Reading: Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow

Subject: la Gazette du Paris 1

bonjour mes amis,

many thanks to chris madsen for recommending an e-journal of this trip. please let me know if you do not want to be on this list and you will be spared! also please forward to anyone i may have left off the list.

almost a week in paris, and so far i am ready to stay for a while. to big so big, paris feels quite small and intimate because of the human architectural scale (rare is the building over 5 stories). last night was my first seeing
the city at night – the lighting design is incredible. the eiffel tower still sparkles post-millenium, a bright carousel at place de la concorde spins, le louvre looms, and boats creep along the seine.

i’ve spent a bit of time already exploring parks and open spaces in the city (could i have picked a better specialization?). jardin tuileris, jardin des plantes, parc bercy, the river parkway along the right bank (linear
pedestrian park), and chateau sceaux (an in-town palace that is not in the tour books). it’s a perfect city to see how people use urban space. for example, i had not seen any skateboarders, only rollerbladers, but then
along the seine and near Bercy, 100′s of boarders were using the hardscape near the parks. also, a good amount of jogging.

the family who have opened their home to me are awesome: sophie, francis, and their girls rapha?lle and mathilde (5 and 3). they have cooked many wonderful meals, taken me around, shared books of france sites, and welcomed
me to their mothers day celebration with the entire clan – both their parent sets, siblings, etc. let’s say i didn’t need dinner after chowing on so much paella. sophie especially has adopted me brother-like, offering carpool,
mobile phone, extra cheese, chocolate (ok, i’m now a convert), and shopping trips. and i’m able to pick up some french, a good thing. maybe i’m crazy, but having a mellow everyday experience is much more pleasant than touring. no urge to “must see” the big stuff when you can wander a neighborhood and watch people enjoying each other’s company in urban nature while you do the same. besides, that eiffel structure ain’t goin nowhere.

i am tossing ideas of doing some day trips, for example to Normandie, Brittany, maybe even London (only 3 hours). any recommendations? also if you know of any small things Parissien or remember any good park experiences, please share. i have on my wish list: la villette, parc citroen, promendade plantee, butte chamont, and versaille/vaux vicompte. also some cemeteries bec/people have said they are used as parks, too. probably vincennes and boulougne, too.

my favorite thing this week: crawling up a step ladder through a louvered window at my host’s house and seeing the view around their town Sat night (Vitry sur Seine). i was hoping to catch a spectacle pyrotechnique, but i was too early and not patient (i did hang for about 45 min just looking around). but the view of the lights of all the towns from 4th story on the hill and the sounds of parties and fights in the breeze was unforgettable.

salut. chris

Reading: The American Way of Death Revisited by Jessica Mitford

Subject: la Gazette du Paris 2

cheres amis,

paris is getting even better over time. i have really got my bearings; it is an easy city to get around in thanks to the metro and the human scale of urban design. i feel like it is intimate because each neighborhood is like its own village. i have still not experienced much night life as i have really enjoyed the experience (and food) at maison Cambon. i now understand the love of cheese and good bread, and even the cheap wine is as good as the CA vintages. i have even experimented with caf? and chocolat, so you know i’m living on the edge. so far, i haven’t even (yet) missed burritos, but
it’s only 2 weeks.

i can’t even believe what all i’ve seen in only 1 week. thanks to a new buddy Pascal, i have seen many parks in non-touristy Paris. in the east side, there is Promenade Plantee, an old rail line converted to a linear park. part is above the road, so you get a good view of the building tops and part is below grade so it’s very quiet and lush. all along are roses, trees, benches, and a couple of areas open up to traditional small parks. also a few water elements w/ducks hanging out. at the start, it looks like an aqueduct; below are some high-end artisan shops. we say hip; they say beau-beau.

then, followed along the canal up toward Parc de la Villette, a science museum park for kids. it was mostly lawn space surrounding very contemporary buildings. lots of kids running around, playing in fountains. they were having a biennial of marionettes (for adults), and we checked out this automata from Spain – mechanical puppets in a circus-like traveling room. the scenes were very provacative of women’s traditional roles and critiquing bourgeois family. the irony was all the kids checking it out. but there were lots of breasts on display, so the kids were titillated. this could have been a sort of museum of jurassic technology exhibit as it looked old/historic but had a different message than just circus amusement when you looked closely. mostly wandered la Villette (it used to be the major slaughterhouse of Paris – interesting transformation of landuse) and checked out the different gardens.

made contact to get to Montreuil for the actual work i’m tackling while here. it is just east of Paris outside the peripherique. working class and they have quite a green plan for the city. i visit today to meet the folks there and learn about the possible projects. on other fronts have app’ts w/some other local city parks people at Vitry (where Cambons live) and the sort of next level up (departement) of Creteil. tomorrow i’m attending a mini-conference on gardens at the french institute of urbanism. it has been quite easy to make professional contacts here and to meet folks to share beer or a meal. don’t believe the rude-hype you’ve heard about Parisians!

