Sun King in the Snow

Originally posted: Friday, January 8, 2010
Sparklers

Jan 7 Thursday
Having mega problems trying to get connected on the internet. Figured I needed a bank account if an American credit card was not accepted by internet providers. Paribas is a sister bank to my bank, Bank of America. Easy? Right? Ha ha. You’ve never been to Paris. The very polite agent at Paribas informed me that a letter of recommendation , which could not be faxed, must be mailed stating my good standing with the bank, and a deposit made for $10,000 to be blocked for a year AND THEN I might want to deposit what I would need for expenses. Wow. So easy. Fuggedahboudit.

Manage to figure out the “Navigo” metro pass for 75 Euros a month after several meetings with ticket agents who squint painfully at my French, the more I talk the worse it gets-- and then find a photo booth in the St Madeleine metro stop and take a very frightening portrait of Paula Plum in Paris to paste on my Navigo pass. The photo is just a little scary. This photo might get me kicked off the return plane home. Paula, keep a good thought,

At 6 PM evening is falling . After a day massacring la langue, I walk down Rue Royale which opens onto Place de La Concord. There is an enormous glittering Ferris Wheel spinning ( who the hell is on it? ) in the dusk. It is white light in the darkness and in the distance-- YES! The Eiffel Tower has begun her show.

When I return to the 7th , Eiffel is a sparkler in the night sky. What a show-off. Remember sparklers? That is what the lights are doing, shimmering sexily up and down her girders. I am French! and I am FABULOUS!!!!

Sun King in the Snow

Originally posted Friday, January 8, 2010







Jan 6 Wednesday. Versailles! Oh! The kindness of Diego Arciniegas! Diego, long-time friend and fellow- actor from home is here till Sunday celebrating a ‘big’ birthday. Today he so generously squired me and his husband, David, to Versailles in the snow ( with the requisite before and after visit to Starbucks). We arrived at the iconic golden castle gates and were turned away by security. Apparently a gas leak due to renovation caused an evacuation of the ticket office. Fifteen minutes later... we were permitted free entry to Versailles! Louis XIV, who charged even his favorite ministers top dollar for lodging, would not have approved!

So. Versailles. What a dump. ( kidding) . These photos tell the extravagant story..... Most interesting is the fact that Versailled took only 30 years to build, workers pushed to a 24 hr round the clock ( by candlelight) schedule to complete the project . Workers keeling over dead from the severity of the task, bodies carried out and buried at night to keep the project moving . We walk literally miles through one extaordinary room after another. I try to Imagine tiny high-heeled pumps with no arch support on these marble floors. It’s almost impossible to answer the question “WHat was he thinking?”, because the extravagance reaches beyond rationality. Who would really want to live here in oceans of unheated space , 30 foot cielings, and every room a lavish temple to one’s ego? Well, when you put it that way... Call me a Sun King.

Diego and I decide that the Dauphin’s quarters downstairs are infinitely cozier with lower cielings and ground-floor views of the gardens.

The GARDENS!!! It is mid-winter, but the expanse of manicured trees and shrubbery ( OK miles of it) extend in all directions. It’s a foggy frigid day ( and all of France is freaking from the climate change) but Diego, David and I are very comfortable and at home in the cold, as true New Englanders., should be.

Without foliage, the trees reveal an obsessive attention to perfection and the control control, CONTROL of nature.

Marie Antoinette apparently hated Versailles and had her own little house far out from the castle called “Le Petit Trianon” where she dressed up regularly as a shepherdess, pretending to be “just folk” Poor thing.Add Image

Returning to the train station, all the gates are open and we are not charged for the ride home. Gifts from the Universe.


Mignon !

