June 30, 2002
Libraries, but books? Fous!
Libraries, but books? Fous!
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| Cold War collection. 29 Juin. |
So I was pleased by how helpful they were to an etudiant etranger at the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme. Wrongly. They don't have any books. The only vaguely me-related journal they had was Cognition which is fair enough but geez.
Anyway, they did have the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. In volume 6, I found the entry on Germany. "State that existed until 1945." Long discussions of a string of capitalist crises, monopoly capitalism, "Junker capitalism", and other fine-grained Marxist-historian categories of analysis for pre-war Germany.
Then WW2: "German fascist campaign for world domination". Mentions the UK/French declaration of war in response to Germany's invasion of Poland, but then derides their efforts as "completely unable to help their ally". Does not mention USSR policy at all--except to say that Germany finally broke the non-aggression pact. No mention at all of Soviet complicity with Hitler theretofore (remember Churchill's "Russia is a mystery wrapped in an enigma inside a mystery" or whatever).
Mentions the USA a single time, to say "From 1940, Germany was also at war with the USA." Absolutely no further mention of the US role in WW2, and in the defeat of the Nazis in Europe. Then again, how much do you know about the USSR's role in defeating Germany? You know the US met the USSR in Berlin, but what about how they got there?
I wonder if non-communist history has been much more even-handed than the state-administered variety.
June 29, 2002
Special Address from George Bush
Special Address from George Bush
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| Sly and George. 27 Juin. |
You'll recall that Bush announced that he wants Arafat out of power in Palestine (no comment on Hugo Chavez in Venezuela though).
Bush appeared, as usual, with his slick spokesman, Sylvester Stallone. Sly does most of the talking, only checking with George on the tough ones.
The interviewer asked "what orders does Bush have for the Palestinians?" Sly said, "well we want to get rid of Arafat." Then he turned to Bush. George said he wants "fries with that!" and that he'd like "some buffalo chicken wings!" I didn't totally follow, but then Sly tried to quick GB on his ability to identify a pickle; Bush first thought it was a car, then guessed "french fry".
Chateau Architecture
Chateau Architecture
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| The Arts and Metiers. 23 Juin. |
Indeed, a timeless question. Well here you have it, a fine "transitional period" building that shows the where and wherefore of that architectural peculiarity.
The chateaux-style construction links back to the political/economic organization of French society under feudalism. Local lords ruled their fiefdoms oppressively while warring with their neighbors constantly (like at your office job). The lords had houses, and since there were many lords the houses are spread all around France. They are moderately sized, not Versailles-scale because they antedate the consolidation of power and the nationalism movements to follow. Fine.
But their generally warlike roots required fortress construction, not suburban pleasure palaces. Here on the Arts et Metiers (the engineering university in Paris, I think) you can see the fundamentally Lego-esque fortress. The round turret tower with the little slits for pouring hot oil or shooting arrows or whatever. The windows lined up with like the row of teeth on top of Castle Grayskull in He-Man; the Platonic form of the 'medieval castle'. Only the moat is missing.
As the warring and such subsided, the places got spruced up. Need a roof on that ugly old turret? Well, a cone will do to keep the rain off of Rapunzel or Rumplestiltskin or whoever you need to keep up there. Same thing with that huge, sloping mansard roof on the corners. There you have it.
Dropping "e" in the library
Dropping "e" in the library
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| Party central. 23 Juin. |
The Arcades Project
The Arcades Project
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| A Passage near St. Denis. 23 Juin. |
It was to be Benjamin's grandest project, the study of the arcades of Paris. A study of the specialized architectural spaces designed to suit an emerging form of popular consumer and commercial culture in Paris early in the 20th century.
So I used to wonder what this was about, not having read anything much about it of course, since I'd never seen many video games in Paris.
Well the arcades in question were these passages which are in many parts of the city but particularly concentrated in the 2nd admt. near the gate of St. Denis. I'm told the Catholic Church sold off a lot of land at the end of the 19th century, to raise money for something (sexual predation scandals?) and that enterprising builders went on a spree of passage construction.
The photo there is not so much of a street, it's through a gate in the middle of a block. It looks into a very large space mined out of the block itself. It's a narrow little pedestrian street with shops along both sides. Many of the passages are themed--so there's one with tons of tacky Indian restaurants (like 6th st in NY) and another one with lots of elaborate mirrors (just for aesthetics).
The passages are malls!
Too bad Benjamin couldn't stick around to finish his project and/or visit the Mall of America.
June 26, 2002
French Lessons
French Lessons
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| The student's friend. 23 Juin. |
Psycholinguists divide the overal linguistic ability into five big sections: phonological processing, morphological processing, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics (the last one is sort of extra-linguistic).
The first one is the sound components of words. So that guttural french R sound or the english liquid R sound ("whateveRRRR!"). That's a big problem, since everything I say makes me sound like a crazy anglophone. Interestingly, the French can't tell (when I am speaking french) whether I am American or British. The second one is how to assemble parts into words. That one you don't really think about as often in language class or in real life. You kind of run morphology and phonology together, actually.
The third thing is the meanings of words, roughly. Now that's the vocabulary problem and I'm attacking it head on. Flashcards and stuff. That you can solve.
Finally, there is syntax. Normal language users really don't think about this at all, yet learning language makes the complexity of the Byzantine rules quite vivid. That's the biggest problem. You learn vocabulary in your own language all the time; learning French vocabulary just involves learning more of it. But the syntax--ouf! When's the last time you thought about indirect object pronouns and whatnot? They just SOUND right. And that's because a sub-conscious congitive system is computing the right answers for you. If only mine would read the French book when the rest of me is sleeping!
