Saturday, June 23, 2007

The End of Classes

No more pencils!
No more books!
No more teacher's
Dirty looks!

Yesterday marked the end of my French classes (at least for the time being!). I'm feeling a little bit wistful now.

Now I have one last week in Paris, free of classes, before I head for Prague and my next round of classes. Whatever shall I do?...

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Friday, June 22, 2007

La Fête de la Musique

June 21st was the Fête de la Musique. In honor of the occasion, there were musicians, mostly amateur, playing in just about every public square and most restaurants, cafes, and some bars had shows as well.

I exited from the oral part of the DFA to the sounds of a rock band in a nearby square. Coming home from the metro, I could hear music, another rock band, coming from the corner bar, while there was African music coming from the African restaurant a few doors down from my building. Over at Jules Joffrin, across from the mairie, an accordionist was playing, while the corner cafe had a group setting up their instruments.

And I had dinner at my favorite restaurant, La Table d'Eugene, which had arranged for a jazz group, the Jazz Mooners. For the dinner, the proprietor, Joël, had pushed the tables together for communal dining (as well as to leave room for the instruments), and I was seated next to a very nice French couple. The music was not, in fact, all that impressive: they basically played American standards with soft jazz arrangements. Surely there's French jazz? But they were certainly competent musicians and so it was an enjoyable evening.

By the time I left, it was just getting on to midnight, and I could still hear music from some of the local establishments. I thought about doing a little more "music hopping", unfortunately, I was tired and even a bit headachy (the DFA and the fretting over it had taken a lot out of me), so I just went home.

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Diplôme de Français des Affaires, 1er Degré

For the past few weeks, I've been kind of antsy, and I couldn't figure out if it was because of the impending Diplôme de français des affaires, 1er degré (DFA) or due to my upcoming relocation to Prague.

Well, I completed the DFA yesterday: it was mostly the DFA. (When I think about Prague now, I get a little tense, but nowhere near as unsettled as I had been.) In truth, it really wasn't anything to worry about, and I'm confident that I passed. I didn't do as well as I'd been hoping though: particularly on Tuesday's written exam, there were some words and concepts that we hadn't touched on in class, and I was obliged to guess. I had thought that perhaps nervousness was coloring my perception, but I've talked to some of my classmates, who confirmed my take.

The oral exam yesterday, though, was much less scary than I'd feared. The two examiners were both very non-threatening and the articles I had to work with were relatively easy. The English article was about the success of the owner of two Chicago-based pizzerias; the French article discussed the problems attached to the large number of people who live near the coast. (According to this article, 60% of the world's population lives within 60 km of a coast.) The vocabulary wasn't particularly complex, and I was able to sum up both articles easily.

It'll be at least a month before I have my results. As I said, I'm confident that I passed: the threshold for passing is only 60 (out of 100). In fact, I'm even pretty sure that I'll have managed a mention bien, which requires a score of 70. The real question in my mind is whether or not I pulled off a mention très bien, which requires at least 80. In the simulations that Mme Sainlos gave us in class, I consistently fell just below that level. On the one hand, Mme Sainlos suggested that our letters, résumés, and oral presentations would not be graded quite as strictly as she graded them, and on the other hand, this exam was harder than the simulations. So I just have to wait and see...

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Thursday, June 21, 2007

I went to Disneyland!

As advertised, I went to Disneyland last Wednesday (the 13th).

Euro-Disney is very like its California counterpart: everything is spic 'n' span, lines at the rides move along briskly, there are ample opportunities to meet Disney characters, and there are more than enough places to buy over-priced food and drinks and merchandise.

It was not, in fact, very French at all. The French visitors were vastly outnumbered by the American and British visitors. It seems that everyone on the staff speaks English; in fact, I was surprised to see that a lot of the signs were in English only, which I had thought was prohibited. While Fantasyland was somewhat transposed to France, there's blatantly nothing French about Frontierland or Main Street, USA. Discoveryland and Adventureland are pretty much stateless. The main French touch: the availability of wine and beer.

