kind of consumer. So I again got sick enough of tourists that I hopped on the metro to head back to my hotel. I went out again later to eat dinner at an Indian restaurant only a fifteen minute walk away from my hotel.

Today (Tues) I saw Musee Marmottan, which has nice impressionist works, including some gorgeous large paintings from Monet=s Water Lilly series, presented in a mansion with some original furniture and other paintings, tapestries, etc. owned by M. Marmottan. It's in the Bois du Bologne, a very wealthy section of Paris, and I got a little lost on the way there and so wandered through the expensive neighborhoodsCwhich mostly meant glimpses of nice hidden gardens and courtyards, expensive cars on the street, and high walls, sometimes with fancy iron work, around the tall apartment buildings. A few homeless types in the actual woods, some people getting into and out of or looking for parking places for the expensive cars, and a few nannies pushing strollers, but not much other sign of life. I didn=t pass any stores or other business, except maybe some banks. Wandering through the museum took up the whole morning.

After lunch I walked through the rain to two churches in the 6ieme, St. Germaine de Pres (I think the oldest in ParisCstill standing that is) and St Sulpice, neither of which (blessedly) were crowded. I don't know if the tourists predominate on the weekends, or if, because most museums close on Tues, they all went to Euro-Disney or something. The churches were nice and warm (a constant temperature because of their thick stone walls) compared to outside where it is (again) rainy and chilly. I didn=t bring my sweater so I=m cold as I sit here in the cyber-café typing. So although it's only 4 pm I'm going to head back chez moi on the metro. Having to navigate the map, the crowds, the dog shit and the traffic while trying to keep my umbrella from flying away in the wind and rain is getting old, and I have seen plenty today already. Tonight I don=t plan to stray very far from my hotel, where it is warm and I can read and write in relative comfort (which is how I spend most of my time there).

     It=s mostly fun and rewarding to be immersed in the French language again. Sometimes I find myself frustrated because I know I=m less fluent than the last time I was here. But I know that is normal and it is getting a little better everyday. When I watch TV (in the parlor where we get breakfast, not in my room), I usually understand most of it. I think about language and communication generally much more these days. All this attention to language makes me enjoy and attend to the fluency with which I can read and write in English. And while sometimes I feel I have wasted all that time and effort and ability from my past French studies, I also feel relieved and happy that as much of it comes back to me as it does. There are moments when I know I=m doing pretty well and feel proud of my accent and ease in speaking. At other moments I stumble over the simplest phrases and feel chagrined and bumbling. But I love hearing French almost everywhere, and comprehension is easier than generation.

One of the more pleasing aspects of my neighborhood it that it is not overly touristy, so I can delude myself into feeling like I=m doing something original, I guess. Plus I hear mostly French whenever I go outside. On the left bank and in all the touristy areas, you are as likely to hear English or some other language as French. And even when I speak to French to French people there, they sometimes respond to me in English. Though most of the time I can see people=s expressions and reactions to me change when I speak to them in French. And I think that once I get out of Paris there will be fewer English speakers around, so I should be able to have an even deeper immersion experience.

I continue to walk what seems like hundreds of miles and climb thousands of stairs a week  I feel happy though, because although it was tiring at first, I now feel accustomed to it and kind of energized generally (from the combination of exercise and so many inspiriting and unusual sites).

     At first the pace and energy of Paris was too much, but now that I have adjusted, I am enjoying it, most of the time. Today, in the strong wind, rain and cold, I visited the operaBfull of marble, gold, painted walls and ceilings and tiled floors along very wide hallways where women could show off their big fashions. I also walked along the grand boulevards, and the Apassages@Ccovered (with glass roofs) walkways that housed markets in the 19^th century. They still house lots of shops and restaurants, but mostly catering to tourists. I set out to shop in the grands magasins (big department stores), but I'm really not much of a shopper, in spite of the "soldes" (sales) that are ubiquitous here in July. It felt too much like the rush in department stores and mall that I hate before Christmas.

So after visiting just one store (Printemps) I left to take the afternoon Aoff.@ I sloshed back through the rain to my hotel (stopped in to see the church Notre Dame de Lorette on the way), toweled off, changed into dry clothes and took a nap until I got up to come do e-mail. This rain is supposed to keep up for a while and has been going on already for days, so I have been to a lot of museums. I keep waiting for those nice days so I can do other things, like going for walks and visiting gardens. But of course there are still plenty of museums to see. I did a more walking-oriented activity today in spite of the rain partly because I=m weary of waiting for better weather.

