Room with a View

Well, this blog has just passed 20,000 views, and that doesn't even include those of you who receive it by e-mail. I've been writing for just over a year, and what started as a blog for friends and family has expanded its circle of readership considerably.

This is the desk where I write; if I need inspiration, I just look out the window at the Seine, and the spire and tower tops of Notre Dame.  While looking at my workspace, in it's natural state, just remember that Einstein once said, "If a cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?"

Of course, some posts are more inspired than others. In case you're wondering, the most popular posting is....probably not one you would have predicted. At least it's not one I predicted. Just breaking the 8,000 view barrier is, drumroll please: Un-continent. It has gone mini-viral, and I think it's largely responsible for my rather diverse readership. Just from the moments I've checked, readers of this blog have come from many countries, some also not ones I would have predicted, from both continents and un-continents. Besides the obvious -- the US and France -- we have:

India, England, Australia, South Korea, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Greece, Rwanda, Thailand, Russia, Germany, Romania, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Namibia, Mexico, Albania, Trinidad & Tobago, Spain, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Netherlands, Malaysia, Kuwait, Colombia, Cambodia, Peru, Jamaica, Czech Republic, Guam, Qatar, Belgium, New Zealand, Guyana, Ireland, Nigeria, Portugal, Macedonia, Denmark, Mongolia, Switzerland, Bahrain, Latvia, Antigua & Barbuda, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Puerto Rico, Malta, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Norway, Cyprus, Moldova, Egypt, Nepal, Poland, Canada, Serbia, Jordan, Macau, Costa Rica, Oman, Isle of Man, Ukraine, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, South Africa, Croatia, Bulgaria, Israel, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lithuania, Netherlands Antilles, Brunei, Taiwan, Maldives, Northern Mariana Islands, Argentinia, Sweden, Montenegro, Slovakia, Morocco, and Kazakhstan.

And because this is the sort of time-wasting thing I enjoy doing (like organizing a crayon box or matching socks from the laundry), here is the same list in alphabetical order:

Albania, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentinia, Australia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, England, Egypt, Germany,Greece, Guam, Guyana, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Isle of Man, Jamaica, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Macau, Macedonia, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mexico, Montenegro, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nigeria, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam.

(And, while I'm at it, Gigi's own blog www.amikuku.wordpress.com, which is about dance from around the world, has nearly 300 views in five months from the US, UK, France, Cook Islands, Netherlands, India, Canada, Austria, Australia, Japan, Philippines, Hungary, Thailand, Indonesia, Lebanon, Singapore, Hong Kong, and United Arab Emirates. She is completely thrilled every time a new country appears and immediately tries to find it on the map. I say "tries" because it is, seriously, very difficult to find the Cook Islands. But so, so rewarding and exciting once she succeeds!)

Here on Family by the Seine, far behind Un-continent but rounding out the top ten most popular postings are:
Teeny-Weeny Monokini (over 300 views)
Ode to Toffifee (another surprise to me at nearly 200)
Happy Eater! (nearly 200)
Birthday Belly in a Doggie Bag (over 100)
and coming in at just under 100 views so far
Family News, Non Witty Posting (not about France, but news of my father-in-law's passing)
My Husband's French Mistress
We Protest
Playing Handball
Bureacracy: Coming Soon to a Theater Near You!

These numbers don't include the blogs and postings on mytravels outside of France. That would add another few thousand pageviews. And perhaps not surprisingly these travel blogs are popular in pretty much the exact order in which they are considered exotic to my mostly American and French friends and family:

Family Goes to India                              http://familygoestoindia.blogspot.com/

Family Rocks the Kasbah (Morocco)     http://familyrocksthekasbah.blogspot.com/

Family in Croatia                                    http://familyincroatia.blogspot.com/

Family on the Emerald Isle (Ireland)      http://familyontheemeraldisle.blogspot.com/

Family in New England (US)                 http://familyinnewengland.blogspot.com/

Family in Jolly Old (England)                http://familyinjollyold.blogspot.com/

Of these non-French travel blogs, the top ten most popular posts (in order) are:

