Paris Journal 2010 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com

Photos and thoughts about Paris

Sign my guestbook. View my guestbook. 2009 Paris Journal ← Previous Next → ← Go back to the beginning

One day in Munich, Mareen and I sat on some steps across from a reinsurance company, waiting for Arnold and Tom to bring the car to pick us up, and we were chatting about this and that. Mareen asked me about which French newspaper we read. I explained that we read Le Parisien, but that it is really too shallow, too superfluous for us. We read it because it is written at a level that is easy to read, and it has some info about local events that is occasionally informative or useful. But much of Le Parisien is devoted to sports, including quite a number of pages on horse racing. That whole part of the paper is wasted on us. And I’m tired of seeing the same kind of stories repeated year after year in Le Parisien. It is starting to bore us. I told Mareen that we can read Le Figaro, whose French is a bit more advanced than Le Parisien’s, but it is still at a level that we can easily understand. The problem with Le Figaro is that it is not journalistically good. It is very much in the pocket of the UMP, the conservative political party in France. It is a puppet newspaper. I explained that if we were to read the newspaper that is the equivalent of what we would read in the US (the New York Times), that would be Le Monde. The problem with Le Monde, as Tom puts it, is that it is a “tough chew.” It is a deeply serious newspaper with some complicated French. The layout isn’t friendly, and the type is a little too small. There are some other newspapers we must try. These include Le Soir, Le Journal du Dimanche, and La Liberation. They do not include Le Canard Enchaîne, which is just too far out in its weird idiomatic language and its politics. I have resolved that we are going to read some other newspapers during the month of September. We had a relaxing day yesterday – a much needed rest after a week of being tourists in Germany. Then we went out to the “neighborhood pub,” Le Commerce Café, for a nice little dinner of a small tender steak with a light wine sauce and shallots, and green beans. We ate early. The food arrived quickly. And the cuisine was decidedly not German. Speaking of being tourists in Germany, I was amused time after time when people would come right up to me and speak German to me, even if I’d been heard speaking English. They look at me, and they simply cannot believe I am not one of them. This was especially true in Bavaria, even more that it was in Berlin or the Rheinhessen in western Germany. And I know from some genealogical research done by my aunt and uncle that I do have Bavarian roots, even if I cannot speak German at all. I liked Bavaria so much, that it was almost too much. I found myself occasionally feeling sad that I’m not Bavarian. But not for long. I love being an American. That said, I still just might buy myself a dirndl next summer. Women still routinely wear them in Bavaria! Shop windows are full of dirndls, in every imaginable color and fabric. And we saw a number of men wearing lederhosen! This is normal attire for them. Amazing, and very quaint. Mareen and I discussed this idea of me buying a dirndl, right down to the details of things like what kind of bra to wear with it. Because I seem to be slowly losing weight due to the discovery of my wheat intolerance, I decided not to buy the dirndl this year, but to wait until next year instead. I’m hoping Mareen will help me shop for it. There are a number of different pieces involved. I don’t think it is all that simple to put this kind of outfit together. Mareen says every woman in Germany has at least one dirndl. She has one. Today we’ll be packing up to move over to the 6^th arrondissement tomorrow. Part of the move will take place today, when we will take some things over to the 6^th and have dinner with Carol and Ron on their last night in Paris for this summer. The weather is gloriously cool, bright and clear. It is a perfect autumnal day. Sign my guestbook. View my guestbook. Note: For addresses & phone numbers of restaurants in this journal, click here.

Saturday, August 28, 2010 Street entertainers in Paris, including Bernard Constant, above, and the crazy bicycle clown below. ← Previous Next →