so this weekend, i visited two incredible places: L’Hae les Roses and Fontainbleu. the roserie was amazing: over 3000 species of roses all in bloom right now. it was a bit overwhelming. the first such collection established in europe dating back to late 19th c. also all around it is a big park for playground and soccer and walking. at fontainbleu, i went w/the
cambons. we did not visit the chateau, but instead were in the forest picnicking. it is very popular for bouldering/climbing – lots of small rocks for easy to moderately difficult climbs only max 15 feet high. so i was wishing i’d packed my climbing shoes. not to worry! i climbed barefoot instead. sophie is a good climber and the kids were trying some easy climbs. people from germany, netherlands, and even australia were there. the countryside was typical beautiful green fields w/patches of forest. but the rocks were in an odd huge expanse of sand.

sun night, pascal led me up to Montmartre for a killer view of the lights of the city. lots of folks up on the steps of Sacre Coeur drinking beer, playing drums and generally hanging like Venice Beach. he tried to talk me into strolling through Pigalle (red light), but by that point i was toasted from climbing all afternoon. so, you must be patient for lurid tales.

yesterday explored Parc Citro?n, which is a large park on the west along the Seine, just south of Tour Eiffel. very cool park, w/lots of small gardens inside it. a big balloon was there for folks to take a ride and get a view. read my first English news and had a picnic watching people read and frolick. lots of frolicking as it was a bank holiday and perfect weather.

itching to get to Versaille and climb the Eiffel Tower; i’ll see how the weekend shapes up. till next week…

chris

Subject: La Gazette du Paris 3

wow. three weeks gone already. only four or five left. time is a-flying.

last week was really busy. i had a lot of exposure to french language, so my brain was pretty well fried much of the time. not surprisingly, if the topic is gardens, nature/culture, or related, i can pretty much get the gist. it’s more social conversation that is difficult to understand. last wed i went to a day-long “debat” on gardens in the city. mostly planners and landscape architects. got some pretty interesting notes and saw some wild designs. one fellow was actually conceiving a sort of chia-pet idea for a building.

then thu, sophie accompanied me to the departement (like the county) of Val-de-Marne. we met w/the chief of parks and life and the head of parks promotion. i was blown away! they gave a brief historical overview of public parks development (starting w/the revolution!), then covering the current administrative strucutre. also, shared the process of involving the public w/a new park development project and described a couple of case studies where the landscape architect’s vision did not match the actual needs of the public. they gave me many publications, posters, and i will meet the chief again this week in his town of Ivry to walk around and have a drink. they are developing a new model of park design, moving away from top-down to a networked web including public participation. this is a very new concept and
they, V-d-M, are pioneers in this method.

made it to Montreuil, the “official” town where i’m researching. also a warm welcome, but a bit different bec/i’m on my own there. it was a bit Kafkaesque as “mission environement” is in a large tower, and the boss (M. Morisse) is very proper and required official documentation though he’d met w/the professor who’s hosting me. bureaucracy rules! in any case, they also loaded me w/documents and invited me to attend future meetings on the various open space projects. though i’d heard that the peach walls were abandoned as a project, he did not allude to this. i am waiting to see how
the information will unfold. the ENPC folks set met up w/the official “attestation” so hopefully now i’m official to read their documents and hang out in their office.

as good luck would have it, i met a great couple who live near Versailles on sat night at a dinner party. they know a gardener or landscapist who works there and we are trying to arrange a behind the scenes visit after i return from stuttgart. so, i held off on my visit to Ver. instead, on sun i went w/sophie’s dad Bernard to Vaux-le-Vicomte and Fontainbleu. Vaux was built before Versailles, the first classic french garden w/chateau; the king was so pissed at the guy for having such a nice garden he was jailed. then Louis hired all the same folks to do Versailles. it was really amazing the control and clipping and the map of the grounds. got a great view from the dome of chateau. fontainbleu was typical grand european estate w/lots of paintings, artifacts, adornments. surprisingly small crowds at both places. bernard is
great – he can speak english but is challenging me, so maybe he spoke 10 words in english the whole day. mostly i was confused, but that was ok.

fri was the best. took metro into town and got a great show of eiffel tower. all lit up w/lights glowing baby-aspirin-orange against the sky. it is staying light till almost 11pm now, so the sun was also making a show on the
clouds. at 11, tiny lights began sparkling over the entire structure, a good left-over from the millenium celebration. best part – i was across the Seine on the quai w/no one around. i couldn’t believe i was basically across the street and had a private show. also amused by the tourist boats cruising on the river as the folks were having a good time. afterwards walked under the tower – it is really impressively huge. now i get it.