Neither was it particularly crowded; granted, it was midweek and rather early in the tourist season, but still... The lack of crowds, though, meant that I was able to get in two rides on each of the three roller coasters: Big Thunder Mountain, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril (aside: I didn't realize that Disney owned, or at least was licensing, the Indiana Jones franchise), and Space Mountain: Mission 2. Space Mountain was my favorite: a lot of it takes place in the dark and I found that the resulting disorientation increased the excitement. Star Tours (and I didn't realize that Disney owned or was licensing the Star Wars franchise, either) was also fun. Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast was really geared towards little kids and was rather hokey, but it was still entertaining. On the more sedate side, I always like carousels, and the riverboat ride was pleasant. Alas, Phantom Manor was closed during my visit.

Slideshow

I've put the rest of my pictures into a slideshow (this will open in a new window).

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Evening at the Cabaret

The other evening, I went to Le Lapin Agile, "Paris's oldest bar-cabaret and a Montmartre landmark".

The story behind the name: In 1875 the painter-caricaturist André Gill painted a sign of a rabbit jumping out of a saucepan: "Le Lapin à Gill" changed quite naturally into Lapin Agile (the nimble rabbit).

The doors open at about 9:15 PM, and most of those there at that hour were tourists: a few little groups of students, a Japanese couple and another small group of Japanese tourists, and me. There were also a two or three French couples. A group of Japanese businessmen showed up a little later, and after about 10, French couples started trickling in.

The show itself is very simple: shortly after we were seated, a man came in and started playing the piano. About 15 minutes later, a few people came in, sat down at a table in the middle of the room, and just started singing. These then were the performers. It all looked and sounded very unstructured: they took turns with their solos and encouraging the group singalongs. The Japanese businessmen in particular took some good natured ribbing about their reluctance to join in the group singing. "How hard is it to sing 'la la lala la'"? got them singing, too. While some of the French refrains were a little too complicated for me (or the other tourists) to pick up on, the French guests sang along happily, and several of the songs had refrains no more complicated than the afore-mentioned "la la lala la" or "oui, oui, oui; non, non, non." When the pianist took his breaks, someone else would take out a guitar or an accordion.

They don't try to serve food, and while a drink is included in the cover charge, they make no subsequent effort to push further drinks. It made for a very pleasant and relaxed evening.

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Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Next Stop: Prague

Well, I've decided that Paris is really not for me, at least not just now. So, with the end of classes and the lease on my apartment next week, I'm moving on to Prague, where I've signed up for a TEFL/TESOL Course.

After that, I'm not sure what I'll do. I'm kind of toying with the idea of China. Or maybe Russia. Or I may decide on Central or Eastern Europe. Or I may backtrack to Western Europe.

It all depends on how well I take to Prague.

See, here's the thing: moving to Paris was relatively easy (once I got over the whole "Oh my God, I'm completely and totally insane" phase with which I was boring people). France is, after all, a Western, industrialized nation and I was already familiar with the language. So on the comfort scale, France isn't all that far out there. In fact, I think that's the problem: it's not far enough out there. So I'll try a little farther out the comfort scale, i.e., the Czech Republic.

If it turns out that Prague is just way too uncomfortable, I'll backtrack, if not to France, then to Western Europe. (Spain or Portugal might work.) On the other hand, if Prague is still not uncomfortable enough, then I'll push out the comfort scale still further. Then again, if the comfort level seems just right, then I'll stay. In brief, I'm doing a Goldilocks number.

I'm also partially motivated by a concern for hanging out someplace that'll look good on my resume when I get home. And really, Western Europe has been done to death. As for France, in particular, not even the French are trying to start careers in France.

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Louvre, Revisited

I went back to the Louvre last week, specifically to the see the Praxiteles exposition.

Praxiteles was a Greek sculptor from the 4th century BC. Virtually none of his work is known to have survived intact. Most of the bronze work was melted down, and the little that survives is corroded and fragmentary, while the work in marble has at the very least been chipped if not broken. As a result, most of what is known about Praxiteles's sculptures comes from written accounts.

So, how do you put together an exposition for an artist who has no surviving, complete work?

  1. You display the fragmentary work, and
  2. You display the copies and pastiches of his work

So, there are multiple variations on, for example, the Aphrodite of Cnidus: Praxiteles is credited with being the first to sculpt female nudes. There are also variations on Apollo Sauroktonos (Apollo the Lizard Slayer: how's that for an appellation to strike terror in the hearts of your enemies?) and the Leaning Satyr. In addition, the exhibit included several statues of a woman who may or may not have been Phryne, who may or may not have been Praxiteles's lover.

I was a little disappointed by the exposition: the multiple variations on just a few prototypical pieces were redundant.