Clichés
Clichés
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| Lacoste; Tony parody. 23 Juin. |
They are not at all reliable, it turns out.
Things you thought they do that they really do:
- Say "Voila!" -- but they say it constantly (like "yeah" or "that's it"), not reserving it for waiters flourishing out a dish
- Wear Lacoste -- but it's not cool at all. It's kind of the like the Ralph Lauren Polo shirt or CK logo t-shirts. Very bourgeois.
- Wear blue horizontal striped shirts -- more on this later.
- Sit about lazily -- 10% unemployment.
- Behave rudely -- indeed.
- Have lots of little dogs -- the Parisian's exposure nature.
- Drink wine -- even at McDonalds, as I'm sure you've heard.
- Smoke cigarettes -- but less than they used to, that's for sure.
- Dislike the Brits and Krauts
Things they don't really do:
- Say "Sacre Bleu"
- Wear red scarves or berets.
- Eat "croque monsieurs"
- Eat French food
- Speak English very well at all -- all that Hollywood schlock is dubbed, silly! (Guess how they pronounce Spider-Man...)
Madeleines
Madeleines
The madeleines--made from fresh eggs, as they say on the packet--are delicious: soft, spongy, sweet and buttery. I've been eating them every day for breakfast. Their fame in the famous passage from Proust is well-earned. Today I did not buy a new sack of them, however. We shall explore this belgian-waffle-looking-thing.
June 25, 2002
The Gray City
The Gray City
So here's a photo to answer the challenge, from a sensitive reader, to produce some photographic explorations of color in Paris.
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| Velvet ropes at BNF. 24 Juin. |
From the lobby at the BNF.
Le Monde en Dimanche, revisited
Le Monde en Dimanche, revisited
The thing that got me started on the whole journalism thing below is this: I read an article in Sunday's Le Monde about a recently discovered letter from Thomas Mann (author of Magic Mtn. and Dr. Faustus, etc.) to Columbia theologian Paul Tillich. The letter constitutes the only recorded statement by Thomas Mann on Martin Heidegger, his countryman, fellow intellectual, and (unlike Mann) a Nazi. Mann argues that in Heidegger's philosophy one finds a doctrine of reason and progress, and that in the criticsim of Enlightenment ideas we can raise their flag over new terrain, an argument that the journalist links to Nietzsche's Human, All Too Human. But the extreme rationalism of fascism should not be taken as an argument for the absurdity of progress, but as a new opportunity.
The guy is reporting the discovery of this letter and commenting on the position it reveals. The closest thing to this kind of discussion you could find in the NYT is if some sensationalist new interpretation of Shakespeare's identity kicked up a lot of dust. This particular piece hardly departs from the "news" of an academic firestorm, but rather from the issue of the idea itself.
June 23, 2002
The Role of Tourism
The Role of Tourism
Tourist season starts in earnest next month, July. So far it's just been college students from American/German unviersities on the semester system. Now that school's out, I believe the worst is to begin.
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| Pre-season. 23 Juin. |
Nobody, anywhere likes American/Italian/German tourists. Even the guys making their living off them consider them dolts whom they bilk. Why don't they like them? Here's what I take to be the French attitude:
- The Americans are loud. They talk to themselves loudly and make their annoying character very obvious. So I heard a quintessential New York-type pass by wondering outloud, "Let's get a Timeout! Let's see what's going on in this place!" There's no Timeout in Paris (there's a two-page TO insert in the Paris events weekly, Pariscope). The woman struck me as dumb just for thinking this foolish thought. Unfair? Maybe.
- The Americans are sharing-psychology victims. They like to say every damn thing on their mind. A woman on the bus with her kids was simply narrating every bloody thing that entered her mind, "Now I'm going to look for your diaper. Where is the thing? Okay, I'll look here....blah blah". Combine that problem with volume.
- The Americans start in English, usually. If you go anywhere that tourists are, you'll see them walk right up and say "What's this cost?". The French don't speak English, being French and all. Then the Americans get annoyed and repeat themselves more loudly, as if the Frenchman had come to America and was asking for directions or something.
- The Americans are visually repulsive to the French. The Americans are exceedingly fat. You cannot comprehend this fact if you don't leave the US. You can tell simply from someone's neck whether they are American or not. Even the Italians and the Germans are nothing like the Americans in this regard. The Americans also dress like tourism is a sport, wearing specialized athletic apparel to do their sightseeing--and they look silly in their cargo pants, hot weather shirts, sun hats, bookbags, etc. Perhaps this is practical but it is obvious and I think it attracts gypsies.
- The Americans have no taste. I don't think the Italians or Germans do either, but nevertheless all these tourists are completely missing all that is lovely about Paris. They are lined up in the heat at the Eiffel tower and at the mega-department stores when all the cool shops and beautiful little streets are elsewhere.
- The Americans are culture-consumers. They come to France to "buy" access to culture and history and taste and style from a place with nothing of its own to offer. At least the Italians and Germans come from very old countries with deep shared values in common.
- America is a semi-evil country. At this stage, the French would consider themselves at least as friendly to the Chinese and Russians and Middle East generally. The Cold-War-friendships have re-aligned. Tony the Rascal may still be the First Lapdog, but the French are no longer currying favor with the American colossus.
