Versailles and the Louvre

We spent a long time at Versailles, a very long time. But it is so enormous that it was very easy to pass hours quickly. The main draws, the Hall of Mirrors and the apartments of the king and queen, were very crowded and it was a little difficult to not feel as though we were moving through it on a people mover. It was beautiful, but difficult to really enjoy. Once you get down to the apartments of the dauphin and out to the Grand and Petite Trianons (which cost extra) things opened up quite a bit and we were able to peer into nooks and notice many more details. One of my favorite things were two large round tables in a sitting room of the Grand Trianon. They had tiny numbers on the top and below each number a drawer that slid out; these were used by women to store their sewing projects. These tables make so much sense in the tiny apartments of Paris, but it is funny to think of a table maker designing clever storage in such an enormous house or that princesses had to clean up after themselves and put their things away.

My favorite part, though, was the Queen's Hamlet. This was part of Louis XVI's gift to Marie Antoinette when she was fed up with court life and moved off to another corner of the property. She had the Petite Trianon, but also this little farm with incredibly enchanting country buildings, garden plots, cows and a dairy. Marie and her friends went here to enjoy "country life" and play at working the farm. It is well known that Marie wasn't very aware of the poverty and desperation of her subjects before the Revolution, but seeing her little farm, I wonder if it could even have made sense to her. Country life seems so romantic and wonderful in this perfect little setting, the place she came to get away from how tedious it was to be queen. Based on her perspective, it is easy to see how if she had heard she might have just thought the people were whining.

France had terrible weather leading up to the Revolution, which had caused huge shortages of food and I wonder if Marie noticed any difference in the production of her gardens. More likely she relied so little on the gardens that they always seemed overly abundant. The gardens were full of berries, lettuces, squashes, etc when we were there and I would imagine they were equally productive then, only no one had to live off that produce.

Yesterday we went to the Louvre. We arrived in late afternoon on a day that the museum stays open late so, like Versailles, it got less and less crowded the longer we were there. Once again, I took lots of pictures to use in my lectures. Hammurabi's Code was definitely a highlight. We also, of course, saw the biggies - Venus de Milo, Winged Victory and the Mona Lisa. The crowd around the Mona Lisa lived up to the reputation. It was huge and pushy and full of flash photography. Lots of flash photography. There were four or five museum employees standing around and not trying to stop the use of flash, which brought me to the conclusion that we were not looking at the original painting. If they swapped the real thing for a poster reproduction, who would know?

The Louvre is obviously filled with amazing things, but I was just as impressed by the palace itself. The ceiling paintings, carved wooden doors and stone staircases were pretty spectacular and rivaled those of Versailles. We saw the mock up of the new Arab art wing. It is supposed to look like a blowing veil, which is interesting since the country passed legislation to limit religious articles like the hijab from public schools. But I thought it looked more like a flattened jelly fish. I guess I will have to come back to Paris to see the finished product.

The Macaroon Epiphany

I had a marvelous day at Versailles yesterday and a marvelous time at the Louvre today, but after a full 8 hour day at the former and 4 1/2 hours at the latter I am exhausted.

I do want to share one quick thing though. Yesterday we stopped for an appropriately decadent treat of thick hot chocolate and macaroons at Angelina's right inside Marie Antoinette's Petite Trianon. Angelina's was Audrey Hepburn's favorite place for hot chocolate and between that recommendation and having sites in posh locales (the other is right across from the Louvre) they ask a pretty hefty price for the pleasure. It was delicious though and, again, seemed like the thing to do before touring Marie's little corner of Versailles.

I was sitting there enjoying my macaroon when suddenly it occurred to me - this is what Nora is eating in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House. She is eating French macaroons, not coconut macaroons. Maybe that was obvious to the rest of you or maybe you don't know what I'm talking about, but I love that play and I love coconut macaroons. I love them so much in fact that when my students read the play each year, I bring in coconut macaroons for the whole class so they all know what it is she's eating behind her husband's back through the whole first act. It never occurred to me that she was eating anything but coconut macaroons, because until yesterday I had probably only had/seen French macaroons once and I recall them being dull and dry and certainly not delicious enough to carry the symbolism of Torvald's infantilizing/Nora's deceit.