sat visited the biblioteque nationale and explored the rive gauche. la maison de cinq sens (lots of good smelling plants), parc bercy (a very bou-bo shopping area, but an awesome park reminding me of Central Park but smaller). this area is slotted for major gentrification according to a guy i met working at an information kiosk. his cousin is working at Paris in Las Vegas – weird. french have the impression that LA is very dangerous. anyway, they want to create a major residential working hub in this area sort of SE along the river around the biblioteque. whole blocks have been razed, the
RER C line will go underneath, and new development (maybe also parks) on top. he said that Paris is too expensive for working people now, only one affordable area left around Gare du Nord and Gare de L’Est in north central area. otherwise complete gentrification. and all money goes into central city at expense of suburbs. sound familiar, Angelenos?

more meetings w/park officials this week and also w/a woman who studies parks at Sorbonne. then off to strasbourg and stuttgart. hey, they make Porches there, don’t they?

take care, chris

Subject: La Gazette du Paris 4

hey folks,

wow, what a full two weeks it’s been. e-mail access was limited in Stuttgart bec/of our full schedule, so this update is long. i’ve seen much since the last communication both professional and fun. so here goes.

the mid-week of June was pretty busy in Paris. i made another visit to Montreuil to deliver the “attestation” documenting my official presence in France to do research. Mr. Morrisse was unavailable, but i have to assume that all is okay, and i can now sit and read their documents without fear of injury to myself or others. everyday my reading comprehension improves, but i’ve hit a wall regarding verbal communication. i am hoping to get into a month long french class at Alliance Francaise in Paris so that maybe i can at least learn how to say a few basic things.

sophie and i met w/folks at the city of Vitry to discuss park creation at the ville level. the meeting was a bit different than that at departement of Val-de-Marne. basically, they waited for questions rather than offering up a particular perspective. however, one participant was brand new employee who studied landscape architecture and was leading their green space plan. she was very quiet the whole meeting, and then afterwards started speaking English! she had some great recent archival materials about citizen participation in park development and has since sent along a packet of more materials for me, along with the archivist’s contact info. she says this is currently a “hot topic” here (un sujet br?lant d’actualit?).

i also met a reseacher from la Sorbonne, Francine Barthes, who is a geographer. she’d been quoted in an article on social construction of parks, and was receptive to my blind e-mail explaining my work. we had coffee near Jardin du Luxembourg and talked about her previous and current research. very fascinating. luckily, we had a common language of cultural geography and parks/gardens (plus she also teaches cartography), so we bounced back and forth betw/french and english. she brought many documents for me on parks, and i promised to send her some information on land art and public space in US. she is now researching utopias – specifically places like nudist colonies and Disneyland. only in France, huh? needless to say, we got along famously. her brother works in Palo Alto, and she hopes to swing down
to LA to visit USC during her trip, so LA folks, get ready to bare your flesh…

i had only a few minutes to explore Luxembourg, but they had an open air art exhibit of a wood sculptor. as part of the exhibit, l’Institute Geographie Nationale had installed a huge map of France w/all its “arbres remarkables”
photographed and pinpointed. people were actually walking on it in their bare and stocking-ed feet. i plan to go back and explore this exhibit some more when more people are present. also, i just learned that they have a special lavendar exhibit at Place des Vosges, my favorite park.

then to Strasbourg (a short visit on the way to Stuttgart), a beautiful town along the Rhine River at the border betw/France and Germany. most of the buildings were local red stone construction, so the city looked very different than Paris. it rained a bit, but that added to the charm. enjoyed a disco that Sat aboard an old barge in the river – very odd but cool space for dancing. all french music all the time. before splitting the area, took a side trip down to the small town of Colmar. lots of Americans visiting, probably bec/it is so well preserved. also, bec/Strasbourg is the seat of
the EU Parliament, i heard many English speakers. did a traditional self-guided walking tour and enjoyed comparing the parks to Paris.

then, off to Stuttgart, home of excellent beers and Schwabian food. Schwabian is a distinct regional identity and dialect of that part of Germany. they make a mean maultashen – like a Chinese dumpling meets ravioli, plus sized. so w/beer, i gained a few pounds this past week. yum.

