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