Sunday, November 23, 2008

The Boys and I Go to Chartres

Amidst all the blogging about snow and socialists, I neglected to tell about the trip the boys and I took yesterday to Chartres, a town of of about 40,000 located 60 miles or so southwest of Paris.  We decided to go because Suzie was off visiting a friend of hers in England.  We left our apartment in the late morning, took the Metro to Gare Montparnasse, bought tickets for the 11:15 train.  I will only rave about the train a little bit ... it was quiet (electric, so no engine noise), comfortable (like riding on air), relatively cheap, quick, and it deposited us a short walk away from the center of the city.  It's this latter aspect that makes the trains so useful; you can go from city center to city center more quickly than you could drive, because unlike a car, they train doesn't get stuck in traffic or have to stop at stoplights.

After a quick lunch we headed to the city's main attraction, it's magnificent gothic cathedral, dating from the 12th century.  It has two spires, the highest one being 370 feet:

Chartres Cathedral Tower

The inside of the cathedral is an enormous open space, with amazing stained glass windows and an almost overwhelming amount of intricately carved stone. Unfortunately, it was so dark inside that it was difficult to take pictures, although this one gives a sense of intricacy of the carvings (although not the volume):

Chartres Cathedral Interior 2

After viewing the interior, we walked out the western entrance, which was again flanked by detailed stone carvings:

Chartres Cathedral West Entrance

The cathedral is located on a bluff above a small river, which we walked down to, and along, for a period of time.

Chartres Bridge and River

Eventually we started uphill again, past old houses in the half-timbered style:

Chartres Residence

Eventually we came to the main shopping area of the city, and we stopped at a bar/cafe for hot chocolate and coffee, to get out of the cold. We walked about a bit more, got crepes (the best I've had in France so far, made by a friendly, meticulous young man), and generally took in the ambiance.

Chartres Center

At this point Andrew, who had brought his skateboard with him but had not had much opportunity to stake, wanted to find a stakepark, so we went to the tourist office and asked if there was a stakepark nearby, and were told, erroneously as it turned out, that there was one in a park just north of the train station. We found the park but after a diligent search we concluded that there wasn't one there, which greatly irritated Andrew.

Searching in Vain for the Skatepark in Chartres

We took an express train back to Paris at 5:15, and were in our apartment by 6:30. A very nice, if cold day. More pictures for those who are interested are here.

Don't Sell the Bearskin before You Kill the Bear

At least I think that's how you'd translate La Figaro's paraphrase ("de ne pas vendre la peau de l'ours avant de l'avoir tué") of Segoline Royal's reaction to Martine Aubrey's declaration of victory, in the middle of what looks to become a really donneybrook between the two over the election for leadership of the Socialist Party in France.  What's happening is exactly what you'd expect -- lawyers are getting involved, disputes are arising as to the accuracy of the vote count in different locations, and, for better or worse, because the election was run by the party itself, there's no Supreme Court to step in and resolve the mess.  So I suspect the dispute will go on until the powers-that-be in the Socialist Party decide upon a winner.  Even then, it's hard to see how that winner (which will probably be Aubrey) will have much legitimacy.  Stay tuned.

La Neige!

After finishing the last post, I shared with my fellow Parisians the Sunday tradition of hunting for the few food stores open on Sunday.  In my neighborhood, it's the Monop store, which was packed, and after that I went to the bakery just down Rue Alphonse Daudet, which makes the most incredible baguettes, which they call "Tradition," and which are usually still warm when you get them, and absolutely delicious, an amazing bargain at 1.10 euro each.  As usual, there was a line, and as I approached the front one of the two women working in the store exclaimed, in a voice full of delight, "Il neige!  Il neige!" -- it's snowing!  And sure enough, it was, a few light flakes tumbling down from the sky.  I bought my two baguettes (warm and soft and chewy on the inside), and went home to tell the boys about the snow.  In the two minutes it took me to get home, the snow had intensified, and by the time I got into the apartment, it was coming down heavily, a little Parisien snow shower (note on the photo, for the best effect, click here for the large size):

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="683" caption="Snow in Paris, View Down Avenue du Général Leclerc"]Snow in Paris, View Down Avenue du Général Leclerc[/caption]

Andrew and I quickly got on our coats and gloves and went outside.  The snow kept coming down, along with a very brisk, very cold, very biting wind.  You can see here how much everyone was enjoying the weather (these folks were walking right into the teeth of the wind):



We had hoped it would snow at least once when we were here, and now it has.  It's a good day to stay inside, drink coffee, and blog ... which is what I intend to do.

