A Year in Paris - August 2002
Terry Richards
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~kragsdale/France4_B.htm
As always, comments are welcome.
A Year in Paris - August 2002
The End is Nigh!
By the time anybody reads this, we will only have one month left in
Paris. I am still looking for work in Europe but we have reached the
stage where, if we are going to move back, the deadlines are starting
to stack up. In any case, we have to go back, either to move back into
our house or to sell it. We don't want to leave it empty for another
year and we don't want to spend another year without our "stuff".
Considering our track record, the perfect job in France will come
through about two days after we get home!
It has been a great year and we are both profoundly grateful that we
have had this opportunity. We have seen many wonderful things, met
some really nice people, and learned a lot. This last item is probably
the most important because I sincerely believe that life can be
divided into just two phases - learning and dying - and that the best
way to postpone the second phase is to keep the first one going as
long as possible!
On the other hand, we are starting to get a little bit excited about
the thought of being home again. There are some things we have really
missed: our garden, our books, my workshop & tools, a decent kitchen,
and all those little things encompassed by the word "home". This
apartment has been great but it's not ours. If we were to stay here
much longer, I would have to paint something and, just maybe, move a
wall or two!
Finally, we almost hate to admit it but we are actually getting a
little bit bored with Paris! We have "done" all the tourist sites that
we want to and the next phase would be to make an actual life here.
However, we have no intention of doing that. As we have said many
times before, we are not city people and have never intended to be
anything other than visitors here. I think our recent trip made us
realize just how much we miss the color green!
Not that it hasn't been a great visit. We have had a really good time
but a year is enough and we are ready to move on to the next phase of
our lives, whatever that may turn out to be.
Anyway, we are making the best of these last two months and visiting
all those things that we have been putting off because there would be
plenty of time to do that "later". As is usual for us, "later" came
around a lot faster than we had expected! As a result, this month's
episode contains a lot more of the "touristy" places than normal.
Cité Market
Cité market is, under normal circumstances, a plant market. It is open
seven days a week but, in common with much of the rest of Paris, a lot
of it is closed in August. Even with only a small part of it open,
there were many beautiful plants on display and many plant-related
accessories for sale.
With a large part of the flower market being closed, much of the slack
was being taken up by a pet market. Animals of all descriptions were
available for sale, along with their various accessories. There was
one exceptionally handsome rooster on sale but we are profoundly
grateful that nobody in our building has seen fit to keep pet
chickens, no matter how handsome the rooster might be!
The Catacombs
Starting in the 1800s, Paris had a growing problem. At that time, it
was a walled city, and thus limited in size, but people kept dying and
the graveyards were filling up.
Various solutions were tried, all of which ultimately led to piles of
dead bodies decomposing in various socially unacceptable places.
Eventually the citizenry got annoyed enough about all this to petition
the king and get something done about it.
The French bureaucracy got right on to the job and, a mere 65 years
later, something was actually done about it. In France, some things
never change!
At about the same time, as well as its growing problem, Paris also had
a shrinking problem! Specifically, large parts of the city were
shrinking into holes in the ground. This was because much of the city
had extensive, disused, limestone mines underneath it. Some of these
diggings dated back to Roman times and the whole network was not
exactly in good condition. A large project was undertaken to shore up
all these mines which resulted in an enormous labyrinth of tunnels
that nobody had much use for.
Eventually, somebody put these two problems together and came up with
the solution of putting the bones in the tunnels. So they did and the
earthly remains of 5-6 million people now rest down there. What's
more, they can be visited, so we did.
The first thing we learned is that the catacombs prohibit photography
which is why there is only one, rather poor, picture in this section
of our web page.
The other thing we found out that we hadn't been told about is that
there are over 100 stairs going down and 83 stairs coming back up.
This is not a visit for the infirm! A self-guided visit takes about 45
minutes to complete. We, however, went with an independent tour group.
Our guide was quite knowledgeable and told us many interesting &
amusing anecdotes which added about another 30 minutes to the visit.
While they were fun, the anecdotes didn't add all that much. The real
stars of the show were the bones themselves. Six million people make a
lot of bones and there are miles of caverns jammed full of them. Many
of the caverns are up to 100 feet deep as can be seen by looking
across the top of the bone piles. We were told that the publicly
accessible part of the catacombs is only 1/700 of the total area! The
caverns are not well lit and bringing your own flashlight is highly
recommended.