Dimanche en Le Monde
Dimanche en Le Monde
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| Le Monde. 23 Juin. |
Already this tells you a lot. It's easily one of the world's great newspapers, probably has the highest circulation in Paris (if not France), and certainly a leading voice in French politics. But they don't hurry it out by morning.
The American attitude on newspapers is that they should be one step short of peer-reviewed scientific journals of political and economic report.
The French papers are explicitly political. They call Chirac "Superliar". They call for rallies, and make themselves into protest placards (as was Liberation's cover against Le Pen, with an enormous "NON"). The lead story on Le Monde's cover is most often illustrated with a political cartoon, not a photo. At least a third of the cover inches are given to commentary, some directly from politicians advocating particular views.
As if American papers were not political. The oldest dailies surely are, think NY Daily News vs. NY Post. But the explicit project of the NYT, WSJ, WP etc is to isolate the editorial page into a hermetic box. The paper itself feigns to objectivity, the reporters are instructed to present all sides. The paper is meant to present the dialogue itself, not participate in a larger one that occurs on a wider stage.
There is much less room for news and wires in Le Monde. It's much more like the Economist than the Reuters newsfeed. The Economist reporter will say, Murdoch is buying fast (and it's a good thing too because otherwise he'd be toast, or whatever).
It all happens under the banner of the paper as well; very often, highly particular viewpoints (such as one recent frontpage box laughing at "Tony the Rascal's" problems with Her Majesty the Black Rod--which they translated as "la verge noir", the first meaning of "verge" being "penis") will be presented as from "our correspondent in London".
They also now include the New York Times on Sunday. (Le Monde on Dimanche costs exactly what it costs every other day, euros1,20.). I'll check the NYT/LM out and report back on it later. But the 12-page insert runs in English, not French. The American transmission appears not as an integrated body of reporting, but as an undigested ingot of Americanism. Presumably it is also spit out in just this fashion.
La fête de la musique
La fête de la musique
What are they talking about when they talk about French Culture? If all it amounts to is cheap tickets to a bunch of crappy Operas, then we don't need that in the US of A, now do we? Indeed, this is not what is meant.
Consider, for example, June 21. The date of the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, marks a major nationwide festival which clearly links back to pre-Christian pagan celebrations of the machinations of the natural world. In France, it happens to be the festival of music. It takes place in every city and town in France, and presumably also in people's homes and so on; and it exists entirely in communal, exterior public spaces.
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| 25,000 people, Baaba Mal at Hotel de Ville, 21 Juin. |
Here for example is the headline of the night: superstar British DJ Talvin Singh and Senegali world-music-megastar Baaba Mal. Here at Hotel de Ville--the site of constant, beautiful juxtapositions of French history and contemporaneity (they show the World Cup there on a huge screen to big crowds, but on a random no-match day as I passed, there were showing an old Tom & Jerry cartoon: the one where the avatars of Tom and Jerry appear as Musketeers and battle with rapiers. 40 feet tall, in front of the Hotel de Ville!! Hilarious.)--here at HdV, there were something like 25,000 people of all ages, mainly youngish. Essentially, it was Lollapalooza at the Lincoln Memorial.
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| 25 people, Metallica cover band somewhere 21 Juin. |
But the Fête de la Musique is more than music events in strange places.
Of course it's gratuit to attend. The government pays. The last great free concert I attended was at Columbia, and my suspicion is that there was an economic model somewhere in the background including variables linked to alumni-giving rates. There is, I suppose, the Central Park Great Lawn series in New York, the summer stage stuff, and so on.
But on the same night, Lenny Kravitz was at Republique, playing to 45,000 people. Jazz, rock, world, classical, opera, you name it was on in some part of town. The ten-page insert in Le Monde had only enough room to devote 4 words to the Lenny Kravitz event. There was a lot going on.
And there was this wacko French Metallica cover band around the corner from our house, "...and nothing else matters!". Across Sebastopol into the Marais, we cruised through streets of inverted clubs--their sound systems and DJs turned outwards and the streets turned into dancefloors. 500 kids pumping their fists to breakbeat; next corner, an ultra-cheese 80s Madonna-remix set; next street, a huge throbbing big-bicep, ripped t-shirt ocean of french kissing gay men at Open; two blocks till a group of 20 people bugging out to some french dudes slashing out "Louie Louie...oh oh".
Outside our window, the crowd at the Afro-Cuban restaurant peaked around 2am, as the drummers hit their peak intensity.
June 22, 2002
Old Paris, Gay Paris
Old Paris, Gay Paris
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| Bains in the Marais. 19 Juin. |
But now the Marais is the gay district--Chelsea or Castro-scale in scope. And the baths, well, you don't have to change a thing, do you? But in this case they did--the Bains Guerbois are now a kickin' dance club.
French-Mex
French-Mex
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| Pecos Grill. 19 Juin. |
The Frenchman's burrito: at the center of the plate, a chicken crepe folded in a rectangle, with a shell of crispy cheese melted all around. A small bowl of tomato sauce (Italian style, but with a bit of spice to merit calling it salsa), a bit of avacado puree, and creme fraiche (not quite, but may as well be sour cream).
June 20, 2002
Little Frenchman, Little Feet
Little Frenchman, Little Feet
Went shopping for rollerblades. Available as cheaply as 45 euros/pair.