Can I Take It Back?

Referring to this post, a pean to cold weather, which has of course caused the weather to change very much for the worst. The forecast this morning from Le Monde (my attempt at translation below):

PARIS, France


Mise à jour 08h13 heure de Paris

Maintenant








Frais.-2 °C
Frais.
Vent - Direction : 6 km/h - SO
Humidité : 93%
Point de rosée : -3 °C
Pression atmosphérique : 1015.24 mb

Météo à 7 jours






































min / max% precip.
dimanche
23 novembre
Pluie verglaçante suivie de pluie. Nuages l'après-midi. Frais.-2 °C / 7 °C53%
lundi
24 novembre
Pluie. Nuageux dans l'ensemble. Frais.1 °C / 7 °C44%
mardi
25 novembre
Pluie se changeant en neige. Nuages l'après-midi. Frais.-3 °C / 5 °C37%
mercredi
26 novembre
Brouillard en début de journée suivi d'un ciel ensoleillé. Frais.-2 °C / 6 °C0%

Currently: 28F Cold.

Sunday: Freezing rain followed by rain.  Cloudy in the afternoon.  Cold.  High 44F.

Monday:  Rain.  Cloudy throughout the day.  Cold.  Low 33F, High 44F.

Tuesday:  Rain changing to snow.  Cloudy in the afternoon.  Cold.  Low 26F, High 41.

Wednesday: (My birthday, I note) -- Foggy early in the day followed by sun.  Cold.  Low 28F, High 43F.

Be careful what you write about!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

The Socialists Implode in France

Being a political junkie, I've followed the contest for the leadership of the Socialist Party in France closely.  Since the summer, it's been apparent that the party is split between a more moderate faction, who are amenable to a coalition with the center-left "MoDem" party of Francois Bayrou, and a hard left faction, who believe the party should sharpen its differences with the right.  The more moderate faction is lead by Segoline Royal, the party's unsuccessful candidate in the last presidential election; the more leftist faction is now lead by Martine Aubrey, the mayor of Lille.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Martine Aubrey (left) and Segoline Royal"]Martine Aubrey (left) and Segoline Royal[/caption]

From the perspective of an American, the process by which the Socialist Party selects its leader (and its candidate for President) is an interesting hybrid.  Every member of the Socialist Party can vote, but to be a member of the party you have to actually join and pay dues.  The election itself is managed and run by the party; the government is not involved at all.  Members of the party go to the nearest "section" of the party to vote, and the voting is open during the evening between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m.  Thus the contest is something akin to, but not exactly like, a primary election in the U.S.

Originally, four candidates were in the running for the leadership of the Socialist Party.  Three of them, including Martine Aubrey, were in the "leftist" camp.  Early on, one candidate withdrew and threw his support to Aubrey.  In the first round of voting, Royal got 42.45 percent of votes, and Aubry came second with 34.73 percent.  Because no one obtained a majority of the votes, a second round of voting was required (which, amazingly, took place the very next evening).  The third candidate in the first round also threw his support to Aubrey, which meant that, mathematically, Aubrey had the upper hand.

The second round voting took place last night, and it looks as if a little bit of recent American experience has been imported into France.  During the night, it first appeared that Royal would win the contest, then as the night went on, Aubrey partisans claimed victory, as a result of large margins of victory for her in the areas in the north near Lille.  It commenced then to get ugly:  "Nous ne nous laisserons pas voler cette victoire. Nous contestons les résultats dans le Nord de la manière la plus ferme" 'We're not going to let this election be stolen.  We strongly contest the results from the North.'  Hmmmm, sounds familiar.

