2
Exhausted 2 Write Newsletter Archive 
"This writing business. Pencils and whatnot. Overrated, if
you ask me."
Eeyore from " ? "
30 October 1999
Who knew? I now need two French books:
Eeyore from " ? "
30 October 1999
Who knew? I now need two French books:
Talk about a jewel in your backyard.
The St-Denis Basilica's exterior has the craziest gargoyles and looney Chimières
(i.e.
a rancorous rooster gargoyle, and the like).
Inside, the stained glass is awesome and the funerary statues are super.
And
to think how many French kings and queens are buried there.
Because I still had half a roll of 800 ASA film in my camera (from the basilica)
I suggested we then journey to the Panthéon
to take indoor photos there.
Politics
through the epochs have turned it back and forth from a church to honor St-Genèvieve
(Patron Saint of Paris) into a Panthéon
for the people. The hot potato game left it a civil building, ergo an admission
charge, as opposed to an entree libre church.
[While Louis XV was taking care of his health,
he promised that if he recovered, he would build a church to replace the half-ruined
Abbey of St. Genevieve. However, due to the lack of funds, the project did
not begin until 1755. And the architect Soufflot designed a building based
on the Classical prototypes. This being a dome with a Latin cross which is
fronted by a Greek temple facade. During the construction, Soufflet passed
away and the church which is known today as the Pantheon, was finally completed
in 1789 - the year of the French Revolution. This is a spectacular product
of classical design surmounted by a huge dome.
This church was built to be a vast mausoleum to "receive the bodies of great
men who died in the period of French liberty". The windows were closed, thus
enforcing the solemnity of the interior. The building alternated between being
a church and mausoleum throughout the last century. In 1985, following the
collapse of stone work in the vaults, it has had to be closed for an indefinite
period. Yet, you can still visit the crypt.
In the crypt lies the mortal remains of Frances honored deads : Mirabeau,
Voltaire, Rousseau, Hugo and Zola joined recently by humanist novelist André
Malraux.
Just
a little note : When Francois Mitterrand came into office and being the first
Socialist president of the Fifth Republic, the first official visit was to
the Pantheon. There, he laid down a rose which is the symbol of the Socialist
Party, in memory of Jean Jaures, the Socialist leader who was murdered in
1914.
The most spectacular aspect is the size of the Pantheon. On the ground floor,
in the form of a cross, it has a length of 110 m (352 ft) and a breadth of
85 m (272 ft.). The dome with its height of 85m (272 ft) inspired the physicist
Leon Foucault to carry out his first experiments with the pendulum in the
middle of the 19th century. He wanted to demonstrated the rotation of the
earth on its axis.
In
the neighbourhood of the Pantheon on the corner of rue Clovis, lies the sixteenth-century
church of St.-Etienne-du-Mont.
This church combines Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque elements.
This contains the shrine of Ste. Genevieve.
The space is divided into three aisles
by free-standing pillars connected by a narrow catwalk, and flooded with light
by an exceptionally tall clerestory.
The one and only rood screen in Paris is also in this Renaissance-style building.
The clock tower, Tour Clovis, is in the Henri IV Iycee at the side of the
church. This is the last surviving part of the Abbaye
Sainte Genevieve.]
Thus we scampered next door to Église St-Etienne-du-Mont to use up my 800
ASA film. St-Etienne-du-Mont
– I've never seen such a light, airy cathedral. Gorgeous. We got there in
time for (Gregorian) chant practice. What perfect ambiance for looking at
stained glass. Then the organist started playing the organ whose pipes took
up an entire wall. It rattled the stained glass windows! Perfect for gazing
at vaulted ceilings. Oh! What an experience.
While there, I discovered my 800 film never wound on the reel. But if I hadn't rearranged our schedule around that roll of film we might not have seen Église St-Etienne-du-Mont, and certainly not with the perfect musical atmosphere. The photographer in me is hemorrhaging; the philosopher in me is grateful.
The Jardins
et Palais du Luxembourg
were right down the rue from the Pantheon and Église St-Etienne-du-Mont.