But, the Frenchman is a small genus of european humanoid. Think of Sartre. You never saw him photographed standing next to anyone, did you? Or Camus? They faked the whole "lonely existentialist figure" thing to avoid standing next to brawny Germans like Heidegger in daguerrotype sittings. Vichy France anyone?
My feet are on the large side--size 13 in US sneakers, or size 14 in US basketball sneakers--but seriously, how is it that the great continental capital of Paris doesn't carry my size in rollerblades, period?
The Papers
The Papers
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| The Papers, 18 Juin. |
LeMonde.fr Headlines:
Lead: Jean-Pierre Raffarin Chooses His Ministers
Photo: Claudie Haignere, nominated for a post
Also:
Israel Palestine: Suicide attack in Jerusalem,
China: Over 550 Dead in Floods,
Andersen: Death of the Accounting Firm
Latest/Wire:
Club Med reports fall in profits and summer bookings
Bourse: Paris market returns to 4000 height
Club Med fall in summer bookings
TheTimes.co.uk Headlines:
Lead: Budget airline pilots accused of putting safety at risk
Photo: David Beckham's homework: to beat Brazil
Also:
EU rejects Blair's asylum crackdown,
Brown softens reshuffle blow,
World Cup: Ronaldo points Brazil at England
Latest/Wire:
Israelis seek more bombers after fatal blast
Japan eliminated from World Cup
Inflation down 0.4% to 1.1%
NYT.com Headlines:
Lead: Suicide Bomber Hits Jerusalem Bus
Photo: Jerusalem bus wreckage
Also:
Americans seized at Afghan border, Pakistan asserts,
Silently shifting teachers in sex abuse cases,
Critics christen ship project as an off-course USS Pork
Tertiary:
Forest worker held in fires creates anger and sympathy
A Wall St. push to water down securities law
Bloomberg plans more housing aid for the homeless
Krugman: Politicians on drugs
Kristof: Women's rights--Why not?
Latest/Wire:
Injured Brewers outlast Astros
New EgyptAir head named
Top Enron managers paid $744 million
June 19, 2002
Back to the BNF
Back to the BNF
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| The Fortress of Connaissance. 18 Juin. |
A French architect friend mentioned that he didn't find the BNF (Bibliotheque National de France--like the Library of Congress) to be a successful project. It was a fortress, isolated from the city around it and therefore from the people.
On my first visit, reported exclusivly on these very pages last week, I couldn't have agreed more. The bloody thing was closed on a Monday (as if it were a museum) and completely iced down. A huge esplanade framed by four glass monoliths--completely transparent yet utterly mysterious about their contents; you can only see through them, not into them.
You can click on the pictures over at the right. The first big one will be the cover of my next album or first existentialist manifesto. At 5pm, at a time when the library was absolutely bustling with activity deep inside from whence I was emerging, this was the scene on the surface level. Utterly empty, huge spaces, punctuated by the occasional and tiny human figure. In this case, it was a guard (see "Manpower" below).
Look at the choice of materials: this huge space is constructed of this bleached, gray wood. Set into immense, unbroken strips that join with the towers and run straight upward.
The wide, low steps that border the entire campus put the pedestrian at the outside of a wall of metal rectangles and cubes of bushes. The metal/plant alternation along the border of the perimeter is broken only by very narrow channels through with a person can enter. They are all identical narrow channels; there's no wide main entrance anywhere. The plant boxes are more like cages, with gridded fences holding in the closely trimmed bushes inside.
Outside it's all exclusion, isolation, fortification.
Then inside, just look at the two snaps below. Huge glass corridors with ceilings high above. At the upper level, about a dozen cellular study rooms, each devoted to a different discipline. Each room completely isolated from the others, even from light from the outside. All the interior light of the studies is provided by numerous warm halogen bulbs set all around the rooms. It reflects off of the extremely rich, red woods chosen for the floors and the bookshelves. The futuristic glass-and-steel frames of the exterior become ultra-luxurious carpet, wood, fire, leather, and paper on the inside.
There are stacks of books in the reading rooms, but apparently a vast collection is stored in the four towers and mechanically extracted on request by researchers.
The interior spaces really are incredible, easily the most sumptuously furnished library I've been in. And that's just the upper level, for which I paid my annual admission ticket to use. At the lower level, you need to file a special application. One can peek, across the central forest of the library, down through the glass into the lower level. There, the ceilings are three stories high all around. I wonder what they have at this most privileged heart of knowledge!
The architect is Dominique Perrault.
Manpower
Manpower
At the library in particular, or even at FNAC (sort of like Nobody Beats the Wiz or Circuit City, except with a huge and very busy book section--the French read, I guess), there's a heck of a lot of manpower on display. At the Pompidou, there's a librarian station with two librarians every 50 feet. There are security-type guys staring into space at every traffic flow point. There are cleaners and card checkers and book filers. At the stores, especially the big ones, there are dozens of people standing around, literally.
At BHV, the megamart across from Hotel de Ville, there's something like 1 saleperson for every 10 shoppers. The place is crowded like the perfume counters at Macy's Herald Square, if you know what I mean.
Yet on the streets, there are people all day. Doing stuff. Not exactly standing on the street corner, staring glumly, Harlem-style. But just doing stuff that's un-touristy. I'm guessing they're on the streets, on the dole, and out of luck.
Indeed one of the big arguments for the mad 35-hour workweek 2 years ago was not quality of life, but the idea that this would encourage employers to take on more workers. Reducing unemployment by limiting the maximum work hours!! What an idea. No wonder 10% of France is unemployed (presumably this is 10% of the work-eligible population, meaning that another 10% or so is too old, on pension, too young, too sick, too pregnant, etc.).
