Georgia on our minds

Monday night when we got home, I sat down and wrote out the day's itinerary. I keep staring at it and wondering how these times can possibly be accurate and correct. On the left is Paris time; on the right is Georgia time:

04:00 on August 3 / 22:00 on August 2: Buses roll out from Cité Universitaire after a brisk hour spent collecting room keys, banging on the doors of some really sound sleepers, and in one case seeing a student just returning to his dorm room from the night out, 10 minutes before we were supposed to leave.

06:20 / 00:20: Flight leaves CDG for Frankfurt with all students and faculty on board, even that guy. We enjoy a Nutella-filled croissant and some coffee and try not to think about leaving Paris behind.

10:00 / 04:00: Flight leaves Frankfurt for ATL. Settle in for some sleep, watching lots of movies, or a combination of both. Daniel and I slept through our turn for the lunch service and had to ask for food after we woke up. Props to Lufthansa as always for very efficient and thorough service; God bless the flight attendant who was constantly circulating with cups of water and juice during the second half of the flight.

20:00 / 14:00: Arrive in ATL. Selected for a "random survey" by a customs officer to verify that we were not carrying any agricultural products. Fully a day later I'd realize we brought home 2 pounds of coffee that I forgot to declare on the form or mention to the officer. He did not see them in my suitcase, so I didn't have to be hauled off to immigration jail or anything.

We got to our house around 6 p.m. (midnight Paris time, but by then, who's counting?) and I managed to stay up till 8:30 and sleep till about 6 the next morning. My sleep cycle is not too messed up (I've been treating it with large quantities of espresso) but I can tell I'm jet-lagged because the mornings seem dark and the days seem long. That will pass and at least I don't feel as tired and foggy as I sometimes have after an overseas trip.

But I do miss Paris an awful lot.

Last day in Paris for 2015

After a hectic final week that sadly included my having to miss this on Saturday evening, it was suddenly Sunday morning: the free day before departure that marks the end of the program. I realized I hadn't been to Sacre-Coeur, my favorite place in Paris, the whole 5 weeks, so that was my destination. There's no quick way to get to Montmartre from the 14th but I enjoyed the métro ride knowing it would be one of the last ones of the year. I walked up from Abbesses station and rode the funicular up the Butte since it wasn't too crowded yet--when there are a lot of people in the funicular I tend to avoid it because it's like a gerbil cage for pickpockets. One of the backhanded advantages of having some experience in Paris is learning what to avoid. Sacre-Coeur is full of street vendors and street scammers; I've never actually seen pickpockets in action but I'm sure they are there as well.

On Sunday there were people soliciting petition signatures, whom I walked past while practicing my Parisian Murder Face(TM). The string-bracelet guys were out in such force that I hesitated to walk up the curved path that leads to the side of the church because they were almost elbow-to-elbow across the walkway. But as I dove behind a large man with a backpack for cover, the string-bracelet crew took flight, running down the sidewalks and vanishing behind the bushes. In seconds there was no trace of them, just as two police officers came walking down from the opposite side. It was so creepy it was almost impressive. Later in the day I saw the same thing happen with some ball-and-cup players down the street: one minute they're drawing a crowd, the next minute they're invisible, and the minute after that the foot patrol turns up. Some people think travelers get too paranoid about pickpockets and street scammers; it's definitely possible to make yourself crazy worrying about it but it's also a real concern--and not too hard or inconvenient to avoid by being smart.

I was rewarded for my vigilance by not being pickpocketed, string-braceleted, or fleeced by the ball-and-cup guys, AND by getting to see the "8eme Traversée de Paris Estivale" (8th Summer Crossing of Paris) put on by a car club called "Vincennes en Anciennes." I found out from one of the members (white Mercedes convertible) that during this event, they drive through Paris from Vincennes to Meudon. Normally they don't make any stops, he said, but everyone decided they wanted to stop for pictures. So I obligingly took pictures. (Hee.) Click through!

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: 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?

Epic Loire Valley Sightseeing Weekend

This year, the EC Paris program and other European Council programs decided to add a "bonus" to each program in some form, both to take advantage of this year's favorable exchange rates and to help attract students. The Paris program's "bonus" was a weekend trip to the Loire Valley to see some of the famous châteaux. It was an excellent trip and I am writing this post in the autocar on the way back. It will be light on narrative but heavy on pictures, so get comfortable and click through...

