Paris Journal 2008

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A new temporary art installation has just been placed in the Luxemburg Gardens. These sculptures spell out the word “tolerance,” the same word in French and English. (The father and son by the T are picking up chestnuts.)→ We started out walking today at about 2PM, intending to go to lunch but neither of us was very hungry. So we lingered inside the St. Sulpice church. Somebody was working on the famous organ, and they’d play a few bars in between adjustments. We stayed so long, gazing at various things, that finally all the adjustments had been made and the organist started playing. I can’t describe it; I’ve heard plenty of organs because we have visited lots of churches, but this one is very special. What a treat it is for us to live so nearby. I even heard a few strains of the organ as we were walking out the door of the apartment. It is practically in our back yard. We bought a booklet about St. Sulpice in the sacristy. It cost €10 and the elegant older lady who sold it to us was extremely nice. She asked Tom if he was Canadian because, she said, his French was very good. Tom said to her, in French, “Your French is very good, too, madam.” She seemed to be amused by this. Last night we went to dinner at Le Seraphin. It was good, but not as good as it was in August. Whoever the “replacement” cook was during the vacation month of August is better than the regular cook who’s there now. After our church visit today, some of the French restaurants were closing their lunch service, so we ended up going to Vesuvio, an unpretentious Italian restaurant at 1 rue Gozlin (tel. 01-43-54-94-78). The service was friendly, the food was very good, and prices were reasonable. Tom had a very good pizza with ham and mushrooms, and I had the lasagna, which was excellent. They serve Italian wines for just €3.50 per glass, so indulged in a glass of Chianti. The tab was €28.50 for the two of us. I doubt that we’ll need to have any dinner tonight. Antonio, our server, was fluent in French, Italian, and Spanish, and his English was passable. The Spaniards at the table next to us were delighted to be able to order in Spanish, and the Americans near us were also very happy with the place. The music played on the sound system was all American R&B. Those of you who know me are probably amazed at how little I’ve written about the Presidential campaign. I’m truly afraid. I cannot believe that someone as intolerant as Sarah Palin could become President. This simply cannot happen! How dare she ridicule Obama for the three years of community service that he did right after college! How can she place so little value on the people who he was helping? How can she not see that helping these poor people help themselves to lift them out of their misery was an admirable effort? I’m afraid she does not care about them at all. Obama, on the other hand, not only cares about these people but he knows very, very well what life is like for them. Nobody will ever accuse him of being out of touch. How can someone like her who changed colleges five times before graduating with a Bachelors degree in communication/journalism compare to people like Obama and Biden, with their credentials? Obama taught constitutional law at one of the best law schools in the nation, and his superiors there said they considered him as an equal because he was so knowledgeable. What does she know about constitutional law, she who would ban books and overturn Supreme Court decisions if she could? Don’t we want a President who knows and respects and upholds the Constitution? Palin never even had a passport until 2007 and she thinks she has adequate experience in foreign relations? Obama, in the Senate, was among the first to say that we need more troops in Afghanistan, something that just about everyone now acknowledges. Obama is on the Senate foreign relations committee, homeland security committee, and veterans affairs committee, and Palin dares to belittle his foreign relations experience? Oh come on, give me a break! I could go on and on. But I won’t. You get the picture. It is terrifying. I worry especially for the poor, the working poor, the people without health insurance, the middle class, the soldiers. One of the reasons I like Saint Sulpice is because it is the church built to accommodate regular, common people. The Catholic hierarchy didn’t want the ordinary people to go to the abbey church at Saint Germain, so something had to be done to accommodate these folks. Saint Sulpice is it. Nearly as big as Notre Dame, it is far less fancy. In fact, I lovingly refer to it as somber and hulking – at least on the exterior. It was Hemingway’s favorite church in Paris. The real life Saint Sulpice (born in 570) spent much of his life caring for the poor. His father would not allow him to join the monastery at first, leading him to become the “patron saint of delayed vocations.” But he did finally become a priest. The people of Bourges decided they wanted him to be their bishop, so he became Archbishop of a large territory. Even from this lofty position, he still was very concerned for the poor and the sick, and so he started a hospital in Bourges. He fought against a tax that weighed too heavily upon poor and working people, and he succeeded in having it repealed. Sounds like Obama’s tax plan – reduce taxes for 95% of the people. To build Saint Sulpice the church in Paris, the site of a much smaller house of prayer was selected. People had been praying there for 500 years, so it seemed like a likely spot. Thus Saint Sulpice of the Fields was created in the early 12^th century. Of course in medieval times, this spot was outside of town, hence the “Fields” designation. It was nothing more than a village church. It was enlarged two hundred years later, and enlarged again another 200 years later. In the early 17^th century, the final addition was made. Then beginning in 1646, the Catholic church got serious about building a sizeable Saint Sulpice that could accommodate the large area it served – the current 6^th, 7^th, 14^th, and 15^th arrondissements. It took a very long time and a number of different architects, but the job was finally finished after the Revolution. The crowning touch was the 19^th century organ made by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. Around the same time the organ was added, a couple magnificent paintings by Eugene Delacroix were also installed in the Chappelle des Saints-Agnes, just to the right when you enter the church. Don’t miss them. They’re still there. While we are on the subject of the Catholic church, let’s review the Pope’s itinerary for this weekend, from the perspective of the Saint Sulpice neighborhood. On Friday evening, the Pope delivers a lecture at the Collège des Bernardins. Then he goes to Notre Dame, and on the way he will ‘salute’ all the people waiting along the Seine. The vespers at Notre Dame will be projected on giant screens, so thousands of ordinary people can watch. The parishioners of Saint Sulpice are encouraged to gather at 6PM on the Place Saint Sulpice to allow the scouts to organize the group and lead it to ‘salute’ the Pope as he passes along the Quai Saint Michel, by the Seine. On Saturday morning, the parishioners are urged to gather once again on the Place Saint Sulpice, at 6:45AM, so that they can march together to the Esplanade des Invalides, where the Pope will be saying mass at 9:30AM. Then there will be a big prayer service (after the Pope is gone) at Saint Sulpice on Saturday evening, from 9 to 11PM. Child care service will be provided in the crypte. The church expects a huge crowd. Sounds like we better rest up – it is going to be a big, crazy weekend for the masses.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008 Sign my guestbook. View my guestbook.

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