Stuttgart was really wonderful. our hosts could not have been more warm or helpful. Christian Leon (originally from Peru) met us at the train station and drove us to the hotel – oddly located in the industrial section of town (not near the biergartens…). but it was very close the our host institution, the center for technology assessment. forget the german name – does anyone know german on this list? so, they had a big week planned for us (planned is operative word), with lots of presentations, site visits, field trips, and beer drinking. whew, i am still not recovered from the whirlwind trip. it was also wild hearing/seeing another language, and running into so many people who spoke english. so we could converse okay, but couldn’t read much of anything.

the best day was last Thu. we visited a university town about an hour south called Tubingen. they were having a famous boat race – very rowdy w/all the student groups competing. one person in the back has a long pole to steer and move the boat. everyone else (wearing a variety of crazy costumes), rows w/their hands. it wasn’t long before a couple of boats were sinking, people were flying into the water, and general mayhem ensued. much to our amusement and everyone else who was watching from the bridge and biergarten.

before the race, we had a fantastic tour of a new re-use/mixed use development. originally a German military base, later French (post WW2), the city was tranforming the zone into a sort of campus utopia. many units were co-operative housing. in fact, anyone could drum up a number of co-owners and propose a theme building to be built. the land was especially cheap, and the most creative and interesting projects are picked. this was the first example i’ve ever seen of large scale grassroots development. imagine an anarchistic playa vista. yeah, that bizarre. the architect who led us lived
in the neighborhood, and had designed some of the new buildings. themes ranged from elder housing, to life-and-art, to eco-materials, to the kristallhaus (all glass walls). they even had a small area in the forest where wooden covered wagons hosted another population of more rootsy folks. though parks were not part of the development (other than playgrounds and an exposed stream), every house, apartment, wagon had its own very well-tended garden space. these were often communal, so in essence, the development was covered with pocket parks.

though word on the street was negative about Stuttgart, it was a very beautiful city – over 50% green. of course, industry was there (Mercedes has like 5 plants in town), and some major ugly buildings from mid-century through the 80s, but the old stuff was beautiful. except it wasn’t old! 80% of the city was destroyed in the war bec/Mercedes was the major player – making tanks and other Nazi equipment. so it was a big target. but the people raised major $ afterwards to reconstruct to exact specs certain important buildings. i saw some pre-war and post-war photos at an exhibit, and the buildings looked exactly the same.

everyone we met had some great tales and information about German life, sustainability, their travels, etc. very friendly (maybe the beer and bretzels?) and talkative folks. i only missed baguettes and good cheese and vegetables.

friday was a free day, so i managed to visit (thanks to good trains) the Porsche and Mercedes museums and take a tour of a Mercedes factory. very sweet! lots of cool old cars. the tour was best, seeing the manufacturing processes and all the cool robotics, and still seeing that many processes still require human work. the tour is at a plant where people fly from all over the world to pick up their cars, so they had a swank restaurant, cafe, exhibition hall, boutique. so now i’m wondering if Peuguot has a tour, too?

in any case, i made it back to Paris just in time for the huge gay pride parade, a city-wide event. imagine 1/2 million French filling the streets getting rowdy. basically, traffic could not move bec/people had taken over the streets. even more than the US, the crowd was very mixed as everyone here likes to party. great people-watching as the diversity of people was really incredible.

so, now back to “reality” in Paris. i have my baguette and a good cheese, my metro tickets again and new appointments w/fellow park lovers/researchers. i am constantly amazed at how many folks i’ve met who know gardens, parks,
geography, etc. the “data” and the experience are a bit overwhelming. i could easily spend the next 2 weeks just processing everything i’ve read, seen, and done, but there’s much more to do! the life doesn’t stop.

on an odd note, i cannot return until 5 Aug. travel agents and NW have confirmed all flights are full and even the waiting lists are huge. so, 2 weeks longer than expected. looks like a possible voyage to Scotland or some other unexplored place may be called for. in any case, for those taking care of me and mine back home, please be patient! but, hey, you also have another few weeks to come visit (that is if you ride a boat i guess). bonne jounee.

–>chris

Subject: la Gazette du Paris 5

halo i guess it’s half-time.

this week proved to be a week of surprises, sort of a drift around the town. i didn’t have much of an itinerary except meeting M. Didier Pourre of the Departement Marne-la-Vallee who i interviewed a couple of weeks ago. he’d invited me to his town, just north of mine, called Ivry to see the center, his building, and a space where a new park is planned. after being a bit turned around (i only had the street address, not his apartment number), a couple of seniors helped me sniff down the right portal. didier greeted me and showed me around his flat – i also met his daughter and wife, Colette.
each apartment is unique in design, most rooms are triangular. also, every flat no matter which flight has an outdoor space with garden – big enough for a couple of trees and bushes and lawn. the only problem is the design wasn’t executed so well, so they have minor problems w/water leakage from the flat above. bascially, the whole complex (several blocks by the same architect) is a “living” building. despite a modernist concrete style, it still felt and looked very organic. also, the open places around it were well used by a variety of people, and didier explained that the plazas were open to anyone, not just residents. he also showed me a couple of other flats to see how others had transformed their spaces.

then we headed out for the small field trip. the architect, who lived above the pourre family till he died, also designed a school on site. each grade has an indoor and outdoor garden to tend every year. also, the architect interviewed children before designing the school and included their request for a tunnel in the playground.

