Centralized what?

Vacations!

Two Saturdays mornings ago, as I was headed to my local market, the bus to Orly airport passed by, completely packed at noon – no point in it making the next stop, there was no way that even one more traveler could be squeezed in! And, for an instant, I wondered why it was so packed.

And then I realized what was going on! France is a republic with a very centralized administration - many things are decided in Paris for the entire county, far from our federal system where every state is free to control many things – schools, school calendars, voting systems, open hours of polling places, etc. – including school vacations (up through high school though some universities follow this as well). There’s a 10 day vacation at the end of October for Toussaint and that Saturday morning was the beginning of that vacation – so students, teachers, families were heading out of town in large numbers. The Toussaint and Christmas vacations are the same for all of France but for the winter and spring vacations France is divided into 3 zones and the start of these 2-week vacations is staggered by a week – for the winter vacation it means a longer season for the ski resorts and less crowding than if the entire country tried to go on vacation at once!


So, depending on the purpose and season of your next trip to France, you should possibly consult the school vacation calendar before booking

http://www.education.gouv.fr/cid3002/calendrier-scolaire-2007-2010.html

Isn’t life simple when there aren’t 50 variations?

Post-Election

Yesterday’s headline in Le Monde (the French equivalent of the NY Times) – 84% of the French Approve of Obama!

The day after the election, virtually every newspaper and magazine published that day featured a full-page color picture of Obama on the cover (I've included a photo of just one)! And Wednesday morning I received an e-mail or text message of congratulations from virtually every French friend I have. Not to mention that yesterday it was what I was greeted with at my exercise class and at my French class. Many of my French friends said it gave them goose bumps when they heard the news, one shared with me that for her it was like the emotion she felt when Mitterand was elected. They were happy for me (because they knew I had been sweating it) but also for the message it sent, the hope and possibility the results created as well as for the world. And at the gym I go to in my neighborhood several of the French spent lots of time dissecting the election and what comes next.

I’ve continued to wear my Obama button and, where before the election it generated lots of random (positive) comments and conversations with strangers, now it’s eliciting smiles.

Now back to real life and the hard work ahead!

Obama-mania - 2nd installment

One more post on this subject before the upcoming election:
The French have a convention for counting down to an event – they use the lettre J (for ‘jour’ meaning day) minus the number of days left. So since Friday I’ve been getting e-mails from the Comité français de soutien à Barack Obama with titles like J-4, J-3….
But aside from that the media coverage here has been plentiful and not just on the campaign itself but on American issues (of course that’s issues seen by the French or issues as seen by the French). A month ago there was a 5-part series on TV about the US, each segment on a different region. Last week Telerama, a weekly TV Guide on steroids (it’s way more than a TV guide, it includes topical articles as well as reviews of movies, books, theatre, art and music) dedicated this issue to analysis of the US (the cover read ‘Numéro special USA) and included articles on Howard Zinn interviewed re: his historical perspective, an article about the series ‘West Wing’ and ‘24’ (non-white presidents) and whether art was imitating life (or was it the other way around) and another about segregated campuses in Georgia (Tuskegee vs Auburn). Since Friday there’s hardly a news report that doesn’t feature the race plus several longer, more in depth TV news magazine reports. All this interest gives you some sense of how other parts of the world believe they will be affected by our choice, and it’s not only that this particular election is momentous because of the color of Obama’s skin…

And of course, there will be plenty of election coverage here, certainly not rivaling that in the US but, on the other hand, it’s not like I’ll have to work hard to stay informed either!

Obama-mania in France

I’m back! Back in France that is (after July and August in Minnesota) and back (finally) to my blog with a post that has to be done NOW, before the upcoming election!