Paris Plage (Sort of!)
As I said last month, Paris has set up a beach alongside the Seine. We
finally got around to visiting it but the weather wasn't very
cooperative. It was a rather chilly & gloomy day and there wasn't a
great deal of beach-like activity going on.
Even the name is a bit misleading. Only short sections of the "beach"
actually have sand.
However, there are numerous other activities and most people seemed to
be making a brave attempt to enjoy themselves. The official activities
include:
A music stage
Wall painting
Roller blading
Water sports
Various refreshment stands
A youth club
A fishing club
French bowling
Bicycle rental
A waterside disco
Volley ball
A rock-climbing area
and, last but not least, several "beaches"
The beach closed down in the middle of August but seems to have been
considered a great success and everybody concerned says it will be
back, bigger and better, next year. Official estimates are that 2
million people visited it but I have no idea how this was calculated.
We visited it and nobody counted us...
Palais de Luxembourg
We hadn't visited the gardens at the Palais de Luxembourg since the
very early Spring. There were a few changes but nothing major.
Obviously, there were a lot more flowers, some extra trees in
containers, and a duck house. We spent a pleasant Summer evening
wandering around the gardens and watching the ducks.
At one time, the palace was the home of Marie de Médicis who was the
wife of Henri IV and the mother of Louis XIII. The gardens are full of
statues and many of them are of her. I mention this for a reason...
The Louvre
Strangely enough, we have been here nearly a year and this is the
first chance I have had to visit the Louvre on this trip. Kathie has
taken our various visitors on several occasions but I was always too
busy with work. Now that the World Cup is over, I finally got time to
go.
As always happens whenever I visit the Louvre, I quickly found it a
bit overwhelming! There is just so much of it. On this occasion we
visited three areas in the Richelieu wing which, altogether, accounted
for about 5% of the whole museum. Even then, I can't say that we
studied them in any great detail although, perhaps, we did a little
more than skim over them.
The Rubens Room
The Rubens room, not unsurprisingly, contains a series of paintings by
Rubens. There are 24 of them and the entire series was commissioned by
the afore-mentioned Marie de Médicis.
What is surprising is that 23 of these huge paintings are of her! They
depict "great" moments in her life and, in every one, she is shown as
some sort of Greek goddess! The 24th is a rather simple portrait of
her husband.
By all accounts, this was an exceedingly vain woman. Unfortunately, if
the paintings (and statues) are accurate, she didn't have that much to
be vain about! Standards of beauty change over the years but Rubens
seems to have depicted her as a very plain woman indeed. Even in the
pictures that show her in her younger days, she looks middle-aged.
There are a few other indications that Rubens may not have been as
happy with this commission as you might expect. For one thing, he
included at least one dog in almost every painting! This may have been
a common decorative element of the day but it seems odd that there are
so many of them and so few other animals. Was Rubens sending us a hint
down the centuries?
In one of the paintings, she is being crowned Regent after the death
of Henri IV. A cherub is shown pouring a shower of gold coins over
her. The rest of the scene is very somber and the money aspect seems
rather incongruous. Was this another hint?
The Dutch School
This series of rooms contains a couple of hundred paintings by the
Dutch Masters. This was very much a "realistic" school of art and many
of the pictures almost look like photographs in their detail and
appearance. Unfortunately, the lighting in this section is rather dim
and I do not use flash on paintings so I was unable to take any
successful photographs.
Interestingly, the Louvre does not actually forbid the use of flash,
although they strongly suggest that you don't use it. They do,
however, forbid the use of tripods which rather defeats their purpose.
French Statues
These two rooms were the main reason for this particular visit. On one
of our many walks around the Louvre we had spotted them through the
windows of the Richelieu passage and I had wanted to come back and
visit them ever since.
The rooms are actually courtyards that have been roofed over and make
a most impressive setting for the statues. In fact, in their own way,
the rooms are just as much a work of art as are the statues
themselves.
