Paris Journal 2015 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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The university we walked by two days ago is called the University of Paris VIII. I know that the “University of Paris” is the real name for what we informally call “The Sorbonne,” and I know that the Sorbonne was just one of the ancient university’s colleges. But just what happened to make all these different Universities of Paris, each with a number, was something I did not understand until this morning. A particularly good explanation in Wikipedia has now shed light on this mystery for me. After the student riots of 1968 in Paris, there was a “sympathetic response to student demands for more freedom,” and a desire to get many of the students out of central Paris, where the rioting had taken place. So, the University of Paris, the great institution that is the world’s second oldest university, was split into 13 institutions. University of Paris VIII is one of those thirteen. It originated in 1970 as the University Experimental Center at Vincennes. Then it was given full university status and its current name in 1971. Essentially, Paris VIII became the center for humanities in the federal University of Paris system, but it is now an autonomous public university. It moved from Vincennes to Saint Denis in 1980. Even after Paris VIII was formed, controversy continued to follow this 1/13th of the former Sorbonne. I think that because it was the humanities center, the most radical students and faculty were concentrated there. They continued their rioting. As is often the case, the most radical department in the humanities was the philosophy department, which was a hotbed of communists. One of the philosophy professors was not only a communist, but an avowed Maoist who stated that she was “trying to make the university function as badly as possible.” She was subsequently fired, after she “handed out course credit to someone she met on a bus.” One of the most famous professors at University of Paris VIII was Michel Foucault who, when he was chair of the philosophy department, participated in student riots and threw projectiles at the riot police. Paris VIII eventually got itself sorted out and is more mainstream now. It registers 24,000 students annually, and has joint programs with the University of California-Berkeley and Boston University, among other schools. Aha. I was just interrupted in these musings by the delivery of my new sunglasses. I needed a pair of those wrap-around sunglasses that one can wear over prescription glasses. They’re easy to find at any CVS or WalMart in the U.S., but seemingly impossible to find in Paris. Thank heavens for Amazon. But to order something like this efficiently on Amazon, I must use the French site, Amazon.fr, and I must do it in French. Then I can get free shipping with Amazon Premium, which is the French version of Amazon Prime. But to order something in French, one has to know what it is called in French. It took me about a half an hour of research, but I finally figured out that these wrap-around sunglasses are called “surlunettes de soleil,” meaning “over-glasses.” Such a simple word, surlunettes; why didn’t I think of that? Anyway, my eye doctor will be pleased that I’m wearing the kind of sunglasses he recommends for preventing cataracts. They only cost me 16 euros, tax and shipping included. I’ll leave them here in Paris, so I don’t have to remember to pack them each summer. Now I don’t have to peer into every optical shop window that we pass. We passed at least two of those on our way to dinner at Pere Claude last night. The evening was very warm, but not uncomfortably so. We sat near one of the front doors, and benefited from the cross breeze between the two open doorways. Our dinner began with a shared starter course of crayfish and marinated salmon on a big salad. It would have been enough for dinner for one of us. That salad was cool and delicious. It tasted far better than it looked. Each of our main courses arrived with a huge serving of velvety puréed potatoes. Tom had lamb chops again, which were great. My interest in funky traditional French food was peaking, so I ordered the homemade sausages, including blood sausage. While this dish might not look great to many of you, I really enjoyed it. But it was too much food; fortunately, Tom brought a ZipLoc bag with him. We covertly stashed some of the food and brought it home. We left lots of puréed potatoes on the plates. For dessert, we shared an apple clafoutis, which was exceptionally good. It was topped by a little scoop of coffee ice cream. At home in the evening, we listened to a Coleman Hawkins CD. I also discovered that Amazon Prime Music has a jazz “radio station” that allows one to add any and every song played to one’s music library. Cool. While listening to music, we talked about more museums that we’d like to see this summer. Stay tuned . . . . |
Friday, August 7, 2015
The
nautical center in Saint Denis is aptly named “the whale.”
Stained
glass in the Basilica of Saint Denis.
Lamb
chops (above) and homemade sausages (below) at Pere Claude.
Apple
clafoutis at Pere Claude. |