Finally, at 5:30, the party announced the official results of the election -- and whoo-eee, it's not pretty:  Martine Aubry, 67.413 votes; Ségolène Royal, 67.371 votes, a tiny margin of 42 votes out of more than 130,000, 50.02% to 49.98%.  More suggestions, of course, from the Royal camp that the election was flawed, that the party insiders who managed the election favored Aubrey, that the election should be redone.  The worst possible result for the Socialists, an contested election that did not produce a clear leader, a party still divided, which seems to have no clue and no clear path to challenge Nicholas Sarkozy's center-right UMP party on a national level (although, interesting, the Socialists have been quite successful in local and regional elections).

My view, as an outsider, is that the Socialists would have been better served by tacking towards the center.  Whether Segoline Royal is the best leader is, I think, another question.  But it is difficult to see a Socialist Party headed by the trenchant Martine Aubrey posing a serious challenge to Sarkozy in the next Presidental election.  But, as a political junkie, I look forward to the next few weeks -- charges, counter-charges, investigations, committees, allegations of wrong-doing, possibly a do-over!  Stay tuned.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Our Victory Over Orange

Based upon anecdotal evidence, it seems that cell phone customers here in France must engage in running battles with their providers.  Certainly that has been the case with us.  Shortly after we came, we managed to obtain three phones and a relatively inexpensive subscription from Orange, the mobile service trade name of France Telecom.  Unfortunately, about two weeks later, we received a letter and text messages telling us that our service was being discontinued because we had failed to provide certain documentation.  This came as a bit of a surprise, since we had gone to the Orange office just up Avenue du Général Leclerc, and the sales staff there had processed our paperwork.  So we made another trip to the Orange office to discuss the matter.  They checked with their back office, who told them that they needed a copy of my California driver's license for identification (why they needed this since they had my debit card info is a bit of a mystery).  So the staff made a copy of my license and faxed it in.  To no avail ... a week later, still no service, so we made another trip to the Orange office, sat through (stood through, actually) another call between staff there and their back office, and made another copy of my license to fax yet another time.  Again to no avail ... a week later still, no service.  So back a third time to the Orange office, this time with ... hmmm, how should I put this ... a more energetic and focused Suzie, who forcefully told the staff that she must speak with the manager to take care of this problem, which produced, miraculously, the manager, who spoke again with the back office and was told that, indeed, identification was needed, but it must be in the form of a passport, which I did not then have, necessitating a trip back home, then a return to the Orange office, and another fax.  Since we'd gone almost four weeks without service, we asked the manager to make sure that we didn't have to pay for our service during that time, and were told that we'd have to send a letter to such-and-such an address.  After our service was finally restored (a few days later) we decided that it wasn't worth the 30 euros to get into another conversation with the good folks at Orange.

Also at the time, we were told that it was very important to give at least 2 months notice of our desire to terminate our subscription, and to send the letter by registered mail.  Which we did (ahem, Suzie, actually) in late October, requesting that our subscription be terminated effective December 31.  So, of course, we received a letter (and a text message) 10 days later informing us that our subscription would be cancelled effective November 21.  So yesterday we made yet another trip up Avenue du Général Leclerc to the Orange office, armed with a copy of our letter.  By this time we knew the drill -- wait, wait, wait, then speak with a salesperson whose job is selling phones, not customer service aprés-vente.  We were lucky to get a very kind salesperson, who dialed the back office, got us to the right person (the phone tree is very much alive here in France), but unfortunately then handed the phone back to Suzie, who was stuck speaking with a person trying to be helpful but whom Suzie could not understand.  Here we were lucky again; there were in the store two ladies, an older American and a younger French woman who worked with the older woman in a company as an English translator, with whom we had commiserated earlier about the wonders of Orange service.  The French woman was still in the store, and Suzie convinced her to help us by speaking to the woman on the phone.  End result -- it seems that Orange immediately cancels subscriptions upon a receipt of a request for cancellation, even if the requested date is sometime later, but in our case they had only canceled one line immediately (mine), so we were able to cancel the cancellation of the other two lines, and convert my line to a "mobicarte" (a prepaid plan), which will get me by through December.  And it took less than two hours!