Anatomy of a Steak Tartare

This blog is teetering on the edge of total disarray because so much has been going on that I almost can't keep up with it. In addition to teaching, field trips, and a couple of other fun excursions, I've been to the doctor three times this week with sick or injured faculty or students. THREE TIMES. Today when I sat down in his office, "our" doctor looked at me across the desk and said "Vous savez, nous sommes fermé le dimanche."* Everybody wash your hands and be careful out there, okay?

So in between trips to the doctor's office I have managed to get in some top-quality cultural experiences. Last night with Dr. Kirk's class I saw L'Anatomie de la sensation by Wayne McGregor at the Paris Opera Ballet. It was an incredible experience. I have plenty of background with ballet but none with contemporary ballets such as this one, set to a piece of music titled "Blood on the Floor" and featuring a high-tech movable set. The dancing was simply extraordinary. Contemporary dance is fairly easy to do badly but incredibly evocative when done well. This ballet does not have a storyline but instead focuses on the quality of movement and the shifting relationships among the dancers, so it really shows off the artistry and the technical prowess of the company.  I was thrilled at the opportunity to see it and disappointed when it was over--I probably won't get a chance but I was tempted to attend a second performance just to study the dancing again.

Today's highlight was a visit to Les Tontons with the 4 students who had signed up for my "Dinner Club." Dinner Club is one of the optional activities our program is offering; professors choose a restaurant for dinner and students sign up to go with them. I picked Les Tontons on my Parisian friend's recommendation because their specialty is beef tartare. Two years ago I discovered that I love tartare. Meanwhile, most Americans probably haven't tried it and/or are horrified by the idea of eating uncooked chopped beef. So I was surprised when I posted my Dinner Club on Facebook and 4 students immediately signed up. Three of them ordered tartare poêlé (seared), which I think is cheating, but you have to start somewhere, right? They were all very enthusiastic and everyone cleaned their plates, so I'm calling this Dinner Club a success. Les Tontons is relaxed and friendly, not at all touristique, and of course the food is excellent. Next time I might splurge and get the Tartare A.O.C.--see if my little American palate can tell the difference.

My choice: tartare traditionnel, frites, salade (not pictured: a 1664 en pression and a chocolate mousse for dessert).

The students with their meals.

Tomorrow we go to the Loire Valley to see the châteaux for the weekend. I am so excited. Get ready for LOTS of pictures.

*"You know, we are closed on Sundays." He was teasing me, and in fact I was amused and touched that he cracked a joke because he has seemed very deadpan and shy in the past.

Breakfast in America and Dinner on a Boat

Field trip day #2 for my World Lit. class. I think this means half of our field trips are already done! Holy cow. That makes me feel like time is flying, but in fact we do not have a field trip next Tuesday because that's Bastille Day. So it doesn't really mean the program is half over. Whew.

We went to the Musée Carnavalet which is an eternal favorite of mine. It is the museum of the history of Paris and it illustrates the ways in which Paris has changed throughout its history. It's also a beautiful structure--2 hôtels particuliers put together--and worth going just to see the building:

This was my third time at the Carnavalet so I did not take very many pictures inside but I still love the shop signs:

18C cats: vaguely horrifying, at least when made of metal.

My first take was a barbershop but I'm sure these scissors probably represented a tailor.

Also found this great painting of Voltaire dictating to his secretary while getting dressed:

The audioguide said that the painter, Jean Huber, was a friend of Voltaire's and did a whole series of paintings of him in distinctly domestic/non-glamorous circumstances. Voltaire ultimately felt that Huber had imposed on their friendship, which is probably true, but I love the reminder that this great philosopher and writer was also a real person and didn't just look like this all the time:

This summer I've been requiring students to participate in field trip planning and execution, including input on where we eat lunch. Today they picked Breakfast in America, a place I've known about for years but never visited. Although I am a "When in Rome..."person and don't choose to eat American food when overseas, I know how evocative and comforting food can be when one is homesick. And I have to admit that B.I.A. knows its way around a burger and fries. The class was pleased with their American-style lunch; the server was incredibly nice and obliging; and now we have a place to go when Daniel gets really desperate for eggs and bacon in the morning.

(But next time we're going to L'As du Fallafel. Because I'm the teacher and I said so.)