France is wild about Obama (that may be true in many other parts of the world but I think it’s particularly intense in France. This was evident even last spring, long before the convention – books and magazine articles on Obama started to appear (in French by French) and in early June I went to a lecture/panel discussion at Sciences Po (the Harvard equivalent for political/social sciences in France, one of the Grandes Ecoles) on ‘The Obama Effect in France’. While the panelists were mostly white, male and of a ‘certain age’ (e.g. not young) the audience was much younger and more mixed. And in listening to the discussion, two things seemed prominent – a certain amazement that a black man could become a presidential candidate let alone president but also a feeling of hope – if it’s possible in America, maybe, maybe, eventually the same thing could happen in France…

The discussions, lectures, etc. have only multiplied and intensified, not just about Obama but about the US. A sampling for this month at a major bookstore: America and us; The president is…The U.S.: ruptures and continuity, The Sources of American Culture. A sampling of books published in France recently: ‘Obama, the American Dream Returns’ , ‘Obama’s America’, ‘The Little Book of American Elections’. And there’s a French Committee for Support of Obama in France (again, this is a French and not American group) and a blog www.FranceforObamaBlog.com and another site www.Pour-Obama.fr if you’re curious.

I bought the buttons in the photo at an art gallery with an exhibit devoted to Obama-themed works by a variety of artists, French and American. The art work on the buttons was pulled from two of the works. If you’re interested in seeing more they have a web site www.dorothysgallery.com . Interestingly enough, it was a French friend from my exercise class who found the gallery and told me about it! And since I’ve started wearing my button I’ve been getting lots of positive nods and comments!
So, while I know that the campaign is much more intense and present in the states, it’s not at all invisible here!

A Different Sort of Butcher Shop

As you may have guessed from the photo, this is my local horse butcher... Less and less common in France but they still exist. In the fall I did see a news article stating that several celebrities (whose names I no longer remember) had started a publicity campaign to convince the French that since horses were our friends/pets they should no longer eat them but I haven't seen anything since then.

Just one of those differences...

Mystery Photo - 2nd Installment

I received several guesses for the first installment of this feature. Thank you to all who played. Several guesses were clever but not quite right. For all of you still curious about Mystery Photo 1 the correct answer is: sugar beets! And congratulations to Jeanne-Marie who guessed it (OK, she's French so she had a leg up on this).

And now for Mystery Photo 2!

The 'not so mini' car...

In the U.S. the Mini-Cooper defines small car, right? Here in France, even though it seems cars are getting bigger and there are more of these larger cars, the Mini-Cooper isn't all that small. I offer in evidence these two photos - the first, three cars parked side by side, all different makes. Can you spot the Mini-Cooper?


The second photo is what here in France constitues are really small car. As you can see, it's small enough to park sideways in the space left between two 'normal' sized small French automobiles! (And I've seen this scene more than once!). Very useful, small cars!

Weekend in New York

No, I haven't gone to New York for the weekend. Strange title for a posting from my blog you think? Well, it came from a short travel article from Telerama (a weekly magazine with TV listings but also reviews of theatre, music, art. Last week I found a short travel article for a weekend in NY (titled NYC Loves Paris). For a restaurant, they suggested Cafe Gitane on Mott Street for espresso and said that you'd think you were at Place Sainte-Marthe, then suggested Barbes for a drink and some jazz, saying that the club was 'simply the most Parisian club in all New York. The final suggestion was a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the 'sublime Gustave Courbet retrospective'.

It just surprised me to 'send' French tourists to New York for the weekend and focus on things French...

Cops on the Beat

In one of my early posts I described the many ways the police here locomote - in patrol cars, on foot, on bicycles - most all of them pretty typical from the perspective of American cities. The one that caught me by surprise (so much by suprise that I wasn't prepared to take a photo) was cops on roller blades! Well, the second (or maybe it was the third time) I was ready so I offer you this photo as documentation!

Before they take the gloves off...

There are lots of motorcycles in Paris and, both because it’s milder here than in Minnesota and because for many this is their main transportation, when winter comes it’s not only the riders who put on winter clothes - they dress their motos for the season as well! And that means gloves that cover the handle bars and heavy blankets for the laps of the riders (these do double duty – it helps keep the rider warm and dry and keeps the seat dry when the motorcycle is parked)!

