Parislog 27
June 27, 2006

Do you remember the highly popular books “Where’s Waldo?” Well it is here is France too but under the name “Ou est Charlie?” which means where is Charlie. Why the name needed to be changed for Waldo to Charlie is beyond me.

If you tried to set up a file system here, I think that you might be at a little bit of a loss. All the pieces that we take for granted just don’t seem to exist here. It appears that the most common way to keep your bits of paper is in these boxes with elastic closers. The boxes come in many sizes and colors. Sometimes it isn’t a box but two boards strapped together. They also have binders but they are only 2-hole or 4-hole systems. The paper is a different size. It is a little longer than the USA. God help you if you want standard lined paper. I have found it very rarely because the normal here is either the paper we use for graphs or a paper that is lined to look like it belongs to a ledger. If you want a file folder, it looks like a heavy cardstock piece of paper folded in half with no tabs. I couldn’t possibly tell you whether or not any of it is better or just has different uses at this point.

I went to the Grand Palais to see the Rousseau exhibit partly with the intention of seeing the beautiful glass ceilings but this exhibit wasn’t in that side of the building. Oh well. He is a very interesting painter in that he is self-taught and very primitive. Apparently his work was instrumental in creating the primitive art movement of the period. He never once saw the jungles that he was famous for painting but rather created it from his imagination and flora and fauna exhibits that he saw in Paris.

I was sitting in the apartment doing daily chores or reading or something and all of a sudden I start to hear old-time organ grinder music breezing through my open windows. I pretty much ignored it for a while as I was busy but I did take a peak over the balcony and there was a couple down in the street with two very odd looking units on wheels that looked straight out of a circus. I sort of thought to myself, “Okay, so it is organ music,” and went on about my day. But curiosity got the better of me and I threw on some shoes and went down to see up close and personal. They were really quite amazing machines that were played like a player piano with paper that had holes in it. I asked them how old the machines were and was told, ready, 200 years old. Amazing. The couple playing them weren’t much younger! I jest.

Parislog Goes to England

On the 20th, I hopped onto the Eurostar for the first time and headed off to England. It is just so shocking that I could travel to a destination of which I have dreamt in the USA and not have to suffer from jetlag. The train ride was 3 hours between Paris and London and only 20 minutes of that were under the English Channel. You couldn’t even tell that you were under the water because you don’t see the ocean coming up and so it just feels like when you are driving along and enter any old tunnel on the road. I arrived at Waterloo station in London and got my train tickets for the south of England where my aunt lives. It was so easy. Then I just sat and watched the people as I had over an hour until the train arrived.

It was very obvious that I wasn’t in Paris anymore. No, I don’t mean the language. I mean the way people looked and their way of dressing. Can I just say that the British really don’t seem to have a sense about clothes the way the French do? Yes, I know I am generalizing but unbelievably it is true. The clothes are comfortable to the point of utter sloppiness. The faces and bodies are much different on the whole too. The Brits are bigger and paler, another generalization. These are just immediate reactions to standing there and watching the crowds go by. I guess I assumed that being as it was the size of America here in Europe that the differentiation wouldn’t be any more marked than there. I was wrong.

I met my cousin for the first time in over 30 years and her 2 boys also. We took a trip to a seaside town called Bournemouth and wandered around a bit. It was very cute with all its very British old buildings and the clothes and shoes were surprisingly gorgeous is some of the shops. Who was wearing them? I also bought a few fabric scraps to play with. Also, there was a guy waving flags who said he was Christian and fighting the right to use marijuana.

We then went to her sons place and helped him painting his new flat. I was wearing my skirt that I had made so I was trying to be super careful but found out later that I had indeed gotten paint on the hem. Sigh. Then we went out to a pub for dinner and I had bangers and mash. (Sausage and mashed potatoes) They were awesome. The potatoes had cheese and onion mixed in. Miam miam.

I brought a few things over with me to give to various people, things they had asked for. I brought French soaps for my aunt and my other cousin had asked for some French cheese. Well, I had put the cheese in the fridge and thought that I had mentioned it to all in the household that it was for my cousin in London but apparently I missed my aunt. She got into the cheese and thoroughly enjoyed a nice portion of it. She felt so bad but, hey, at least I know what I can bring her next time. Besides it made for a great story. No harm. No foul.

Those of you in Hollywood will love this. I saw a film crew in the tiny town that my aunt lives in and they are just the same there as L.A. There was a guy walking around with his earpiece, talking on the cell phone, and wearing Hollywood shades. It was so anachronous to the site.

The day before I went back to London was nothing but a food day. We went to a lovely little pub called the Cricketers and had a wonderful meal. I had a salad of roast beef and horseradish. The roast beef was absolutely perfect and red in the center and slightly bloody while the outside was brown. The dessert menu was amazing. I had a warm chocolate cake that was very moist and dense, kind of like a flourless cake with a chocolate sauce over it. On the side was whipped cream. The dessert my uncle got was quite interesting as it was quarter pineapple with the tip still attached and also warm with a caramel sauce drizzled over it.

After lunch we stopped at a private airfield for coffee and plane watching. We then went home and immediately began preparing dinner as my cousin’s other son was coming over for dinner that night. It seemed like we never stopped eating. We had chicken and lovely stuffed peppers.

After dinner we played a game that is apparently American although I had never heard of it, “Phase10”. It is like a game of rummy but with levels to achieve and we had a blast. There was a ton of banter around the table and it gave the son a chance to feel comfortable around me, as he seemed a bit on the shy side.

The next day I headed back to London to visit my other cousin and his family. Back on the train again. It was a nice quiet ride and some enjoyable countryside watching. I ordered a sandwich on the train and chose another British classic, egg, mayonnaise and cress. The cress looked like sprouts. I don’t know what I thought it was, maybe something more like salad but there you have it and it was good.

We all went out to a great Greek dinner that night and had something called a metza(?) that was like a sampler of 20 courses. I was so stuffed but the two kids each had two hollow legs. I wanted to have an after dinner constitutional (walk) to settled the food but had no idea where I was so my cousin volunteered to walk me. On the way back we walked through a park and I were tons of bats flying by in the almost dark sky. One could assume they were birds I suppose but I don’t think birds are out at that time of the night.

The next day, I went with my cousin’s wife to the Tower of London to see the crown jewels and were they ever splendid. The crown worn by Queen Mary was my favorite with its encrustations of diamonds and delicately narrowing band towards the point. We went past them 4 times and every time we saw something that we hadn’t noticed before. Of course, I had to go to the Bloody Tower where we saw some of the tools of torture and learned of the tale of 2 royal sons being murdered. They disappeared and in recent times the remains of 2 boys were unearthed in some repairs and are believed to be them.

I missed the train coming home as we misjudged how long it would take to get from the Tower of London to Waterloo station. London is much bigger than I imagined. I think my sense of the size of a city has shrunk after Paris because in fact Paris is quite small in square footage. I arrived 7 minutes before the train was to leave but they wouldn’t let me through. With customs and security I never would have made it to the train. Off I went to the ticket counter, concerned that I was going to have to pay for another ticket but today was to be my lucky day. The woman at the counter was super sweet and comped a ticket on the next train. I guess it helped that I was a sweaty mess from having run all the way from the bus to the train and when she asked if it had been because of traffic, I said yes.

Back to Paris where the subways are bigger.