Paris - Part 1

So I fly to visit Donna Fleetwood in Paris. I love to travel. Flying in Europe means that you will be treated to at least two languages on a “domestic” flight. On this flight to Paris, I got three languages - French, German and English! Now German I am used to since I hear it all the time. (I am still relatively unsuccessful at speaking it *sigh*). The English was so heavily accented that I had a hard time understanding it. I had five years of French in jr. hi through sophomore year of high school. That was a LONG time ago. You don’t need to do the math, you can just take my word for it!

Someone must have pounded it into my head very well when I was young, because I was amazed to discover that I could understand a lot of it. As usual, I could understand, but not really speak it. I think that’s the toughest part. I see it with the students I teach at the English Center. They comprehend most of what I’m saying, but can’t really speak it yet. I call it “turn around” time. One of the most fun conversations that I’ve had so far has been with a woman who understands English, but doesn’t really speak it. She spoke German and I spoke English and we actually conversed for about an hour and a half!

The interesting thing about hearing yet another foreign language was that I would try to speak German! I think it was a case of my brain saying “Ooohh!!! Foreign language!” and then spewing out all kinds of foreign words... German being the most recent. No matter. Meine Deutsche ist schlect!

Donna and I headed out to an African dance class the first evening I was in Paris. It was a very interesting location. We walked down an alley filled with nightclubs until we came to a sort of parking ramp. Underneath the parking ramp you could see lights and the sound of the drums reached us well before we saw the dancers. Since I am recovering from pneumonia, I decided that it was probably in my best interests to just watch.

It was a good call. I seriously think the class would have killed me. It was SO high energy, it was unbelievable. All kinds of people of all different ages and body types dancing in their own way. The instructor would give them a combination and everyone interpreted the movement in their own way. This was done at a high rate of speed with incredible energy. Then they would switch lines and do the whole combination over again and so on. There were maybe four combinations that built to this massive final frenzy and the drums stopped. You know what that’s like! The abrupt silence is like a slap in the face. Totally exhilarating! Everyone fell down. It looked like the Boneless Chicken Ranch. It was incredible to watch. I wanted to join in the worst way, but it truly would have been the end of me. I mean, these people were healthy.

The next day I decided to take on the Paris subway and the Louvre. The Louvre is positively enormous and you could probably spend a month in there at least. I am sorry to admit that I did the tourist slash and burn, visiting mainly the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. I did spend some time in the Italian painters exhibit (that’s where the Mona Lisa was.) I have never seen so many wings, horns and pink cherubs in my entire life. Lots of cherubs. Multitudes of cherubs. Throngs of them. All very pink. And lots of madonnas. They were easy to identify. Why is Mary always wearing blue? She is always modestly and warmly dressed in blue, but the baby Jesus doesn’t fare as well. He is usually minimally dressed in a swaddling cloth. Maybe he has a high metabolism or something, but I think he looks like he could use a blanket. And he’s pink too! Probably from the cold!

The hall containing the Mona Lisa was easy to find since it was the one with tourists spilling out into the central hallway. And why not? It’s a famous and fabulous painting. Of course everyone wants to see it. It was pretty exciting. You realize that you are looking at the real deal. Kind of takes your breath away....

I wandered into the Egyptian antiquities hall as well. Just the age of some of the specimens was impressive. And the work that went into them. I won’t bother with superfluous superlatives. It wouldn’t do the exhibit justice anyway.

Since the Musee D’Orsay was across the street (more or less), I walked over there to take in the Impressionists and some van Gogh. One of my favorite paintings was by Manet of turkeys. I really enjoyed the colors, but was sad when I went to the gift shop to discover that it was probably one of the few paintings that was NOT available as a card or poster. Bummer! But I’ll keep a picture in my head. It’s not quite the same but it will have to do for now.