didier pointed out a 1950 large housing structure next door to his block, where he grew up (people do not move far from home here as sophie and francis are both from Vitry where they still live). Ivry is a communist town and has been for decades. back then they were so excited (it was the only 15 story building in/around Paris) and felt very sophisticated calling it the “building” in english.

then we saw the remnant industrial site behind his place where they are planning the 4 phases of Parc Cormais, to be completed by 2005. it was a former automobile factory; didier explained that soil samples had turned up no toxins. on-site is a butte (actually a small hill) created from the excavations of his building. they will retain that feature for the park – definitely land art harkenings.

then we strolled around the center, saw a couple of traditional jardins francais and headed back to have aperitifs w/colette. they had something called Pastis, which was like anise served w/water and ice. tasty – and cooled me down cause it was a very hot day. i learned about colette’s work as a judge for a union-management court. things are very different for labor (in a good way it seems) here in france. they were extremely warm and friendly, as was everyone we met as we walked around. didier is definitely a social friendly guy as all the girls and women were very quick with their
bisous (kisses) for him.

i also explored Parc Buttes Chaumont, a nineteenth century picturesque park. it was classic – hilltop gazebo, fake waterfall in a fake grotto of masterfully crafted stalagtites/mites. also tons of trees, people taking the sun, kids romping about. it reminded me of a san francisco park with the hills and lush green.

friday i explored a different environment, La Defense, Paris’ ultra-contemporary commercial downtown. not much garden/park space, but huge expanses of open/plaza type spaces. and despite locals putting it down, the space was heavily used by a wide variety of people – very young to very old and a mix of ethnicities. it was much more diverse than many of the parisienne parks. the designers also included some big public art projects – Calder, Miro, and others dotted the landscape. the Grand Arche of La Defense sets the tone – an enormous cube (allegedly notre dame fits inside) looking
at the Arc du Triomphe and also West “to the future.” i could not resist going up to the top to get the view – higher than the Eiffel Tower. people covered the staircase leading up to the arc; seemed to be a popular rendez-vous point. the western side was less busy (too hot in the blazing sun), but i followed the jete out and could see the outskirts of town and
another perspective of la defense. it was like Logan’s Run – over-the-top modern design.

and another switch over the weekend, hitting Versailles’ gardens. what a horde of people! o la la! the train at 10am was completely packed, took about 20 minutes just to escape the station. veritable circus leading into the chateau, but once in the garden, you could escape. i could not believe how immense the garden was – all you could see was garden and forest. i was a bit bummed that i had to pay to get in; it’s usually free, and i was way short on cash. but sundays in summer are concert days, where they play classical music during the day while the fountains blast. so, i’m thinking
small chamber or solo performers at the fountains. but no, piped in a la Disney! but it was still great to see and hear the tunes w/the fountains going and people just in awe. especially the afternoon show, people are wandering from fountain to fountain and lingering where they will. i cannot believe how many fountains of so many different types. it was really
fantastic.

before the afternoon “concert” i escaped the premises and headed to the smaller Trianon (with its own garden), petit Trianon, and Hameaux (a sort of peasanty village marie antoinette had built for a pastoral playground). many fewer people, lots of beautiful (still picturesque) places and buildings, and only hearing french again. ah, relaxed. ate a picnic next to a cool dragon statue at the Trianon in the shade of chestnut trees. i go back to see the king’s veggie garden this Wed and may venture inside one of the buildings.

one highlight of last week was dinner with Bob Turrill from USC Marshall School of Business, our Presidential Fellows faculty advisor, who was visiting his son brendan who lives in paris. we had a great dinner near Bastille along with his younger son Stephen and caught up on everyone’s lives and killed off some damn tasty Medoc. though i enjoy the song of
french language around me, it was great to have a complete dinner conversation in english with some friendly folks.

so till next week…

–>chris

Subject: la Gazette du Paris 6

after some rainy days like San Francisco, it has cleared and is classic beautiful French summer weather, just in time for the big Fete Nationale this Friday. from the rumors, all of Paris will be dancing in the streets all night long, and then everyone will disappear on holiday for a month. now, that is civilized!

last week, a real treat. just south of Versailles, outside the gated formal gardens and beyond the chateau, is the “potager du roi” – the king’s vegetable garden. designed and executed at the same time as the grand chateau, the potager was amazing – again, an extremely formal garden space w/a variety of different small gardens. Marc Rumelhart, one of the
professors of landscape architecture at the Ecole Nationale Superieure du Paysage, gave me a tour of the various spaces in the garden. lots of peppery asides about history of the garden, the school, the big storm, and a few secret treats. we went into the underground passageways below the garden, and we snuck (i can’t translate that word) into a classic picturesque garden gone to the weeds (included a tiny lake, a small mountain, a classic grotto,
a gazebo) adjacent to the potager.

