Last field trip of 2015: Musée du Quai Branly

For our final field trip of 2015 I took my class to the Musée du Quai Branly, "where cultures dialogue." After a month of Renaissance art, Gothic architecture, white marble statues, and Le Nôtre gardens, it is good to be reminded that the rest of the world makes art too. We had a great discussion about this museum in class today; my students are getting really smart about noticing curatorial choices and how objects are presented. The Quai Branly does a good job contextualizing objects that are bound to be unfamiliar to most of its visitors. Along the way it also shows how universal certain objects and practices are. It's a great museum.

A "soul boat" from a coming-of-age ritual practiced in Indonesia

Masks are everywhere in the Quai Branly.

This shield is from Papua New Guinea but looks like Beowulf could have carried it.

One of the figures in the "soul boat"

Wolf-headed figures representing an Aztec god

Aztec goddesses

Mexican folk art

An ancestral pole from British Columbia

Some of the figures on the pole

A protective statue from Gabon

The Quai Branly's holdings that are not formally on display are shelved behind glass in the middle of the museum.

My standard joke is that these are my students--actually they are slit gongs from somewhere in Africa (I don't remember which country).

These are actually my students. I'm going to miss them.

From the museum we walked to Rue Cler, which is a well-known market street that also contains several cafés and restaurants. Our original plan was to pick up food for a picnic and take it to the Eiffel Tower, but yesterday was chilly and windy and the museum was oddly cold. So we opted to eat indoors instead and wound up in a casual but well-decorated Italian restaurant where everyone inhaled large quantities of pizza and pasta. It was just the right thing after a long-ish walk on a windy day.

I walked back to the métro the long way after lunch: from Ecole Militaire métro stop where I dropped off my students, back past the Eiffel Tower, all the way to Alma-Marceau métro stop. It was a roundabout route but I got a few good photos out of it:

We finished up the day with a very convivial faculty dinner. After running out of wine at our last dinner, we may have overcompensated slightly & ended up with about 4 unopened bottles. But I merely wanted to make sure my colleagues drank my bottle of Vouvray Petillant, which they did very cheerfully. Success! It's great to work with people that you actually want to have dinner with.

5 more sleeps till home. Some students have asked me if I'm eager to get back and I say I'm 50% eager, 50% sad to leave.

Mini blog: Weekend "de garde"

In the category of useful French vocabulary is the phrase "de garde" which means "on call." So the pharmacie de garde is the one that's open 24 hours. The maison medicale de garde is the after-hours clinic. And this weekend I am the assistant director de garde. I am free to flâner (that's "roam around without a plan") in Paris but I am checking messages and responding to student emergencies. Here's what I've been up to this weekend other than work:

On Friday morning I came back over to Les Halles to pick up tickets for the Louvre for that night.

The crowded-Metro struggle is real.

At the Les Halles observation deck where you can see the construction project.

I checked out the Louvre courtyard to see where we'd need to enter with our prepaid tickets, because Vicki and Robert and the kids were coming and I didn't want to make them wait and wander around aimlessly. From the courtyard I walked down through the Tuileries with, apparently, every tourist in Paris:

Someone told me once that when it's hot in Paris, you go to a park and put your feet in a basin. I didn't see anyone with their feet actually in the water, but many did have their shoes off.

Looking back toward the Louvre

The green chairs in parks are one of the things I get nostalgic for when I'm not here.

Sometimes it really does seem like translation is unnecessary. 

"Gee, Mildred, what do you think salade de fruits could possibly be?" 

"I dunno, Harold, we'd better skip it. It could be snails or something!"

At the Louvre with Daniel and Vicki's clan I decided not to take pictures but just walk around and look. I did take one pic of the newly restored Winged Victory:

I love the placement of this statue at the top of the staircase so you can see it from far away. It's an arresting focal point. A+ curatorial work, Musée du Louvre.

Daniel took a pic of us in front of the Mona Lisa, but if you want to see it, you'll have to read his blog.

Oh, wait . . . 

The major weekend highlight was seeing the Alvin Ailey dance company at Théatre du Châtelet. They were incredible and the French audience LOVED them. Also, the theatre is gorgeous:

I had this hilarious folding seat on the end of a row. It was pretty comfortable but every time I stood up/sat down I had to do origami.

I am not Alice Jane Knight, obviously. She is my colleague who sold me her ticket.

Anna Pavlova appeared for the first time in Paris at Théatre du Châtelet in 1909. Diaghilev's Ballets Russes also premiered there.

This morning (late) we went to the OTHER Breakfast in America (original/Left Bank version) for brunch and ended up next to a French couple with whom we (Daniel) struck up a conversation. I had to laugh because he grew up in Madagascar and she is Polish and yet like everyone in Paris they grumbled about the problems caused by immigration. In any case it was fun to meet some new people and have a traditional French arm-waving exchange about social issues. Americans are routinely taught not to discuss politics, religion, etc. with foreigners but we (Daniel) have jumped right in on many occasions and never been badly received. Honestly, it's pleasant when compared to the placid "Where are you from? What do you do for a living? Nice weather we're having" of American-style small talk!