As I wandered about in a particularly touristy route today (especially at the department stores), I once again felt sympathy for Parisians who must get really sick of all the tourists all the time. But I since plenty of French make their living off the tourist industry they seem mostly resigned and adapted to it (more so than me).

One thing I=ve noticed while observing other tourists at museums (not hard to do when they block the actual art from view) is that remarkably they seem quite different from those I remember from previous tripsCless loud, less pushy, less noticeably obnoxious. Maybe there are more experienced travelers now, or maybe this is the first generation who grew up after Watergate (which I've heard argued finally made Americans realize their own weaknesses and lack of superiority). Most of those Americans I've been seeing have been families with parents my age or slightly older and kids in their teens. They clearly make an effort to be respectful and even to speak some French. Though of course not all fit this description. I saw a couple of men in their 20=s giving a croissant saleswoman a really hard time about her English, which was perfectly fine. Her politeness was especially evident against their mockery. And today there was a woman with a Southern accent in the bookstore of the museum who was loud and obnoxious. The ugly American is still here, but quieter, more adaptive ones seem to be here as well.

The two Americans I talked to from my hotel the last few days (a couple of teachers from San Francisco) are now gone to hike the Pyrenees. They are the only American people I have talked to since I came here. And I don=t have many extended conversations at all, since I am fairly shy about meeting people. Business owners and waiters are my main conversational partners, and those conversations tend to be brief. One waiter was interested in my upcoming trip to the caves, because as an art student, he's driven to try to figure out why it is that we humans make art. "What was that first person thinking?" he asked earnestly. We can all wonder. But mostly I=m an observer here.

I may take a day trip or two (to Chartres and to Giverny) in the next week, and then it's off to Perigueux, Les Eyzies de Tayac (to see cave paintings), and then to Dijon, where I studied for a year exactly 20 years (half my life) ago.

Friday, July 20

I have had a busy few days. I went to Chartres yesterday--about an hour=s train ride from Paris. For those of you who don't know, it's one of the few cathedrals from the middle ages that made it through the renaissance and revolution virtually intact (usually they were destroyed or changed substantially, either because in the Renaissance the Middle Ages were scorned, or because in the Revolution all traces of the previously dominant and assumed corrupt culture, including the church, were destroyed), and it is a truly great and multi-dimensional work of art. I've been there before several times, though of course not in 13 years. And one can visit it many times and see news things each time. In fact there are many (like Australian architect John James and the English guide I had yesterday, Malcolm Miller) who have spent their careers studying it, meaning 40 or more years. I say this to point out that many people don=t tire of it in a lifetime. It is that complex, inspiring and detailed. Some highlights this trip were the recently cleaned stained glass windows, which were luminous in the overcast light, shining like jewels against the stone they=re set against. This medieval stained glass involved techniques that have since been lost, and includes a rich vibrant blue, as well as reds, yellows, greens, etc, in very intense hues that cannot be reproduced by masters today (or so they say). There is also a "labyrinth" carved into the stone floor of the nave (no one is sure what it was for or what it meant but such were present in many medieval cathedrals) B probably it was a meditative tool and it may be some kind of layover from Pagan times. The overall design of stone work, stained glass, statuary and architecture is both massive and delicate, inspirational and humbling.

It was exhilarating and calming to experience it again. I enjoyed it the other times I visited too, and this time it seemed even more interesting than I remember, although it also felt fairly familiar. I am also reading a book on it that a friend recommended called Chartres, the Masons Who Built a Legend, by John James, and that brings many things to light I have never heard even in the tours I took in English and French. And I took tours in French and English and found the French one much more informative. But mostly the tour guides just explain the stories of the stained glass and statues (which are of course mostly biblical stories or stories of saints= lives). James gets into comparisons of masonry how quickly things went up (and how you can tell that), and other clues to reconstruct the intentions, skills, and work of the builders. There were crowds of tourists, but actually, perhaps because it was overcast, not as big as the crowds at most places I=ve been visiting, so maybe that added to my enjoyment. Plus the whole pace of that smaller town felt more familiar and comfortable. Getting back to the metro and smells of Paris really helped me to focus on the overwhelming urban atmosphere I=ve been living in and starting to get more or less accustomed to lately. Twenty four hours after returning, I still feel happy about having been to Chartres yesterday.