I had a splendiferous time photographing pigeons disrespecting statues.
["Accept that sometimes you're the pigeon and sometimes you're the statue."]
![Parc Monceau's colonnade. One gets a view of this in 'Gigi' as she laments to Gaston that she doesn't understand the Parisians; when Gaston is livid that 'she's a child' not a woman [soon to sing 'Gigi']; then when Gaston realizes she is the only woman for him. ['Gigi' instrumental]. *sigh* One of the best songs EVER.](http://www.disaster-area.org/weis/fmonccolonnade.jpg)
Rubbernecked
on a bus across town, across the Seine, past St-Augustin to Monet's (and Gigi's)
Parc Monceau.
There
were so many kaleidoscope leaves it looked like a Monet
painting. Leaves, ponies, children and a wedding party.
Watching kids rolling in, jumping in, and collecting leaves, Alan asked me "Why do kids like leaves so much?"
"I dunno. Why did I pick another purse full of leaves to take to Helen?"
We métroed to George V on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées then swam upstream
through the crowds to the building that looked like Madame Bonfamilie's house
from "The Aristocats" -- which
turned out to be right in front of the Franklin D. Roosevelt métro. *accck*.
[*One of the daily care packages I left for the girls
(coloring page with message, Bible verse, stickers) had a coloring image of
Berlioz, Toulouse, and Marie from Disney's "The Aristocats". I thought they'd
get a kick out of a photo of Mommy on the steps of "Madame's House."] I posed
on the steps, but a lady nearby insisted I take advantage of the steps' curved
stone balustrade. I did a chanteuse pose, then talked with the lady and her
husband until the building guards started to close
the gates around us. It was twilight when we met Jack and Nancy ---- of Indiana;
by the time we finished exchanging info on good flea markets vs. bad , and
affordable lodging, it was dark (or as dark as it gets on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées).
I'd warned them away from the Porte Clignancourt market saying if you liked
it you couldn't afford it. We'd told them about saving money on métro tickets
and crossing the Channel. They told the story of how Jack hadn't been allowed
into the Ritz London because of dress code but Nancy snuck through; here in
Paris not even Nancy could step foot in the Ritz. It eventually it came out
that Jack and Nancy were worth a few million. Just a few. I told them they
could afford Porte Clignancourt after all. They were fun. Jack reminds me
of a thin Newt Gingrich in appearance.
Alan and I spot "Angel Dogs" and debate whether the poodle's color is really a Cujo [Dad's Angel Dog] Color (café au lait). On the métro back there was an "Angel Dog." It walked into the station, but waited for the train getting scrubbins in its mama's lap. On the train she was held in the tummy-up cradle position. It didn't even matter that she was a cracked-black-pepper poodle...she was an "Angel Dog."
Rained on us from the métro to the supermarché.
Did our final "souvenir" shopping at Carrefour.
I wish Kramér were here so I could tell him I choose cooking wine the way
choose foreign language books:
"I have no idea what's inside. I just like the pretty bottles."
[I've never indulged in the cliche of buying French perfume.
And I wanted to. Having foregone the 
Madonna-torso
bottle of the great-smelling $55 Jean Paul Gaultier perfume, at Carrefour
I bought a 
Grace
Kelly-gown-by-Edith-Head bottle of the so-so-smelling $7 Lova Moor perfume.
The girls love it when I give all three girls a small spritz of Paris perfume
on our way out somewhere. However, one night before bed they got a hold of
the bottle and drenched themselves. I could smell it down the hallway. Alan
coughed as he tried to read them their bedtime story. They asked me if they
smelled good. "You smell like cheap French courtesans," I choked.]
* Alpha's Quadrant * Daddydom
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* CLCW aka Sarah Bernhardt
* Motherhood and Housewifery
* Scribble scribble * Thought
Spot
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I think I can I think I can
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Vienna
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BB Guns and Frozen Tongues
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King
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Junque * I love Paris in the Springtime
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Book of Practical Cats
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War Diary of G. T. Granger
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Letter to Gramma * Diana's Life Lessons
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