Paris Journal 2008

Sign my guestbook. View my guestbook. ←Previous Next → Barbara’s home page

Happy Quatorze Juillet. Nobody here seems to say “Bastille” day anymore. We just finished watching the military parade on TV as we do every Quatorze Juillet. There were three major new sights this year in the parade. First were the twenty-some heads of state in the viewing stand with Sarkozy due to the meeting of the Mediterranean countries (expanded to all of the EU) that Sarkozy pulled together yesterday. Then, toward the end of the parade, we saw totally amphibious tanks – we’d never seen these before. They were very impressive, huge, hunkering, flat things with enormous black floats on the sides. Finally, at the end of the parade, eight or so military parachutists jumped from helicopters somewhere near the Ile St. Louis. They floated slowly, with magnificent rectangular chutes that looked like the French flag, with EU flags attached to their backs, angling their way down the length of the skies over the Tuileries, and making perfect landings, on their feet, in front of the presidential viewing stand on the Place de la Concorde. It was quite a show. The weather cooperated with this part of the show. For once, we have a calm day, no wind, and blue skies. This is also the first time we’ve seen the parade happen on a day that was not broiling hot. I’ve always felt so sorry for those military types suffering in their dress uniforms or their metal helmets. Today they were much more comfortable than in past parades, I’m sure. Before the parade, the TV reporters focus on several featured military units, showing them in the field, operating their technology for various missions. Just before the parade starts, there is an air show by the French military. I like to think about all the American technology that is used in all this equipment. It makes me feel so proud to be American. I’m serious. To give the French credit, they did invent the helicopter. Although “parachute” sounds like a French word, this is actually a technology that was invented in Slovakia in 1603 by Stefan Banic. A Frenchman named Lenormand is credited with developing the parachute into its more modern form in the late 18^th century. There are “bals,” or dances/parties for the public all over Paris, both last night and tonight. Many of them take place at the local fire stations, all of which seem to have a garden perfect for hosting parties. We went to a bal last night, not at the local fire station, but in the Parc Andre Citroen. The band was Senor Coconut and his Orchestra. This hot, electronic Latin jazz group consists of two marimba players, a trombonist, a trumpet play, one tenor saxophonist, a percussionist on the conga, bongo and timbale drums, one string bass player (the only older guy in the group), a lead singer, and Senor Coconut, a middle-aged German from Brazil who played the laptop computer. Senor Coconut had composed an electronic background soundtrack (mostly percussion) for everything the band played. Several of the musicians were German, but the singer was a true Latino. They all wore dark gray suits, white shirts, and ties, and they all knew how to boogie. It was quite a production. The band had everyone moving. They did play some Latin music, but they also played Latinized versions of American songs such as the Doors’ “Riders on the Storm” and Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.” A Latin version of the British group’s, Deep Purple’s, “Smoke on the Water” was also performed, as well as the Scottish songwriter Annie Lennox’s “Sweet Dreams are Made of These.” And of course the group performed the very popular “Smooth Operator,” a song by the Nigerian Sade, first performed when she sang briefly with a Latin soul group called Arriva. Later, a group formed under her own name made the song more of a hit. A singer named Louie Austen joined the Senor Coconut group for a couple songs. According to Wikipedia, Louie, who was born in 1946, “is an Austrian classically-trained bar- and jazz-crooner with a Frank Sinatra voice, who's been active in the electronic music scene for a couple of years.” Louie wore a white suit, and a debonair white hat. He sounds 100 percent American, but he has lived and performed all over the world. At this moment, an organ grinder is playing on the street outside our building. I have opened the balcony doors for the occasion. President Sarkozy is giving a lunch party for all the heads of state who are still in town with their entourages. I think the reporter on TV just said that because of this, Sarkozy will NOT be giving the traditional presidential interview on French national TV after the parade and lunch/garden party. I hope I heard wrong – I always enjoy hearing this annual presidential interview. Speaking of famous people, one night early in the week Tom and I decided to walk into the 8^th just for the fun of it, and go by the night club owned by Johnny Depp, Sean Penn, and John Malkovich at 34 rue Marbeuf. The name of the club is Man Ray, named for the American artist who spent most of his time in Paris. There is no sign that says “Man Ray” on the building, but there are two security guys in gray suits standing outside the door to this glass-fronted building, and it is easy to see that the entrance to a nightclub is just inside the glass façade. The club appears to be in the basement level of the building. One of the security guys was not doing much in the way of security. He was really ogling young women who were passing by. Of course we had no intention of going to this club, I just wanted to see where it is. It was just a meaningless goal for our walk. We are really just flaneurs, wandering about. Johnny Depp, I learned from my stepson and daughter-in-law, is from Kentucky. Like many famous people, somebody else has figured out his geneology for him. Seems that, unbeknownst to him, he is descended from French Hugenots. Now he is married to a French singer, and so he lives in France where he and his wife grow grapes and make wine. What goes around comes around. (Depp also has German, Irish, and Cherokee ancestry.) Another famous person, Ingrid Betancourt, will receive the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor today. In fact, I think it will happen any time now. I have the TV on, monitoring France 2. The news says that Ingrid was invited to view the parade with the Sarkozy’s, but I did not see her, either in the presidential viewing stand, nor in the area where Mrs. Sarkozy was sitting. I hope Ingrid is well. She made a pilgrimage to Lourdes earlier this week. Was it for health reasons, I wonder? Well, the TV station has now switched over to covering the Tour de France. Is that perhaps more important? We have been following the Tour this summer, not quite as intensively as in past years, but with great interest. Our friend Babe Vandevelde, who plays tenor saxophone wonderfully at age 80, said he has a relative (a nephew?) who is a bicycle racer. Lo and behold, Christian Vandevelde is number 3 in the overall rankings of the Tour so far this summer. He is an American from the Chicago area. That’s where Babe is from. Christian’s father, John Vandevelde, was also a bicycle racer who was inducted in the Bicycling Hall of Fame. Let’s see, would that be Babe’s brother, or is John perhaps the nephew? I’ll have to find out. Back to Quatorze Juillet . . . We had the benefit of being able to watch fireworks from the apartment last night. These fireworks were out on the banlieue (suburbs) somewhere, and we could see them from our balcony. Tonight is the night for the Paris fireworks, which will be fired over the Seine near the Trocadero and the Eiffel tower. These fireworks we can see from the back side of our apartment, from the kitchen window. Aren’t we lucky?

Sunday, July 14, 2008 The Back Leg Breakers, performing on the bridge between the Ile St. Louis and the Ile de la Cite. Below, a juggler playing with fire on that same bridge. No, the French are not always fashion plates. This handsome man wears his pajamas in public. The home of the French Legion of Honor. Ingrid Betancourt will receive the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, one of France's top civilian awards, today from President Sarkozy. We see many more EU flags in Paris, now that Sarkozy is taking his turn as the president of the EU. This one floats atop the Hotel de Ville, Paris’s city hall. Sign my guestbook. View my guestbook.

←Previous Next →