09.26.05
Le coin nord-ouest
Ah, Paris in the fall…
I arrived at my new home a few days ago and I’m happy to report that my new family has an aDSL connection, so no more internetcafe nonsense for me!
The 19th arrondisement is a bit like Brooklyn: a lot of it isn’t that pretty to look at, but it’s got a lot of soul. Walking around, you don’t hear French as often as Arabic and various African languages (or maybe it’s just one or two… i can’t tell), you don’t see any big chain stores besides McDonalds, and when you see any nice architecture it has a sort of faded look to it. The neighborhood is young, though, and energetic. You can take out a kayak or canoe on the Seine for free and there are two big parks within walking distance of my apartment. The pingpong tables on the Seine boardwalk are manned at all hours by Asians furiously working the little ball back and forth, while the old Frenchmen argue over their game of boules (like bocce) a few meters away. As you walk a bit farther north along the seine, you pass parked trucks with vivid masterpieces of graffitti, painstakingly sprayed for what must have been hours, on the sides. You hold your breath against the smell of urine as you pass under a bridge over the water plastered with signs questioning your existence and location. Further on, you come to the Parc de la Villette. An immense metal sphere, which they call la Géode dominates the landscape. Moving closer, you hear chimes and read on a little info table that it’s a actually a clock. The geode stands right in front of la Cité des Sciences, a science museum for children and a massive building that gives off an industrial, slightly evil-headquarters sort of aura. Moving east, you pass l’Argonaut, a derelict submarine, and come to the park part of the Parc de la Villette. Open fields stretch to the cobblestone banks of the Seine and a small carnival games area can be seen across the water. Italian and Eastern European tourists walk by young French parents playing with their infant sons and daughters. Drum circles can be heard coming from a bit further down the bank and you lay down on the grass next to Beth, the girl you came with, and look up at the clouds. Overwhelmed by it all, you lean over and kiss her. She kisses back, despite that fact that she knows it’s wrong, despite the fact that there are little kids around, despite the fact that in a few months she’ll go back to Delaware and you’ll go back to Pennsylvania, despite everything.
The Paris in which I live in isn’t the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre, it isn’t Foie Gras or champagne, and it’s not Molière or King Louis XIV. I can take the metro a few stops and visit that Paris whenever I please. My Paris is grimy steel and cobblestones, its Camembert on baguette and Shawarma in a pita, it’s graffitti and existentialism. When I first saw it, I thought I’d miss out on what the city is all about, but I’ve found the hidden underbelly, the gap between the words of the travel guides, the city behind the facade. And I think I’m starting to love it.
-Vic
PS: I really wanted to do that thing from the webcomic in which the bunny and the girl are looking up at the clouds, discussing what they look like (“not today, little one”), but I don’t think it would have gone down that smoothly.
***Original comments on this post***
RE: Le coin nord-ouest
Posted by:
Date: 09/27/05 at 9:22 AM (1M1w ago)
You’re a pimp, my friend. Good going with Beth, I wish you two many baby bunnies.
I liked your descriptions. Sort of Hemingway meets Kerouac.
-David
RE: Le coin nord-ouest
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Date: 09/27/05 at 5:42 PM (1M1w ago)
I should probably read a bit of those two then… though I did have a little exposure in DiGennaro’s class.
09.22.05
Au revoir, Tours
Today is our last day in Tours. Political Science wasn’t a big deal. Everyone’s coming out tonight.
Before coming to France, I thought Tours would be a waste of time, but having been through the experience I understand the benefits of having been here. It’s the little things, really: the “je peux vous aider, monsieur” attitude in the stores (as opposed to the US’ more laissez faire outlook), the fact that French people never look at people while they walk, but will stare with impunity from inside a car, and other petits trucs. It might have been a bit more difficult to jump right into Parisian life.
Speaking of Paris, I’ll arrive in my appartment there tomorrow. I’m in the 19th arrondisement, which is the northeast corner of the city. Paris is divided into districts that are arranged in two concentric circles, thus districts next to each other numerically are not necessarily next to each other physically. I have been cast as far as possible from everyone else: there is no one from the program in the 19th or even the 18th district (which is understandable because the 18th isn’t really a good place to live). I am oalso pretty damned far from the schools I’ll be attending… I’ll need 2 transfers and 30min to commute. The 19th is’t a very nice area either, but it’s better than the 18th. From what I hear and read, the 19th is an ethnic neighborhood, so while there will be lots of (hopefully) good ethnic restaurants and shops, it won’t be a very affluent neighborhood. All I know is, if they don’t have internet, I’m gonna switch to another family… I can’t live like this.
Impressions of the city and my area to come. Stay funky.
