So today was a rather unexpectedly eventful day. My friend Sarah left at 4 am this morning, having visited for 5 days. Despite my assurances that “all the taxi drivers speak English!” I discovered that he did not in fact speak English, and barely spoke French. Some very confused phone calls ensued. But she got off (as far as I know) okay. So after that excitement, I sat down for a early, early morning snack of pain aux figues (bread with figs!) and our newly bought, fromagerie and not supermarket chevre. I was interrupted by my roommate returning home from a night out half an hour later…limping and in tears. Poor Bénédicte fell and fractured her knee (she had twisted it a few years ago, so maybe it was more vulnerable?) and had to limp up the seven flights. So today was spent in taxis and playing human crutch as we went to the clinic (the generalist was not in!) and then the hospital. Now her entire left leg is in a cast, and she will be immobilized for three weeks! Béné might stay with her parents for a few weeks, as a seventh-floor apartment, on top of the stairs in the metro and to her work… are completely impossible for her. So I discovered that just in case (!) there is a hospital right across from Nôtre Dame, Hôpital Dieu.
Sarah’s visit was a nice opportunity to get out and do some of the outings I have been meaning to make in Paris, and of course to see one of my best friends. Right after arriving from London Monday morning, I rushed home to greet Sarah. We did some good eating – stopping at my favorite restaurants; classic French at Café de L’Industrie (near Bastille, we had escargots, confit de canard, and I had raie aux câpres – a type of fish simply cooked with capers; and a formidable cheese plate for dessert) and French with a world twist at La Boussole (near Saint Sulpice, I had lamb tagine and we shared the trio of crême brûlées – like I had never seen, they flavored them with ginger, vanilla and pistachio – amazing!) Funnily enough, the waiter at La Boussole remembered me from when I brought my family there back in November. We stopped at the fromagerie at Maubert-Mutualité and after getting reprimanded (“Don’t serve yourself!” after I picked up a pre-wrapped cheese) picked up some fromage. We also ventured out to Belleville and strolled though the Middle Eastern and Vietnamese neighborhood and had a feast of pho, shrimp rolls and peanut/lemon sauce beef.
Beside the food, we also got in some culture. I finally made it out to the Pompidou – incredible! It is very impressive, and they have a very extensive collection of certain artists and time periods (tons of Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Modigliani, others). We spent a few hours there. There was an interesting “Mondrian/De Stijl” exhibit which I mostly kind of breezed through – unfortunately the previous light installation (flashing, neon) exhibit immediately gave me a migraine :/ Sensory overload!
Abraham weeping over the death of Sarah (etching)
We also checked out the small and lovely Musée de l’art et l’histoire judaïque. They had an incredible exhibit of Marc Chagall’s lithographs for the Bible. He is one of my absolute favorites. I love how his paintings are very dreamy and childlike, the imagery of flying people and animals and Biblical references, and it was very interesting to read about his connection to Judaism. He painted Christ as a figure to represent Jewish suffering in the wake of the Holocaust, and the majority of his commissioned works for religious sites were non-Jewish (only one – a hospital in Israel). He saw his work as a way to bridge religious understandings and show the universalism of Jewish stories and texts (he mostly used Old Testament iconography for the church stained glass). Absolutely wonderful. We also had a wonderful lunch at Sacha Finkelstajn, a lovely Jewish bakery/deli on Rue des Rosiers in the Marais.
And London! I spent last weekend staying with Grace, her dorm is on the UCL campus which is in the lovely neighborhood of Bloomsbury. I actually really, really loved London, more than I expected. It didn’t hurt that we amazingly had great weather the first two days. I spent a lot of time walking all over the city, and checked out the free Saatchi Gallery, a huge contemporary art gallery that is only a few years old. I also visited the V&A Museum and saw their photography and various collections as well as an exhibit on Yohji Yamamoto, the Japanese fashion designer, that was very cool. I did my due diligence and visited the National Gallery but decided just to stick to the stuff I really liked – so I saw the impressionist/post-impressionist rooms (their most modern stuff!) and the Degas, Van Goghs and others, and stopped by to see Vermeer. And not to mention the Tate Gallery (incredible) and its pedestrian bridge over the Thames. We also walked around Camden Markets and the multicultural food fair – Eugene and his friend went for Peruvian, I did Nigerian, yum! We relaxed in Hyde Park, and finished off our weekend with a concert at the Old Vic Tunnels, a just-opened last year concert space that is in some tunnels underground. Little did I know, the British really did it up in this venue and we had some eccentric pre-show entertainment of fire swallowers, a Burlesque dancer, several ghouls and pirates and a troupe of ladies dressed in Victorian gear, looking like a runaway Lady Gaga backup group or chorus from Sweeney Todd. Very, very quirky and fun. Then the concert was fantastic – Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, a folk rock group that put on a great live show. Here’s a great concert they did for NPR:
I only took photos sporadically but here are a few:
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