Working Girl

Originally posted March 16, 2004

Thursday marked my first day as an intern at the American Chamber of Commerce. It’s in a pretty great location just off the Champs Elysées in the 8th arondissement of Paris. I’m close to lots of museums and just off my metro line so it’s convenient for me. The staff was welcoming and integrated me into their office right from the beginning. I will be working with databases for the first week and after that I will have a better idea of how things work around the Chamber and can participate in more interesting aspects. It’s been pretty cold in Paris, rainy, even some snow. Mme Arnal keeps telling me how unusual the weather is, but says that when the weather is bitterly cold in Paris as it has been this winter, the summer is usually very nice. Today when I went running it felt like spring for the first time. There was that suggestion of warmth that the brisk air couldn’t quite hide. It smelled like spring too: sun-warmed earth, things growing, and natural freshness with just a hint of flowers blooming. That was restoring to me. I don’t handle the cold well and I have been yearning for the season ever since I had to start wearing a scarf and gloves everyday.

Yesterday I spent my last Friday without work going to museums. It was hard to get myself out there because it was so cold and rain was coming down pretty heavily. I ended up walking from the Bastille to the Grand Palais which is about 2 miles but the scenery and things that you pass make it worth it. Walking along the Seine is enough of an incentive to make me get off the metro five stops early to walk to my destination. Even in the rain (and some would say especially), there is a hopelessly romantic quality about walking through the streets of Paris. I began my day at the house where Victor Hugo lived which is in the Marais quarter near the Bastille. I walked through the richly decorated rooms of burgundy damask wallpaper, creaky hardwood floors, portraits of his family and himself, and original manuscripts and letters. It is located in Place des Vosges which is one of the most elegant and beautiful residential squares in Paris. Apartments there are astronomically expensive to live in. Luckily, it’s free to walk around it. There are lots of antique shops and art galleries which form the outline and make the walk more interesting.

After Maison Victor Hugo I made my way to the Musée de Picasso. The Paris museum has a collection of his works rivaled only by the Picasso museum in Barcelona which I will have a chance to see in April. I think I really understood the genius of Picasso for the first time. Each section is divided by periods going chronologically, and starts with the pictures and a summary of what inspired him during this period and what his themes were. I saw the pictures of the women he used as models for "Demoiselles d’Avignon” and then I looked at the painting and it struck me how much of a visionary he was. How could he go from a human form to that? The guitar paintings and sculptures were also much more interesting after this dawned on me. You say in French “ça n’a rien à voir” which means that has nothing to do with or is completely different from what you are comparing. This phrase kept coming into my head as I looked at the portraits and figures he painted and sculpted. Spending time studying his works as a body for the first time opened them up in a new way. There is an exhibition there later this month opening with featuring his work and that of Ingres. I plan on returning.

Back into the rain I went and started the long walk to the Grand Palais. I went through the Tuileries Gardens and amused myself by dodging puddles and counting the English speakers I passed (23 in case you were curious). The reason I was going to the Grand Palais was to see an exhibit of Chinese art from the 17th and 18th centuries focusing on mountains, rivers and other natural forms and exploring their significance in eastern art. This exhibit is not opening until the 1st of April. Until that time, there is an exhibition on clowns and humor in art entitled “La Grande Parade: Portrait de l’artiste en clown”. The exhibit featured some of Picasso's clown sketches and oil paintings, and also how some humor has been interpreted over time as an art form. They had videos of modern artists who use clowns and humor in their work and old silent movies of French mimes. I have to say that I don’t really like clowns, they freak me out and I haven’t even seen “It”. Needless to say, I didn’t spend as much time there as I did in the Picasso museum. Last week before my art exam I went to the Palais de Tokyo which doubles as the National Museum for Modern Art. It was sort of a test for me to see if I had gotten anything out of the 7 weeks of immersion in contemporary art.

There are no rooms, it’s like a warehouse and sometimes you can’t tell works of art from fixtures. The coolest thing there is this gigantic mural that a guy did that traces the origins of rock and roll to modern music. He starts with three movements like Little Richard and Chuck Berry and then it progressively divides with the British invasion, punk, and various other movements and gets wider and wider until you start to see all the modern bands. I didn’t have my camera with me so I’m going back to make a video of it. Not even a panoramic mode picture would get it all.

Saturday I left the apartment after another refreshing early spring run in Bois de Vincennes with a mission to buy tickets for the remaining events I want to go to. They have classical music concerts almost every night at St. Chapelle, a tiny chapel in Paris in the court of the Palais de Justice whose beauty I lack sufficient words to describe. I got tickets for Tuesday night to hear a selection of lesser-known works by some very well- known composers. I also bought tickets to go to the Opera Bastille, the new controversial opera house, to see Othello, score by Verdi, based on the Shakespeare play. I tried to get tickets to this one play I’m dying to see called “Fables de La Fontaine” which is like Aesop’s Fables except it’s the French version. It’s at the Comédie Française which is one of the most well-known theaters in France. There was a big huge demonstration that started at 3pm though so it was closed before I got there. I walked around on the Rive Gauche through St. Germain des Prés and the surrounding areas again. This time I walked on Rue St. André des Arts which is a pedestrian street, very narrow, that has not changed since the middle ages in terms of architecture. The shops along this road are the most unique and interesting I have found so far in Paris. I also found gelaterie there so obviously put a pin in that.

It was getting later on the afternoon and so I went home to catch the train out to Orry la Ville to see Uncle and Aunt Petty. We went out to dinner as soon as I got out there and had a great time talking and trading travel stories. They have been reading my journal and they mentioned how beer and wine references have popped with a noticeable frequency of late and playfully teased me about it. I am trying to cultivate a taste for beer because up until now I have really not at all. And, like the impossible lightweight I am, I still can’t even finish a pint of cider or a half-pint of Guinness, so there is no cause to worry.

So I woke up to the sun shining on the French countryside and went out to explore the fields and forests before church. We went to their church again and everyone was so welcoming. There was a couple from South Carolina visiting the Petty’s as well and so we all had a good time at the service meeting the people then having lunch together, then going out to drive in the country and visit a little Medieval town called Senlis. We walked along the cobblestones and stopped in a café for some tea and coffee. I had “Tea from the Nile” in preparation for May. Uncle Tom had some of the richest hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted in my life. It was the consistency of a melted chocolate bar, no lie. It completely coated the sides of the cup. Amazing.

I was sad to leave the little town and have to go back to the bustle of Paris. Very symbolically, it began to rain when I boarded the train, then as soon as I stepped off, it cleared up. I can see now why my host Mom leaves every weekend like a lot of the working population in Paris. I spent tonight making dinner with my host mom and we planned the rest of the places I should visit in France before I leave. I was looking at my calendar and there’s so little time left! It’s unbelievable. I have been getting March Madness updates and apparently I missed one of the best ACC tournaments yet. No matter what I say about how great it is here, I am absolutely depressed about missing March Madness and all the fun that goes along with it: Megan wearing her Terps jersey on game days, Mark and I analyzing UNC play, Rebecca and I blowing off studying to watch games in the room, and Rachel and I fighting about Duke. Also, not being able to run the 10 miler and the Half Marathon kills me as well. There’s always next year I guess. This studying abroad thing does not come without sacrifices. However petty (oh the humor…), they are the things that are hardest to be away from. Well, those and free refills.

Starting the daily grind for real this week will be fun. There are a number of events coming up that I get to go to and hopefully meet some of the members. We’ll see how long it takes for the novelty of the 9:30-6 lifestyle to wear off. In any case, it’s only 8 weeks. I have heard some great Spring Break stories so far, keep ‘em coming. Until next time.