Musée d'Orsay
In contrast with the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay is built on a much more
human scale and isn't nearly as overwhelming. Nor is it as well known
which keeps the crowds down a bit. If you are, like myself, not really
a great connoisseur of art but still interested in seeing some of the
great works, then you might find it a more pleasant and manageable
visit.
Not only is it home to some of the best-known works of art in the
World, it is also a stunningly beautiful building in its own right. It
was originally a train station but, at various times, it has also been
a hotel and a museum. All of this history has left its marks on the
building and has resulted in a museum that has a station clock and a
ballroom! This somewhat unlikely sounding combination actually works
very well and the museum is well worth visiting, if only to look at
the building!
And, if all that isn't enough, it has several restaurants, varying
from the truly sumptuous, located in the old hotel dining room, to a
simple snack bar.
Each eating establishment has one feature that makes it unique. The
snack bar is located on an outside terrace with great views of the
museum roof, with its statues, and over the Seine to the northern half
of Paris.
As I said above, the museum is home to some of the best known works of
art in the World, particularly those by the Impressionists. It is
quite a strange experience to suddenly recognize something you know
well but have only ever seen on a calendar or in a book.
The museum also has several rooms dedicated to items, such as
furniture, that are not considered "art" in the traditional sense but
are every bit as beautiful as any painting or sculpture.
I took a lot of pictures of the furniture and some of the features and
details may just show up in my own pieces...
Montparnasse Tower
The tower of Montparnasse has two observation decks. There's an
enclosed one on the 56th floor and an outside one on the 59th, which
is also the roof.
The tower itself isn't anything special but the views of Paris are
quite spectacular.
We were under the impression that this was the highest lookout point
in Paris but, from the top, it looked to us like the observation deck
on the Eiffel tower was slightly higher. It doesn't much matter as we
have now visited both.
Carnival Time
For the summer, a large chunk of the gardens at the Tuileries has been
taken over by a carnival. I don't have much to say about carnivals;
you either love them or you don't and I'm not a great fan. I don't
actually dislike them but I consider them more of a spectator sport
than a participatory activity.
This one looks pretty much as you might expect if you have ever
visited an American carnival. In fact, many of the rides were
manufactured in America. And that's about all I have to say on the
subject of carnivals.
Vincennes
Vincennes is a suburb on the eastern side of Paris. It is quite a nice
little town with all the amenities you would expect of a well-to-do
Paris suburb.
In addition it has a boating lake, woods with a great lawn, a chateau,
and the Floral Park of Paris. Any one of these attractions would be
well worth a visit. In particular, the Floral Park has free outdoor
concerts throughout the Summer which are highly spoken of.
However, all of these attractions will have to wait for another day
because the one thing that we truly love about Vincennes is its zoo
and we spent pretty much the entire day there.
Zoos are a bit like carnivals in some ways - there isn't all that much
you can say about them and you either love them or you don't.
We love them and spent several happy hours wandering around. This
particular zoo covers over 60 acres but it didn't seem that big to us.
That is, it didn't seem like we had walked all that far until it came
time to walk back to the Metro! Fortunately, our route took us past a
row of benches on the shores of the lake and we were able to rest our
weary legs for a while.
Jardin de Bagatelle
The Jardin de Bagatelle is located at the very northernmost edge of
the Bois de Boulogne. Finding it can be a bit of a trial as, most
unusually for France, the signs are a bit erratic! It doesn't help
that it is also known as the Parc de Bagatelle and the two names are
used interchangeably. It's a little bit out of the way but worth the
effort involved in finding it. It's also worth the Euro-fifty they
charge you to get in.
The park has everything you might expect of a Parisian park: scenic
little paths, statues, lawns, flower beds, and a series of lily ponds.
It also has a place where you can stand inside a waterfall but I'm not
going to tell you where it is, you will just have to go there and see
for yourself!
What it doesn't have, probably because of its obscure location, is
crowds of people. This kind of serenity and elbow room can be hard to
come by in a major city like Paris which makes it that much better
when you do find some.
The park is actually the grounds of a small chateau. It is all locked
up and you can't get inside although they, apparently, do use it for
exhibitions from time to time.
We were rather impressed with the Sphinx-like figures guarding the
doors. The gentlemen were guarding the front entrance, and the ladies,
along with their children, were guarding the rear.