Porno Puppets & Other Obscenities (India)
Indelible Images of India
1001 (Dollar) Arabian Night (Morocco)
Fatehpur Sikri, The Ghost Palace (India)
Leapin' Elephants (India)
Flying Carpets (Morocco)
Road Rules and F***ing Asses (India)
Donkey & Monkeys: Why Doesn't That Rhyme? (Morocco)
Anthony We're So Sari (India)
Oops! Are We Missing Something? (Morocco)

Now, of course, just because these are the most popular posts and blogs, doesn't mean they're the best, or even my own favorites. Sometimes, your selections surprise me very much. But no matter what you pick, it's much more fun for me to know that people out there are reading and sharing. I must admit, I'm absolutely consumed with curiosity and wish that, in particular, I could meet the readers from the countries where I don't know anybody (or I don't know that I know anybody). More postings and other writing project news coming soon. In the meantime, thanks for reading!

The Politics of Wednesdays

Pippa comes home recently and proclaims, "I don't like President Hollande. I'm against him. My whole class is against him!" It is her first independent expression of political outrage, not one that's just repeating my own political outrage.

What on Earth could the French government have done to inspire this sort of unified opposition from a bunch of seven-year olds? It is threatening to introduce school on Wednesday mornings, where there currently is nothing but a day off. The day is used by most French kids with a stay-at-home parent or nanny for a little lie in, extended pajama time, and day of extracurricular lessons. We spend four hours in the gym every Wednesday afternoon for the girls to take gymnastics, for example. Wednesday morning in our house is officially known as "English Day," in which the girls read and write in English in an attempt to keep their skills up to snuff. The point is, we do it all in our pajamas. It's heaven.

But it's not just the elementary school students and parents who favor comfortable lounge-wear that are opposed (middle and high school students already have school on Wednesday mornings, at least, so are not affected). Public school teachers in Paris have gone on strike twice in the past few weeks to protest the proposed change -- which will not increase the number of hours of classtime, nor the amount of teacher's pay.

That bears re-stating, because it's highly counter-intuitive. In accordance with the Hollande-led plan, the Paris government originally proposed to take away 45 minutes of class-time on the four existing days -- Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Fri. These extra 45 minutes would be added to the approximately 1½ - 2 hour lunch time (depending on private or public schools), so that children would either go home for a 2-3 hour lunch break, or stay at school and have a full 1½ - 2 hour recess. If you realize that Parisian recess yards are essentially poorly-supervised, overcrowded, paved courtyards, this is not as enticing as it sounds.

Teachers, of course, would then be paid for the corresponding 45 fewer minutes per day, since they are only paid for actual class-time, not the total school day. If you were still required to be at school from 8:30 till 4:30, but now you were losing almost an hour of pay, you too would be annoyed.

Then, children -- and teachers -- would come in Wednesday mornings to make up those extra three hours. The teacher would have to come back in on what had formerly been a day off to make up the same amount of pay-hours they used to have. I think I'd go on strike over that, too. Meanwhile, the students would have absolutely no additional classroom hours and would, therefore, not be any further ahead academically. So, frankly, even as a parent, I see Pippa's point.

After the two recent strikes, the mayor of Paris has backtracked and announced there will be a small period of reflection, and it's possible these or revised scheduling changes (adding Wednesday, but making the school days end 45 minutes earlier) will be postponed until the 2014 school year. It's probably because of the leverage of the teachers' strikes and the parents' support for the teachers' cause. But, personally, I'd be a lot more afraid of a mob of angry seven-year olds.

 

High and Dry

Last year, as a six-year old new to this "island living" thing we're doing here on Ile St. Louis, Pippa looked around the swollen Seine in all directions outside our "shores" and asked if we would float away. This, of course, seems a little preposterous, but it has looked a bit like that the past couple weeks.

You can see there's no walking along the Seine.

There is driving -- but only just in the last day or two. For weeks, there have been no cars on the roads along the Seine. How could there be? They would have had to run over the ducks and swans that were swimming all the way up to the base of the building in this picture. I must admit that it seemed like the waters would never recede, so I postponed getting the photo a bit too long, but take my word for it.

