Paris "En Semaine"

Savoring Paris on a weekday feels a bit like playing hooky. As you sit back in a cozy café, sipping a rich soy latté (ok, it's Starbucks, but still), you can't help but imagine coworkers lined up in front of a coin-operated instant coffee machine. Slip into a dark movie theater in the Latin Quarter, and for a second, you picture the office gang stifling yawns in front of an interminable PowerPoint presentation. Almost takes the fun out of flâning on a manic Monday. Almost.

Mia Sara and Matthew Broderick as Sloane Peterson and Ferris Bueller. [Online image] 1986.

Times of "Crise"

A homeless guy in Berkeley once stole a stack of CDs from my dorm room. He pawned them right away for cash.
Before this weekend, though, I'd never come home to gaping cabinet and dresser drawers, their vintage contents strewn about like rejected strands of pearls.
As we followed the fresh trail of mud left by the gendarmes' boots up to the cambrioleurs' dry sneaker prints, I thought: "C'est la crise."
Why else would a group of teenagers in rural France have gone to all this trouble for a decade-old computer and a DVD player?
If it weren't for our upside-down value system, they surely would've at least tried to take off with a prized stamp collection or a Picasso copy or two.

Cary Grant and Sophia Loren as Tom Winters and Cinzia Zaccardi. [Online image] 1958.

Oh, "Beau Sale Temps"

Parisians really don't like the rain. "Quel temps !" they sputter, shaking the city's dampness off their impers and opening up their parapluies to dry on the palier.
And can you blame them? Paris gets pretty moche when it's wet out and raindrops hold tight to lonely park benches, as the floors of métro stations become laced with muddy prints.
A speaker at the Salon du Bien-Etre this weekend got me thinking, though. "What do you do if you live in a gray and rainy city like Paris?" she asked.
"Get a light box," seemed like the obvious reply.
But her answer was more clear-cut: "Either move to the South, or learn to like the rain."
Guess it's time to start looking for poetry in those muddy footprints.

Charmian Carr as Liesl von Trapp. [Online image] 1965.

February At Last

Once January's gloomy page turns, revealing February's red lace and snow flurries, Paris breathes a sigh of relief. Or, at least, I do! As carefree spring fashions finally manage to elbow their way to the front of window displays and lucky schoolchildren bundle up for Alpine fun, the city seems to revel in its extra hours of light. It's time for crêpes and cider, fondue and mulled wine, and strawberries and champagne. New Year's resolutions, beware! It's time to live a little.

Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck as Dr. Peterson and John Ballantine. [Online image] 1945.

"Grève," Schmève!

In France, socialist sympathizers say the same thing about striking that right-winged people in the States say about bearing arms: "It's our right, so don't even think about messing with it!" Of course, French strikers don't risk killing innocent people by carrying out their right. They just barbecue merguez on the side of the road, organize a few manifs, and try to shut down the country for a day or two. It's how they vent, and if you ask moi, it makes a whole lot more sense for a disgruntled postal worker to close shop for a day than open fire on his co-workers.

Sally Field as Norma Rae. [Online image] 1979.

A Contagious Moment

During Obama's historic inauguration on Tuesday, we the people felt like part of history, too. We were happy to be witnesses to the Obamas' happiness. That's because cultural hegemony works in America.
In France, one person's victory doesn't make les autres feel victorious: they become critical and bitter because they don't think it will ever be their "turn."
We, on the other hand, are so blinded by the American Dream that even a taste of success (a J. Crew ensemble as seen worn by Michelle, anyone?) feels as good as the real thing. Perhaps if Carla started foregoing her usual Chanel, more people in France could have their petit goût of fame aussi.

Glynis Johns as Mrs. Banks. [Online image] 1964.

Bringing Back Home

When the initial shock of being back in Paris after a visit home--and all the soul-searching questions that follow ("Did my métro station always have this odor?")--clears, it's just a matter of time before you tell yourself, c'est la vie, and get back into the French swing of things.

But now that you're fully armed with your favorite peanut butter, three pairs of jeans that fit, and the entire gamme of Luna bars, are you really just supposed to go back to métro, boulot, dodo and like it? 

Or do you do what it takes to make sure that parts of the life you left behind live on?

Rachel Ward as Meggie Cleary. [Online image] 1983.