Tuesday night Jan 5

Mignon is the French word for “cute” (Yes , you’ve been eating filet “cute” all this time!) My French apartment is mignon-- Mimi in La Boheme would be in heaven here and might not have perished from TB because... there’s a working fireplace! It’s humble in its own little black-marble, gilt- mirrored way. The entire space is about 16’ X 12’--- tastefully adorable. ( Say “adorable" with a French accent, please.) Tiny window seats from which you can see --- YES! The Eiffel Tower! Mini frig, tiny sink, a petite pantry, a lovely little trundle bed with embroidered linen pillows. Everything is miniature except me. I feel like a great American Amazon with my enormous suitcases and .....( fill in the blank) . The shelves are groaning with the books I lugged over , and I’m groaning , ( a little) with the weight of expectation.


View from my Paris Apartment

French Plum

Waiting for Takeoff
Originally Posted on January 4th, 2010

Jan 4th. Monday night on the plane. Everything is so surreal. Richard and I have spent four days of frantic scrambling thinking I wasn’t going to be allowed on tonight’s flight. The problem: My passport says “Paula Plum Snee”, my ticket, “Paula Plum.” . Richard spends hours on the phone with extraordinarily polite Indians named Jerry/Bob/ or Ralph who nearly convince him to purchase a second ticket ( for 1100$) to insure my boarding

I smell a scam and decide I’ll bluff my way through and cause a scene if necessary. Richard, more pragmatic, launches a phone campaign to every ‘connected’ one of our friends and family, until his sister Patty suggests he try John Linnehan, a boyhood buddy from Smithtown, now head of security at Dulles airport in DC. John, unfortunately,can’t do anything for us, but advises that he’s pretty sure, with the right documentation, I’ll get on. At the eleventh hour, Richard connects with someone at British Airways who says “ Oh, yeah, just bring a copy of your marriage license and she’ll be all set.” Why didn’t SOMEBODY say so in the FIRST place?

This problem folded itself into the agony of leaving Richard... Just so hard to leave my husband of 30 years to go gallivanting off to Paris...I’ve been waking up in panic every night wondering, “what the hell am I doing?” Some distant part of me knows that it’s going to be great, but right now it is so so SO FAR outside of my comfort zone.

I am on the plane, made it through security, no one really cared about my name after all.

French Plum
Originally Posted on January 3rd, 2010

Tomorrow night, Jan 4 , 2010, I will start another life as French Plum. I am flying out of Logan at 8:30 PM, British Airways flight 214 bound for France. By Tuesday afternoon, I will be ensconsed in my Paris apartment in the 7th arrondissement, taking a shower which has a skylight that peeps at the Eiffel tower. Or will it be peeping at me?

Philippe Gaulier Clown Show
Here is a video of Ecole Philippe Gaulier where I will be studying.

Coming Soon!

In August of 2009, SpeakEasy Stage was proud to announce their Actor Fellowship with Boston actress Paula Plum. Paula had the amazing opportunity to spend time Paris, France exploring her craft. Keep checking back for hilarious posts from her Parisian blog, French Plum!

Here's a little history on the wonderful Paula Plum: Paula Plum has been one of Boston leading actresses for three decades, most notably in Ivanov, The Idiots Karamazov, Lysistrata, and Mother Courage (American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge;) Lost in Yonkers, The Heiress (Lyric Stage Company of Boston;) and Wit (Lyric West.) She starred in two premieres by John Kuntz Sing Me To Sleep (Boston Center for the Arts) and Miss Price, which she co-produced (Boston Playwrights' Theatre.) Her solo show Plum Pudding garnered her praise and awards in a number of productions over the years. Her movie credits include Next Stop Wonderland, Mermaids and Malice. Television credits include Science Court (ABC) and The Dick and Paula Celebrity Special (FX). Paula was honored this past Spring by the Boston Theatre Critics Association with the Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence (past recipients include Sir Ian McKellen and Julie Harris.) Paula was trained at The London Academy of Music and Dramatic arts and is a Cum Laude graduate of Boston University s School for the Arts, where she was honored last year as Distinguished Alumna.

Click here to check out Paula's website.