the most interesting features of the potager were the different espaliers – fruit trees trained to grow in particular patterns. they maintain betw/2-300 varieties of pears and apples. trees grew against walls, along wire forms,
and also in corkscrew shape and even goblets.

the students receive small plots to design their own gardens, and you can imagine the range – everything from classic cottage garden to land art to kampy signage and left-over beer bottles. a local town association raises bees in the garden. the garden has been producing for over 300 years, and they have a boutique selling products like pear juice and special currants. though on first impression, the garden looked big, it was HUGE – 6 hectares is a fair amount of land on which to garden. Marc was great, rolling his own cigarettes as we strolled the garden, and passing me on to Bernadette
Blanchon.

Berndatte is an architect by training and is finishing her DEA project on the history of French landscape architecture from WWII to present. her argument was that everyone seems to believe that new ideas just sprung out of nowhere in the post-war era; she has revealed that indeed many strains existed in the interwar era. so, we had a good chat, i learned more about her current administrative work (and some landscape architects i should look up), and found out she’s visited Harvard w/students before. Harvard isn’t looking so good, so i’m wondering if USC might be an interested host.

last week i began my french class at alliance francaise. so far, so good. i placed into the 3rd stage of the 1st level, so i’m a little bit ahead of the babies – thank goodness for being able to read some. we’re learning past tense; the grammar rules are coming back very quickly but i’m still frustrated by my lack of vocabulary. everything is conducted en francais, but luckily there’s lots of context so i haven’t been lost yet. most surprising is the world mix of the class – english, chinese, japanese, spanish, german, american, venezuelan, sri lankan. seems 1/2 the class is already quite good at basic spoken french, but most everyone is struggling w/grammar. again, thank goodness for latin, french and italian all those
many years ago.

i took Sophie and Francis out to dinner on Friday night as it was the opportunity to treat them with the girls visiting Nimes. we visited a great little classic french cafe that a friend of theirs recommended (also the Michelin Red Guide) – no stars, but oh la la! the good food! excellent soups and fish. i gave them a book of art work by Andy Goldsworthy, the
environmental artist. sophie had said she like his work, and francis loves picture books “for dreaming” – it was a hit. a great way to spend a stormy Paris Friday.

Sat, Pascal and i hit Centre Pomidou which had an exhibit on Hitchcock and art. it was really cool! a variety of themes from his films, mixing objects and film still and clips with art references of the same theme (even Rodin’s The Kiss, which Hitchcock claimed was his favorite piece). really crowded in the exhibit bec/it was a stormy Sat. also toured on-site Brancusi’s studio – he willed it to the city w/the provision that it would be open to the public in just the way he left it. meaning everything in a particular place, all models, junk, unfinished work, you name it. fascinating stuff. his famous
work is titled Unending Column (or something like that).

the highlight of the day was visiting La Mosquee – the big mosque of Paris. they have a tea salon serving great cakes in an outdoor courtyard. luckily, the rain had quit. so we got a seat in a small raised deck outside with a great view of the crowd. a very popular place w/Parisians; no tourists! the tea is hot, minty, sweet, and served in tiny jewel-like glasses for 10F a pop (about $1.25). had one of the best cigarettes ever there – not a special brand, just a special place.

so, you can tell i’m doing more tour-y stuff. time is running out! hit my first official museum on Sun – musee Carnavalet. what the heck is that? it is the city of paris museum. so, lots of paintings of the city, even some amazing scale models of neighborhoods and buildings. a great collection of old (i mean OLD) shop signs. tons of memorobilia from the Revolution (my favorite was little ivory reproductions of guillotines complete w/executioner and victim). the house of the museum was huge, and the tour wound you up and down and around in no logical pattern. you even have to retrace your steps to exit the building. that was it for the weekend and week.

have decided to begin a root beer distribution business as the beverage is unknown here. suspect there’s a killing to be made, even if it’s just off American tourists and students. hopefully i will survive the fete nationale to write about it next week.

a bientot –>chris

Subject: la Gazette du Paris 7

d’accord.

last week was actually pretty mellow until the weekend (it is the big fete nationale on 14 Jul). the “other American” and i hung out outside of class. had tea, peanut butter (smuggled from US), and dinner out. his name is steve, and he works for United Airlines. he is a trip! he’s been teaching himself French in a vacuumm, and was a bit awkward in class, but does great in restaurants. we forced ourselves to speak in French at the restaurant for 25 min. i’m sure we amused our neighbors at dinner. hopefully this week we’ll hit a french film to test the skills even further.

