Drownout France

Scenes and Dreams from September

For the last four weeks, I took a French conversation class that started at 8.30am. The result, no dawdling and necessarily less blogging for all y'all. But on the night of September 28th, I dreamt that I attended a cocktail party and discussed various matters in French. The dream played out in French. I think I can now officially claim to have passed a milestone. Some pictures and commentaries on some of what has passed.

Eiffel Tour. Sept.

They didn't have to put in these flourishes when they built the Eiffel tower. In fact, much of the beaux-arts riffing is the source of this thing's elegance and delicacy. Compare this, for example, to the minimalist austerity of American construction and in particular the most famous grand scale work such as the Verrazano Narrows (only a few heart-breaking feet longer than the immaculate Sydney Harbor bridge at opening) or the Golden Gate bridge.

And Foucault. Sept.

Monge is the 19th C scientist who recorded the quote from Napoleon, roughly "I have followed in the path of Alexander but would rather have followed the steps of Newton." There are names winding all round the first level of the Tour Eiffel, and so too at many great European buildings (rarely seen in the US, but notice the exceptions at libraries such as Low Library at Columbia or even some of the public libraries in SF).

Public spirit. Sept.

Raising money for the flood-damaged regions of the South, a spectacle of dead wine-vines at the Tour. (PS "Le Tour" = a tour; "La Tour" = a tower; hence La Tour Eiffel and Le Tour de France.)

Latest tourist attraction. Sept.

This is where Diana died. Notice Liberty's torch just above, not memorializing Diana ("candle in the wind"?), but rather marking the start of the Avenue de New York, which runs right up to the Trocadero, across from the Tour. Of all the underground highway passes along the Seine, this is one of very few (maybe the only one) that has those columns in the middle. Diana surely passed several other tunnels without such columns. Unlucky at the Avenue de New York.

Antiques. Sept.

The Old World still exists unreconstructed in the passages. This is a curiosity shop off the main drag of Rivoli near the Louvre/Palais Royal.

Kenne-dix! Sept.

The Kennedys spend a lot of time on TV here; a documentary on the life and death of JFK Jr. Recently, Marilyn and JFK, and another one on Jackie O.

Propreté Sept.

This still astonishes me. A state agent taking care of the street below my window.

Posted by amol at September 30, 2002 01:14 PM