Paris at a Certain Age

Deuil

The Charlie Hebdo deaths demonstrate the truth of the cliché that 'the pen is mightier than the sword'...Even death by automatic weapons hasn't silenced the power of their words and images.

I broke into tears seeing the photo of everyone in Place de la République. I wanted to jump on a plane and join them and hold up my pen, too.

However, the image I found most moving was the one below of a newborn shown on French TV:

For those in the US who might want to watch coverage of the Sunday march in Paris, BFM TV (the French equivalent of CNN) has been showing streaming coverage of all of these events.

 

Kosher Christmas

Christmas in California at our house means comedy, Jewish comedy, in the form of Kung Pao Kosher Comedy. This mix of Jews, comedy, Chinese food and Christmas has been going strong in San Francisco for 22 years. It draws Jews and non-Jews from all over Northern California, from Sacramento to San Jose. It's a relief to escape all the Christmas crap and laugh your ass off. This year featured 14 year old Simon Cadel who calls himself a "Jatheist" (Jewish atheist) and made great jokes about the cult of Apple product afficianados; Ophira Eisenberg from NPR and The Moth storytelling program; and razor-sharp Jeremy Hotz who has a sad sack face and is known as "The Master of Misery". Host Lisa Geduldig eschewed her traditional tux in favor of an outfit to celebrate the thawing of US/Cuban relations.

 

We had the good fortune to be seated at a table with a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist and his family, which made for interesting dinner conversation.

As I was walking around Chinatown and looking at vegetables and chicken parts I don't usually eat,

I started thinking about comedy in Paris. Despite the presence of comedy clubs, standup doesn't seem to have the same presence in Paris as it does in urban USA. Parisians are as cynical as New Yorkers and complain as much, so you would think standup comedy would be as popular as Brooklyn burgers are right now. Pariscope doesn't have a separate section for comedy; the clubs are listed under théâtres. Or is it just an American perspective, because our French language skills are often inadequate to keep up with the fast pace of comedy?

 Olivia, my dog, practicing her standup.

I am grateful to my friend Bonnie for many things, the most recent being a poem she shared with me. I don't follow modern poetry closely and was unfamiliar with this this poet who is being increasingly recognized for her work. Those who know me in the flesh are aware of my bad attitude about my home state of Pennsylvania. This poet, Kasey Jueds, lives in Philadelphia and has been published by the University of Pittsburgh Press (the fabulous Miss Lizzie is currently enrolled there). Perhaps the poet escaped the peeA curse by being born in Florida and spending her adolescent years in London. If you are as moved by this work as I was, please visit her website. And give thanks to friends who share treasured thoughts.

 

Claim

 

Once during that year
when all I wanted
was to be anything other
than what I was,
the dog took my wrist
in her jaws. Not to hurt
or startle, but the way
a wolf might, closing her mouth
over the leg of another 
from her pack. Claiming me
like anything else: the round luck
of her supper dish or the bliss
of rabbits, their infinite 
grassy cities. Her lips
and teeth circled
and pressed, tireless
pressure of the world 
that pushes against you
to see if you're there,
and I could feel myself
inside myself again, muscle
to bone to the slippery
core where I knew
next to nothing
about love. She wrapped
my arm as a woman might wrap
her hand through the loop
of a leash—as if she
were the one holding me
at the edge of a busy street,
instructing me to stay.

 

from Keeper © University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013

with permission from the author

 

I love you, Bonnie, and all my friends who have made me a better person

More French Cats

Two types of Paris pussycats

 

French Cats

These cats may not be as talented as Henri, le Chat Noir, but they are amusing nevertheless.

 

And it was nice to see that these cats have learned to play their game in French:

 

Yet Henri remains the master, the artist:

 

Long Live Henri, le Roi!

Remembrance

Remembrance Day...Arnistice Day...Veterans Day...

Veteran's Day began as a remembrance of the end of the First World War on the Western Front...at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. We don't do a very good job in the United States of remembering. It's a different story in France which was devastated by that war.There are memorials everywhere. Most small towns have a monument in their center square listing the names of those lost in that war, often with the addition of those lost in subsequent wars.

 

Did you see the recent coverage of Hubert Rochereau's bedroom in Bélâbre, central France? He was a soldier who died in WWI on Flanders fields in Belgium on April 26, 1918. His parents kept his room exactly as it was when he left for the battlefront. Subsequent owners of the home have continued this remembrance.

Paris buildings are studded with historical plaques, especially ones noting where fighters were killed during WW2.

This is the one that affects me the most:

I think it's because of his age, 21, and because they included his nickname. I kept wondering about Fifi Feferman and finally researched him. His family fled anti-semitism in Poland when he was 2 years old. He was said to be gifted and wanted to be a journalist and poet until the war intervened. He was active in the Resistance, commiting many acts of sabotage against the Germans and French collaborators. Fifi was felled at 58 rue des Petites Écuries in the 10th arrondissement where you can find this plaque.

FiFi

In the spirit of remembrance, I offer you this link to a fabulous film, Royal Cousins at War, about how WWI came to be:

Part 1

Part 2

 

A Secret Obsession

Since the post-election news is so depressing, I thought I'd provide a diversion via my secret obsession. First, a question: when you review your Paris photos, do you find any surprising themes? I have the usual photos of beautiful buildings, musées, window fashions, fabulous pastry and chocolate and bread, dogs, doors and statuary. But I also have a huge stash of photos like this:

Can you find my obsession in the photo? 

 

 

Here it is:

 

This is a chasse-roue. It's a guardrail or guard stone that protects the porte-cochère, the carriage gate or entrance, from damage by the wheels of coaches. Once you start looking for them, you can find lots in Paris. And when you do, your mind's eye fills with visions of carriages and horses and the city of old.

There are many variations of these.

Plain

 

Ornate

 

Round

 

Oblong

 

Pastry-shaped

Religieuse, anyone?

 

Beehive shaped

 

Fern Frond

 

Serpent shaped

 

Stone

 

Stone and metal

 

Templar Era 

 

and one of my favorites:

a fireman chasse-roue!

So in these depressing days, let yourself drift back in time and take a little respite.

 

Don't let the world move backwards! (reculer)

"You Don't Own Me" PSA - Upworthy from The Department of Peace on Vimeo.

 

Crazy Cat Lady, c'est moi!

I think I have it in me to become a crazy cat lady. Since adopting these two littermates (who were rescued from life inside an abandoned couch in an Oakland vacant lot, aka: garbage dump), I've gone gaga.

I take endless photos, like a first time mom with a new baby and a new camera.

Now a year later, they are big guys. I think I have to leash train them, so I can be a crazy cat lady in Paris, like these folks:

These two kitties (on a split leash, no less) have been trained to poop at this tree beside l'église de la Madeleine. Maybe that's because their beautiful Art Nouveau toilettes are locked and inaccessible.

And this scruffy cat practically dragged her person (man? woman?) along the quai of Île St Louis.

Yes, that's a cat, not a dog.

 

 

Doggy Bags

Alors, are doggy bags coming to Paris? Watch below:

 

Did you catch the waitress saying that it's mostly foreigners who ask for doggy bags? Tell me, is this good or not?