French macaroons makes more sense, right? Would they have had a lot of coconut in mid-19th century Norway? How will I find out for sure? And what will I bring to class next year?

Following the Revolution

Monday we got up early and climbed the stairs of the Eiffel Tower. The view was pretty good, but the structure itself was awesome. It makes me wonder if Ferris shouldn't have fought to keep up his wheel. From there we went to Le Bon Marche, the first true department store. I talk about it briefly in my Humanities class in a unit on how the Industrial Revolution changed the role of women and women's fashion changed along with them. Department stores like Bon Marche offered socially acceptable work to women of a variety of classes and began the push of marketing to women as consumers. After being at Harrod's in London I was really looking forward to seeing it and it is the only thing in France that has let me down so far. Based on what I had read, I thought I was going to the Bon Marche, but what I found was incredibly modern and even more incredibly high end. It was difficult to imagine women in crinolettes ever having had a place there.

That afternoon we took a guided tour of French Revolution sites. We had the guide to ourselves and it was so cool to stand in the places where the history happened. Well, almost always. The Place de la Concorde, where so many were beheaded during the Terror, is a busy combination of high speed traffic and temporary Bastille Day scaffolding. Our guide was forced to motion to far off points and say "Louis was executed right under those bleachers and Marie about where that blue car is turning." I have started taking notes of the things I don't want to forget and the questions I still need to answer. Our guide told us that the doctor who performed the autopsy on the Dauphine removed his heart and kept it in a jar through the Revolution until it could later be safely brought to the St Denis Basilica, where the French kings have been laid to rest. It didn't occur to me until later that I had no idea what became of Louis XVI's remains. Turns out he was dumped by the Revolutionaries, then located during the Restoration and his remains also brought to St Denis.

The National Assembly and bridge constructed from the remains of the Bastille - Pont de la Concorde.

On Tuesday we went back to the Marais to visit the Musee Carnavalet, which houses a wide range of items relating to Paris's history, from Roman times to the present. Spread out through over 100 rooms of 16th century mansion is an amazing assortment of paintings, signs, keys with their locks, portraits, letters, magazines, furniture, models of seemingly every Paris bridge, you name it. I spent the longest time in the rooms of the Revolution, just amazed by the things that were held on to through all the chaos. They have the copy of the Declaration of the Rights of Man that hung in the National Assembly, Danton's spoon and fork with an oddly bent tine, Robespierre's satchel, and a medallion wrapped with a braid of Marie and the Dauphine's hair. They also have a pair of her shoes that would still be pretty fashionable, but are remarkably small. We had the fallafel for lunch and it was worth waiting in line for, but thankfully since it was a weekday we didn't have to.

Today we climbed the towers of Notre Dame, which I thought was more worth the wait and effort than the Eiffel Tower. The gargoyles and the detailing on everything, high and low, are awesome to take in. The cathedral itself was not my favorite of the many I have seen so far, but I loved to stand there and think of Napoleon having been on those same steps for his coronation. I had a teacher in high school who was in love with Hemingway and spent her summers on 'follow Hemmingway's foot steps' tours. I thought she was so weird then, but now I totally get it.
From there we went to the Conciergerie, which is made up of the scant remnants of medieval castle that housed the kings before their move to more fashionable housing off the island. During the Revolution a newer portion served as the jail for Charlotte Corday, Marie Antoinette, Robespierre and so many others on their way to the guillotine.

At the Conciergerie: Fire place and spiral staircase that used to lead to a great dining hall. Female prisoners' courtyard.

By far my favorite part of the day was stepping into the upper chapel of the Sainte Chapelle. By the time we got there the rainy day had mostly cleared up and the sun lit up the stained glass. This chapel was built by Louis IX in the 13th century to serve as the reliquary for the crown of thorns, nail and piece of cross he had purchased and it is made up of more glass than stone. The effect is just stunning.

