What can I tell you?
It's been a week. I'm not thinking in French (Unless I specifically work to do so, which I'm doing more often) but très souvent, very often like just then, the French word for something appears in my mind before the English one. A soup of language, a friend said. He's right.
Qu'est-ce que je peux te dire?
J'ai rêvé heir soir, pour la première fois. I dreamt last night for the first time.
I don't have free time, or maybe it's that I do have free time and just spend all of it. My god, what do I tell you?
That's why I hate blogging,by the way. There are a thousand moments I want to share with you, a thousand times I noticed where I was and looked around, thinking am I really here? and of course always, impossibly, the answer is yes. Yes: at this moment exactly I am really sitting in front of the Eiffel Tower at 22h00, drinking cheap wine out of water bottles and eating baguettes and fromage (cheese), and le Tour is really sparkling madly into the evening. (That did happen: it was stunning.)
You'll see on my photobucket several dozens of pictures of statues and you'll probably get tired of looking at them long before I tired of taking them. Mais laisse-moi expliquer: c'est le musée Rodin. If you don't know who that is -- he is, was, a sculptor (dead now). As a dancer-- I don't get a lot of art, and I feel bad, j'ai vraiment hônte, to say that. But old paintings, strange objects -- I don't understand.
Rodin, je comprend, I understand. His statues bougent -- they move. There is a tension in them, in their muscles. They are alive -- ils vivent. It's like as soon as you turn away they'll move. the pictures can't capture it, of course. But it was amazing. I am going back there, you be sure.
And then of course we went to a little café called Le Club des Poètes, where the owner, le patron, greets you at the door and shakes your hand -- he and his mother recite French poetry for you and bring you tea and gatêau chocolat, the grandmother's recipe. There are some things that are perfect. Like that.
Yesterday we went to Versailles, which is about 45 minutes away on the RER train, a double decker ghetto train that moves as quickly as it can drag its own bulk along. But that's not what I want to talk about: what i want to say about Versailles is that I have never seen so much gold. Gates made of solid gold, d'or dans les portes (in the doors), windows, n'importe où et partout (wherever and everywhere). Quelle richesse!!! And to think that, dans ces couloirs-ci, oui, les mêmes sous tes pieds -- il y avait des gens qui y ont marchés. Pas seulement les touristes, les douzaines et centimes de touristes qui viennent chaque jour -- mais il y a quartre cent ans des gens -- du roi, de la renne -- ils ont habité.
(to think that,in these corridors, yes the same as under your feet right now -- people walked here, not just the thousands of tourists who come every day, but real people who lived here 400 years ago -- the King, and the Queen).
It's absolutely fascinating, and stunning, and that's just the château. After, you must wander through the gardens, feet hurting terribly and a knee randomly being angry with you -- the hedges a dozen feet tall in mazes, fountains with gods of gold clawing their way from the center of the earth. Then you must go to the domain of Marie-Antoinette, the houses, the gardens, the hamlet with its gardens, where sheep are still raised and donkeys and little lakes, and its absolutely serene. I wondered how one goes about becoming la renne de France, to be able to live there.
We left after the entrances were all closed, and limped back to the RER station and took the train back into Paris, looking for a restaurant and couldn't find it, so nous avons cherché pour l'un le plus moins cher -- looking for the least expensive one nearby -- and then spent over two hours with a fantastic French meal -- poulet rôti avec les frites et une salade pour moi, and mousse au chocolat for dessert -- with a glass of wine to go with it. It was absolutely wonderful.
Today -- because we could -- we went to a restaurant called "breakfast in America" -- it's been a week and we're a long way from home -- and had French toast and coffee after a long wait in line -- yes, a line!! with French people! It's apparently very popular, and you can see why -- the food is not expensive and very good.
After a leisurely time we headed out for Montmartre, located in the 18e arrondissement. Located on a random, very steep hill, it is in the middle of a quartier très pauvre, avec beaucoup d'immigrès -- donc c'est un peu louche et il faut qu'on fasse attention à son porte-feuille. (It's in a poor, immigrant neighborhood, so it's a little sketchy and you have to pay attention to your wallet). When you enter the gates, a swarm of guys holding little bits of string try to stop you so they can make you a bracelet and charge you however many euros -- they grab your elbow as you walk by, and you have to be very firm about ignoring them and saying no. You walk up a hundred or so steps and the Cathedral de Sacre-Coeur se trouve là, is there. The steps are full of tourists and more people trying to sell you trash -- doesn't anyone realize it's trash? but the tourists still buy buy buy, why not if you can? -- and there are impromptu, and illegal, shows going on and the French police ignore everything, including the pickpockets.
But it's beautiful, and if you pay 5 euros, you can walk up 300 winding steps, dizzying and steep, to the dome, and there is Paris, laid out in front of you -- la défense, which is to the north of the city and where you find all the skyscrapers --- but the city itself, full and brimming and busy, white buildings and winding streets. My friend and I stood up there pendant longtemps, for a long time, talking about how to change the world. Again, there are some things that are perfect. Like that.
I encourage you to check out my pictures at my photobucket: grhodes7. ici. My photos of Montmartre, I am sorry to say, have been inexplicably deleted by a wrong key tap and now I can't find them. I have a lot of friends, however, who did take pictures, and as soon as I get my hands on them, I will make sure you are able to see them. Sorry about that.
Hugs to all, à bientot, bisous!!
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