Mystery Photo (the first in a series)

I thought that this might be fun! Just to give you some help for this one - the photo was taken in the Ile-de-France, northwest of Paris, in late October/early November. And it's not a picture of a pile of rocks!

I can't promise prizes for guesses or even for a correct answer; I'll work on that if I get responses to this or future posts in the series :)

How to Walk Down the Sidewalk

I think I’ve adjusted relatively easily to many of the differences in France but it’s one of the (seemingly) simple things of daily life that’s been driving me to distraction: walking down the sidewalk! I’m always (still) screwing this up.

Background: OK, in Paris, sidewalks are often narrow and crowded (it’s a big city after all). But that’s not the source of this problem, intercultural at its root (which is of course complicated by the tourists who know nothing of the local rules of sidewalk comportment)! But tourists aside, here's the challenge: I’m walking down the sidewalk, I see someone coming towards me on the same trajectory so I adjust my course, then I don’t see the other person change direction and so we always end up on a collision course. I struggled with this 3 years ago when I was in Paris for 6 weeks. Matt, from his experience in France, told me I just needed to set my course and stare at where I’m headed, and the other person would adjust. I tried but it was like playing chicken and I always bailed first, leading to near-collisions all the time.

Time has proved that Matt was right and I wasn’t supposed to change course though I couldn’t get the hang of this! It was driving me crazy and making me rant internally - not having mastered this I was always bumping or grazing people and it was driving me crazy (which for me was rude and an invasion of personal space)! I finally figured out that this was also linked to another cultural issue - eye contact. In France, you don't greet strangers in the street which means you don't greet with your eyes. It isn’t that you don’t look at people, it’s just that you don’t acknowledge them or greet them with your eyes – which is an invitation - and I didn’t understand the distinction!. One of the things that I failed to realize is that, when they see you see them, there’s an acknowledgement of the other’s trajectory on the sidewalk embedded in this but no greeting! So following Matt's counsel works as long as I continue to look, but not greet, the other person! (Matt, your mama does learn from you!) Much better finally.

Now there’s one other sidewalk issue – the locals will stop on a sidewalk to chat with friends, etc. and will spread out across the already narrow sidewalk (I’ve seen the same thing happen in corridors and in museums) and they really stake out that space. If you approach or try to pass they almost never move an inch to accommodate your passage – it’s as if they have no peripheral vision! Drives me crazy! But then I come from a country where there’s lots of space and where I move to accommodate others; ergo I ‘expect’ the same treatment and am frustrated when it doesn’t work that way, and it doesn’t work that way here in France or at least not very often in my experience. Is it because France is much more crowded than the US and folks stake out their territory? Is it a question of hierarchy where ceding ground would diminish your status? Don’t know – just observations of behavioral differences which make me think about my own behavior and (unspoken) expectations! Who knew?!

Manèges (Merry-go-rounds)

All year long you can find some merry-go-rounds in public squares and, on Wednesday afternoons when many elementary schools are closed, you’ll see parents waiting while their young kids ride them. But at the Christmas season, lots more of them popped up all over the city, a holiday/seasonal treat. The first one pictured was set up in my neighborhood, just in front of the Mairie for the 11th arrondissement, just at the start of the two week Christmas holiday, the other was set up in front of the Hotel de Ville (the main city hall) in Paris. During my week in the south of France, I found the same thing in the city of St Raphael, with several beside the Mediterranean beaches. And now that it's warming up here slightly, the tents surrounding them are being taken down. Just small seasonal changes!

Milk and cookies for Santa? Not!

At least in the family in Provence where I spent Christmas this year, it's not milk and cookies that one leaves for Santa (see photo). I missed the 'after' picture - Santa unwrapped the candies and ate them (leaving the wrappers), had a few sips of the wine, washed his hands in the bowl of water (dirty business coming down the chimney!) and wiped his hands on the towel!

The other photo is a view of Figanieres, the village in the Var -the region just north of the Cote d'Azur - where I spent Christmas, from the terrace. Christmas and the next day were gray put the next 3 days were glorious like in the photo!