9.28
The Class
Filmed over the period of one entire academic year and utilizing students playing fictionalized versions of themselves, “The Class” examines the development of a group of modern, multicultural French youth in the 20th arrondissement of Paris as they transition from children to young adulthood. The film is currently showing at the New York Film Festival and was a winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. I’m excited for this one to come out in wide release.
9.12
Waiting for Le Rentrée
‘But what will happen to all the basil?!’ I cried to my usual vegetable lady. She stared at me blankly and backed slowly away.
“Le Meg”, aka “La Blagueur à Paris“
Paris, in the summer is a ghost town, it appears. It empties of it’s residents, who are all on vacation, and takes on a note of quiet. I always assumed that it was full of vacationers, that, empty of it’s customary denizens, it became the real French Disneyland as thousands of foreigners streamed in to ride “the rides”; to climb the Eiffel Tower and hike the halls of The Louvre.
This is what I have always been made to understand but I don’t see any mention of that phenomenon in some expat blog posts1, 2, 3 I have read recently. On the contrary, by all accounts it appears that there is little, if any, activity in Paris during the summer months this time around, that the net effect is that of some rare urban peace and quiet — a hole in a storm — before le rentrée brings the customary bustle of city life rumbling back.
Ahhhh, Paris. Someday I will know your streets as well, or better, than I know those of San Francisco. Until then, I have the vicarious enjoyment of reading the blogs of expats living the life I can only dream about.
Update: “Le Rentrée”? “WTF is that”? I suppose I should have explained but I will let the internet do it for me.
1.2
From Behind the Scenes of Paris’ Hidden Kitchen
@Rion.nu (one of the original photobloggers, apparently), a post on Hidden Kitchen which is a secret supper club in Paris that was created by two Seattle expats.
Wonderful photos of what looks like wonderful food. In Paris, no less.
There are links to other references, from the internets, to this and other secret supper clubs around the world.
7.19
City of Light to adopt Lyon bicycle program / Officials expect bike sharing to ease noise and air pollution
City of Light to adopt Lyon bicycle program (@SFGate). Paris is going start renting bicycles.
I’m happy that this will be an option when we go.