I have been disappointed that I have not so far had the opportunities I had hoped for to interview Parisians. In order to stay on a budget we haven't been out to too many restaurants and while we have done a lot of chatting in lines while waiting to get into attractions, the people near us in line just haven't been French. Our tour guide had some good suggestions for situations that might better lend themselves to getting interviews, which I will try soon, but today I did have an interesting conversation with a woman who worked at Sainte Chapelle. I didn't get it on film, but we were talking about the maintenance of the windows. One couldn't help but notice that one half was much, much cleaner than the others. She told me that they had just finished cleaning the south side and were about to begin the north, but it was a very large undertaking. It had taken five years to clean the half that were done and it was at a cost of 10 million euro. I asked her who paid for it, knowing that in 1905 the government took over control of then existing religious buildings. This is an issue now with religions, like Islam, who arrived and built after that date. The cost, she said, was in fact largely shouldered by the government wit some support from a private company. But she pointed out that this is not really a reflection of preference for Catholicism, as the building is and was not just religiously important. In fact, since the relics have been moved to Notre Dame and services are no longer offered there, today it's no longer a very religious site at all. She pointed out two sets of stained glass in which Louis IX had associated himself and the role of the king of France to the kings of the Bible and that the relics had made it possible for him to claim the right to rule with God's blessing, strengthening his power immensely. Even as a chapel it had been a political statement, important to France's secular history that is inextricably entwined with its religious history.

Tomorrow I'm still walking through the past with a trip to Versailles, but I am getting anxious to get interviews going. I'll keep you posted.

Introduction to Paris

We arrived quite late Friday night and had been warned well in advance that weekends in Paris can be overwhelming, so we started out slow. Saturday morning we explored the 10th arrondissement, the neighborhood of the apartment I have rented for these two weeks. It is a quiet area, away from the tourist attractions that is filled with a range of diverse people speaking a great number of languages. That afternoon we followed a self guided tour along the Seine, taking hours to weave through the oldest parts of the city. And the guidebooks are right - the lines that stretched out in front of Notre Dame seemed endless. We ended our walk at an Alsatian brasserie where I had an amazing bowl of cassoulet and Aaron ordered the choucroute, a pile of sauerkraut topped with assorted sausages. He kept commenting on how the liver sausage was good, but so odd. I had been so taken with my food that I hadn't really been listening to him, but then suddenly heard and saw what he was talking about. That's not liver sausage. Then what is it? Blood sausage! He grimaced, then shrugged and said he was glad he had tasted it before he knew what it was because it wasn't all that bad. He then proceeded to polish off the entire plate.

Sunday we did a second self guided tour through the Marais, which began in the 14th century gardens of Charles V and then wove through trendy boutiques to the Pletz, Paris's oldest Jewish Quarter where people were lined up down the middle of the very narrow Rue des Rosiers to get what we would later find out was very delicious fallafel.

By this time I had a sense of the lay of the land and I spent the rest of the afternoon sculpting out and confirming plans for the rest of the two weeks. What's next to what and what closes down on which days. It is a pretty exciting plan.

A nod to America's Revolution at the Hotel de Ville. Happy Fourth of July!

From France in general

Is it even worth saying that the food has been fabulous in France? The street food, the restaurants, the pastries; it has all been delicious. I had a set menu in Rouen of foie gras and langostine ravioli in a cream sauce, followed by bacon wrapped salmon in a tart orange glaze and dessert of a nougat ice cream that was possibly the most wonderful thing ever. This afternoon I snacked on a carre Breton, a cornbread-like cake and this one had a layer of salted caramel through the center, a local specialty that makes you want to stay.

My French gets better every day, though it remains broken. I had to have our Eurail passes validated and wasn’t sure where to do it, so I wanted to ask when reserving our first ride that will count on the pass. The best I could come up with was, “You to write here?” me pointing at form, “Or who?” It didn't sound pretty, but it got my question across. So far people have been incredibly patient with, and sometimes charmed by, my slow communication and we haven’t had any trouble. That being said, we have not been able to have any real conversations except with the few English speakers we’ve met. For the first time I wish I had studied French instead of Spanish, but look forward to getting into Paris and getting my planned interviews underway.