FRIDAY

Today I saw a few museums, including the Picasso museum (a really great museum in a mansion in the Marais) and the museum of traditional and popular arts (where what struck me most were some finely carved armoirs and other furniture from the 16^th and 17^th centuries). I also took the metro to the Grand Arch (a huge skyscraper-like cubic, squared arch that was I think constructed by a German; certainly there was a higher concentration of German tourists there than anywhere else I've been). It is a district called La Defense full of groovy, modern sky scrapers.

Then I did a walking tour of the Marais (originally a swamp, then during the renaissance and later the home of the elite of Paris, full of expensive and fancy Ahotels particuliers@ = mansionsCthough set together like town houses). I had a very good vegetarian lunch in that district, which also houses the Jewish quarter, where I walked by dozens of delicatessens, bakeries, and even some synagogues. It was during this walking tour that I visited the Picasso Museum, which happily (because it is a national museum) I got into free with my teacher ID. He really made an amazing amount of art. Artists like him must have worked on it literally all day most days all their lives just to produce that volume.

I am now on the left bank near the Musee de Cluny (middle ages, which I already visited). I came in this direction to go to an English language bookstore called Abbey Books (run by a Canadian), where I paid an exorbitant price for another novel, because I am almost through the two I brought. Also saw Eglise St. Severin, which was very beautiful, had a capital near the coeur (choir) that had a beautiful spiral design, and behind that surprisingly modern stained glass windows (the originals were bombed out in WWII). I rather liked the total effect. And I wandered through the district around the church which has lots of shops and stores for tourists, but on more interesting than usual streets. There is also a cyber café here that actually has English keyboards B the irony is that I am having to re-adjust again to be able to type on this.

It has been a good day. I'll probably eat bread and cheese at my hotel again tonight as I have the last few, in front of the TV. I have been watching Daria dubbed in FrenchCit seems to play most nights. I guess the French appreciate the sarcasm, as do I. It's been fun. I have seen a few good movies too (on TV), and I have watched the news a few times (I also buy the International Herald Tribune every couple of days). I watched TV probably about 5 times; mostly I spend my time reading and writing. When I do watch TV I feel better about my French, since I can understand quite well.

I am now much more into the rhythm of travel than I was last week, and it is finally somewhat sunny and almost warm, so I'm in a good mood. I'll be in Paris another 5 or 6 days, and then it's down to the Southwest, cave country. After observing the drivers here in the north, especially Paris, I am a little worried about having to drive myself (I rented a car for that part of my trip), but I=m sure I=ll adapt and I know there will be fewer drivers down there than here (and hopefully saner ones too).

Sunday July 22

I spent most of the last few days going to marchés, which I love. It seems so much more human and logical than our supermarkets and malls. There is an organic food open air marketClike a farmers market in the states I guess (organic is called "bio" here for biologique) just near my hotel on the Boulevard de Clichy. I wanted to buy some of the yummy looking fresh veggies and fruit, but with neither kitchen space, nor anyway to keep it fresh for long, I restricted myself to just looking, though later wished I had bought lunch fixings at least (I had though I might come back but didn=t make it before it closed at around 1:30 pm). There were beautiful displays of produce for sale as well as bread, crepes, and other vegetarian and whole grain delicacies, and cheese, fish, and some crafts, scarves, and all the usual stuff you find at French markets.

    From there I took the metro to the marche at the rue Mouffetard (on the left bank) and then from there did a couple of walking tours. This book I have called Paris Walks gives some really interesting background information on Parisian history connected to its walks, which includes the rue Mouffetard. For instance, the church there, St. Medard, was in the middle ages run by a priest who inspired an entire generation of young women's devotion after his death. They ate the dirt of his grave and generally went into hysterics (literally) over him, causing a fair amount of concern until the Jesuits and other authorities finally suppressed them, but the cult lasted 30 years. There was also something about nuns who mewed (like cats) loudly at the same hour everyday until people got the police to literally threaten their lives to make them stop.

Also connected to the same area and period (there was a very fresh and clear, sweet water river that ran through this region just outside the gates of ParisCuntil later tanning and dyeing industries completely polluted itCmaking it an attractive place to live in the 15^th c). Anyway, a couple of other priests from Notre Dame were banished to the spot after it was discovered that some paté they especially loved had the secret ingredient of human flesh. The butchers, who used to murder vagabonds to use in what was apparently the most famous and sought after pate in the city, were hanged after this was discovered, which was due to a dog that belonged to one of the victims. The dog alerted friends= to his absence and they followed the dog to find his remains. The priests didn=t know any of this, but were in trouble just because they ate and enjoyed the pate. So they were excommunicated and went to live there just outside the city near Mouffetard until they did a service to some nobleman who got them absolved.

