September 6, 2001, to September 15, 2001
"Time time time, see what you've done to me, while I look around to my possibilities..." Time flies while you're having fun, and I hope you've been having fun reading my weekly novels err updates this summer. Here's the last edition, see you on the other side! :)
I've been passing my time on trains by reading - right now I'm almost done with _The Neverending Story_ by Michael Ende. The first half of the book was adapted into the first TNS movie, and I see hints of the rest of the book were used for the second and third movies. However the book itself is so much more colorful in its telling than a movie could ever be and I'm really enjoying it. My only regret is that the first half seems ever so much more real because I've seen the movie 100 times, and the second half seems almost too fairty-tale. I can't tell if that's my skewed perspective due to the first movie, or if the tone of the second half really changes. I noticed this when I read sequels to the Wizard of Oz book - they seemed so much more fairy-tale and fantastic than the actual first book...
Other books I've read lately are Aldous Huxley's _Island_, a book I'd tried reading in high school and hated; this time I was really drawn into it, though. Be forewarned: it's mostly philosophical discussion couched in a simple plot, and the ending is kind of depressingly unavoidable. I read _Steppenwolf_ and also _Siddhartha_ (again) by Hermann Hesse. Now I just have to read _The Glass Bead Game_ and my "popular Hesse" phase will be complete. I finally finished the nonfiction books I'd been reading - the story of the birth of Seattle (_Sons of the Profits_, really easy reading), and a book of profiles on women successes in the sciences and engineering fields. I finally made a little dent in my "To Read" list! Once I return to school, however, there goes my free time :(
On to the travel diaries: last week's edition left me, our fearless heroine, about to embark on several touristy activities for my last weekend in Paris. Unfortunately the weather failed to cooperate - it continues to be raining and "unseasonably cold", according to my coworkers. However I did not let that stop me! Saturday I went to see the chateau of Chantilly which is about half an hour north of Paris. It was about a mile and a quarter's walk from the train station to the chateau, through a forest trail, which was kind of nice and relaxing (and the tree cover kept me from getting very wet). Chantilly was in remarkably good shape, because it was reconstructed after its near-total destruction during the French Revolution. The duc (duke) de Bourbon-Condé left the chateau to the state when he died in the late 1800s, on the condition that nothing - none of the paintings or furniture - be moved from where he had placed it. I had expected it to be crowded or have crooked paintings or something the way the guidebook presented it, but I think it was just referring to the fact that museums usually try to put like pieces together, or pieces in chronological order or something; but the chateau did not seem disordered or anything to me.
They have quite a library there, which you can read books from (with special reservations and credentials); some of the books are manuscripts dating from the 1500s. Really beautiful stuff - they have copies on display of some of the pages and illustrations. They have a Gutenberg Bible there but it is not on display due to its value; you can look at it with reservations though. This was also the second weekend I saw brides outside taking pictures - this time I saw one in the gardens of Chantilly actually sitting on the ground. It was not raining hard today, just drizzling off and on but still - that white dress! that dirty ground! Anyway, late summer seems a popular time for marriages here. After I had toured the chateau I went back to the train station, taking the bus this time, because it was there and because it was free...
When I got back to Paris, I went to the Salvador Dali museum in the Montmartre area (the highest natural point in Paris). It was bigger than I thought, but quite crowded in fact. There were tons of sketches and paintings, several sculptures, and an arrangement of furniture he had designed at some point for a living room. Really cool furniture. I liked Dali before but I didn't know how much until I saw all his other, less common stuff (I mean, everyone has seen the melting clocks). The atmosphere was very "ambient" - there was creepy surrealistic music playing while a narrator recited quotes of Dali's (in French, though he was Spanish). Some of the sculptures had spotlights that dimmed and brightened constantly. Very "artsy". Apparently Dali often painted with the tip of his long twisted mustache, yielding the most beautiful finely detailed line sketches, which I think were my favorite things in the museum. One thing I didn't get was a section of a ruined church was off in one corner of the building, with a projector showing shots of Dali's work on the back wall of it. It may have had to do with perspective, but I was slightly confused by it.