No sooner had we returned from the Marais than it was time to get ready for the dîner croisière a.k.a. Dinner on a Boat. This is the second year we have done a "formal" dinner on the Seine and it is a lot of fun. Everybody got there in good time and looked splendid. Luckily the few drops of rain that started to fall as we were waiting to board did not dampen us or our spirits too much as we boarded the boat. Daniel and I sat with Dr. Guglielmi and his wife and we did so much chatting during the meal that I did not take a single photo. This might mean we have to do another dinner cruise once our friends get here in a couple more weeks, right? Then, unfortunately, the sky opened as we were disembarking and we got pretty wet on the way back to the RER. But by then everyone was in the mood to have fun and took their best "soaking wet in Paris" selfies on the walk while laughing it off and huddling under umbrellas. 

The company we use is Bateaux Parisiens; while I have not tried any others and can't compare, I think the food is pretty good, the service is pleasant, and it's overall an enjoyable atmosphere. It's a relaxed and unique way to see the monuments of Paris. And the students really have an excellent time. After a few days in the routine of classes and field trips it is good to put on a nice dress and be served a nice meal. It's even better if you bring your dance partner and he gets you out on the floor as dessert is being served. I've heard there is video so I'll see if I can add a link to this post later on.

In the words of Samuel Pepys: And so to bed.

An Excellent Sunday

Yesterday (Sunday) was a fantastic day! We had a relaxing morning (a nice change after the hectic week) followed by lunch with my Parisian friend. She is the provider of SIM cards, vocabulary clues, and transatlantic Viber chats complete with extensive photo exchanges of the "Here's my lunch" variety. A recent highlight was her photo of the selection of vinegar at a large grocery store. I responded with a photo of an American breakfast cereal aisle. Maybe it's not normal but I love that sort of thing. Because of our respective schedules, we rarely get to see each other even when I am here, so we jumped at the chance to get together and for Daniel to meet her for the first time. Even though we talk online multiple times a week it was wonderful to see her face in person. We had lunch at Café Rostand, across the street from the Jardin du Luxembourg, which was very nice. I had a salad of shrimp, avocado, tomato, and grapefruit. Perfect after several days of high temperatures. Then we went 2 doors down to Dalloyau, which is an upscale patisserie with a long history and a very good reputation. I ordered something fairly modest--café gourmand with 3 chocolates--and it was all delicious. I just wish I could have had some of everything!

Daniel's choices--a pain aux raisins and something with raspberries (I don't remember its name).

Friend's choice: un fraisier, which tasted like a strawberry shortcake.

Café gourmand aux 3 chocolats (and a bonus macaron, which was very tasty).

I hoped to take a walk in Luxembourg Gardens but it started raining right after we sat down at Dalloyau. We came back to Cité U. and both took a nap. By the time we woke up it was almost time to leave for our second outing of the day, a "Bal de Swing" at Chalet du Lac, a gorgeous Art Deco-style venue on the southeastern edge of Paris. We got there in time to catch most of the beginners' dance lesson offered at the beginning, and thank goodness for that. The style of swing they were dancing was Lindy Hop, which neither of us knew anything about beforehand. So we at least learned 2-3 good steps, which of course is enough to get you through a social dance and make you understand how the dance works. We also figured out that we could dance East Coast Swing to some of the Lindy music, although the style is different. 

The floor was already crowded for the lesson, and by the time the evening really got under way, people were dancing on the "extra" dance floor off to the side as well as packing the main floor to dance to a live orchestra, which is always fun. It was an amazing night! So much energy and fun to watch as well as dance. Daniel even entered the Jack & Jill competition and had a great time. I was not quite brave enough. We also found out that Chalet du Lac hosts other weekly dance events so we will definitely go back. It's a fantastic venue that I wish I could pack up and bring back to Macon.

Here is Daniel lining up for the Jack & Jill under the HUGE disco ball.

We never ate dinner last night and it was almost midnight before we got back but it was worth it. What a great day. 

Ten Things I Miss/Look Forward To About Paris (Mostly Food & Drinks)

1. Un café 
2. L'Écir (in my head this is "our" café as it's down the street from the classroom building)
3. Carte Noire 
4. Badoit Rouge (intensément pétillant, and isn't "pétillant" a nicer word than "fizzy"?)
5. Falafel in the Marais
6. Volvic au Jus d'Agrumes (and pretty much anything else aux agrumes including Volvic Citron)
7. Amorino gelato 
8. Boeuf tartare 
9. The RATP
10. Les soldes

Saturday, August 2: Last Parisian day of the year

The last day before departure is a free day for students (and faculty) to do their last-minute sightseeing, souvenir shopping, and fun-having before we are all subjected to the rigors of departure day. I approached the day with a list of places in mind and I took some pictures along the way. Let's click through, shall we?