The whole experience seemed much less interesting this time than before.  I'm sure the next trip to Orange (and something tells me there will be one) will be even less interesting still.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

I Love the Cold in Paris

This is what the past week or so has been like in Paris:

Autumn in Parc Monceau Paris

The days have been cloudy, foggy, damp, and sometimes rainy, bordering on cold. The kind of weather that some people would call "miserable." But I love it. There is something about the clouds and the drizzle that is embracing, enfolding, comforting; something about the cold that is cleansing and clarifying. To me it says: Be calm. Be at peace.

Perhaps I feel this way because I was raised in a place with a real autumn and a real winter, a place where in the winter people had to bundle up in warm coats, hats, and gloves to go outside, a place where the warmth of a house or a bar or a restaurant felt like a refuge, a place where "nature" was not a beautiful, abstract entity named Gaia, but rather a freezing, brisk north wind, two inches of ice on your windshield, and numb fingers and toes. The National Weather Service says that at 7 p.m. yesterday in Santa Rosa it was 75 degrees (23C for my one French reader); even though I've lived in California for 20 years, that is still bizarre and unnatural to me, part of the reason why, as I've noted before, in some ways California seems more foreign to me than France.

So I look forward to the temperatures falling even further, I revel in the damp fallen leaves, in a real autumn and a real winter, I enjoy the biting chill when I exit my building, and the warm welcome when I arrive at my destination. Intellectually I know that what one thinks of as "natural" are simply those things with which one is familiar, but what I feel is that this place of dark and damp and increasing chill is home, a place that puts its arms around me and says, be quiet, everything is going to be OK.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Sarkozy: You Wanna Be Like Bush? Putin: Nyet!

Funny-and-sad-at-the-same-time article in the Times Online today about a discussion in August between French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin:
With Russian tanks only 30 miles from Tbilisi on August 12, Mr Sarkozy told Mr Putin that the world would not accept the overthrow of Georgia’s Government. According to Mr Levitte, the Russian seemed unconcerned by international reaction. “I am going to hang [Georgian Prime Minister] Saakashvili by the balls,” Mr Putin declared.

Mr Sarkozy thought he had misheard. “Hang him?” — he asked. “Why not?” Mr Putin replied. “The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein.”

Mr Sarkozy, using the familiar tu, tried to reason with him: “Yes but do you want to end up like [President] Bush?” Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: “Ah — you have scored a point there.”

Finally, a concrete contribution to world peace from W, thanks to the fact that no one, not even Putin, wants to be compared to him.  Truly pathetic.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Télé-Paris Picture Time!

I realize I haven't posted any pictures since we returned to France, and since a picture is worth a thousand words (or perhaps worth even more than a thousand of my words), here are a few new ones.  As always, more are on my Flickr site.

I carried my large telephoto lens all the way to Paris, but didn't take it out of its case until just this week.  Don't ask me why.  But, as a result, all the pictures here are taken with the bigger lens.  The advantage of the telephoto lens is that it gives you great zoom shots; the disadvantage is that you miss some shots because of the inability to get far enough away from the subject.  Also, as you photographers know, a big lens reduces the amount of available light, and between that and the fact that the effect of unsteady hands is amplified with a big lens, often pictures can be not as sharp.  But most of these came out fine.  So, here we go, some pictures from the last week in Paris. The first few were taken on a walk I took alone on a cloudy, cold, windy day. First, a dark, moody shot of the obelisk in the Place de la Concorde:

Oblilisk and Grand Palais

For those who don't know, the obelisk is the real deal. The obelisk is


a pink granite monolith that was given to the French in 1829 by the viceroy of Egypt, Mehemet Ali. The edifice, which once marked the entrance to the Amon temple at Luxor, is more than 3,300 years old and is decorated with hieroglyphics portraying the reigns of the pharaohs Ramses II and Ramses III. Gilded images on the pedestal portray the monumental task of transporting the monolith to Paris and erecting it at the square. Installed in 1833, the Obelisk — weighing 230 tons and standing 22.83 meters (75 ft) high in the center of the Place — is flanked on both sides by two fountains constructed during the same period.