-Vic
09.12.05
Le Weekend
Very Briefly: This past weekend, I discovered another girl in the program: Beth. Cute, fun, likes to dance, definitely digs me, has a boyfriend. What the hell. Seriously. Quick overview of this whole situation: There are eighty-nine girls and eleven guys in this program. Pretty nice ratio, n’est-ce pas? Sadly, the equation doesn’t end there. We must subtract the huge percentage of (faithful) girls with boyfriends, those in Alise’s state of mind (probably not many, but apparently a problem for me), and those that are simply not attractive (which is unfortunately much too large a number). I guess I’ll cherche la femme among the natives.
My friends and I did the Vieux Tours thing again, but we tried out a new bar, “l’Alexandra,” to great success. The bartender gave us free flaming Dr Peppers and set the bar alight. I also went with Beth to a club called “Wake Up!” which was a lot of fun. We scandalized the Frenchies because Americans dance much more closely than they do.
On Saturday we woke up early to go see two chateaux, Chambord and Chenonceau. Chambord was absolutely gigantesque, but in my opinion, not as pretty as Chenonceau. All these chateaux seem to have a backstory of intrigue and of often twisted relationships among the royals. I won’t get into it, but Chenonceau’s story involves a marriage between a 10 and 12 year old and the king sending his old mistress to teach his young son to faire l’amour. Chambord is, essentially, the grandest whorehouse ever built; it was exclusively for the king and his mistresses, the queen was never allowed inside. We don’t get much time to see the chateaux though, we had to rush through Chambord in an hour, though Chenonceau was small enough that we had enough time to see it all.
Quiche out.
+gal
-Vic
***Original comment on this post***
RE: Le Weekend
Posted by: Your French Friend
Date: 09/14/05 at 4:07 PM (1M3w ago)
Hey, if you’re ever in the mood to visit the southern part of France for a few days and need a home base or a place to stay for the evening, I’m sure my grandmother would be happy to host you. It’s about a 40 minute drive from Avignon, an hour from Marseilles, an hour to the Calanques (which are really worth a visit if you want to see the Mediterranean at all). It’s actually a pretty kickass area in itself–genuine France as most of the towns date way way back and are built directly into the mountains. The castle of the Marquis de Sade is 10 minutes away. I’ve also got family in Paris, Toulouse, and Aix-en-Provence, all of whom I could plausibly ask a favor of. You’re probably not interested, but the offer is there.
Have fun in my homeland Vicky!
Evelyn
PS-May have posted this twice or thrice by accident. Whoops
09.07.05
La Garota de Tours
Around 10:30 last night, I was elated to find myself walking down the Boulevard Beranger with Alise. She had called earlier saying that Camille had wanted to join us, but she suprised me by reading my falsely positive response correctly, leaving the number at two. We walked up the Beranger to the Loire where we had a drink at the Guingette, a little bar with live music right on the water. The night was cool, she was beautiful, and we were getting along famously… I don’t have this kind of chemistry with very many people at all. We left the Guingette to wander around the city a bit, discovering the opera house and exploring little sidestreets as we got to know each other. She’s passionate, but doesn’t know where to channel it yet. I’ve never had such a good time just walking around with someone as I did last night. Making our way back up the Beranger, we stopped for a rest on a bench on the island in the middle of the boulevard. As we sat, I put my arm around her, only to have her get up just a little too quickly to not be noticed. We began our walk anew and after two or three steps she said that she had something to tell me and that there was no other way than to be blunt about it. “Oh no, please no” I thought as I gave her permission to do so. Alise wasn’t looking for anything on this trip but friendship. She’d just wrapped up a relationship, a friend’s major illness, family issues, and a generally stressful year that had almost kept her from coming to France at all. She’s here for herself. I walked Alise home, just a few blocks from my own house. It was almost perfect, last night. She’ll be single for a while and enjoy it. Then, I’ll come home after a semester and she’ll stay in Paris until the summer. By then, she’ll have had enough of being single and find some guy when she gets back to New York and last night will have amounted to nothing. Some girls will turn you down and it’s not a big deal, but Alise was starting to mean something to me. C’est l’amour. Tonight, I’ll be going out with a group of girls I met a few hours ago. One is sort of cute, but ditzy. Not really my type. +gal (picture gallery updated) -Vic
09.05.05
Ah, l’amour…
Ups and downs, this weekend. Friday night came around and of course everyone was out in Vieux Tours. On my end, though, it wasn’t much fun. I thought I was going to meet up with Alise around 10:30, but I didn’t meet up with her until 12 and that was for just a minute to say hello. She went home early to wake up for her trip to Villandry the next day. I’d been hanging out with some of the program’s less interesting and less attractive girls until that point and finally just lost all hope and called it a night. I’d had enough of hearing one of them whine about missing her boyfriend. Comme c’est ennuyant.