Tuesday, July 29: Returning to the Musée Carnavalet

Some of my students in World Lit. expressed interest in the Musée Carnavalet, so today we went there as our last field trip for the course. It was my second time there (first visit, last summer, reported here) but the museum is extensive enough that I know I saw some things I had not seen before. The only downside of today's visit was that a good bit of the museum was closed for renovation. I was more disappointed for my students' sake than for my own, but they all enjoyed it regardless and reported that they had learned a lot. Tomorrow I am going to ask each person to share something specific that he or she learned. I also have my own interesting fact in reserve--but I'm saving it for tomorrow!

So the Carnavalet is in the Marais district, which has evolved over the centuries from an aristocratic neighborhood of hôtels particuliers to a Jewish quarter to a gay neighborhood. The first time I visited Paris (ten years ago!), the Marais was thought of as not being very touristy, but nowadays it sees its share of tourist traffic. In fact, the Marais itself represents a phenomenon that the Carnavalet illustrates: the ways in which Paris has changed and continues to change. Because Hausmann so radically reinvented the city starting in the mid-19th-century, it's easy to believe that Paris has always looked the way it looks now. Very little of medieval and Renaissance Paris remains. A lot of what one sees at the Carnavalet is paintings of the city in its earlier incarnations, restored rooms from various hôtels particuliers of the 18th century, and even archaeological findings from the days when the Romans lived here and called it "Lutetia." All in all it is a great education. I don't know whether I want to read a book on Parisian history to understand the Carnavalet better or just keep going to the Carnavalet until I understand the history of Paris better. Maybe both.

In addition to the Carnavalet, which is the museum of the history of Paris, it offers a lot of good shopping and a lot of good falafel. The famous L'As du Falafel restaurant is there; I like to be iconoclastic and hit the falafel stand across from L'As because the line is shorter. After the Carnavalet I enjoyed my falafel and went for a gelato at Amorino next to the Place de Vosges--gotta eat enough this week to give me good culinary memories to last a year, after all.

Meanwhile, I did take some pictures at the Carnavalet. Click through!

Thursday, July 24: Where they make Brussels sprouts

Today I went with Dr. Scalera and her class to Brussels for the day. It only takes 80 minutes in the Thalys high-speed train to get there. I love trains! In the morning we visited the EU parliament building and the "Parliamentarium," which is a museum all about the EU parliament. Trust me: it's a lot cooler than it sounds. Dr. Guglielmi met up with us and escorted us to Chez Leon for a traditional lunch of moules frites (not "fried mussels" but "mussels and fries"), then in the afternoon we went to the chocolate museum (CHOCOLATE MUSEUM), saw the Mannikin Pis (because you have to), and bought souvenirs around the Grand Place. Brussels is gorgeous and I'm just sorry we couldn't stay longer and get to know it better. The day seemed to go by in a flash and now that I sit here thinking back on it I can't believe how many things we did.

On with the photos!

Tuesday, July 22: "Que le paix et le salut soient sur Lui"

Today my World Lit. class took its field trip to the Grande Mosquée and the Arènes de Lutèce. The mosque is beautiful with "Hispano-Mauresque" architecture, mosaic tiles, and calligraphy everwhere. We had this very kind tour guide named Yamina who explained what the different rooms in the mosque were used for and at the same time explained a lot of the basics of Islamic beliefs and rituals. For instance, I did not know (or maybe had forgotten) that the 5-pointed star represents the 5 pillars of Islam. I did know that when Muslims say the name of the prophet Muhammad they follow it by saying a little blessing for him, but I did not know how to say it in French. Now I do, for which please see the title of this post. The tour was entirely in French so I was on translator duty. I think I mostly did well! One thing I am learning is that the person being translated also needs to know how to work with a translator. Yamina was very easy to understand but sometimes she'd tell us a LOT of information and I'd have to try to keep it all in my brain and roll it back out in English. In any case, we learned a lot at the mosque and I was happy to have this new experience. We were allowed to take pictures, which I was not sure about going in, so that was exciting as well.

From the mosque we went to the Arènes de Lutèce, which is right around the corner. It's the other ancient Roman ruins site in Paris in addition to the Thermes de Cluny (now part of the Musée du Moyen-Age). It is an amphitheatre that was built around the first century C.E. and was, as such things frequently are, almost demolished to make way for new construction. To be honest, it isn't much to look at but for an American it's exciting just to visit something that survives from so long ago. I wanted the class to be able to say they had been there!