La Culture Portable
La Culture Portable
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| Cell tower, en face. 18 Juin. |
What are the anthropological insights into the American future or the French psyche that portable culture observation affords?
Rich kids have the coolest phones. At the BNF, watching the law students, one observes some pretty fresh phones. The hyphenated Frenchmen (immigrants' children) also have some pretty dope phones to go with their diesel jeans, "wet look" hair, and gaudy jewelry (same in the US, right?).
Phones as necklaces. I have seen some mention of this kooky trend in the US, but there are a number of people walking the streets with their phones on necklaces. Think summer camp counselor with that big, goofy pen on a string around her neck...that's sort of what it looks like even when the portable is a shiny silver Nokia. Not sure that the look has legs (unless the phones start looking more like pens).
Usage Interdit. Many many many places prohibit the usage of mobile phones altogether. Especially libraries of course. This is something only starting to happen in the US. The development of a cultural etiquette to accompany new technology also requires some zones of legislated norms. They even make announcements every 90 minutes or so in the Pompidou library, it's that much of a problem.
People don't seem to worry all that much about theft. I see people leave their books and phone sitting on a desk and walk away. The phone is expensive; what's the deal?
Personalized ringtones. In the US, when the phone rings it's usually that lame generic Nokia ring. That's because the owner is usually that lame generic cell phone novice. "How do I make it stop ringing?!! Damn thing. HELLO, CAN YOU HEAR ME? YES I'M ON MY CELL PHONE..." Don't hear the rings in public as often here, and when so they are different. Haven't seen any loud talkers either though there must be some, right?
Grandmas with cell phones? I haven't noticed any yet. Not sure why. But in the US there are surely many. Perhaps a product of affluence or the American paranoia about being old/along ("I've fallen and I can't get up!").
Plenty of cell phone shops. I'd say there are more SFR, Orange, Boygues Telecom shops here than in the US. They certainly cell phones in more outlets than in the US. And the sales channels for the prepaid airtime cards are numerous. This seems to piggyback on the ubiquitous public phone prepaid cards system, all for sale at Tabacs.
Texting. Everywhere. Even where interdit, cell phones are used constantly to send text. Kids on line, security guards in their little security chairs, etc.
Variety of contracts, semi-contracts, no-contracts. You can get a plan with a 1 year or 2 year contract, 6-month contract (with higher up front cost for the phone) or 3 month contract or even no contract at all. Even when you get no contract and go for prepaid (no monthly charges), you have a wide range of different prepaid "plans". Some are weekend friendly, some are peak friendly etc. Much more choice. Obviously lots of choice in handsets too; all way cooler than the US options, generally.
Public Arts
Public Arts
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| Columns under the El. 18 Juin. |
Take a look at this stretch of elevated Metro in Paris, at Quai de la Gare. The columns that hold up the rail track are (in Bush 43's words) "grecian". Compare to the elevated tracks at 125th Street in Manhattan, where huge futurist girders soar 100 feet above ground, painted silver and cross-hatched with the diagonals of heavy iron supports. The building there is the station house itself, where inexpensive brick has been arranged into an interesting pattern of color.
At a particularly immense interchange, at Metro Montparnasse Bienvenue, there's an airport-style corridor that just goes forever. They've put in moving walkways and it still takes a while. But all along the long tube there are huge illustrations, Metro-agency installed art and photographs, a long historical timeline of the metro and Paris history, and so on. Think even of American airports: you'd usually find some lame faux-museum exhibit on the history of the local Native Americans (San Francisco International airport domestic terminal) or an endless and mind-numbing series of lightbox ads for consultings companies that "think at the speed of thinking" and so on.
June 18, 2002
Il fait chaud
Il fait chaud
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| The map of Parisian temperatures. 18 Juin. |
Those little black numbers next to the temperature readings do not correspond to any metereological facts. Those (such as the 75 in the center), I believe, correspond to the numbers of the districts of France. Paris itself constitutes 9 districts of the nation's several hundred (I think -- if this were Le Monde I'd be checking facts). Interestingly, I'm not sure that the districts map onto particular arrondissments.
On the positive side, though, is the sunlight.
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| The long day. 18 Juin. |
Added - 12/12/2002
The man's comment below is right. I was mistaken. Maybe the 9 departments are those that make up "greater" Paris or Ile-de-France, as many do refer to places like St. Denis as part of Paris qua population center. Though this still is not Le Monde.
June 16, 2002
H&M, worldwide
H&M, worldwide
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| Bustling. 15 Juin. |
The shocking part is that H&M seems to be Swedish; Paris has 4 Ikeas in the metropolitan area. There is something to the concept: cheap, chic, simple, and so on. Somehow, Old Navy doesn't even seem to be close.
Anyway, the Frenchman loves H&M as much as the New-Yorker.
Other good neighborhoods for shopping: Marais (including the streets running right up to Rue de Rivoli near Hotel de Ville), Oberkampf, the rest of the Opera area. To be explored: the recommendations of Paris Pas Cher. Also not yet investigated: Samaritaine's and Au Bon Marche. BHV, Lafayette and Printemps are pretty under control.
Rooting for Ireland
Rooting for Ireland
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| Espagne 1-Eire 1 (3-2 tirs au buts) . 16 Juin. |
The French Street, where interest in regional European competition runs high. These partisans gathered outside the falafel shop downstairs, to watch the tirs au buts deciding the match.
Neighborhood Fencing Scrimmage
Neighborhood Fencing Scrimmage
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| Swordplay in the Marais. 16 Juin. |
In just about the only neighborhood open for business on Sunday, the town sporting hall put on a forum for a bit of local sport.
June 15, 2002
Rational Gardens
Rational Gardens
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| Jardin de Palais Royale. 15 Juin. |
No big lawns, the quintessentially American representation of nature.
And of course nothing to suggest the ur-Gardens of English heritage: the winding, walking, controlled wildness.
Clear of crotte des chiens (dog ____) and set up for people to stroll. Apparently it's the little dogs themselves that are meant to bring a taste of wild nature into the lives of les Parisiennes.
Le Sport
Le Sport
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| Motorcycle racing. 15 Juin. |
In Monte Carlo, they still had all the "Monte Carlo Grand Prix" stuff up all around. A huge, prominent Marlboro sign in front of the casino.
Around Paris, though, there is not much sport to be seen (not just lack of runners). Partly, this is because there are no green fields to do it on. A fair number of rollerbladers, some cyclists, and a very very few runners. Didn't see any spontaneous stickball matches in the street.
The car racing on TV is more curvy and challenging generally than the 0-track stuff they do at the Daytona 500 and such. That rally stuff they were showing is rad: wheels flying off cars and stuff.
Unusually Colorful Frenchman
Unusually Colorful Frenchman
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| Illustration of L'Homme. 14 Juin. |
But I captured this gripping illustration of the human anatomy. Look at his beautifully waxed moustache, pointed beard, aristocratic eyes and expression, carefully kept hair. He is an ideal human specimen. Reminds me of Descartes (without the hat that Renee usually seems to be wearing).
A close-up of this anatomically correct Frenchman. (I think it's evident at this point that, for this blog, I'm not going to be doing any "click on the thumbnail" stuff en generale. I'm just going to stick pics on here at a decent resolution. I mean, the page will take some time to load, but that's why I've written all this interesting commentary for you to read.)
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| The Smile of a Dissected Man. 14 Juin. |
Also, here we see the skeleton of a philosopher (homme de pensees, generalment). This photo from Diderot and Dalambert's Encylopedie (marked down to 7 euros).
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| Hamlet, on the inside. 14 Juin. |
A Gray City Peopled With Whites
A Gray City Peopled With Whites
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| Typical stuff. 13 Juin. |
Hardly an undeserved reputation that, for Paris. Consider Place J. du Bellay just here by our apartment. It's an impressive square, with a large beaux-arts fountain at the center. It's a sort of Washington Square park for our Parisian East Village.
June 14, 2002
Le Louvre
Le Louvre
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| Pei's pyramid. 13 Juin. |
Essentially the same idea at the Louvre. The glass pyramid is actually a giant skylight to the huge new lobby they built below. Same deal at Avery, where they've got this cafe/study area down there. I mean, did they pay the guy for this?
Centre Georges Pompidou
Centre Georges Pompidou
Here's where I'm all set up now. It's the first two floors of the well-touristed modern art museum in Paris (which is just the top two floors, well, at the very top is a restaurant called Georges which is tres chic).
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| Click on these for detail on the library. 14 Juin. |
So it's modern and ultrahip yet enormous and comfortably provided with essential resources. There's a nice cafe where all the kids eat snacks and step out onto the outer balconies for smokes (and to look at each other).
It's mostly teenage kids that use the place. I can't quite tell precisely what age. They could easily be college-aged and I wouldn't be able to tell them from pre-teens. They are, of course, the problem, since they like to giggle.
Weirdly, the library doesn't open at all until 12 noon. Strikes me as a bit late, but hey it works for them.
Paris, at 6.5 miles per hour
Paris, at 6.5 miles per hour
Ran my first run on Wednesday night, around 7.30pm. Ran out the door, down Rue Sebastopol, turned right at Rue de Rivoli (near the Hotel de Ville), cut past Chatelet down to Pont Neuf, ran along the Seine past the Louvre, Tuilleries, Musee D'Orsay, to Concorde where Napoleon put the Obelisk he retreived from Egypt, then returned along the Left Bank. About 3 miles.
Pas du frenchmen! It must be illegal or something. At the height of the evening, nobody out there. Actually two guys along the whole route. Both looked very surprised to see me as I sailed past them.
The air's not very clean, actually. You don't notice it walking around. All those little mopeds and little cars may be fuel efficient but they're not very clean. Maybe it was rush hour. I'll try one of these mornings around 8.30am. There's literally nobody out there at 8.30am. The frenchman also likes to sleep in.
June 13, 2002
The Problem of Dog Shit
The Problem of Dog Shit
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| Clean park. 11 Juin. |
As an explanation for this I was told that the Parisians expect the government to clean up the dog shit for them.
Here, illustrated, you see a pristine park where in fact the government does clean up the dog shit for them. And on busy streets, men ride around on lawn-mower-like machines that literally sweep up all the trash and filth on the streets. But merde is not part of the government's domain of responsibility.
Sadly, the riding-street-sweepers have no effect on the residue of urination.
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| They can ride this too. 14 Juin. |
Let me just add a third problem: the city's sewers are very old and so not very deep. Sometimes you can smell them on the ground. Add to this that the Metro is very old and so also rather shallow (just below the sewers I'm told). And so, there is the problem of the sewer smells in the Metro's extensive network of correspondance tunnels.
Get this though: not much public urination in those tunnels. In fact, the Frenchman would rather piss on the open street peopled with children and old ladies (I have seen this) than in the dank, remote reaches of the underground.
By this measure, les tramps New-Yorkaise are far more shy. They don't mind pissing on subway platforms at all, but you'll never see them or even drunk fratboys from NYU pissing in front of you, in mid-afternoon, on a ("smart") car (yes, I have seen this too).
At the French Supermarket
At the French Supermarket
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| Yoga milk. 12 Juin. |
Following on some previous comments, I decided to investigate the supermarket more closely.
Monoprix, as the name suggests is a low-price place and I decided to look at the grocery there in detail. I could have gone to Au Bon Marche and wowed you further.
Several interesting facts about the French grocery:
- the Frenchman likes a semi-prepared meal as much as any Yankee. Food is available at all stages of preparation, from raw pasta to fresh stuffed shells to reheat-me to eat-me-here's-a-fork.
- the Frenchman is not a twentysomething postcollege bachelor. That is, frozen pizzas, jars of pasta sauce, crates of beer, chips (corn or potato), sliced white bread and peanut butter, nor any of the staples of such existence are in comparable abundance here as in the US. In certain heavily male districts (the Albertson's on El Camino in Mountain View), the store bulges with bachelor food: huge aisles with 1000s of frozen pizzas, palettes of diet sodas. Not so here.
- the Frenchman loves small packages. Everything is small. You don't economy-size it.
- the Frenchman eats things soon. Things don't seem to be stored. Indeed, very few things are frozen at all. Even the fish are in the refrigerated section, stored in the way the US market would store milk or cheese.
- the Frenchman likes to go to many shops. The butcher is elsewhere, as are the drugstore items, as are, for that matter, motor oil, chainsaws, and automatic weapons.
- Enormous selection and variety. It's not just a difference in taste (e.g. few pizzas, instead...1000s of quiches). There are very many things, represented with small selections of each (except the friggin' yogurts).
What explains this? There could simply be structural reasons for some of it:
- small apartments = smaller package, shorter storage time
- cultural bias against storing food very long.
- cultural disinterest in 'super size', but interest in fresh or "natural"
- more hetergeneous citizenry hails from more european backgrounds, therefore demanding more variety (?)
- no cars, people need to walk home with what they buy (same in NY though)
- smaller scale, less economized production, marketing, and distribution dynamics. It's easier to sell one kind of thing with small variations, hence the US system pushes through beef, pizza, and potato chips at huge volumes (ignoring salmon eggs, carrot mousse, and pesto sauces).
See it and believe. Gallery of pictures from my trip to Monoprix.
June 12, 2002
Mitterand's Monument
Mitterand's Monument
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| Bibliotheque National de France. 10 Juin. |
Checking out places to study, I decided to have a look at the BNF, last stop on the 14 line. Immense! Couldn't even get in. But literally the image of Borges's endless library with all the books in logical space. So utterly overwhelming and imposing that I simply can't imagine what's it's like when there are people there. It was closed when I was there. I'll go back and see if it livens up at all.
Just to paint the picture a bit. The camera couldn't really capture the scene. There are 4, 22-story towers like the ones you see. But the books aren't in the towers. They're all beneath your feet, underground in the 4-story deep bedrock of the overall structure. You see it there, surrounding the trees. The trees are at the center of the annulus, themselves planted in the gravewell at the center. A forest in the middle of an immense library of books, bookended at the corners by towers of pure glass. Everything in grids: the ground itself, the walls of the buildings, the fencings around the bushes, the compound itself.
Franco-anglophonic Television
Franco-anglophonic Television
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| Paul Auster, speaking in Brooklyn to "Double Je". 10 Juin. |
As amply demonstrated by things like "le weekend" and the street-level excitement about Spider-man, it would be foolish to imagine the French as rejecting American/"anglophone" culture wholesale.
Love-hate isn't quite the right way to think of it either. The attitude doesn't oscillate between appreciating then suddenly disliking precisely certain features of the confrontation with America. Rather, if the snobbish and hurried New Yorker reminds the French of Parisiennes, it is the utter corporate and commercial domination of all New York's great streets that is loathsome. So it's complex. Puritanical, oversimplifying (Bush's "cowboys and indians"), arrogant, gluttonous, and so on are the bad things.
And all the cultural oppression happens in English.
Literally half the movies on the movie channels at a given moment are Hollywood dubs. There aren't quite as many primetime TV shows, but during the day they run a number of US programs (they seem to like Pacific Blue). The cultural products consumed are to a great extent American and British.
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| Expat HQ. 10 Juin. |
But that's really not true of the telephone company, or the food in the grocery, or cars. Or books. It's isn't merely the overpowering American economy that shoves US-exports down French throats. Something else explains the excess of American TV shows.
It must be that they like the stuff.
St Denis, endlessly fascinating
St Denis, endlessly fascinating
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| You can't miss us. We're just up the steps from Club 111. 12 Juin. |
See for yourself how things have changed in the yellow pages: Les Pauges Jaunes, 111 Rue St Denis. Our own Club 111 is new since their photographer was here.
The NBA on...Canal+
The NBA on...Canal+
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| Broadcast of Lakers-Nets 1-3. 12 Juin. |
On the one hand it's amazing that they're showing it at all. On the other, I'm not sure I can venture an understanding of the format chosen. C'est bizarre!
June 11, 2002
Latitudes
Latitudes
Little did you know, when selecting cities for summering that New York City is at only 40 degrees latitude, while San Francisco is at 37, Paris at 48 and London at 51. It makes a big difference, as June days in New York only stretch till 9pm while we're presently enjoying days till nearly 10 here at 48.
Little Everything
Little Everything
Everything in Paris is smaller. There are only 2 million people; the metro trains on many lines are half the length of NY subway; the buildings are a maximum of 7 stories in central Paris and around 15 stories further out; the cars are tiny; the supermarkets are full of tiny tomatos sauce jars and tiny bags of chips. No economy size anything.
June 10, 2002
The Apartment
The Apartment
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| Some pics of the place. 09 Juin. |
It's the attic, so the roof slants (can't see it in the pictures) but that also means we have a skylight.
Rue St Denis
Rue St Denis
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| La rue et the view (of a corner of Pompidou). 09 Juin. |
You can see that St Denis is literally a 2 minute walk from the Centre George Pompidou, a really amazing and massive public place. There's an excellent museum of modern art on the top floor, but the building itself is a significant architectural etoile in the firmament of Parisian buildings. Not just that but it has a tremendous public library inside, theater space for public performances, a post office, an excellent design store (Printemps Design; I must say that it is more advanced than the MoMA Design Store), among other things. More on that later, but the nearby tourist mecca explains why St Denis is East Village-Old Times Square-and-also-New-Times-Square. A number of the restaurants are big, efficient touristy caricatures of European cuisine (such as Pizza Pino across from the Diesel store).
The street culture buts right up against this. Last Friday night we found ourselves slicing through a crowd that was half african dancing and half milling. A big homemade sign proclaimed (roughly) a "spontaneous happening of the citizens of the street". People were giving out free food, preaching political views, and dancing to music.
Les Fetes along the Seine
Speaking of spontaneous happenings: Thursday night on the Seine is something to see. Strung across every bridge and along every nook of the pedestrian-friendly banks were dozens of picnics, soirees, and river-gazing couples. The Parisians gather en masse on the river during the warm evenings of summer and drink wine, eat food, play music (lots of tramps hanging out playing guitars and flutes and such), etc. The map of Paris doesn't have a big "central" park; but it has the Seine, which is fantastically beautiful and substantially preserved for use by the citizens (i.e. no Robert Moses-style West Side Highway/FDR drive to rob them of the riverbanks).
June 09, 2002
1er Arrondissment
1er Arrondissment
The apartment we rented is in the 1st, which puts it right in the center of Paris. We're just a few minutes walk from the Seine, the Louvre, the Palais Royal, the Opera, the Marais, the Beaubourg, Pont Neuf, several Diesel shops and so on.
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| From the living room. 04 Juin. |
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| 'Hood tuff. 06 Juin. |
Our little pocket of the 1st is a bit downtrodden, next to an unsuccessful redesign of the old marketplace called Les Halles. It's a cross between the East Village and the old 42nd St in New York. Lots of streetwear and music shops, as well as red light video shops. The street itself, Rue St Denis, is infamous in Paris for its prostitutes and such. So far we haven't noticed too much of that (though I saw some guy selling pills the other morning; I'll try to get him on film later).
Le Foot
Le Foot
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| Rooting against the Germans. 02 Juin. |
At the Hotel de Ville in the center of Paris, in the big square (where they have ice skating in winter), there is an enormous TV screen showing all the matches. During the second match, against Uruguay, the square was packed like Times Square on New Year's Eve. Every sidewalk restuarant or sandwich bar had a television tuned to the match with a half dozen guys standing around watching. Bars were packed. Many shops were closed for the 90 minutes from 1.30pm to 3pm, while the guy inside went next door to the furniture shop and watched with the furniture shopkeeper on the television inside the showroom cabinet. Back at the apartment on the 5th floor, with the windows open, you could hear every run on goal as people cheered in the streets.
Zidane hasn't played the first two matches due to injury, like Achilles sulking at the opening of the Iliad. The hero of Le Mondial 1998, of the European championship in 2000, and of his league team's championship in 2002, the doctors have cleared him to return against Denmark. The French must win by 2 goals if they are to clear to the Round of 16. A stage of high drama for the returning hero. Can he deliver?
June 08, 2002
La côte d'azure
La côte d'azure
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| A Valbonne et Monte Carlo. 01-03 Juin. |
Click on the little pictures to full appreciate the place, and to see the Casino at Monte Carlo (astonishingly constructed entirely on the side of a mountain).
A massively effective respite after the very demanding journey: overnight flight into Charles De Gaulle, transportation mysteries, heavy luggage (full of philosophy books), and a long train ride on the TGV to Cannes.
A little badminton, tennis, swimming, and sunning. Some conversations with toads. C'est spectaculaire!
June 07, 2002
Wireless Up
Wireless Up
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| Scenes from the new rig-up. 07 June. |
[Cliquez] We're online.
[Cliquez] We're online.
After two weeks utterly without contact, the Noos cable guys came by today and set us up. Cable modem and 150+ channels of digital cable for ~$30/month. Try beating that in the US.
Now to set up the rest of this rig: wireless router, cisco voip phone box, etc. If it works, then I'll be back. Otherwise, it's back down the street to EasyInternet Cafe to use the web at 1 euro/23 minutes.