Snapshots of Parisian Life

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Guess what? I baked a cake on Thursday...from scratch! I realize that has nothing to do with France, but for those of you familiar with my 'cuisine comfort level' you will realize that this is a major accomplishment for me. Dominique brought a gigantic lemon back from her trip to Italy, so we decided to make a lemon cake out of it- a 'biscuit de savoie'. (From the region in the southeast of France). The task of actually baking it fell to me, and to my delight (and surprise) it actually turned out like it should! Dominique, Guillaume, and her other son Cyril all tasted it and thought it was just as good as hers (it's was her mother's recipe). I was highly flattered by the praise and postulize that this possibly marks the most significant personal advancement I have made since arriving in France. I can now cook. Authentic French food. Cool.

In other news... today's blog is just a collage of snapshots of daily life here in France that I've been wanting to talk about for a while now. (Literary snapshots only, sorry...the internet connection is still too slow to properly upload pictures.)

The Art of Dog Interpretation

I've realized that a Parisien's canine friend expresses a lot about the personality of the human. One can induce, from the dog, the personality of the owner. For example:

-Last Wednesday I saw a gigantic black dog/bearlike creature that must have been the size of a mastiff attached to a Gothic-looking 20-something guy with a mohawk, walking down the Bld. St. Germain towards the Latin Quarter . I think his favorite color is probably black ; )

-I passed an elderly, well-dressed woman drinking coffee outside a chic cafe on the Avenue de la Hoche (located in a very upscale neighborhood near the Arc de Triomphe). Sitting across from her, in a chair, was the smallest dog I have ever seen. Perfectly coiffed, it was smaller than the guinea pig I had when I was 10, and the thing was watching the woman with an attentive look that made me think of a small child. You just had to laugh. I was surprised it didn't have a cup of coffee as well! Safe to assume this woman lives in a very expensive apartment in the quarter...probably frequents the cafe frequently, since the guinea pig seemed so accustomed to its perch!

-Then you have your 'normal' people, who dutifully follow behind their dogs and clean up all traces of their passage...well, most of the time. I passed one conscientious owner last night, right around the corner from my apartment, who was taking the time to train his dog in obediance commands. He was doing it on the sidewalk outside his apartment. It was 15 minutes after midnight. Go figure. I guess that's the constraints of city life!

Fooftball Frenzy

No, not the NFL football. I'm talking about the 'real' football, the sport played by the rest of the world and largely ignored by Americans. (Our loss). You will never really feel the attraction of a professional soccer match until you have been to a match here in Europe. I went to a PSG match (Paris Saint Germain) a couple weeks ago at the Parc des Princes in southwest Paris, and it was one of the most intense sporting experiences I've ever been to! When you really only have two national sports to cheer for (football and rugby), and only one local professional team (PSG), you get a lot of pent-up sports-related energy and testosterone ready to let loose. And boy, do the fans go wild here...

Think World Series in October. Think 'tailgating' before a big football game with your 5000 closest friends. Think screaming your heart out for your favorite team, even though they aren't at the top of the rankings and just dropped their last match to a weak team. Then add some flares (yes, the roadside emergency kind), some crazy cheer coordination led by the fan club section, and giant flags with skull & crossbones...and you start to have an idea of the frenzy that built up in the Parc des Princes that Saturday night. I was blown away. It was incredible. The fans were almost more fun to watch than the game...although that was awesome too. (For the record, we beat Sedanne Ardennes 4-2.)

All of the fans converge on the stadium via the metro, which was absolutely packed an hour before the kickoff. Everyone was draped in red, blue, and white, and the 'PSG' scarf with the team emblem on it was everywhere. On exiting the metro, I joined a stream of people all converging on the stadium hurriedly, the air tense with anticipation and excitement. The PSG fans are a more diverse crowd than you see in the center city of Paris...these people are the heart and soul of France, working-class, middle-class, black, white, arab, north-african, fathers, sons, girlfriends...definitely a little rougher around the edges than, say, the guinea-pig woman. Their loyalty is undeniable, and I'm convinced that they are better than your average NBA or MLB fan...they rival (or even surpass) the rabid football fans on FOX every Monday night.

PSG has an official support club which calls itself the 'Boulogne Boys'. This is the equivalent of the football 'firms' in England; groups of people who gather together and form the core of the fan base, supervising cheers and causing trouble with the fans from rival teams...these are the hard-core supporters, loyal to the death. (Literally, in rare circumstances). The name 'Boulogne Boys' comes from the fact that the stadium is just south of the Bois de Boulogne...and this is definitely a rowdy bunch of boys. Supposedly they are the most hated firm in all of France...and they definitely excel at the 'scaring up action' following football matches. In fact, they succeeded so well that, following multiple incidents of violence and fights, they were asked to disband by the president of the club a couple years ago. However, they are still very much in evidence, and the roars of the crowd, the deafening chants of 'Paris...PSG! Paris...PSG! Allez....Paris!", and the heavy police presence all attest to their influence. You had to be impressed by their passion, even if they take it too far occasionally...