Afterward we returned to the mosque, which has a café adjoining it, and we made a record amount of couscous, lamb, sausage, chicken, and vegetables disappear in a very short while. Memo to my students: now, if someone asks you if you like North African food, you can say yes! And hot mint tea with sugar--that went down very nicely on what felt to Southerners like a slightly chilly day.

This afternoon after we got back I made a run to Gibert Jeune (huge bookstore with a great stationery section as well), grabbed 2 more Pierre Lemaitre books and a used copy of Notre-Dame de Paris (i.e. The Hunchback of Notre Dame), and ran across a question-and-answer book of Paris trivia called Connaissez-Vous Paris? (Do You Know Paris?) so I grabbed that as well. Someone remind me not to buy any more books here. This makes 6!

Photos after the jump!

Sunday, July 20: Une grande flânerie

This morning I wanted to get out early and go over the route for my Tuesday field trip a second time. The first time I psyched myself out thinking that getting off at a different metro stop would be "better" when in fact it made my destination much harder to find. Lesson learned: Just do it the way everyone else does! The 5th arrondissement is very pleasant and peaceful at 9:30 a.m. on a Sunday. On the side streets you could hear people's televisions and radios playing softly out their open windows, the window boxes were blooming, and the weather was very mild. I got to the Grand Mosquée quickly, noted the directions in detail, and walked from there to the Arènes de Lutèce. There I was surprised to see the Sapeurs-Pompiers de Paris playing 7-a-side soccer. The game looked quasi-official: they were all wearing matching t-shirts and one team had on fluorescent vests to distinguish them from the other. Maybe there is a Sapeurs-Pompiers league and they were scrimmaging?

Leaving the soccer game behind, I smelled fresh baked goods and followed my nose to a boulangerie for a chausson aux pommes--croissant-type pastry dough with applesauce filling, my new favorite pastry. At the boulangerie an American lady was ordering about 6 pastries and 4 cups of coffee. I wondered where she was going to take them, and how, and whether I should tell her that if she's going to order quantities by holding up fingers she should learn the French way of doing it: thumb first, then fingers--an American "2" is likely to look like a French "3," not that extra croissants are a bad thing.

I put my pastry in my bag (poor choice; it got crushed and made my wallet a bit greasy) for the metro ride to my next destination, viz. the vicinity of Notre Dame where I was trying to find a souvenir to send my my beloved Daniel. Due to circumstances, I have an unused "Postexport" envelope, which is a prepaid bubble-wrap envelope that you can use to send something under 250g anywhere in the world. I knew what I wanted to send because I saw it before but didn't buy it on the spot, so I sort of had to wrack my memory to work back to the right souvenir shop. On the way I slid through Notre Dame cathedral thinking I would attend Mass, but it was 11:00 and the next Mass was the international mass at 11:30, which already promised to be packed. I did learn, however, that when a Mass is upcoming the cathedral staff opens a separate entrance for those going to Mass rather than just visiting the cathedral. Pro tip: there is nothing other than fear of divine retribution (or the possibility of spoiling it for everyone) to stop you from using the Mass entrance and then visiting the cathedral instead.

From souvenir-buying and not-Mass-attending, I walked past the Hôtel de Ville (where the FNAC Festival was already sound-checking at noon for an 8 p.m. start time) to the Centre Pompidou and cruised that area a bit. I went completely around my elbow and kept ending up at Arts & Métiers when I was trying to go to the Place de Vosges. Finally I got fed up and took the metro to Bastille partially just to have a chance to sit down. It turned out to be a good choice--or happy accident--because I discovered the big street market that takes place at Bastille on Saturdays (and Thursdays, the Internet tells me). I could have walked out of there with fish, produce, jewelry, scarves, olives, a marinère, pork chops, men's socks, a new bra, and a fedora. Oh, and some Marseillaise soap.

But I exercised restraint and arrived in the Place de Vosges at last, where gelato was duly ordered and consumed. All due respect to Berthillon ice cream but I go out of my way for Amorino gelato instead. It was a pretty afternoon but some forbidding clouds were piling up. As I walked through the Marais, which was thronging, it started to rain. I stopped into a couple of stores (Lush has been calling my name) but got worried that the skies would really open up. I returned to the Hôtel de Ville, got back on the metro, and was back to home base around the time our students started getting out and about for the afternoon. Talked to Daniel on Skype, worked on my class for tomorrow, answered some email, ate dinner, and soon enough it will be time for bed. Where do the days go?

Click through for pics--I took a few with my phone.