Here's a picture of one of the fountains, withe Eiffel Tower in the background.

Place de la Concorde Fountain and Tour Eiffel

From the Place de la Concorde, I walked up to the Arc de Triomphe, and took this picture of La Defense, the large business complex to the west of Paris:

La Defense

And a final picture from this day, festive flags on the Champs Elysees:

Champs Elysees

Another day Suzie and her friend Sarah, visiting from New York, took a walk around Paris. Some shots from that jaunt include the Cemetery Montparnasse,

Row of Velibs

some Velibs:

Row of Velibs

and this shot, one of my personal favorites, taken just off of Boulevard St. Germain:

Alley and Dome

Yet another day we went to meet Suzie's conversation partner at a brasserie, and I had some time to kill beforehand, so I took this picture of Paris' Statue of Liberty, which is, I understand, an exact replica of the one in New York, which was erected by Americans living in Paris as a "thank you" to the French for the gift of New York liberty.

Statue of Liberty Paris

This picture shows where the statue is located:

Tour Eiffel and Statute of Liberty

Finally, today was a gorgeous day in Paris, sunny and clear, despite the forecast (which is wrong more than it is right, it seems), and our day took us to the big department store near the Opera, where these shots were taken.

Blue and Gold Atop the Opera in Paris

EU and French Flags Atop Opera

Last but not least, something you rarely see, a nice picture of both me and Suzie (there are lots of nice pictures of her, but I have to be one of the least photogenic people in the world, so I avoid being in front of cameras most of the time):

SSS and Suzie at the Opera Paris

Sunday, November 09, 2008

A Good Sign?

Perhaps a good sign that the Democrats won't make the same mistakes they made during the first two years of Clinton's term:  This article in the Wall Street Journal, reporting on an interview with Rahm Emanuel, the new White House Chief of Staff.
[Obama wants] real solutions to real problems. And if we do an ideological test, we will fail. Our challenge is to work to solve the actual problems that the country is facing, not work to satisfy any constituency or ideological wing of the party.

Amen to that, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Our Election Night in Paris

On Election Night, Suzie and I attended the official U.S. Election Night party, which was held at a place called the Cineaqua near the Trocadero.  Because of the time difference, the party didn't start until 10:30 p.m., and was scheduled to go through the night, which meant that we were going to have do so something we hadn't done in a long, long time, namely, staying up past midnight.  We were also conscious of the fact that, polls notwithstanding, a small possibility existed that we would be saying "Vice President-Elect Palin" by the end of the night, which made us both a little, shall we say, nervous.

So at 10:30 we got on the Metro and headed for the party, wearing our Obama pins.  At one stop, a very serious, very French-looking woman got on and sat down directly across from us.  About 5 minutes later she noticed our Obama pins and said, in perfect English (because, it turned out, she was American), "Oh, are you going to the party, too?"  We ended up walking with her to the Cineaqua, and heard all about her interesting work (a former corporate lawyer, she is now working for an NGO that uses senior, retired or semi-retired attorneys to provide international legal services to NGOs and others who can't afford it).

As we exited the Metro stop and cleared the building directly in front of it, we were presented with a stunning view of the Eiffel Tower, lit in a deep blue light.  To the left, a series of spotlights were panning the dark sky, announcing the location of the election party, and giving a wonderful festive air to the evening.  Outside the entrance to the party there was a long line, which was due in part to the ample security check each person was given before they were allowed to enter.  (Suzie and I had both commented that the U.S. Election Party was probably not the safest place to be in Paris, threat-wise, so we appreciated the security efforts, although their necessity was a sad reflection on the Bush legacy.)