 

In my wanderings that day I also enjoyed visiting a few more churches and stumbled onto the tail end of another market at Place Monge. Lots of interesting multicultural stuff, like masks from Africa, scarves from Turkey, blankets from India, etc. I just bought a little scarf.

Today (Sunday) I set out to visit the marche by the place de la BastilleCreported to be among the most popular with Parisians, which turned out to be evidently true. I admire their marketing habits. They all bring paniers (baskets) or large shopping bags on rollers (sort of like carry-on bags people roll onto airplanes, but just bags for shopping) and load up weekly on fresh produce, fish, meat, bread and so on. There is a festival atmosphere at these markets, with street performers, prepared food for sale, arts, crafts, and hawkers. People were dressed in every kind of clothing from high heels and nice Sunday clothes, to tight tank tops and bell-bottoms, to Birkenstocks (myself included in the latter). I heard mostly but certainly not exclusively French spoken.

Some other remarkable things about France I have been noticing:

_            People bring their dogs along almost everywhere, including the market and the metro.

_            Although the streets are full of dog shit by the end of the day (as well as lots of other garbage) by the next morning it=s been washed away by city workers.

_            People=s standards of physical hygiene vary dramaticallyCfrom ours and from each other (sometimes heavy perfume and high coiffure, other times heavy b.o.)

_            You can get yogurt in glass (rather than plastic) containersCthis is the individual serving size, haven't seen any tubs of Ayaourt@

_            There are far fewer even overweight, let alone obese people here than in America, so that those you see really stick out (not true at home I think). Most people look quite healthy, except for their excessive cigarette smoking B and of cigarettes far more disgusting and strong than American ones. And they smoke everywhere, which is why I often eat relatively early (restaurants are still empty) and have been avoiding cafes (I also don=t drink any caffeine anymore). Plus public parks offer just as good, maybe better places to sit and people watch or write.

_            You can get books (and most anything else) in English, but at high prices (twice as much as in America).

_            People can tell I'm American even before I ever open my mouth. I think it must be my body language and clothes.

 

The weather is finally really nice for the last few days. Tomorrow I may go to another market in the morning and then just wander. I have kind of gotten out of my hyper-tourist mode, where I felt like I had to spend my whole day touring (although virtually every day until now I have). There is something to be said for just slowing down and letting impressions settle. 

The big train ride down to the South I face in a few days will allow for plenty of reflection time as well, I=m sure. Then I have to negotiate driving in France, not a task I face with much joy. 

Wednesday, July 25

Things here in "clicktown" (pronounced "cleek"town)--the cheapest cyber café I have  foundCare much as usual, LOUD, supposedly hip music and everyone within their own little cyber worlds. It=s a little emptier than usual actually, which is good because that makes the rates cheaper. I just got back into Paris after taking a day trip to Giverny. I was a bit detoured by a late train which caused us all to miss the bus (seemed like the whole train was tourists heading to Giverny), but we shared taxis so it wasn't too expensive to get to Monet=s house which is about 5 kilometers outside the town of Vernon, the closest train stop. Giverny is where Monet lived and painted during his later years. Like so many places in and around Paris, it was extremely crowded with tourists, everyone looking for photo ops. It was perhaps the most crowded place I have been besides the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay (which houses impressionist works). But both house and gardens there were very lovely. I feel inspired to decorate my own house more colorfullyChe had rooms in lavender and blue, green and blue, yellow, bright blue and white tiles and copper in the kitchen, a very yellow dining room, etc. I assume the renovation is fairly accurate.

And it is in a calm country setting of big hills, very green. They have done a terrifically beautiful job on the gardens. They started restoring them in the early 1980's. One of the gardeners told me there are now 9 full time gardeners and 3 apprentices. So many beautiful things were in bloom. I recognized sunflowers and roses of course, and many other flowers seemed familiar, but I am unfortunately always fuzzy about flower names. In any case, kilometers of garden were in full bloom with an amazing profusion of colors and varieties. And the water lily ponds have been re-created and are just like in the paintings with weeping willows, flowering water lilies and so on. Like the other tourists, I snapped many photos. Not much place to sit and be reflective, because the (mostly Northern European and American) tourists kept thronging through every inch of garden and house. So I hopped on the bus to catch the 1 pm train back to Paris. That was today. Then ate at an Ethiopian restaurant a short walk away from my hotel. Very friendly owner shared his books about his country with me so as he said I got to take another little voyage in my mind while I ate (Acomme ca on peut voyager dans la tete@). Made me remember how hospitable Africans are. Plus it was good food.