Saturday, July 12: I accidentally went to the Musée Cluny

For today I only had about half a plan at most. There were a couple of stores I wanted to go to (and/or go back to from yesterday) and then I thought I might go to the Treasury at Notre Dame or sit in a café and read or go to a park if the weather would ever clear up . . . or just flâner. My first stop was Muji near St. Sulpice, which I'd heard had a good selection of papeterie. I have decided to go back to using a paper calendar instead of my phone calendar so I thought I'd look there for a nice-looking agenda. No luck, but I did get to see St. Sulpice itself and that was new for me. It struck me as imposing and gloomy, both inside and out, but it was interesting to visit. This is the fountain in the Place St-Sulpice facing the church:

Of course since I wasn't thinking of going anywhere photo-worthy I did not take the Good Camera; today's photos are all iPhone pics!

From Muji I went to Gibert Jeune which is a huge bookstore in the Latin Quarter. I found a really nice agenda there at a decent price and bought a roman policier called Alex by Pierre Lemaitre. I'm not big on crime novels in English but I figured it would be at about my reading level in French. It came recommended by one of the employees and the author is a Prix Goncourt winner, so hopefully it'll be good. I'm already almost to the end of Pierre Bergé's letters to Yves St. Laurent, which are very sad and full of love. Dr. Kirk is reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame but I wanted something popular rather than canonical.

En route to Gibert Jeune I came out of the metro right at the St. Michel fountain. I stayed in the Latin Quarter on my second trip to Paris in 2006 and I remember being amazed that the fountain is just THERE in the middle of the street:

After lunch (sandwich, drink, dessert, coffee: 8,20€ at Brioche Dorée, which we have in the Atlanta airport for crying out loud. I've got to raise my standards) I was just wandering around figuring out my next move and I landed in the garden of the Musée Cluny a.k.a. the Musée du Moyen-Age (Museum of the Middle Ages). The Cluny is a 15th-century hôtel particulier (sort of a . . . city mansion?) built next to/on top of a Roman thermal bath. It houses an important collection of medieval artifacts: pieces in ivory, enamel, stained glass, sculptures, armor, household items like combs and pitchers, and tapestries, most significantly the Lady and the Unicorn set. This last was not on display last summer but it is back now:

All the tapestries are fascinating to look at. The longer you look, the more details you see.

The Cluny (Wikipedia says it is officially called the Musée du Moyen-Age now but I like to say "Cluny") also has some illuminated manuscripts on display. One minor disappointment was that in several places, works had been removed for "reorganization") and it seemed like most of the things that were missing were manuscripts! Nevertheless, I did see a few neat things:

It's a letter B, see?

Italic hand . . . I think. Need my History of Print notes.

A calendar from a Book of Hours. The placard explained that 

"The page presented corresponds to the current month."

I did not take a lot of pictures because the connection between the objects and the space seems especially important in this case. That is, you have to see it for yourself. Half of the experience is being in this hôtel particulier that is sort of big and small at the same time, with painted wood beams on all the ceilings and depressions worn into the steps of all the staircases. A couple of the rooms are in parts of the former baths, so you can see the medieval walls and the even older Roman walls. Those rooms are full of pieces from cathedrals: you have no idea how big the kings' heads are around the front doors to Notre Dame until you see one up close! One of the last rooms on the tour is the chapel--the building was originally constructed for the abbots of the Order of Cluny--it's no bigger than a classroom but with an elaborate "stone lace" ceiling and painted altarpiece like in a chapel of a large cathedral. I think I will go back and try to take more photos although I don't know how successful they'll be. In any case I'm very glad I went. The joke is that Europeans think 100 miles is a long way, and Americans think 100 years is a long time. It is awe-inspiring to me to stand in a building that is 600+ years old (much older, in places) and see objects that also date back multiple centuries. There were objects on display from the 6th century. You can't see those things and continue to believe that the medieval period was "the dark ages."

When I left the museum I discovered that the sun had finally come out after about 8-9 days of clouds. Here are a couple of pictures from a small park behind the museum:

The plants and trees in the little park--Paris has lots of these small parks called "Squares" (they are never square) always named after a person, e.g. "Square Laura Thomason."

This is the back of the Cluny. You can see how elaborate it is--like a scaled-down castle. 

Really a neat place to visit.

Finished out the day with a visit to Carrefour (grocery store) where I almost bought more than I could carry. But now I have plenty of nice food for tomorrow and Monday. And a detective novel to read!