The crowd in line was happy and festive, a mix of young and old, mostly Americans but a fair number of French also.  There were also hostesses hired by France 24, an international news network, to find and accompany special guests into the party; the hostesses were wearing on their backs LCD screens showing the France 24 feed (I assume), which made them look like some kind of futuristic robo-women.  I noted to Suzie that this was every man's dream come true, an attractive woman and a TV all in one, especially if the combination came with an appropriate remote control.  She laughed but then again I bet she didn't expect a comment so crude would show up in the blog.  Anyway, here's a couple of clips of the wait to give you a sense of the scene:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-jXj_B19J0]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzU8UXsUw7I]

Pardon the quality of the video.  The camera doesn't do well in the dark, and when we entered the party, we were informed that we could not take pictures with the still camera, which I was required to check, although as it turned out the no-picture rule was broken by others more times than I can recall (and by me, too, with the little video camera).

Once inside the party we got a better sense of the crowd, which was mostly American, mostly ex-patriots, but otherwise a nice mix of young and old, well-dressed and casual, married and single.  There were also a huge number of journalists.  On the lower level, TV5 Monde, another French international TV network, was broadcasting its coverage of the election live, which was interesting to watch, and throughout the party there were a large number of cameramen and reporters doing reports and interviews.  At one point in the evening, Suzie and I were interviewed by a young woman reporter for Radio France International's Arabic language section; she told us our interview would be translated in to Arabic and broadcast the next morning (if peace comes to the Mideast soon, you will know now whom to credit).

The Cineaqua itself was a good location for the party, if a little small.  It is a strange combination of an aquarium (with some very beautiful and interesting exhibits) with a scary-film theme.  Thus, at one point during our walks about the party, we came across this exhibit of none other than Ahn-old himself, looking a little worse for wear.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8-IvsXLSE4]

The other slightly frustrating thing about the party was the food.  Not so much the quality (although in truth that wasn't really up to our expected French standards) as the distribution and the quantity.  If you were a French caterer, and you wanted to really frustrate an American crowd, how would you do it?  Eureka, I discovered the answer:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qspBTU395J4]

Petite, indeed.  And we laughed even more when we discovered what was being prepared at this station:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btS5jPrk4qQ]

Yes, tiny little one-bite cheeseburgers, each individually make, carefully and slowly, by the chef, down to carefully pealing each tiny slice of cheese and carefully placing them, one by one, on each tiny patty of beef.  After waiting for the better part of 10 minutes, here's what we ended up with:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbm0F9VEzh4]

Bon.

After a while, it was time for some serious election-return watching.  We had exhausted our drink tickets, and consumed enough food and caffeine to keep us awake, so we squeezed into the not-nearly-big-enough theatre showing the CNN election feed, and awaited the first batch of big results.  As you can see from the following clip, which shows the reaction to the results, this crowd was, not surprisingly, hardly a representative sample of American voters:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt-V42CB-co]

I should make an observation here, because I can foresee someone named Palin viewing that clip and going into a tirade about how these aren't "real" Americans but rather a bunch of privileged left-wing hypocrites who don't even love their country enough to want to live there, and if they really loved America they'd be working in the U.S. instead of eating baguettes and Camembert and pretending to be something they aren't, and that just shows that the only "real" Americans are on the right and why the hell don't you all just stay in France, anyway?  And truth be told, there's a little grain of truth in that tirade, in that the people in that room probably don't have the kind of emotional attachment to the U.S. exclusively as do people who've never traveled outside the country.  That's only natural; when you've seen that there are other places with happy citizens that function more or less as well as the U.S., it's more difficult to see the U.S. as the overwhelmingly bright, shining, exceptional place in the same way as many on the right do.  But that doesn't mean that the expats (and others, like me) cheering for Obama aren't "real" Americans, or that they don't love their country.  In fact, the fervent reaction results, I think, from the fact that many of them saw the Bush years as a repudiation of they believe America stands for -- tolerance, acceptance, respect for human rights.

