Saturday, May 5, 2001
This morning we have blue sky! We’re going to sit inside a Seventh-day Adventist
church and listen to long talks in French. At least on French TV action and/or
clips clue one in on what is said.
[Later.] I now sit in a magnificent church – St-Etienne du Mont – in a chapel dedicated to (containing the remains of?) Blaise Pascal and Jean Racine (the author of most of Sarah Bernhardt’s greatest hits) while it rains...
[Earlier.]
As we walked toward the SDA church near Campo-Formio métro
on avenue l’hopital, there were two FINE looking young men (and a girl) of
African descent walking in front of us. I mean FINE looking. We ended up
following them right into the SDA church. We sat in the balcony with about
200 others. We were definitely in the minority – we were the only two Americans.
We were made right at home as two of four vanillas in the 200-strong chocolate
balcony. Alan was quite impressed with the gusto with which they sang hymns.
There were at least four different parts being sung loudly en masse during
each hymn. 
It
was more like listening to a choir than a congregation. I spied two Henry
Simmonses (he’s the only celebrity who makes Barbara Walters swoon), one of
whom was our smiling, friendly usher. “Rememberyou’reinchurchRememberyou’reinchurch!”
At one point in the sermon we were asked to turn to “Français Pierre
Français Français cinq Français Français.” I
don’t know if it was Peter I or II, Chapter five verse blah or Chapter blah
verse five. The word “volonte” [will, as in determination/resolve] was frequent
and I recognized the French words for “heart”, “victory”, “Father”, “marionette”
and “mechanical machine”. So there you have the report on the service and
the congregation.
The building:
ironically the “sky-lighted” roof of the SDA church looked like it was made
from 2916 vodka and beer bottles stuck bottom first through a stucco roof
(Yes, I counted the bottle bases. What else does an American mono-lingual
do during a French sermon?). It was mostly vodkas, with beers making odd
designs (Dreidl or an arrow? Shovel? A frame or the Grand Arch?).
After, we métroed to Gare d’Austerlitz and sat under heavy overcast skies in the Jardin des Plantes while I related a list of Ernest Hemingway’s works [to answer Alan’s “What did Hemingway write?”], including what I learned about writing from listening to Woolley read “The Short Happy Life of Francis MacComber”. I also regaled him with the tale of “Bartleby, the Scrivener” and one Southwestern professor’s interpretation of it.
Poor, cold Alan soon requested a warm restaurant and hot soup. At yet another
Chinois Restaurant (with a very rude Chinese hostess/waitress/fuhrer) I related
passages from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and another Southwestern
professor’s interpretation of it, plus Dr. Woolley’s interpretation. Basically
lunch was a cold woman serving hot soup and fixing me with a withering scowl
while I espoused the pleasures of Woolley classes to Alan.
Bussed to Luxembourg gardens and walked past the Pantheon to sit here in St-Etienne-du-Mont so Alan can be warm. He knew the weather was going to be cold, but decided – against espousal advice – not to dress for it. His leg is bothering him, even though we’ve been sitting all day...
Spent exactly one hour at St-Etienne-du-Mont. It smelled like a florist shop.
A woman with a pile of flowers in the sacristy was making floral arrangements
and placing them in the side chapels. It didn’t smell like Aunt Louise’s
flower shop – that was a clovey-carnation smell. But it smelled like other
florist shops. It was cool. The clouds spat rain at us as we walked to the
bus stop. We’re in Eglise St-Sulpice now. It spit rain at us as we took
pictures of the fountain square outside. 
This
is another cathedral whose glass is BARELY stained. Black, white, grey, and
a dab of color. We’re hoping to see the organist play tomorrow after 10:30
a.m. mass. Other than that, St-Sulpice is less charming as historic cathedrals
go [although it does have a Delacroix painting in it...]. St-Sulpice is Kansas
to St-Etienne’s or Sainte Chappelle’s Oz.
Métroed to the Eiffel’s Ecole Militaire and walked to rue Cler. The day was kinda a bust for me (as I’d anticipated exploring the botanical gardens and the Luxembourg gardens) but I knew fromage with "the smell of the feet of an angel" from Rick Steves’s featured fromagerie, and a meal at Le Café du Marché including creme brulee would save it for me. "The smell of the feet of an angel" cheese stank so much even the bag it was put in reeks. It came with a glazed terra cotta pseudo ramekin. Alan again had duck, and I, the poulet. We are no longer creme brulee virgins. Alan was amazed at how they could caramelize the sugar on top, leaving the porcelain handles very hot, while the bottom of the porcelain and the custard itself was still refrigerator-cold.
This was “Teacher Appreciation Day”...at Le Café du Marché I regaled Alan with what an influence my eighth grade English teacher, Rosalyn Wortham, had on my life. She sparked my first interest in things French. In between English instruction, she lectured on tacky things a lady does not do in public. I wonder what she’d think if I could find her and tell her that I’ve been to France four times; and to this day, if I am “forced” to reapply lipstick outside of my home or a powder room, I crouch guiltily expecting Mrs. Wortham to walk in and snatch me bald-headed in the hippest southern accent ever.
When we called home we missed talking to Nikki and Kilory because they were out playing on the tractor and trailer with PaPa and Kyle Harvey.
Apparently yesterday, during phonics time, Kilory got upset, started to cry HARD and couldn’t/wouldn’t stop crying for quite some time. Mrs. Just didn’t know if it was frustration, missing Mommy and Daddy, or both: “How to Kill a Mommy With One Transatlantic Phone Call.”
Watched BBC’s “Ray Mears World of Survival” and learned it is against Aboriginal law to eat emu with salt. They’ll kill you and your family if you’re caught doing it. Had no idea we’ve been living as fugitives.
Friday, April 27 | Sabbath, April 28 | Sunday, April 29 | Monday, April 30 | Tuesday, May 1 | Wednesday, May 2 | Thursday, May 3 | Friday, May 4 | Saturday, May 5 | Sunday, May 6 | Monday, May 7 | Tuesday, May 8 | Wednesday, May 9 | Thursday, May 10 | Friday, May 11| Saturday, May 12 | Sunday, May 13 | Monday, May 14 | Epilogue