This afternoon, the final stage of the Tour de France rides into Paris, so I am going with Vicki's fam and possibly some students. Our heat wave from a few weeks ago has been replaced by fall-like weather: chilly and persistent drizzle. It should be an interesting afternoon--gotta admit it is nice to be wearing long sleeves and socks at the end of July.

Mini Blog: A day to flâner

Daniel and I took advantage of a day on call with no calls to flâner in the Marais and go shopping at Les Halles today. He is looking for some specific things (a suit; shorts with zipper pockets). I am looking for things that are nice to wear and bien soldé.  He was also looking for a cooked breakfast so we went, inevitably, to Breakfast in America. I was not in a hurry to go back--as I've said, I do not go to Paris to eat American food. But he was THRILLED.

(Granted, in this pic he looks more demented than thrilled.)

I've realized that BIA makes me very depaysée. Look around the restaurant, I'm in the U.S. Look out at the street, I'm in Paris. And I cannot figure out what language to speak. 

But the coffee was really good.

On our shopping round we discovered Uniqlo, a store I'd have been better off not knowing about. Something about Uniqlo ticks all my boxes. We also went into the Swatch store where they polished the crystal of his watch to take a scratch out for the princely sum of 0€. We went by the Musée Carnavalet and peeped into the garden; we passed by L'As du Fallafel before the line had started to form. (Unfortunately that was right after BIA, so no falafel for me today.) We tried on clothes and heard many iterations of "So, you are from Québec, right?"

More of the same at Les Halles, a mall that is very comprehensive but also kind of stuffy and airless because it's underground. By midafternoon it was time to take a break for a drink and a snack so we passed through a small pedestrian market and fetched up at a café called Etienne Marcel. Outside it looks like a traditional café but the inside looks like late-series Mad Men with primary colors and molded plastic furniture. It was nice to relax in a quiet place with comfortable seats for a while!

Finally on our way out, I talked Daniel into stopping into St. Eustache, built in the 16th and 17th centuries and then restored in the early 19th after the Revolution:

Chapel of the Virgin

The altar

The organ has 8,000 pipes and is supposed to be the largest in France!

Here is what it sounds like.

The organ keyboard is right out where you can see it.

To cap off this excellent day we had dinner with Dr. Kirk and his wife Betsy at Rouge Pomme, which is becoming our go-to place for dinner/dessert/coffee/a drink. I always get a galette du sarrasin for dinner there but the Kirks both had tartines that looked amazing. Then we bought chocolates at Leonidas for dessert. Say what you want to about Paris but the food is hard to beat. So are the cathedrals and the shopping.

Tomorrow, Vicki and Robert and their kids come over from London. We are going to the Louvre tomorrow night. And on Saturday I am going to see Alvin Ailey at Théatre du Châtelet. It's gonna be an excellent weekend!

Un regard ouvert sur la Grande Mosquée

On my first trip to France in 2004 (when I was a student rather than a professor on Study Abroad), we had a little cultural orientation at the beginning of our stay and we learned that Americans have un regard ouvert, which means "an open look." Compared to other cultures we look other people in the eye more readily and we are quicker to presume or create relationships with others whereas the French are more private. We were told about this idea in the context of a warning: be careful about looking people in the eye on the street (it's not done) and be ready for more formality and social distance than you are used to. So over lunch today I told my students about this idea. They readily understood and agreed that it was correct, but also said that they think un regard ouvert is good because it means you're open to new people and situations, and you are willing to take an interest in others. From their perspective, I can't disagree, and they carry their open eyes into our class and our field trips in a very positive way.

So today we took our American openness to the Grande Mosquée and then to its attached café for lunch. Dr. Yahgoobi brought her class to the mosque with us as well. Click through for the details and pictures, s'il vous plaît?

Chow Italia, Part 2

It was late by the time we returned from Alberobello on Friday night, so Saturday we blew off a trip to the beach (probably a bad decision, in retrospect) in favor of relaxing, watching Italian TV (i.e. American TV dubbed in Italian, plus some baffling infomercials), and spending time with Karine and Antonio's kittens. In Italian, "kittens" is "gattini." Easy to remember because kittens are teeny!

This is Maurice Ravel.

This is Coco Chanel.

(also pictured: the nifty tile floors in the apartment)

In the afternoon I went with Karine to buy cheese and vegetables at some of the small shops in Corato. The whole weekend was a linguistic and cultural adventure and this may have been the highlight. The man who runs the cheese shop loves Karine so he dished out some fresh mozzarella knots for us to try as soon as we came in the door. Then he chatted with her while taking her order even though there was a line and some people were griping at him to hurry it along. Karine says she is not always accepted everywhere in Corato but obviously she is well beloved at the cheese shop and at the fruit-and-vegetable shop where she got guidance about her lemon trees. It was fun just to tag along even though I couldn't understand everything or contribute much. Karine would just point at me and say "Famiglia!"