 Yesterday was a less successful day of touring, probably because I was feeling under the weather, with headache and cramps. It also didn=t help when I found a 10 year old pickpocket with his hand in my purse as I was exiting the metro at the Trocadero (near the Eiffel Tower which I have otherwise avoided). Luckily he wasn't very competent and I stopped him before he got anything from me. When I yelled at him for trying he made a kissy face at me. I had an urge to slap him but didn=t and only found my bad mood deepening. I had come there to visit the Musée de l'homme, an anthropology museum. I thought they might have really great stuff from Native American culture in the Great Lakes regions (since the French were the principal colonizers there), but that collection was fairly smallCtheir Central American and Alaskan collections were more impressive. Perhaps all the good stuff from N. Am. is in the hands of private collectors, or the church? The museum also had a special exhibit on the overcrowded earth with 6,000,000,000 plus inhabitants. It had some good graphics and displays showing just how quickly we are multiplying, with comparisons to patterns in the past and projecting future patterns and adaptations we=ll have to make. It all seemed to mesh with my thoughts about the huge crowds of tourists and general crowding of the city, and especially of the pickpocket I=d just encountered, whom I know has little joy or goodness in store in his life and is merely a product of the overcrowded world that consumerism and our greed-based economy demands.

Paris is such a crowded city. It's been a huge change from the patterns I have been living in for a long time and is pretty interesting and enlightening about differences between Europe and the US generally, at least the part of the US I know (i.e. not the big cities). Excessive crowding is rather taken for granted here, hence no restrictions on dogs pooping in the street or people smoking anywhere, I guess. People are used to living in closer proximity and the results of that.

Now as I prepare to leave Paris I realize the benefits of being in a big metropolitan mecca as well. Not only the culture as in the museums and art, architecture and markets, but also all the variety of faces and languages, customs and the energy, plus the chance to eat good vegetarian food (not so common in restaurants in Georgia). Tomorrow I will do laundry and send some stuff home (souvenirs I have bought and books about Paris)Cso I don=t have to carry it. Then perhaps I'll go to the Rodin museum. But I feel like I have taken good advantage of my time in Paris, although not at all the night life, which I suppose many would consider the most important highlight of the city.

Friday, July 27

I left Paris yesterday and am now in the Perigord. I did in fact visit the Rodin museum and the Sainte Chapelle that last day. Then I took the train to Perigueux where I picked up my car and drove myself to Les Eyzies de Tayac, along country highways through green and hilly countryside that reminds very much of Southern Indiana (and in fact both places are limestone rich). The car they gave me was a Ford Fiesta (a sort of souped up version of the little Festiva I used to drive). I like it. And the French road system is very logical; you just follow the signs to your town. Les Eyzies is a tiny little town, but surrounded by amazing prehistoric sites. Today I have seen the national museum of prehistory, another cave museum and a little exhibit someone put together in town about Neanderthals. All were very good. As you probably know, this cave art from all around here is the first art anywhere ever by human beings, our ancestors the Cro-Magnons. The musée national de la préhistoire is on the spot of an old medieval fortress/castle that was itself built in the side of the cliff which used to be a shelter for Neanderthals and then Cro-Magnons. They have some really cool stuff, lots of projectile points, some engravings, often quite large of animals. There are also some engravings of human figures and some obviously of penises and vulvas. They also have some mother figurines. There are also two little finely detailed heads in ivory or bone, one female with stylized hair, the other male. No one knows if they were portraits or used as ritual objects of what. Apparently 90% of the art from the region depicts animals, especially, horses, bison, aurochs, and ibex and deer. Only 1% depicts humans (though after seeing as much as I did and listening to various guides opinions on this I=m not sure it is true). I just taught (in my class this summer) about prehistoric art, including the very female head I saw this morning (and some of the other pieces). I didn=t pay attention to the description on the slide and had imagined it much larger. In reality the whole head is only a few centimeters squareCmaking it very finely detailed work to have carved itCit has what seems to be a depiction of a decorated headpiece and all the facial features. It is very cool to see all these things in person and on the site.

So I thought during my first walk through. But later I took the guided tour of this same museum and discovered that much of these pieces (though not all) were copies not originals. I later went to a public lecture by an American archeologist (in French) in which he explained that most of the artifacts recovered from the region are now in fact in American museums (though not these particular piecesCthey >re either near Bordeaux or Paris, I think).  Still, the museum provided a good overall orientation and many original pieces and is in a dramatic location.

