Bonjour!
It's finally spring in Paris! In fact, it's been so warm that the metro occasionally feels more like a sauna than a rickety, underground car ride (i.e. Gringotts). Yes, I swear that goblins control the metro, or at least, they had a very big hand in creating the system (especially my line, line 1!)
Last week was also the beginning of our IES "excursions" of which we can go on two out of four. Friday, we went to Reims - the city known for it's cathedral that was designed after Notre Dame de Paris (think of it as the Hunchback of Notre Dame - the remake), where all the kings of France were crowned, as well as a city within spitting distance of Champagne (yes, the area itself and the fun bubbly stuff).
So, we took a tour of the cathedral in which we learned how to "read" the statues on the outside of the church, and interpret the stained glass and architectural style of the interior. We had a very thorough tour guide. In fact, she was so thorough, I was sure we would never see the inside of the church. And though we were fascinated with comparing the statues to determine which artists designed them, we were all a bit chilly - that is, until we entered the cathedral. It was at least ten degrees colder inside! My favorite part of this tour was when our guide asked us to observe the statue of Clovis (the first official King of France) in the center of all the other statues and determine how he differed from the rest - most everyone pointed out that he was nude, but this was not the response she had been hoping for. The real answer: he is the only king depicted not wearing a crown. I would love to know how many people usually answer that he's not wearing clothing before noticing that he's crown-less. Perhaps it was because we were freezing that we overlooked the latter...
Anyway, my REAL favorite part of this tour: the Marc Chagall stained glass windows in the very back of the church behind the alter. Marc Chagall more recently became one of my favorite artists. He was a Russian Jew who came to Paris to broaden his artistic palate, but was later forced to escape a tainted Vichy France in WWII to reach safety in America...needless to say, his story is amazing, and more astonishingly, he is well-known for many works taken from stories in the Bible - so maybe it's not so surprising that a Jewish artist fashioned stained glass windows depicting Christian stories in a Catholic church in Reims, the city of French kings. (If you can see my past facebook profile pictures, the one "Paris par la fenêtre" is a painting of his that I fell in love with after I saw it at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC last fall)...
The second half of our day consisted of a tour of the Pommery Champagne caves - oh la la! The 127 stairs down to the depths of the caves are not the creepy part - it was the bizarre menagerie of modern art and the ancient walls and bottles of Champagne that created the bizarre ambiance. When I say "modern art" I mean sleek sculptures resembling blobs with huge peach-pit type things sticking out of them. One was full of coconuts. There were also life-size clay hippos (I realized that they were made of clay when I curiously touched the surface to see what kind of smooth, non-shiny stone they were made of...oops)...Also, large video screens projected "fashion" photo slideshows. I suppose this is how gritty caves and dusty green bottles of Champagne age - in the pits, surrounded by fashionable and incomprehensible things. To tie up the loose ends from our tour, there was a "dégustation" or Champagne tasting afterward, in which one could then feel informed about the artistically-influenced pre-life of the beverage. It was a great day and a very interesting and diverse trip.
In other news, "strange men" have been in my building every day for the past two weeks. They are preparing to paint all of the hallway walls and doors, and fixtures, and pipes, and basically everything but the tiled floor. This is quite a process. Cutting to the chase, I have made friends (sort of) with a few of these fellows who are, all in all, very nice and very middle-aged. This might seem like a bland topic, but I promise it has a point...
They really bothered me at first because I felt like I was in the way, and because I dislike coming home during the day to hear hammers shake the building, and boards clanking as they prime and do repair work to the in-need-of-TLC walls. My favorite part of this is that the staircase from my floor to the floor below me is completely blocked...which means I have to take the elevator from floor 7 to 6 in order to get to my host family's apartment. (It just makes a person feel lazy...haha)...
Every time I run into this one guy - we'll call him Luke (like from the show Gilmore Girls - he's always wearing flannel, and has a strikingly similar scruffy look about him; also, I don't know his real name) - he always says something about how I'm "charmante" (charming) and that he hopes they paint the walls blue like my eyes. Yes, kind of creepy. But he's harmless, and let's be honest, it's kind of flattering. Then there's Toothy, who must have the worst orthodontia I've seen in a while. I chatted with him today about how I play the flute, which must mean I don't smoke because it would be hard to play the flute if I smoked (as he puffs on a cigarette in the hallway). He also shared that he is a self-taught guitarist, as the Jackson Five's "back to your heart" song played from the radio behind the ladder. There are two other painters who are the strong, silent types, and then there's Monsieur Richard, the "doorman" (as explained to me by my host mom - and of course they would have doormen in French apartment buildings...).
The reason I am explaining all of this is because Monsieur Richard has seen me before (obviously when I'm exiting and entering the building during daylight hours - his general friendliness and tendency to greet people make so much more sense now that I know what it is that he does). And when he sees me, he's always like, "Oh you're the one that plays the flute! It's always so wonderful to hear!"
Today I was practicing in preparation for a rehearsal with Mme de Buchy and Diego, when who knocks on my door but Monsieur Richard. He was really excited to see me with my actual flute, and though it sounds bizarre, he asked if I wanted to practice in a bigger room (i.e. his flat on the 7th floor) because I honestly don't have much space in my room. So, he led me down the hall and I practiced for about an hour, feeling like I was giving a concert to the whole city (the windows were open). The best part was that he pointed out that you can see the Arc de Triomphe, the Sacre Coeur, AND the Tour Eiffel out of his two windows. So, essentially, I saw my own version of "Paris par la fenêtre" today in the most literal sense possible. And it was simply "charmant."
à bientôt!
-Laura :)
P.S. Thank you SO MUCH for all of the wonderful letters! I love getting mail and hearing about how everyone is doing! :) Also, I plan on sharing other cultural/gastronomic discoveries VERY SOON! I have not forgotten your requests! :)
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