Wed was tourist day! woo hoo! visited the grand old department store, Samaritaine. could not find what i was hunting for, but they have a 9th floor observation/panorama which was great. it was a very cold day, lots of big billowy clouds (rained later), but dramatic to see all of Paris from the center. you could see everything: Pompidou, Sacre Couer, Tour Eiffel, Arc de Triomphe, even La Defense, plus the Seine, Notre Dame, etc. got me a bit more excited about climbing those stairs at the Eiffel Tower.

then, took a trip over to the Conciergerie – an old prison where Marie-Antoinette was held during Revolution. i didn’t know prisons could look so good. inside was like a church – so many vaulted gothic ceilings. i’m sure in it’s day, it was not a pleasant place, but the materials and design were really high quality.

next, St. Chappelle – holy cow! so incredible. it is a jewel box of colored light. again, i expected dramatic interior architecture, not vibrant stained glass. i guess in the late gothic stages, things got really fancy. downstairs’ servants chapel was just fine – walls painted red and blue w/flocking of castles and fleurs-des-lis. very fancy. then winding up the
staircase – oh la la – what a sight. and the sun wasn’t out. they have chairs lining the sides of the chapel, so moved up toward the front, sat down and just looked up marvelling. the rosace window looked more like a dahlia than a rose, very intricate design. then, all of a sudden, the sun pops out and the entire place shone bright red and blue! and even better,
the entire people-space shifted – everyone stopped, silence, sitting up, looking up, turning around in awe. it was amazing. also, seeing this chapel after the cathedral in Strasbourg was interesting. here you could actually see the detail of the interior (the windows, the adornments), while in Strasbourg, the scale preventing easy viewing of interior detail w/natural light.

had what is probably my final interview last week, w/2 folks from the departement de Seine-Saint-Denis. it was a comedy of errors (the whole day) getting there and back – pouring rain, Sophie drove, we got lost 4X!. but we
finally arrived at the parc where the office was located, and they were waiting w/smiles and beaucoup materials. mademoiselle Josseran gave a lengthy presentation on a recent parc project called La Haut-Ile (high island), which is an ecologically designed parc. it is still in construction phase, but the main feature is the seasonal water flow from the Marne River into an estuary type system. they have rich bird life (the national Bird League was major participant). this was a great case study of citizen participation in a park design bec/citizens got the original project (a pure recreation park) changed bec/they wanted the area to be kept “natural.” long story, but it is hardly natural, just reverted back to an unhusbanded state. but they used many methods to include public ideas in the concept and design phases. again, the word is that the time is ripe for this type of consultation w/public – even w/o contact w/dept. Val-de-Marne, they are
speaking the same language and tackling things the same way.

the errors continued as i ambled to class after the interview. already running late, i got lost in my train transfer, then when i found the train it just sat there. i was thinking – ok, chris, listen to the message – you are not supposed to go to class! i was about 1 hour late (for a 2 hour class), but that’s the same day Steve and i decided to have tea and dinner
after class, and i got to taste peanut butter! oh, and kool-aid, too.

friday afternoon, i was lucky enough to see my USC colleague (another Steve) present his SoCal work at the lab he’s working at this summer. so, i finally got to see what research he’s conducting on radon transport in ocean waters.
a bit complex mathematically for me, but interesting to see the connections for sustainability. friday night, our other colleague, kitty hosted a dinner at her flat. we had a great view of the eiffel tower, although it was only the bottom half
bec/the weather was bad. lots of champagne, some wine, good pasta and chocolates. then off to the bals – the firemen host parties in their stations all over paris for the fete nationale. so, we were in the center at St. Eustasche. big stage w/classic french band – horns, divas, rauchny sinatra-types. and lots of people dancing and drinking beer and smoking in
the rain. we did a little almost polka action, could not sing along to the french songs, though.

they split about 1:30, but i was still interested in dancing. wandered over between le Marais and the Bastille and found another bal – this one was a disco-style w/3 djs. even more people dancing – the rain had quit. stayed on dancing the whole night till almost 5, when the slow songs started and everyone was splitting. wandered back to Pascal’s apt nearby (metro wasn’t running yet), and crashed till the next afternoon. so i missed the big military parade! and also sat night, i was too late for the fireworks at the Eiffel Tower – thought they were at 11:30 and they were at 10:30. in any case, got to watch the crowds, the tower sparkled the whole time, and it was a beautiful cool night. and i caught up on sleep.

off to class… a demain semaine.

