I am supposed to like this, I know. I am, after all, a veteran traveler. For more than forty years I have traipsed around the globe learning by doing. Boy, do I have my degree, heck advanced degree in "Travel".
There is always something happening at home, of course, but crises are a little easier to handle in Anglais! Here my homeowner has left me quite un-connected with proper English-speaking reps.That has made all the newest, latest challenges more frustrating.I was without a phone for over a week and my elevator was down two days. I walked up the seven flights four different times on Sunday. That is like climbing a 28 story building! That and 90 plus degree weather make me want to pick up and go home to California.
Last week I went to an art exhibit, which clearly was not exactly my preference in art. I had never heard of Takeshi Kitano, Japanese actor, painter, television personality and celebrity-at-large. Now I have. With a little Picasso influence to his paintings and "exhibits" he was an interesting, talented "artist" but still you won't see his "art" decorating the walls of my home at any time. Unfortunately, they wouldn't allow my camera so I can't show you any of his art, but you can always Google him.
I did get to what I consider "good art": The Turner Exhibition was playing at the Grand Palais. I had to go and queque up for tickets first to avoid the long queques at the Grand Palais. What I then had to do was queque up with the people who had bought their tickets and wanted to avoid the lines. It was masses of humanity. Gads! This is the price of the ever-popular Paris. I managed to enjoy somehow what I saw but didn't linger with the crowds very long, I can tell you that.
I had dejeuner (lunch) at the most darling restaurant in the 4th. I was the only English speaking person there. Fortunately, my companion spoke fluent French and we had a gloriously wonderful lunch in perfect weather. It is a curious custom that the French almost always drink wine with lunch, and from my admittedly limited experience, plenty of it. We started with white wine, went on to rouge and I polished off a wonderful canard (duck) dish with morel sauce that was fabulous. Then on to the fromage!
I finally connected with an old girlfriend of mine. On Sunday we went to a big,outdoor show that was alleged to be an artistic representation of "Nature Capitale" on the Champs-Elysees. "Creator/Director" of street art, Gad Weil, turned the street into a huge field of corn twenty years ago (this is "art"?). Maybe I should save the scraps of garbage I have and announced something to the world Green "art". It would be a smash hit (except with the neighbors). It was supposed to represent the "fragile balance between human beings and their environment". Supposedly it formed a huge mosaic - testimony to biodiversity in France. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't think so...
What it quickly,very quickly came to symbolize was a mass of humanity in 90 degree weather pushing and shoving to walk two meters. Gads, Robin and I hustled out of there as soon as we could. Not only was it an awful "mosaic" but because it was free half of Paris was there to looky-loo. The other half knew better.
Robin and I went then to my favorite park, Buttes Chaumont, sat down under a cool tree and had our picnic lunch. All the parks were packed, of course,with the other half of Paris. But if your eye wandered over the calm, pretty scene of rolling hills, trees, pond and waterfalls..if your intellect took in the diversity of Parisennes you could almost see artist, Pissaro, painting the families relaxing and playing. All we need were his dots to connect the past to the present. Actually I did see an artist (photo) although he was not exactly of Pizarro's league. I could have stayed there all day. I love this park.
There are two parks in my neighborhood, or arrondissment (19): Parc des Buttes Chaumont and Par de la Villette, which is only one block away from me. Villette is quite different. It parallels the canal near my apartment. It is filled with crazy, modern giant sculptures, several playgrounds, a carousel, rides, goodies for children, a restaurant, art museum (again modern to match the park theme), conseratorie of music and several other things. On Saturdays and Sundays there are concerts from 2-9 PM on and off all day. I can hear it from my apartment. It sounds quite alluring and should be fun to have a picnic with my son, Brian, when he finally arrives. The canal itself sports tourists boats and is double-sided with a walking path and biking path that leads out to the forest, which I expect to visit soon.
My neighborhood is a Kalidiscope of cultures, races and religious diversity. There are loads of Hasidic Jews, Muslims of all nationalities and Africans dressed in colorful tribal attire. And, because they have so many holy days (read holidays) there must be a major influx of Christians somewhere although there doesn't appear to be many churches. It seems odd to me that so many in Paris are Christians who benefit from the enormous amount of holy days (the last was Pentecost) because they take off for long weekends. Yet, other than the Italians, the French have rather liberal viewpoints and lifestyles compared to Americans. The worse part is that is is so far away from central Paris and its ambiance and charms.
Finally, I wish I didn't have the time to write this. I wish I was busy anticipating my son's arrival tomorrow morning. Instead, I need to get off this blog and continue fighting with American Airlines about allowing Brian to fly to Paris. They have really let us down (that is a nice way to put it) and due to a series of lack of communications, inaccurate communications between them and Brian's medical doctors, they told Brian hours ago that they were not allowing him to fly. My heart sunk. His spirit was crushed. And they waited till the day before his flight time to talk to him about it. Of course, old Mere (mother) here was immediately on the phone with a zillion people and I remain hopeful they will reschedule him in a day or two. But who knows? Better yet, in the airline industry who cares? I have planned a load of wonderful activities for him and pray he will get to experience that. We certainly have to work for everything, don't we? And in Brian's case we always have to fight for it.
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