I should also make another observation here, to preempt the potential Palin protest (alliteration is a beautiful thing, no?).  Those who know me will affirm that I am anything but a leftist.  In fact, I'm pretty much a dead center-of-the-road guy, who leaks off to the right on some issues and off to the left on others.  But I voted for Obama and I cheered on his victory on Tuesday night.  Why?  Because the right in the U.S. is lost and without a compass, and badly needs reforming, and that'll never happen absent a solid defeat.

But I digress.  Eventually Suzie and I were able to score some real seats in the theatre, and we settled in and watched the returns come in.  When Pennsylvania was called for Obama, the crowd went wild.  Then the next big round of results came in, with more cheering:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghSaVnfX8ts]

Finally, when Ohio was called for Obama, everyone pretty much knew McCain was done; with the West Coast's block of electoral votes certain to go for Obama, the gig was up.

We finally left at about 4:30 a.m. and took a cab home.  We were tired, but not as tired as we had expected, and we were happy because "Vice President-Elect Palin" never materialized.

As I mentioned in my groggy post yesterday, it is a great week to be an American here.  My French instructor noted today that it is as if the collective French view of America changed overnight from disgust and disdain to respect and admiration.  The election drew huge media coverage here; in the last few days it was almost as intensive as in the U.S.  A quick story:  My son Andrew went stakeboarding on Monday with a couple of French kids he had met at the local skate park, and one of them asked him about the U.S. elections, including asking him if he knew what the "swing states" were!  Which brings me back, finally, to the reason why this election was so important.  We may like to pretend (and the right may like to believe) that what the world thinks of us doesn't matter, but that simply isn't true, for two reasons.  First, it is not correct purely as a factual matter; if America is hated in the world, that has real, solid, actual repercusions.  And second, if the world is critical, it may be worth considering what they are saying.  For sure, some of it may be envy, some of it may be self-serving, but at least in the past 8 years, much of it was, malheursement, dead on correct.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Walking a Little Taller, Feeling a Lot Prouder

Our internet connection was down today, and I was operating on 3 hours sleep, so the complete post of our amazing, wonderful election night in Paris (including goofy and wonderful video) will have to wait until tomorrow.  But I will tell you that I was very, very proud to be an American today.  I can tell you that the French view of America and Americans has changed. I can tell you that people ask where they can get an Obama pin like mine.  I can tell you that the French are now having to take a little closer look at themselves.  I can tell you that I feel like I've miraculously gone in a single day from being the representative of "W" himself (here, akin to being the envoy of the devil himself) to being the representative of a President-Elect Obama himself.  A nice change; that "W" cloud was a drag.  And before I retire to sleep, I will remind everyone of where it all started ... yes, that's right, that grand little state in the dead middle of the country, my old home, Iowa, of which I'm also unreasonably proud right now.  Hoo-ray for the U.S.A.

Monday, November 03, 2008

The Joys of Travel

The travel gods took a swipe at us this evening.  After an uneventful flight into Paris, and after our bags coming off of the carousel in first position, and after getting on a train into Paris that was an express to the Gare du Nord, which meant that there were only 5 stops until ours at Denfert Rochereau ... well, after that, everything went haywire.  Our "express" train made an unexpected stop at Aulney-sous-Bois, followed by a very faint, mumbled announcement that neither Suzie and I could understand, but which we eventually figured out (thanks to Suzie's asking, giving credit where credit is due) meant that we had to leave our train and take a tram line, which seemed to be heading the exact wrong direction, to someplace called Bondy (which neither of us had ever heard of), for a purpose that we didn't really understand.  But, everyone else with suitcases from CDG was getting on the tram, so we did, too.

The tram, it turned out, was excruciatingly slow, as it was running on a rail line on regular streets, and the stops from Aulney-sous-Bois to Bondy seemed endless (looking at the map just now, I count ten).  When we arrived at Bondy we figured out that we were to take another RER rail line into another station (Haussman-St. Lazare), so we carried our three heavy bags and our three heavy backpacks down stairs and then up stairs to another platform, where, sure enough, a train arrived to take us into Paris.