Pippa's fear (which, I should tell you, she did not have this year, despite bigger rains and floods) is not so totally unfounded. I mean, the islands aren't in danger of floating away, but they have been flooded in modern history. Once. In the 1910 Great Flood of Paris, which supposedly can't be repeated due to better dams and water control systems. Over a hundred years ago, the water did not actually overflow from the river, though the pictures nearly look like it, but rather came up through the sewers and subway tunnels and drains. Streets were covered, with the water about 20 feet above normal level, and people got around by little canoes. One can imagine how fabulous the city smelled.

photos from: http://www.vintag.es/2011/08/paris-flood-1910.html

The city measures floods by the "Zouave", a statue on one of the bridges (Pont de l'Alma) which was, in fact, underwater in the 1910 flood. The Zouave has remained happy and dry last year and this year -- despite this being the highest level for the Seine that anybody can remember. I'm glad these historical photos of the 1910 flood exist, but I'm also glad I'm not able to re-create them.

photo from: http://www.vintag.es/2011/08/paris-flood-1910.html

 

 

A Long Way to Drive

Well, France's unofficial official motto may be "French Bureacracy: Not Infamous for Nothing" but that doesn't mean they have the monopoly on annoying, crazy bureacracy. And so, I find myself flying 20 hours door to door, from Paris via O'Hare to San Francisco, in order to renew my California driver's license. Set to expire on my birthday next month, I have recently learned that there is no way I can renew it by mail or online because I've renewed it the last two times remotely. I was living in San Francisco at the times, but was just lazy and never saw the downside of avoiding a trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles. Well, I see the downside now. California law says after two remote renewals, a person must renew in person, at the counter of the DMV, in order to re-test and update the photo.

 

 

I can't transfer my license to France because France has a reciprocal agreement only with certain states: Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia, none of them states that most American drivers in France actually come from. That means that in order to get a French license, I would have to take the course, the test, and pay the fee, and believe it or not, that would probably take me at least several months and just the fee for the license alone (not even the course) would be upwards of a thousand dollars. It is notoriously difficult to get a license in France. And, frankly, because France would require me to relinquish my California license, then I'd have to turn around and re-take both written and road tests when I move back to the US.

So, for a bargain $650 airfare, four days of my time, four horrible plane movies* (one of them played three seperate times: for the morbidly curious, see below), and a heap of jet-lag both directions, I commute 20 hours each way to stay two days and go to a 45 minute appointment at the DMV. At least it works, and I walk away with my new driver's license -- only one wrong out of 18 on the test it turns out I have to take (in emergency circumstances, it is OK to use a cell phone in your hands while driving). Not only am I good to go when I move back to San Francisco, it also means that I can drive rental cars while we live and travel in Europe.

On the positive side, I do get to see my new niece (a.k.a. the cutest baby in the world):



And the colors of San Francisco, complete with warm weather and spring plum blossoms starting to bloom. Meanwhile, back in Paris, it's gray, freezing, and snowing/raining.

 

I get fresh-squeezed lemonade -- lemon juice in a cup, simple syrup to sweet, and water to dilute -- and creative California cuisine; here it's French toast made from challah stuffed with mascarpone cheese and topped with lemon curd.

And last but not least, a special field trip to Trader Joe's to buy ridiculous amounts of cereal, seaweed snacks, and other ingredients that are hard to find or too expensive in Paris.


I have come with luggage full of hand-me-downs and gifts to give away, and even a carry-on packed inside my big luggage. All with the expectation that I would bring back groceries. Weirdest suitcase ever. Staying with my friends, the girls help me take the 15 boxes of cereal out of their cartons to make more space. Everything makes it across the world just perfectly. I mean, let's face it, Joe's O's (which are essentially Cheerios) make perfect packing peanuts.