There is one thing you should know, and that we wished we had known in
advance. There is nowhere to eat around the park and only one place to
eat inside the park. The restaurant inside is very nice indeed. At
least, we assume it must be. The fixed price menu was 48 Euros per
person at lunchtime! And that didn't include a drink.
We try to make every day into a special occasion but, somehow, the
though of dropping a hundred bucks on lunch struck us as rather
excessive when it wasn't either of our birthdays. So we just went
hungry until we made it back to the town.
Terry & Kathie Richards
Earl Evleth
Richards à terr...@earthlink.net a écrit le 26/08/02 12:28 :
> A Year in Paris - August 2002
Hardly enough time. We came in 65, 72 and then in 74 on to now.
Now more than half our adult lives have been spent here, and I am
70! Eventually we even obtained French citizenship, keeping the
American.
> Considering our track record, the perfect job in France will come
> through about two days after we get home!
Then come back! You`d have to get the proper visa to stay in any case.
> On the other hand, we are starting to get a little bit excited about
> the thought of being home again.
There is always some "culture shock" going either way. Culture shock
lasts about 6 weeks, one settles in. Even on returning you`ll compare
things here, want to return. The feeling diminishes for most people.
> Finally, we almost hate to admit it but we are actually getting a
> little bit bored with Paris!
Then is it time to go home. Personally I never reached that stage
of boredom, Paris is like a jewel with millions of facets. Turn it a little
bit and it shines a bit differently. This is the moveable feast aspect
of Paris.
> We have "done" all the tourist sites that we want to and the
> next phase would be to make an actual life here.
> However, we have no intention of doing that.
Then it is time to go "home". For us, home is here now.
To each his own.
Earl Evleth
Terry Richards
> dans l'article 608d8b02.02082...@posting.google.com, Terry
> Richards à terr...@earthlink.net a écrit le 26/08/02 12:28 :
>
> > A Year in Paris - August 2002
>
> Hardly enough time. We came in 65, 72 and then in 74 on to now.
> Now more than half our adult lives have been spent here, and I am
> 70! Eventually we even obtained French citizenship, keeping the
> American.
>
Enough time for us. We are not city people. Although, if we had to
live in a city, Paris would be the one we would pick. We will always
remember this year with fond memories.
> > Considering our track record, the perfect job in France will come
> > through about two days after we get home!
>
> Then come back! You`d have to get the proper visa to stay in any case.
We will. But to the country next time. Actually, the visas aren't
really a problem - I'm a British citizen & Kathie is American so we
can live & work just about anywhere we would want to. Fortunately,
with the sort of job I get, they tend to look after the paperwork for
me.
>
>
> > On the other hand, we are starting to get a little bit excited about
> > the thought of being home again.
>
> There is always some "culture shock" going either way. Culture shock
> lasts about 6 weeks, one settles in. Even on returning you`ll compare
> things here, want to return. The feeling diminishes for most people.
>
Yes, we are quite used to that!
>
> > Finally, we almost hate to admit it but we are actually getting a
> > little bit bored with Paris!
>
> Then is it time to go home. Personally I never reached that stage
> of boredom, Paris is like a jewel with millions of facets. Turn it a little
> bit and it shines a bit differently. This is the moveable feast aspect
> of Paris.
>
As I said, we just aren't city peple.
> > We have "done" all the tourist sites that we want to and the
> > next phase would be to make an actual life here.
>
> > However, we have no intention of doing that.
>
> Then it is time to go "home". For us, home is here now.
>
> To each his own.
>
Indeed, it would be a dull world if we all liked the same thing.
> Earl Evleth
Terry.
Pan
Richards) wrote:
[snip]
>We will. But to the country next time. Actually, the visas aren't
>really a problem - I'm a British citizen & Kathie is American so we
>can live & work just about anywhere we would want to.
[snip]
My understanding is that it can be very difficult for Americans to
work in France. I'm supposing that the reason she can work is either
because you are an EU citizen or/and her area of expertise is in great
demand in France.
Michael
To reply by email, please take out the TRASH (so to speak). Personal messages only, please!
