Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Transitions

My goodness, it has taken a long time to get to this first post!  Which is merely to note that the start of life as an expat is like drinking from a fire hose.  There are so many things to do and one hasn't a clue about how to begin to go about them, which means that a 5-minute project in Seattle can take a day in Paris.  It is a frustrating, maddening, thrilling business.

Of course, I couldn't begin without bragging about getting the 7 suitcases and me to Paris all on the same day and at the same time.  Seems so long ago now!  The next day (way too optimistic about my stamina) I went on a fascinating tour of the Hotel Talleyrand sponsored by the American Women's Group .
Hotel Talleyrand
It was at one time the residence of the great French bishop, politician and diplomat of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.  This mansion was his home at one point and was later purchased by one of the Rothschilds, but lost to the German occupation during World War II.  After the war, the building was purchased by the American government and used for offices and conferences for many years.  Though not open to the public, it is worth visiting for two reasons:  first, it is where the Marshall Plan was negotiated among all the European states under the guidance of Averell Harriman and second, because the great public rooms have been beautifully restored.   

Here are examples of some of the detail to be found on the walls:
Detail of wall decoration
Detail of Wall Decoration

On Monday, February 8, I met with my French tutor, Élodie, a woman in her fifties or sixties I would guess, who lives on the rue Vanneau on the border of the 6th and 7th arrondissements.  Her apartment was a short walk from my temporary quarters and is a longer walk, but a short subway ride, from my 'permanent' place.  We agreed on a plan of two 2-hour sessions per week, including all the elements of our classes at the Women's University Club -- grammar review, conversation and reading.  The book I've taken on at the moment is Vol de Nuit by St.-Exupéry.  I've always wanted to read it.  It was made into a little-known film in 1933 called Night Flight starring John and Lionel Barrymore, Clark Gable and a very young Helen Hayes.  It tells the story of a bunch of pilots trying to establish a regular airmail service across the Andes in South America and then on to Europe.  Naturally, there were lots of disagreements about a script based on a novel written in French and it was very hard to shoot a story that is mostly about flying given the film technology available in 1933.   So, in spite of the star-studded cast, nobody was very satisfied with the results, except the critics.  St.-Exupéry's contract with the movie studio expired after 10 years so the film had to be withdrawn from circulation and it wasn't until 2011 that something was worked out with the author's estate, so it is now available, though I have no idea where one would find it.  In fact, I can't even remember where I saw it, but it was years ago.  We've all read The Little Prince, of course, but St.-Exupéry is really an extraordinary novelist and I'm finding that reading slowly in sips (as I must in French because my vocabulary and comprehension are not up to anything else) rather than in gulps (as I do in English most of the time) makes me sensitive to the structure of the novel in ways I might otherwise have missed.  In short, I'm loving it.

Narthalie, Karen, Patrick, Elliott & Louise
The same day, the Sudour family arrived from Marseille for a visit of several days.  We met at a café on the Champs-Eysées late Tuesday afternoon and then spent Wednesday together at Versailles. I haven't been there since about 1966, I think.  One forgets just how massive it is -- so much so that we didn't have time to see several rooms in Versailles Palace itself.  Even in winter, the gardens were magnificent and the Trianon and Petit Trianon Palaces have been significantly restored.

Versailles

Versailles

The photo opportunities at Versailles are endless, so I'll just settle for these.

Karen, Patrick, Elliott, Louise & Nathalie

On Thursday evening, I met the Sudours for a farewell dinner at a wonderful
little seafood place, Le Bistrot du Dôme.  We look forward to more visits now that I am settled in France for a while.

You've all waited patiently (or not) for this first blog posting, so I'll send this one along and write again soon about the move into my 'permanent' home in France.