I also wandered around the rest of the Louvre, since I hadn't seen everything my first visit (and still haven't with this second visit). As usual, I mostly focused on sculpture. The last time there, I had missed Canova's Cupid and Psyche:

I think I found my lion friend in the same room:

He's particularly engaging in closeup, although the picture doesn't do him justice:

I spent a couple of hours wandering around the Decorative Arts, which I very much enjoyed. I don't know how I missed it before. And I visited the Islamic Art collection, which is the newest and not yet complete addition to the Louvre's permanent collections. There were some lovely pieces, but it doesn't really come together well yet.

Tourist season has not begun in full force yet, but even on a weekday afternoon, the crowds are starting to mount up:

The public buildings in Paris, such as churches and palaces, never cease to amaze me. I have enormous difficulty wrapping my brain around constructing places on such a grand scale. The only thing comparable we have in the States are shopping malls. And will people still be going to, say, the Mall of America in a few hundred years? (Oh, Lordy: I hope not!)

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Paris, Je T'aime

I went to see this the other day, with no particularly high expectations. I was pleasantly surprised. Of the 18 mini-films, 3 were laugh-out-loud funny, and 4 made me cry. Some of the other 12 were merely "heh", but none was actively bad. So not a bad mix.

I particularly like Carol in the last segment, 14e Arrondisement:

Her accent, and her French, are perfectly execrable. While I flatter myself that I'm not that bad, my professor in Oral French has observed, somewhat reluctantly, that I continue to speak with a strong American accent. Which can be charming, she hastened to assure me.

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Tuesday, June 12, 2007

I'm going to Disneyland!

Okay, it's totally silly and pointless and why did I even come to France in the first place if I'm just going to go to Disneyland?

But I am. Tomorrow. For no real reason except that my classes are winding down to a conclusion and I want to. So just lay off, okay? (What? Am I just a little defensive here?)

Details (and probably pictures) will follow after my return.

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Sunday, June 03, 2007

Versailles, Revisited

There's only one excuse for visiting Versailles on a summer weekend: to see the fountains in action. It's too expensive to run the fountains all the time, so they're only on for a few hours a day on weekends from April through September. (Versailles also charges admission to the gardens on these days; otherwise, entry is free.) There's also a soundtrack of Baroque music, played by Le Concert Spirituel.

While I had enjoyed the gardens on the occasion of my earlier visit, being able to see the fountains in action made it ever so much better.

A smattering of the fountains, starting with the Apollo fountain:

The fountain in the Bosquet of the Pyramid:

The Dragon basin:

The fountain in the Bosquet de la Girandole:

There were more people in the gardens this time (surprise, surprise), and the row boat rentals were open:
Pity they don't have paddle boats, though, like the ones at Stow Lake.

Since I was there, though, I took advantage of the opportunity to visit the Dauphin's apartments (which I hadn't had time for before) and the apartments of Mesdames (which are open only on weekends), as well to spend a little more time in the gardens at the Petit Trianon:

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Crown of Thorns

Notre Dame de Paris has three major relics:

  • the Crown of Thorns
  • a piece of the Holy Cross, and
  • one of the nails of the Passion.
Indeed, it was to house these that Louis IX built Sainte-Chapelle, which I visited in January. But after the Revolution, the relics ended up in the keeping of the Cathedral, where they are displayed to the faithful on the first Friday of every month (as well as the Fridays of Lent and Good Friday).

This past Friday was the first Friday of June, and I cut class to attend the 3 PM service of Veneration of the Crown of Thorns. After a brief Liturgy of the Word, the Crown is presented for Veneration. The fragment of the Cross and the Nail are also displayed, but not presented. The Crown, mostly stripped of its thorns (there are several churches that claim individual thorns as relics), is kept in a reliquary in the form of a glass tube ornamented with gold and tied to a velvet pillow. I filed up with the rest of the congregation to kiss the reliquary.

Now, widespread counterfeiting of relics in the Middle Ages makes authenticity of any purported relic dubious. (Just how many heads did John the Baptist have, after all? And if you assembled all the alleged pieces of the True Cross, you could build a small village.) And even if authenticity is conceded (the Crown of Thorns has a pretty solid provenance), the veneration of relics still makes me a little uncomfortable, smacking as it does of superstition. It's not as though the relic itself has any power.

So then why did kissing the reliquary make me cry?

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