Earl Evleth
a écrit le 27/08/02 7:21 :
> My understanding is that it can be very difficult for Americans to
> work in France. I'm supposing that the reason she can work is either
> because you are an EU citizen or/and her area of expertise is in great
> demand in France.
As for the Americans working here, one has to be hired in to a company from
the USA. So if a US company hires you to come work in France, the visa
and work permit problem is easier.
I was hired into an research-academic position, but in the 1970s. So you
are right, if they "system" wants you they will arrange for you to
get the visa and permit. It sometimes takes "piston" to get a position,
knowing the right people is important.
Since then the EEC rules are that jobs are open to anybody from the EEC
countries. Our French lab and the Universities have been hiriing some
Germans because there was an oversupply in Germany and and undersupply
in France of scientists. The Germans or any other EEC nationals would
naturally want to work in France to come and probably have reasonabe ability
in French. This would have to be true if the person dealt with other French
such as teaching. French labs are very English oriented with regard to
writing articles etc, but obviously day-to-day conversation is in French.
But learning a language reasonably automatically occurs. I have ran into
Americans permanently in Holland who speak passable Dutch although educated
Dutch nearly all speak excellent English. This is less true in France with
regard to English and much less true with regard to German. All the Germans
I know who showed up spoke excellent French. I suspect they would not
have applied for jobs here unless they were adapted already to French
culture via their knowing the language.
Certainly the job opportunities are expanding for certain middle level
professions in Europe. As for Americans coming here, I don`t if there
is much of a desire to do so professionally. I have known Americans
who wanted to work and live here, doing "anything". That is a "no go"
situation. But Americans are not naturally immigrant types. Most of
them want to "go home" after a few years.
Earl
Harvey V
-snip-
> As for Americans coming here, I
> don`t if there is much of a desire to do so professionally. I
> have known Americans who wanted to work and live here, doing
> "anything". That is a "no go" situation. But Americans are not
> naturally immigrant types. Most of them want to "go home" after a
> few years.
I've always figured that this is less a national characteristic than a
personal one: some people are cut out to live "elsewhere", but most
aren't.
I moved to England 20 years ago after living my first 30 years in
Canada. Similarly, my wife is from New Zealand, and has lived almost
all her adult life outside that country.
The crunch time for most people, I think, comes at about year 3. The
first year just zips by; the second you become more settled; but the
big choice then starts to loom. In my experience most people seem to
find that 3 years is as long as they want to spend away from "home".
(That's another indicator, of course: when you stop referring to where
you came from as "home".)
Personally, I see this preference to live in a different country than
that of one's birth as entirely neutral: you're like that, or you're
not. It's neither culturally virtuous nor some sort of insult to one's
birth country: it's just a personal preference.
--
Cheers,
Harvey
Mxsmanic
news: Xns927797AD...@194.168.222.8...
> I've always figured that this is less a national
> characteristic than a personal one: some people
> are cut out to live "elsewhere", but most aren't.
In cases of emigration where the country of origin isn't very different from
the destination country, often the emigrant gets tired of being in the
destination country after some number of years and returns "home."
In cases where the destination country is dramatically superior to the
country of origin in terms of safety, standard of living, etc., typically
emigrants will remain indefinitely, unless things improve enormously in the
country of origin.
Americans usually want to return home after two or three years of life in
Europe, but so do Europeans living in the U.S.
Then again, the smaller differences in these cases do make it easier for
people to adapt if they really want to stay over the long term.
Terry Richards
> On 26 Aug 2002 12:34:34 -0700, terr...@earthlink.net (Terry
> Richards) wrote:
>
> [snip]
> >We will. But to the country next time. Actually, the visas aren't
> >really a problem - I'm a British citizen & Kathie is American so we
> >can live & work just about anywhere we would want to.
> [snip]
>
> My understanding is that it can be very difficult for Americans to
> work in France. I'm supposing that the reason she can work is either
> because you are an EU citizen or/and her area of expertise is in great
> demand in France.
>
> Michael
>
We haven't actually tried this as Kathie didn't want to work this year
but I believe that it shouldn't be a big problem because of my EU
citizenship. The legal people at work said they could get her a work
permit but we never bothered.