That night after serving as Antonio's roadies (broken elevator, music gear up 6 flights of stairs: let's try to forget that this ever happened) we went and got takeout pizza from a place called Pizza Teatro. It was jam-packed and boiling hot with a disorderly queue and one beleaguered waiter rushing back and forth with pizzas for the people eating at the tables outside the restaurant. Naturally, the pizza was delicious. I had a "Caprese" which was black olives, fresh tomatoes, and onion on a thin crust cooked in a brick oven. Worth the wait and the strange drama of ordering and paying there. Afterward I told Karine that it's called Pizza Teatro because they could film a reality show in the restaurant.

It was very interesting being a native English speaker/second-language French speaker on this trip. Daniel and Karine have French as their first language and English as their second. Antonio is a native Italian speaker (of course) with English as his second language and no French. And Karine has learned to speak Italian incredibly well in only a year and a half. So when Daniel, Karine, and I or just Karine and I were together we would speak French because she doesn't get to speak French very often. When the 4 of us were together we would speak English, and I would be the only one without (to my own ears) a melodious accent. But I learned a few words in Italian, such as "Molto bene!" which means "Very good." Lots of things in Italy are molto bene.

Yesterday morning we went to the Adriatic coast for a photo op before heading to the airport. It was very crowded but so pretty!

Cousin love!

Look, I was there!

Soon it was time to take our flight back and our Italian adventure was over. Karine says we need to come for 2 weeks next time so we can travel around. Good idea or GREAT idea? In any case I am so grateful for the warm welcome we received there and the fun and relaxing time we had. Hooray, Italy! 

Chow Italia, Part 1

Daniel and I are back in Paris after a fantastic weekend in Italy with his cousin Karine and her boyfriend Antonio. It was terribly hot the whole time we were there, and neither of us speaks any Italian, and we flew Ryanair, and the whole thing could have been disaster, but instead we had a great time. Karine and Antonio are excellent hosts! Let's click through, shall we?

How to Bastille Day

Yesterday was, of course, France's national holiday, which Americans call "Bastille Day" and the French just call "le 14 juillet."

Kind of scary that FB knows where I am and what I'm up to.

Last year I went big on Bastille Day morning: got out early and went to the parade. This year we kept it relaxed in the morning, but I still wanted to see the flyover, which is my favorite part of the day. We got over to the Louvre (the courtyard is a great place to see the planes) with about 5 minutes to spare before the first planes flew over with their bleu-blanc-rouge smoke trails. Hooray!

Did I take a picture? Never you mind. We did get these goofy shots of ourselves with the glass pyramid.

We stayed a while longer to watch some more planes go by, then made our way to Les Halles, the Pompidou Center, and the Niki de St. Phalle fountain--which Dr. Kirk says is properly called the Stravinsky fountain. Live and learn! A lot more shops and restaurants were open than usual so we checked out some stores; Daniel got some sunglasses and I bought a dress and a pair of jeans. It doesn't sound like much but with a sandwich at Pomme de Pain and some sitting around and general flânerie, we had a nice, relaxed afternoon and then went back to our room for some dinner and a disco nap.

That night I finally got to do something I have wanted to do for years: we went to a bal de pompiers. It's a tradition for fire stations (casernes de pompiers) to host public dances on Bastille Day--and sometimes the night before and the night after as well. I had never been to one because I'm always in Paris alone, and I didn't want to go alone.* Of course, this year I have Daniel and he LOVES a party, so off we went to the Caserne de Port-Royal in the 13th. It proved to be an excellent choice. Fun dance music, a good atmosphere, and the caserne itself was cool to see: 4-story buildings surrounding an open courtyard which was the dance floor. The pompiers had hired a good DJ with an extensive light show and built several bars with different names/themes around the dance floor--it was cute and just much more elaborate than I expected. There was also a food truck selling sausages and fries (or some such).

Banner outside the fire station

The dance floor and bar setup inside the caserne--

before it got so crowded that you could barely move around.

Daniel was pretty taken with these glowing tables.

Delirious/sweaty dancefloor selfie.

Shortly before we left--dance floor was getting packed. 

Finally, I just need to say this for the record: French firefighters are astonishingly attractive. I don't know how they do it. Is there an audition? They all look ready for the cover of a fitness magazine.

Yep, that's me surrounded by the 13th Arrondissement's finest.

All the firefighters we talked to were very polite and friendly, which was nice. Daniel and I both noticed that it was a very welcoming atmosphere. We danced for close to 2 hours without very many breaks, and left around 11:15 when the dance floor was getting so packed that it was impossible to move. People were obviously having a great time and although there may have been some drunken shenanigans and bad behavior later in the night, we had an excellent experience. A+ work, 3eme Companie de Caserne Port-Royal. (call me!)

And so to bed after watching the fireworks show on live stream from France 2. I have yet to decide whether it's worth going to the Champ de Mars to see the fireworks in person. Last night seemed perfect: go dancing early and don't stay too long, see fireworks on television, get to bed before 4 a.m.

Tomorrow: Italy! I don't think I will take my computer so expect radio silence till we get back Sunday afternoon. It will be my first time in Italy and I am so excited!

*N.B. I believe that Paris is a safe city, and during the day I go places alone all the time. But to go dancing alone at night on the night of a holiday when everyone is out and lots of people are drinking has never seemed like a smart idea to me. YMMV.