Saturday was much better: I went out with Patrick, my host-sister, Alice, and her friends. We were eight in total, hanging out and drinking in Alice’s friend, Marianne’s miniscule studio apartment and having a great time. The girls were genial and we got along very well. We left Marianne’s to go to Vieux Tours, but we then decided to drink at another of the girls’ apartments (slightly less miniscule)… though I can’t remember her name. Patrick and I left around 3am to wake up early for our trip to Chateaux de Blois on Sunday. Now you’re likely thinking “wait, no fireworks? what about the hot French action?” I’d like to clarify that the two hottest of our group went home about an hour into this little cultural exchange to wake up for something, the other four consisted of two unattractive girls, my host sister (whom, though cute I regard as dangerous territory to tread, plus my room is covered in her baby pictures, which makes it sorta weird for me), and Marianne, whose boyfriend eventually joined us. Alice reported on Sunday that the girls had a good time and would be happy to hang out again quelque fois, to which we gave a resounding “oui.”
As I mentioned, Sunday consisted of a trip to Chateau Blois. As far as castles go, it’s extremely underwhelming… The history is sort of interesting, attempted assassinations of the king and so on, as well as the fact that its built in a few different architectural styles (Gothic, Classic, and maybe one more), but its pretty damn small and the interior doesn’t have anything really interesting to see. I did, however, break the ice a little bit with two of Alise’s close friends who hadn’t been particularly cordial upon our first meeting. I exchanged a bit of smalltalk with the first, Camille, but if she’s gonna be too cool for school then je ne m’en fou, I’m not gonna waste time. The second though, Jessica, is actually really cool. She’s actually almost 2 years older than the rest of us and is taking a summer abroad before applying to graduate school for printmaking. It’s a highly technical artform in the spirit of photography, so she and I hit it off pretty well. She’s Mexican and as a result of the difference between her and Camille I’m really starting to believe my hunch that (except for you gents of course) I just don’t get along as well with most white people. I have a lot of white friends of course, but at Lafayette and in France I often prefer the company of people from other places. I may amend this theory to apply only to American white people, but more testing is necessary.
I digress. I mentioned Alise’s friends because she has been annoying me lately. This is not to say that her personality has become annoying, but that the events of Friday didn’t make me dig her any more. The way it worked was that she texted me, saying she’d finally got a mobile phone and would see me in Vieux Tours that night. We hadn’t made an earlier plan, so I texted her asking when she’d be there, she told me and then I said I’d be there around the same time. At that point, I assumed we’d just made a plan to meet up around then, but it wasn’t until around 12 that I got a text from her asking where I was (though I texted and called before then). In retrospect, it’s very likely that I misinterpreted what our messages meant, but I was annoyed nonetheless. A similar thing happened on Sunday: I asked her (in person) at Blois if she’d want to get together after dinner to do some homework over coffee and she was into it and said she would text me, which didn’t happen. It seems whenever we’re together, she digs me (and I know, well enough, how to tell when girls are into me and when they aren’t). I’ll ask her qu’est-ce qui s’est passe next time I see her.
This entry is getting a bit long and I have class tomorrow, so bonne soiree for now.
-Vic
Update Sept 5, 6:00pm: Alise reports that she’d fallen asleep. Annoyance level decreases. I promise not to give a tedious play-by-play of this nonsense… I’ll let y’all know when something important happens.
***Original comment on this post***
RE: Ah, l’amour…
Posted by:
Date: 09/07/05 at 5:21 PM (1M4w ago)
Good luck with the chick. Don’t take no crap.
Post some pictures, you ninny.
And besides, the only white friend in the krew you have at home is Dan… I mean, Jonny, Bryan, and I are Asian, Andrew’s Egyptian, Stein is Sicilian/Eastern European, Marc is Jewish, Austin is half Jedi, and Nic is Indonesian. We’re about as multi-national as groups of friends get! I mean, granted we have no black people… but hey.
China. is. sweet. (but lonely)
09.01.05
Moi, je deviendrai pauvre assez vite ici
Sept 1, 6:57pm
I paid $5 American for a glass of juice today… You salopards who went to China had it easy (as well as any salopards there now).
Had my first classes today; not at the Sorbonne, but at the Institut de Touraine. Two of my profs are nice enough, but my political science professor speaks ridiculously fast. After a while it drifted from being a language into a rhythmic sort of humming sound. I think i know what the homework is, but im not that sure.
I’m starting to learn to navigate the city, but it’s a hell of lot harder than New York. Even besides the lack of numbered streets, Tours doesn’t have “blocks” in the manner of American cities, it has dead ends and tiny sidestreets and irregularities that make it charmant, but also frustrating when you’re trying to get somewhere.
I’m going out again tonight: Should be fun, barring any time-related difficulties. If you’re wondering, it’s not with Alise, it’s with a bunch of friends, but as soon as she gets a phone (last time she didn’t have one) I’ll get the digits and make things happen. I’ll see if I can manage to run into her again in Vieux Tours.
Quiche out.
-Vic
