A very tired Bonjour mes amis,

This has been a different week here in France. Last weekend I went into Paris on Saturday to find some different sites, and go to some different areas of Paris. I went to find the US Embassy (in case a new revolution sparks here in France) and found, at least on the weekends, it is impenetrable to United States citizens. They don’t even put a single Marine or some sort of American guard outside it, it was patrolled exclusively by the Paris police, (though almost all of them were playing cards in the 6-8 police vans parked out front. Thinking that they may just have a small side entrance with a help desk or two, I decided to walk around the entire complex. It is about a mile all around, and is controlled by the US exclusively with the exception of a few cafes on one side of the block. I was even asked to walk in front of a police patrol when I was on one side of the building, so that I wouldn’t be on the other side of the sidewalk and out of their view, even though it was a public, and open, sidewalk. As for small side offices, they don’t exist. the only entrance was a small rotating gate near the front, that had 4 policemen and 3 rows of barriers, with another 2 rows behind.

Next I headed out to the Quatier de Marias, and went to a free Modern Art exhibit tucked down a dead end alley that I had spotted the week before. It was very small, but was trés avant-guard, with many mixed media exhibits etc.  I then headed to the Père Lachaise cemetery in eastern Paris. It is the largest cemetery in Paris, and is probably one of the most terrifying places I have ever been to in my life and it was about 2 in the afternoon. As I walked through one of the side gates and up the stairs, I was greeted by quite literally la Ville de le Mort. It was row upon row of Family crypts, most of them dilapidated, with their stained glass missing panes from “runaway” rocks, and old iron doors either completely gone, or near enough. The cemetery furthers it’s claim to the title of City with dozens upon dozens of streets, all named, and many large boulevards and avenues. Yet, although many of these streets are large, there was many times when I would be all alone, looking down two large avenues as they came to a cross section, not another soul in sight. The situation was not made any better by a man I encountered at the beginning of my journey. I walked along the outer edge of Pére Lachaise at the beginning, which is bordered closely by run down apartment high rises. Near the top of one of these, sitting at his window, this drunken old man attempted to delicately play his guitar for us, the best way an old, drunken man with no musical talent can. This consisted of him fiercely strumming his horribly out of tune guitar for about 3-6 seconds at time. I am not even sure if he changed cords, or even played a cord at all. Then he would give out a slight laugh, and give a toothless grin to a few who regarded him…and since I was one of the only people around, and most defiantly the closest  I became the lucky victim of this bizarre old man, and his song.

So in case you didn’t get the idea, Pére Lachaise is terrifying to me.

Meanwhile, I also headed to the Louvre (though that was on Friday) which is free for youth under 26 after 6 pm. I went through the Napoleon Apartments (think thats what they are called, though they were never used by napoleon if I remember right, but by one of the kings)  that are a newer exhibit to th Louvre. They also have a small modern art temporary exhibit going on right now, with works that are directly related and created for the room and works they are around. It is fun to see the contrasts of modern on classic, and the motifs in each and how they play off each other etc. I didn’t have my camera, as I came straight from work, but next week I am going to go back and take some pics of the works, some are quite ingenious.

For the events of the week, I went home teaching on Tuesday with Hugh to a man from Nigeria I believe, who converted about a year ago. He lives in the government supplied housing, in a room about the size of my desk area at work here. He works as a security guard on the weekends at night when they have work for him. He has been here 6 years I believe, and still does not know french, and struggled to speak english with us. We talked with him awhile about how he was doing and worked on setting up a plan to get him a better paying and more consistent job. It was an interesting experience, and I hope that I get to do it again.

I also went to Ocean’s 13 on opening night here. I went to the UCG Ciné Cité here at La Défense, where they have a I-MAX screen for all new releases. I enjoyed the movie, though I need to see it again to decide if I liked it better than the others. But it lived up to the franchise name and was great entertainment for all. I was especially impressed with the CGI on the hotel in Vegas, which for most of the scenes that It was CGI’ed in, was blended quite well, especially for the closeup scenes between real set and CGI. There were a few outside shots during night and twilight which were not so convincing, but I must say they did a pretty good job there.

And now for the largest event of the week, Fête de la Musique! Last night was Fête de la Musique here in France, which is a nationwide holiday where there is free concerts in just about every city. Anyone can join in, and here in Paris your selection was more than enough to keep you going all night long. amateurs, big names, rock, pop, trance, dance, african, latin, classicial, opera, doesn’t matter what you wanted to listen to, you could find it in Paris. From dressy concerts at the Musée d’Orsay by the National Orchestra to Rock Concerts in temporary stages at all the major sights in Paris. I went down to Bastille to the Tété concert, who is a fairly big name pop artist here in Paris with Hughette and some of her friends (Hughette is the daughter of the Tornar’s, my host family). People choked even the biggest streets, bringing traffic to a halt (with the exception of the Champ d’Élysées, that one kept going strong). You could barely see the ground by the amount of paper and alcohol containers strewn throughout the streets, and it was some of the most tightly squeezed crowds I have ever been in. You were constantly flowing through the people, no matter if it was against your will, by the currents of people moving here and there throughout the crowd. We started at about 150 feet away from the front of the stage, with about 500 people in front of us, and just by these currents pushing you everywhere, ended up at about 20 feet from the stage, forcing you into the largest mash pit I have ever participated in, with  the entire crowd surging right and left, bowling people over. It was quite a crazy night. Eventually we started heading back at about 1:00 am, and ended up walking the streets of Cergy at 3:00 in the morning to get home. Most of which didn’t have a sidewalk. Was quite the adventure, and was a horrible time to go to bed when I had to get up at 6:30 in just a few hours. But amazingly, I got up right on time, against mine, and my bodies strongest wishes.

And now its time for another late night as I get ready to head to Barceolona in a few hours…get to walk some more streets late at night, this time in a country I have never been to, in a town I have never seen, with a language I know even less about than french. What a life.

Pictures from this week after this weekend!

Bonne Journée,

Kydan