–>chris

Subject: La Gazette du Paris 8

the last missive from the city of light. i hope to send a tourist e-postcard from Ireland next week, depending on the availability of i-cafes in Dublin town. i’d prefer an e-pub that serves Guiness so i can have a foamy moustache as i type.

a quiet week! sophie took me to a local chateau near ENPC, Chateau de Champs-sur-Marne. just like a mini-Versailles. the formal garden seemed to have less damage from the big storm as all trees were intact. but the jardin anglais areas were definitely tossed around alot, and stacked wood was everywhere. it was a Hollywood day, as they were shooting a film inside the chateau, and on the way, gardeners were planting small palm trees in a traffic circle garden.

continue to improve my french, though i still don’t think it’s easy. especially speaking, though luckily all of class is still in french. but i can actually speak for a few mintues before getting lost and now w/o folks getting terribly impatient. so perhaps there is hope!

otherwise, finished up my draft short report on work in Paris that i’ll give to ENPC upon my leave. sophie is going to help me translate it to french, too. i think it’s too early to have really absorbed and processed everything, but even the initial thoughts jive pretty well with what i’d crafted this spring moving toward the dissertation. lots of work ahead of me for the fall i can tell!

for the weekend – a weekend of death! took a tour of the Catacombs on Sat – lots of bones and skulls underground in dark dank passages. i guess they had lots of quarry action way-back-when, and bec/the cemetaries were a health and smell hazard, they transferred bones of 6 MILLION Parisians to the underground tunnels. also, resistance folks used these secret passages extensively during the war. a bit creepy walking along almost 2k of 10s of millions of bones. sunday visited the beautiful Cimiterie Pere Lachaise where many famous folks lie in rest. a great cemetary – lots of trees, great
tombs, a surprising amount of topography. did not get a map, but just wandered around checking out the interesting designs. stumbed onto only one famous grave – Oscar Wilde. it was covered w/lipstick kiss marks! two American girls asked me where was jim morrison’s grave. never found that one.

also on Sat visited the major monument to the deportees to German work camps. a brilliant monument design – conveyed the claustrophobic entrapment sensation. located on the point of Ile-de-Cite near Notre Dame. on same
journey, explored Ile-St-Louis, tiny island adjacent to Ile-de-Cite w/great old houses and swank shops. apparently, this is one of the toniest areas in the world, but it sure had the feel of a friendly village. got the alleged best ice cream in Paris (Berthillon???) – rhubarb and pistachio. it was darn good. ate on the steps of Ch. St-Louis, a perfect little chapel w/great
interior gilding and no hordes of people visiting. they have a major gospel event there this week.

stumbled onto a quiet new street on Sun afternoon i’d never seen before in a hood i’d explored many times – a tiny beautiful church yard, small bistros, funky mid-century antiquities, and no traffic. Paris constantly surprises w/these secrets. i’m a bit in shock about leaving now after last week being ready to head back to LA. have been getting a bit melancholy on the metro when the good musicians play. i look forward to the buffer of Ireland and green distractions before returning to a brown LA. madly eating croissants, baguettes, and fromages till the bitter end.

tomorrow, if the weather holds up, is my day to ascend the Eiffel Tower stairs. send some good athletic thoughts this way! i’m psyched bec/allegedly it will be sunny w/a good view. packing the camera and ready to sweat. maybe after, i’ll go back for more ice cream.

see you all very soon.

–>chris

Surprising how a swank place like Monte Carlo on the Riviera offers so much public and accessible space. On a day trip via rail from Cannes, France, what surprised me most were fantastic parks, gardens, and public institutions – money creates and maintains some great things here! My first surprise was a beautiful, charming children’s park with game and play areas, designed along different levels of an old olive grove up on a steep hill above the town. For a small fee of 6 euros, I then visited the Jardin Exotique, a collection of cacti and succulents also on the hills overlooking the principality. The entry fee included a tour of a spectacular limestone cave, one of the only caves that gets warmer as you enter it because of its location in the steep cliffs. Finally, I visited the Musee Oceanographique – no doubt the best natural history museum I’ve visited. It boasts classic architecture, a small but high quality aquarium, and beautifully exhibited historic collections. Best of all, you could have cheap but tasty eats on the roof top providing amazing views of the town, the hills, and the Mediterranean. I appreciated the local public buses which were cheap, fast, and clean; I got to see the “everyday” Monte Carlo, with folks getting off work and kids out of school riding the bus. But my favorite discovery? The many “green roofs” on mid-rise complexes throughout the city! I was so shocked that Monte Carlo, a place of dreams and fantasy, gambling, exotic cars, money offered so many accessible treats and even a sustainable touch.

Reading: The Peregrine by J.A. Baker (it’s *awesome*)

On 14 Oct 06, PDX opens a new skate park at Pier Park. At a recent City Wide Parks Team meeting, two representatives from the skating community, both around 40 years old, made certain that their constituencies were heard. Several other attendees expressed hope that skate parks would provide an outreach opportunity for Portland Parks & Recreation to one of its most underserved groups, teens. I’ll post a photograph from the skate park opening here, as well as others to my flickr site.

Reading: The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno