France Tales

I spent the weekend of November 14-17th in Paris. I needed a change of scenery and that is just what I got.

I went to see my first play entirely in French, most of which I understood. Les Hommes Preferent Les Blonds, it didn’t occupy the highest brow on the cultural ladder but I got half price tickets at La Madeleine so I went. It was a goofy play about a group of gay men and gay jokes are nearly universal so even if I didn’t get the exact meanings of some of the jokes I still got the gist!

I went to the newish Museum Quai Branly, at night the garden is illuminated by beautiful lights hidden in the plants.

I went to the Petit Palais which has always been closed when I have gone. I didn’t realize that the collection was free to enter. I walked around Le Grand Palais but didn’t enter.

I went to the Museum in the Luxumbourg Gardens which had an exhibition entitled From Miro to Warhol which was quite good. I couldn’t get tickets to the Picasso et Les Mâitres so I went here instead as there were a few pieces by Picasso.

I walked around le Marais and went to the Pompidou. I bought tickets to the Futurism in Paris exhibit, which was okay but I didn’t really know much about the Italian futurists and didn’t think they were so hot.

I walked along the Seine at night and earlier in the day I went to the Bouquinistes?

What else did I see? Le Congrès, the pyramid in front of the Louvres, not enough time to try to see anything in the Louvre, of course le Tour Eiffel, Place de la Concorde, Arc de triomphe, shopping on St Germaine, 4€ express at Café des artistes, etc.

I went to a party on Saturday evening at an apartment near Bastille. An American man from NY who lived in Paris and then in Moscow for 15 years was coming back through France on his way back to NY. There were very interesting people and we danced a large part of the evening. There was a woman who has been a war reporter in Bagdad for the last 4 years, but this evening she was dressed in a Chanel dress looking very ummmm Parisian, really there is no other description for how she looked. Very interesting contrasts. At one point a man started to speak to introduce the birthday boy and he did the introduction in English, French, Spanish, Hebrew, Russian, and German, and he was just the DJ. There was also the slightly bizarre but interesting nonetheless, man who introduces himself as Russian although he is half Russian and half Malian, he says when he enters the US jaws drop at customs, here is a shortish black man crossing the border into the US on a Russian passport, you think Arabs have problems he tells me. All in all, quite entertaining party.

On Sunday evening I went to Open Studios. In the Abesses neighborhood there was a Portes Ouvertes and over 100 artists had open studios. The event was extremely well organized. For 10€ you could buy a stack of post cards. There was one card for each participating artist. On one side there was a picture of their work and on the other side there was the address of their studio but also there was a number. The number corresponded with the number on the map you also received. It was very easy to sort through the cards to pull out the ones you were interested in seeing. Then you took the map and planned your itinerary. Since it was in Monmartre I also saw Sacre Coeur but from very different angles than I was used to seeing. On top of all this, one of my favorite things to see in open studios are the studios themselves. I saw some stunning studios that must be amazing to work in. Then of course you have over 100 post cards that you can send in the mail.

All in all it reminded me that although there is a huge dark cloud hanging over my head currently, life is incredible. Pardon my gushing but sometimes it is hard to see the silver lining when you do battle with only the clouds.