The town here is kind of a little tourist trap. Only about 800 people live here, but every other building is a hotel or restaurant. Most of the tourists are European, mostly French, but also many Northern Europeans, especially Dutch and Belgians. I haven't yet encountered any other Americans, though they might be here. When they do tours in English, it is usually for the benefit of the other Europeans besides the French. I can't believe I ever lamented in any way the quality and variety of vegetarian restaurants in Paris. Now that I have none available I miss them. But I can generally find plenty to eat at the French restaurants here. Specialties of this region include paté de fois gras, mushrooms (like cépes which I had in an omelet last night), walnuts, and strawberries and anything connected to ducks, plus sausages.

     Tomorrow I am scheduled to go see Font de Gaumme, the most important cave with paintings still open to the public. My hotel here is mediocre, but fine. I have found e-mail access at the tourist office. Actually the hotel room is nothing great, but the window looks out over the river (the Vezere, one of the two big rivers in the regionCthe other is the Dordogne). There is a bend in the river just near the hotel, so that the swift current sounds like waves lapping onto shore. This sound lulls me to sleep, along with the cool breezes at night that wash away the intense summer heat from the rooms. As many guides reminded us, the climate now is nothing like the ice age climate from the period when this art was made.

Monday, July 30

This Southwestern part of France turns out to be one of the most beautiful places I have ever explored. Lovely rolling valleys, cliffs, hills, rivers, hold inspired architecture in stone. There are castles every couple of miles it seems, tons (literally) of prehistoric art, plus medieval art and architecture, modern art, markets, stone villages planted with every kind of flower you could imagine, gorgeous vistas, good food, wine, cheese, strawberries, nuts, mushrooms (and some meaty stuff I ignore). You get the picture, or probably you don't, but it=s hard to recreate with words. I have been to half a dozen prehistoric shelters and caves and seen art from 11 to 20 thousand or more years ago. Most of the sites still open to the public are not particularly brilliantly colored, but rather etched or outlined. But you still get a sense of how amazing it was. I also have visited several of the many castles in the region, some restored, some in ruins, some in process of restoration, most from the 13th to 15 centuries. Some really interesting architectural features include roofs made from slates of limestone. They weigh tons but somehow the architecture, when properly done, pushes out the weight onto the walls. These roofs have lots of little holes in them in between the overlapping slabs of limestone fitted together puzzle-like, but in fact the holes apparently make it stronger in storms because it doesn't resist the wind as much. And stone floors in an Italian style that are beautiful, and many other striking features.

I have actually had fuller and more exhausting days than I did in Paris, which I didn=t expect. But it has been fun. I also found a GREAT vegetarian restaurantCreally just a women in the region who is vegetarian, grows all her own food, and runs a Agite@ (cabins/hotel) where they also serve meals, on her property just outside of the town I'm staying in. It is the best food I have had in France, homemade, tasty, healthy, and totally organic. I will eat there again tonight and tomorrow and then I leave for Dijon. I think I will definitely come back here though, as it is one so appealing on many levels, and not too expensive (this hotel is $30 a night including meals!). Plus I have barely begun to explore and my time is almost up. I=d like to learn more about it before I return, though already I know a lot more than I did. This week has been edifying.  

Thursday, August 2

I lost internet access for a few days and am now in a very different place and am a little frustrated after writing a nice long message and having the system crash without saving it.  So B here I am in Dijon, where I lived 20 years ago. It is strangely familiar the more I walk around here, but also very foreign. I can't believe I lived here for a year and remember so little.

It was sad to leave the Southwest, which were it not for the heat I might be tempted to call a paradise. It was in the 40's centigrade the last few days, which I think was well into the 100's. Clothes absolutely stuck to me, and there is a fine (prehistoric?) dust that also clings. Of course inside the caves it=s lovely, but there is always getting to the caves, and leaving again. It is also hot here in Dijon, though a storm is supposed to break it up tonight. I will see the director of my program, Me Laby, from 20 years ago tomorrow, and am looking forward to it. She has invited me to lunch chez elle. But the family I lived with is on vacation so I won't likely see them.

Those last few days in the Southwest I saw a handful more of caves, castles, and lovely towns, and ate all the meals I could chez Françoise at her vegetarian and organic farm. That is definitely a place to which I hope to return. And which I in fact miss very much now now that I am back in a big city (relatively big anyway). All the noise, pollution and people are a shock to my system. But Dijon is I see again a beautiful place. And I hope it will be fun to re-discover it.

Wednesday, August 8