St Malo - Intra Muros

Early this morning we arrived in St Malo, a seaside town in Brittany surrounded by 17th century ramparts. Tomorrow we’ll day trip to the famed Mont St Michel, but today we explored the fortifications of the city, walking up along the wall. When I was on the Omaha tour yesterday, I was with a father and son who were a bit bothered by the beach goers at Omaha. We discussed it for a while and I argued that the French can hardly be expected to live in constant memorial of those events, after all, what were those soldiers fighting for if not for the kinds of experiences people have at the beach with friends or family? In St Malo today, looking at the fortifications that date back as early as the 12th century, I also wondered how much we Americans can understand a history full of invasions and liberations. Although Bayeux was spared, 80% of St Malo and considerable sections of Rouen were destroyed during WWII. The process of restoring, rather than rebuilding is amazing.

Bayeux: Gateway to the Battle of Normandy

Although my fellowship is focused on developing material for my Humanities class, I am taking this small side trip to benefit my World Studies. We left Rouen on Sunday, June 28 for Bayeux, one of the few towns in the area spared the destruction of the Battle of Normandy. We started out on Monday a little further back in time with a visit to the Bayeux tapestry, a 70 yard tapestry that is, more or less, a comic book version of the Battle of Hastings. It was commissioned in 1077 for the opening of Bayeux’s beautiful cathedral and served as a reminder of the story of William the Conquerer’s 1066 conquering of Harold for control of England for a largely illiterate population. It is amazing that the thing still exists; not only is it nearly 1,000 years old, but it has been misused in a variety of ways including serving as a tarp for an ammunition cart during the French Revolution. Today it is on display in a small museum where we were able to listen to an audio guide of the history as we walked along the tapestry. It was hardly necessary though, as the pictures are incredibly vivid and easy to follow.

That afternoon we rented bicycles and rode about 6 miles to Arromanches, code named Mulberry Harbors during the WWII landing. In the past, when I have taught WWII, I have skipped right over the Western Front to get to the good stuff – Stalingrad and the Pacific Theater. Now having been to the sites of the Normandy landings I am convinced that this is just as much the good stuff. I don’t think I ever knew how interesting the Battle of Normandy was. At Arromanches we visited the Musee du Debarquement, which is dedicated to the enormous undertaking of constructing ports since the Allies knew the Germans had an iron grip on the existing ports and would destroy them rather than lose them. Large pieces of the breaker walls and floating bridge are still visible from the beach.

Tuesday morning we visited the Musee Memorial 1944 Bataille de Normandie in Bayeux, which is great. It is full of the quotes and narrative that make me love history. Pilots dropped aluminum paper strips in the channel to confuse German radar and during the Battle of the Bulge, when the Germans demanded the surrender of General MacAuliffe’s troops, his response was, “Nuts!”

That afternoon I left Aaron to his own devices while I went on a tour of Omaha Beach, where the Americans landed and faced the most difficult conditions of the invasion. I had a fantastic guide who took a small group of us through the plan and then through the actual assault. I tell my students that the Normandy invasion was important and bloody, but to stand there on the beach and see the cliffs with the German bunkers visible and to imagine them with guns while the tide rose so quickly makes the success of the operation stunning. Again, I took an incredible lot of pictures and look forward to walking my students through the nuances of the landings. My visit to the Normandy Beaches was so fascinating that I’m wondering if I can’t find a way to get to Verdun while I am still in France…

This gun was one of 6 that the Germans placed on Pointe du Hoc as part of the Atlantic Wall. On the morning of D-Day, 225 Rangers were to climb the cliffs on either side of the Pointe and make sure that the guns were destroyed by early morning bombings so that they could not be used on the approaching armada. The Rangers arrived to find that the Germans had removed the guns several months earlier in order to build bomb proof shelters for them. In there place were gun sized logs. The Rangers were able to report the mission as a success, but had to wait there for two days before receiving backup due to the fighting conditions on the beach.