The gendarmerie (police, but more 'serious') are present in force at each of the matches, because the possibility of conflict is real. I saw at LEAST 45 gendarmes before the beginning of the match, and there were multiple vans lined up outside the stadium...just in case. Fortunately nothing happened at this game, and everyone went home happy with a win, but it is easy to see how such an emotionally-charged atmosphere can easily lead to violence...

All in all, the match was INCREDIBLE and the atmosphere inside the stadium was totally electric. I've truly never heard a stadium roar quite like that. Well, maybe once...inside the Wachovia Center with 18,000 Flyers fans at a playoff game versus the Senators. But for an outdoor arena, it was unbeaten.

An experience that really let me see the 'other' side of the French population...less refined, maybe, but no less authentic and definitely more passionate! QUITE the interesting night...

SmartCars

A 'SmartCar', for those of you who aren't familiar with them, is a tiny little one-seater car driven by a LOT of Parisians. It's practical, efficient, cheap, and perfect for city driving...and totally amusing. You have to laugh at something roughly the size of a Hot-Wheels jeep, especially when comparing it to the ridiculously huge vehicles so prevalent in America. Most American tourists find SmartCars endlessly entertaining, so eventually I will put up a picture of one so that you can form your own opinion. But really, they make so much sense...America, get with the picture. You don't need to drive a Hummer H2 in the city...really...be reasonable...

Les Medias

I love the French media. The quality and depth of coverage is SO much superior here (and generally throughout Western Europe) that is puts American networks to shame. Even CNN looks fairly ordinary and superficial in comparison. There are several main national networks (France1, F2, F3, F4, F5) and one other channel that we get called Arte (a co-production in French and German) that are particularly impressive. There are not nearly as many commercials here, and the local news covers important political, social, scientific, and financial events, rather than the tear-jerk sob-stories and sordid murder/robbery/embezzlement cases so frequently featured in my local news back home. The channels offer a wide variety of political talk shows, featuring important guests and intelligent questions and call-ins (as opposed to staged, leading questions a la Fox News) and the viewer is left more educated by the end, rather than depressed about the state of affairs but relatively unchanged.

In addition, the international news coverage is about a zillion times better here. Over the last couple weeks I have seen:
-a 15 minute report of the immigration patrol efforts on the Canadian-US border
-the deplorable safety hazards of the decrepit Congolese airtravel system (the only way to navigate the country, which is 5 times the size of France and barely has any roads)
-a one-hour documentary of the Nuremburg Trials
-a investigative report on the promise of nanotechnologies
-a report on the South Korean population's reaction to the nuclear test and their strong resistance to any type of military action...as well as rising anti-Americanism in South Korea
-a report on the rebel armies in Darfur and their new wave of attacks against the government

I could go on. In America, only the big things make the news, the sensational and the fleeting. At best, we're given a 60-second snapshot of a conflict that has been brewing for decades and involves the fate of thousands. That type of coverage raises an alarm, but it does nothing to deepen our understanding of a complicated issue, and the issue is too frequently forgotten in the next sordid political scandal involving the daughter of the Chief-of-Staff's wife's niece's....you get the picture. I really wish our media could give us coverage like the French media does. It's really a disservice to all of America. However, the problem may lie more with the short American attention-span...in which case we have to change ourselves too. But it would be worth the effort. A more informed, literate, globally-conscious VOTING public...

So call up FOX news and tell them you want to see more in-depth, international news. Then call me and tell me their response. I'd love to hear it...

OK, that mini-rant is over. Moving on...

Odds & Ends

In happier news...

...I found out that there is a public library 3 minutes from my apartment! It's free, I can borrow books for 3 weeks, and better yet, the inscription process only took 10 minutes! Incredibly efficient for the French. I'm thrilled. Books books books! This definitely usurps the Sciences Po library as my library of choice... Sciences Po, while fairly well-endowed, is a headache of book requests (80%!o(MISSING)f the collection is stored underground), short lending-periods, and bureaucracy...surprise surprise. However, ScPo's library is extremely useful in one aspect...it demonstrates perfectly the illogical inefficiency that pervades French society.

Get this:
-You are not allowed to renew a book. Instead, you have to go to the circulation desk and turn it in. Next, the library staff scans it in and reshelves it, which takes approximately 45 minutes and requires that they climb 1-3 flights of stairs in order to replace it in the stacks. Meanwhile, you have gone across the street, gotten a coffee and a pain au chocolat, and returned to the library, where you will be waiting next to the stacks when the library staff person replaces it on the shelf. You immediately grab it (as there is only one copy to borrow) and take it downstairs, where you check it out again. You have 3-7 days to keep it before you must repeat the process.

Now, is that just a waste of everyone's time, or what? At least the pains au chocolat are good... but oh, how I miss Lauinger Library at G'town...I NEVER thought I'd say that!

That's enough for now...my next rambling episode will focus on the political jostling within the political parties here as France gears up for a presidential election in March, 2007. Ending on that note...I hope everyone is registered to vote! Go out to the polls on November 7 and express yourself. I mailed in my ballot a week ago by diplomatic pouch...let's hope it got there safely!

Love from Paris

~Robyn

P.S. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

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