 

*The following are the four films shown on a small screen at the front of the cabin on the four legs of my American Airlines flights, on a schedule determined by the air crew. Anthony did not know planes without private on-demand screens were even still flying. My friend Sarah has dubbed my movie/plane experience "cruel", and I'm inclined to agree, except for the fact that it means I got a lot of needed sleep I might otherwise have skipped.

 

The Lucky One, a Nicolas Sparks romance, starring Zac Efron. Shown three times, twice of those in immediate succession. Mushy and formulaic.

Trouble with the Curve, a movie with Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams, which sounds promising, except that it's about baseball and is horribly predictable.

Sparkle, starring American Idol star Jordan Sparks and Whitney Houston. Before she died, obviously. A Dreamgirls rip-off.

Here Comes the Boom, in which (spoiler alert) Kevin James as a high school science teacher fights in Mixed Martial Arts bouts in order to raise money to save the school's music program, led by Henry Winkler, and in order to get the girl, Salma Hayak. Enough said.

 

850 Years Old

No, not me, though sometimes I do marvel where the years have gone. I mean our neighbor, Notre Dame de Paris, the iconic cathedral that is marking its 850th anniversary in 2013.

For the special anniversary, they have erected a temporary structure and viewing stands that take up much of the square, finished just in time for the Christmas mass I failed to attend. I have to admit I think "Our Lady" looks much better without this structure, but at least it will not endure the centuries (and not even 850 days: planned obsolescence in Nov 2013).

The photos from this angle can only be taken while the stadium seats are up for the anniversary.

It's hard to imagine what an imposing sight this must have been 850 years ago, when everything surrounding it was medieval Paris -- wooden shacks, narrow roads covered in horse (and human) dung, rats scurrying about, town criers ringing out their bells chanting "Bring out your dead!" When it was built, it would have certainly been the tallest structure any of these people had ever seen, with its cathedral towers soaring over the city.

And while Paris may not be the center of the universe, but it is -- officially -- the center of Paris. This bronze star, with the words "Point Zero des Routes de Paris" (Point Zero of routes to Paris), is located just in front of Notre Dame. Ironically, the plaque is just off-center of the cathedral.

The building is decorated with chimeras and the better-known gargoyles, which serve two purposes: as rain gutters and to scare the medieval citizens below into submitting to the church. The best way to see the gargoyles may well be at night, on the side of the cathedral that fronts rue de Cloitre de Notre Dame. Very spooky.

The best way to see the chimeras, however, is from the bell towers, legendary home of Quasimodo. The view from here is decidedly not medieval -- modern building and the Eiffel Tower in the background. We can even see our own apartment from here, though you'd have to know our building very well and have an eagle eye to figure it out. The spire with the verdigris statues -- and the chimeras themselves -- didn't get added to the cathedral till the restoration from 1845-1860. 

 

The side fronting the Seine contains one of the famous rose windows, and since it is the south side, and open to the gardens and Seine, it's the one that best highlights the stained glass. The window stands nearly 13m (42ft) high and is said to be comprised of hundreds of thousands of pieces of glass. I don't know exactly; I haven't counted. I think this is also the side that best shows off the ornate, intricate Gothic architecture, especially when it looked like a frosted confection.

 

 

And from across the Seine...

  

Then there's my favorite side, the back with its flying buttresses. Even before this garden became our front yard (so much so that for the first six months here, Pippa called this place "Ma Dame" -- meaning "My Lady") and the girls' regular little playground, this view has always been my favorite. To me, this is a work of art, a masterpiece, in any lighting, any season.

 

 

 

  

On the inside, the south rose window isn't the only thing glowing. Anyone who's spent time inside Catholic churches will immediately recognize the smell of the burning votive candles. It is, in the truest sense of the word, awesome. Somehow it seems bigger on the inside than the outside.

  

 

In 850 years, I'm sure a lot has happened in the shadows of Notre Dame cathedral. Just in the 15 months we've lived here, for instance, we've seen accordianists, newlyweds, marching bands, military guards, some mighty fine roller blading (our daughters), and some mighty awful fake 'staches (our nephews).  

   

  

Mark your calendars: We'll see you back here to celebrate her next 850th anniversary in the year 2863.