In the USA, we have the reverse situation but, in fact, I already had
my own "green card" (work permit) before we met so I guess I now
qualify twice :)
Terry.
Earl Evleth
harve...@REMOVETHISntlworld.com a écrit le 27/08/02 15:54 :
> The crunch time for most people, I think, comes at about year 3. The
> first year just zips by; the second you become more settled; but the
> big choice then starts to loom. In my experience most people seem to
> find that 3 years is as long as they want to spend away from "home".
> (That's another indicator, of course: when you stop referring to where
> you came from as "home".)
The three year figure is interesting, I have never thought about it.
> Personally, I see this preference to live in a different country than
> that of one's birth as entirely neutral: you're like that, or you're
> not. It's neither culturally virtuous nor some sort of insult to one's
> birth country: it's just a personal preference.
Well there is always the possibility that one feels a "foreigner in one's
own country". Why? One could be rebellious and adventurous wanting
to break away from the confines of one`s mother culture, see the world,
so to speak. Some people have mid-life crisis, they see themselves growing
older without having lived their lives in the manner they really wanted.
A form of this exists in wanderlust of the young. Whenever I visit
a new area I wonder "what it would be like to live here". This includes
visiting areas of the USA. If one lived to be a 1000 one could find out.
American writers classically came to France to break away from the
constraints of America. Yet most had to return in order to write about
their own country. Hemingway never did, he left Europe for Cuba
and only returned to the US late in life, sort of to die. A number of
American Blacks came to France and never left. This is dealt with in
Stovall's "Paris Noir". They found a sort of freedom they did not have in
America, for some the racism of France was a bit easier to tolerate.
And they were given a special status in France never accorded to
Africans directly from Africa.
Indeed, my own experience is that in spite of all the talk about French
anti-Americanism, the French give Americans a special status, they
are given special treatment for a variety of reasons. Polls show that
"authentic" anti-Americanism only touches 10% of the French, which is
about what the rate of "authentic" anti-Semitism is. A recent poll found
that the Americans were the most polite of the foreigners visiting France.
The "ugly American" may be a species in danger of extinction. The problem
right now is that Bush and his policies make Americans look bad, a bit
arrogant. But I don`t think the average French person would take his
dislike of American policies out on the typical American tourist.
Earl
devil
>
> The crunch time for most people, I think, comes at about year 3. The
> first year just zips by; the second you become more settled; but the
> big choice then starts to loom. In my experience most people seem to
> find that 3 years is as long as they want to spend away from "home".
> (That's another indicator, of course: when you stop referring to where
> you came from as "home".)
It's clear most people who go out and experience a different place end
up going back after a while. I suppose I kind of agree three years is
not an unreasonable measure of the average time.
I grew up in Belgium. Went to Algeria after I graduated and I stayed
for 20 months. I was teaching and staying longer would have entailed
one more school year. For a single young male, muslim countries are a
bit on the challenging side, so at that point I decided to move on. But
I knew I wasn't going to go back home and stay there for the rest of my
life.
After six months in Belgium, I ended up going to Brazil. Where, soon
after, I met my wife, who had come from Taiwan. I ended up staying for
close to ten years in Brazil. Loooking back, this was five years too
many and adjusting elsewhere turned out to be harder than necessary.
Anyway, we ended up in Canada (with a total of six years stays in the US
in between). Canada being a pretty reasonable neutral ground in our
case. Grsnted, the US would have been OK too; but this is the way it
happened.
Peter Krynicki
> dans l'article Xns927797AD...@194.168.222.8, Harvey V à
> harve...@REMOVETHISntlworld.com a écrit le 27/08/02 15:54 :
>
> constraints of America. Yet most had to return in order to write about
> their own country. Hemingway never did, he left Europe for Cuba
> and only returned to the US late in life, sort of to die.
Hemingway left Europe and returned to the US in 1928 and lived in
Key West, Florida with his second wife Pauline for about 10 years.
He visited Cuba many times during this period, but didn't live in Cuba
until he moved there after the second World War with his fourth wife
Mary. You can still visit the house he lived in at 908 Whitehead
Street, and look into the writing room he had build over the old
carriage house. One of his typewriters is still there on the desk, as
well as many of his African trophies.
hth
Pjk