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Published: October 14th 2011
My five and a half weeks in France just flew by. In addition to spending time with my sons Sebastien and Marc, their partners and my granddaughter Elea, seeing friends and entertaining my friend Tom, who came over for two-weeks, I did a number of fun and interesting things that I'd like to describe and illustrate with photos in this blog entry.
The first event I attended was Elea's "Republican baptism", which is a unique French ceremony. Completely secular, it is performed by a mayor in a town hall. In this case, the mayor was Maude, my daughter-in-law's mother, who also married Sebastien and Aurelia in her fiefdom (the city of Les Ulis outside Paris) two years ago. Wearing the mayor's blue-red-white banner across her chest, Maude stood beneath a picture of Nicolas Sarkosy, the French president and before the seated parents, baby and "godparents," and gave a speech whereby Elea was welcomed into the community as a member of the French Republic. The parents and godparents then promised to raise Elea according to the Republican values of liberte, egalite and fraternite. Following the ceremony, some forty of us drove to Elea's godmother's house in the country for a garden party.
Mont Saint Michel
from a far away fieldTo commemorate September 11th, I attended two events: First, a sharing of testimonies--people's personal recollections-- of that day at the American Library. Then I went to an outdoor ecumenical ceremony on an island in the Seine River where there's a replica of the Statue of Liberty. The bilingual ceremony, which was very moving, was officiated by an American Protestant minister, a French Muslim imam and a French and an American rabbi; the American Ambassador also spoke.
In the following weeks, I attended authors' talks at the American Library (including by journalist Elaine Sciolino and Tatiana de Rosnay, author of Sarah's Key), a philosophy cafe at the Café Flore, a play and two art exhibits. I also had a "big" birthday towards the end of September and gave a party at my apartment.
Two days after my birthday, Tom and I made a short car trip to Brittany and Normandy. We visited the walled city of St. Malo, the towns of Dinard and Cancale, Mont St. Michel, the Pointe du Hoc, the American military cemetery in Colleville, the Bayeux tapestry and the Memorial Peace Museum in Caen. After that, we flew by EasyJet to Geneva and spent three days in Grenolier,
Mont St. Michel
Tom on the parking lot a village near Nyon on the Swiss side of Lake Geneva, visiting Tom's son, daughter-in-law and two infant granddaughters. Then it was back to Paris. Tom returned to San Francisco, and I left Paris four days later. I'm writing this from Denver, where I'm attending an oral history conference and visiting my brother and his partner before returning to Berkeley tomorrow, October 15.
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harriet welty rochefort
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Hilary, Good to hear your news. I know the town of Yvoire. How lucky Tom's family is to live there! Keep us posted on what you're up to in the States. All the best, Harriet