So after the Dali museum I decided I needed food, so I headed to the nearby Place du Tertre (tons and tons of street artists hang out here, waiting to do your portrait or caricature). I had a relatively not-exciting meal. Now, when I go out in France I try to always conduct my business in French, for practice. Usually waiters and shopkeepers are fine with this. At the end of my meal, however, my waiter approached me and said something unintelligible. I had to ask him to repeat himself twice before I realized he was asking "cheese or ice cream?" I had been so busy trying to fit the syllables into some kind of French phrase that I did not even realize it was English! He was not amused by my confusion. Party pooper. (I had the ice cream, by the way.)
After "lunch" I still had several hours left of daylight so I went to this church called St. Eustache (Eustacia, I think). It's quite big and pretty, seems to be late Gothic. As I entered a service was starting to I decided to stay for Mass, since I had not been in so long. Of course, it was in French, but I could understand most of the service, knowing it in English after all; but I had no idea what my responses were supposed to be so I just kept quiet and looked at the amazing stained glass windows.
When I arrived home on Saturday night, a new insect had made my home his home. Unlike the spider, however, which lives in the kitchen and thus far from my bed, this giant centipede was just hanging out on the ceiling right above my bed. What is it with France and giant insects, anyway? So I knew I could not kill it because it would just run away, and I definitely did not want to lose sight of it. So after considering several ways of getting it outside where it belonged, I tapped the ceiling next to it to see how fast it would run away if I tried trapping it in a cup or something. That's when I realized the ceiling tiles lifted. Brilliant idea: get the centipede into the ceiling and leave it there. So I did; he cooperated quite nicely and I shut the ceiling tile after him. Hope he's enjoying himself up there.
Regarding insects, some of you responded to my cohabitation with the spider with shock and disgust. Now, let me remind you that the picture I posted was of course larger-than-life. I said the leg span was about an inch and a half, so that picture is over twice the size of the actual spider. And I saw another, slightly smaller spider of the same species hanging out in a corner in my bedroom but he has since disappeared (to my chagrin). Can't sit around waiting for spiders to emerge, however, so I just look forward oto moving back to my non bug-infested apartment in Philly. Not to make you all think it's worse than it is - I am exaggerating a bit for effect - I don't suppose 3 large insects really counts as an 'infestation'...yet :)
So...Sunday I went to Fontainebleau, a chateau a bit to the southeast of Paris. I had to leave from Paris' Gare de Lyon train station, which is huge and had many TGV (bullet trains) in berths. Fontainebleau was remarkably uncrowded (like Chantilly), although it is relatively famous - the huge horseshoe-shaped staircase has been used in the past by French officials in public address (notably, Napoleon when he told his people he was leaving in exile for Elba). It was a huge castle - 20-some rooms we were allowed to visit of it, and all were opulent in the extreme. It's just not something you see in other countries, this kind of lavish decoration, even for royalty. Each room outdid the last. Fontainebleau also contains the only throne room in France with all its original furniture (Napoleon's throne). Fontainebleau was used as a German headquarters in WWII.
Back in Paris that afternoon, I visited a place called la Place des Vosges [plahss day vohj] (a 'place' is a public square), which is surrounded by 36 identical townhouses, and has a park in the center and several fountains. The townhouses have arched arcades of stone, and I saw several musicians playing under them, taking advantage of the acoustics. The first thing I saw on entering la Place was a group of violinists with a couple bassists playing classical music, a piece which I recognized but could not remember the name of (DOO, doo-DOO, doo doo-doo-doo-doo-DOO, DOO, doo DOO, doo doo doo doo doo doo, doo-doo doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, ok I'm stopping now). A huge crowd was gathered around them. After they had finished, I heard several opera singers practicing under one of the arcades at the other end of la Place.
Then I made my way to la Musee de la Mode et Costume (Fashion & Clothing). However by that time I was too tired to wander a museum, especially one with 70,000 costumes, so I just took pictures of the building itself, which was a huge "Italianate" building (think Roman columns) and quite beautiful.
The wind was really picking up by the time I got to la Place de Madeleine, to see the strange church there - it looks like a huge grey Roman or Grecian building, with columns and so on. It had opened in 1789, a bad year for churches in France (French Revolution, shut down churches and removed religious symbols, using them for public government buildings). Madeleine was no exception, but now it is a church again, with a huge organ, and holds services like a normal church.
So there ended my Sunday. This week has been a flurry of preparatory activity - my flight is this weekend after all (tomorrow). I had to ship home some books - to keep my suitcases light; buy some last minute souvenirs for myself and other people; go to La Defense and the Louvre one last time; do my laundry; and pack.