Unfortunately, the Metro transfers from St. Lazare to Alesia were horrible, beginning with getting from the RER to the Metro at St. Lazare, which involved not only a good walk, but also a set of stairs (thanks to a broken escalator) that has to be one of the longest climbs in the system, then a long ride on the 13 line, a long correspondence at Montparnasse (more stairs, but not as steep), and of course all of the Metro cars were packed, in part because of the problem with the RER.  We were unreasonably happy to see the Alesia Metro station, and the inside of our apartment, after a two-hour haul that should have been about 35 minutes.

But it turns out the problem with the train was a sad one -- "un accident grave de voyageur" -- which shut down the entire RER B line from Chatelet (one of the main Paris stations) north to CDG airport:



So we should count our blessings, I suppose.  We're now safe and sound in our little apartment, the plane didn't crash, we're all fine.  And tomorrow is election day in the USA, perhaps the start of something new.  With that, I'm going to bed.

Last Post from Portugal

Nice ending anyway to our trip to Portugal; the airport and appurtenant services (like the rental car) are all terrific, and there is free internet access, which is why I'm posting this now from our gate, waiting to board our flight back to Paris.

I hate to say bad things about a country after just a week, but all things considered, I don't think I'll be returning to Portugal any time soon.  The best things I can say about it are that most of the people were very friendly and helpful, and the prices are very, very low.  But the more modern parts (excepting this airport, which is fine) tend to be depressing; it is as if they imported architects from the former Soviet Union to design their buildings.  Here's a perfect example of a modern apartment building (or condo, who knows):



You have to try to imagine a whole landscape filled with these things, to get the full effect.  Then, too, it's apparent that the cities in Portugal could use a little bit of urban planning; buildings and roads seem to be thrown up with no attempt to match styles or even uses.  Perhaps in another context this could lead to something charming, but it doesn't seem to have done that in the areas we visited.

Maybe it's just that I'm still feeling sick, and having to travel while sick is a drag.  I'm just hoping the flight is on time and that we get back to our apartment in Paris soon.  Goodbye, Portugal, goodbye Porto!

Our Election Night Plans

Suzie and I decided to splurge and attend the official American Election Night soiree in Paris on Tuesday night. With the time difference, it will require us to stay up all night. Those who know me know that I'm really, really bad at that, so we'll see how it goes. Also, if the election is close (arrrggghhhh), we may not know the winner until after the party is over.

It's Called Leadership

Those to the right of the political spectrum should read this post in the Christian Science Monitor to understand why Obama appeals to voters (including me) who don't necessarily fall within his ideological range. After 8 years of Bush-Rove, we seem to have forgotten that politics can be more than pandering to the fears of one's "base." It can be -- at its best it should be -- about leadership, about inspiration, about calling others to action. McCain could have been such a candidate, too, but he passed on that chance during his campaign. Let's hope voters go to the polls tomorrow and vote their hopes, not their fears.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

New World Record For Sleeping

That was me the last few days, after getting hit with the flu, or something akin to it, which just knocked me out.  So I slept from 9 pm Friday to 12 noon on Saturday, then from 2 pm from 5 pm on Saturday, then from 8 pm Saturday night until 8 am this morning, for a total of 30 hours out of 36.  But the good news is, I feel better, and today was the first really nice day we've had here in Portugal, and we just took it easy, walked up and down the beach, and had a nice lunch at a waterfront restaurant.

Canidelo Shoreline

Andrew and a Starfish

So, catching up on our travels, on Friday we went to the Douro River valley, which meant a trip through the mountains.  Unfortunately the day was cloudy and dark and rainy off and on, and although the scenery was beautiful, it was too California-like to be really interesting to me, and most of the places we visited were frankly underwhelming, except for the last city, Vila Real, parts of which were charming.  In truth, I was probably already coming down with the flu, which probably shaded my opinion of the area.  Here are some pictures; as I said, the scenery was beautiful (it's a wine region, famous for port):

Peso da Regua

Douro River Valley 2

Douro River Valley Vineyards

As always, more pictures are on my Flickr site.

For better or worse, our apartment here has a big flat-screen LCD TV, with several English-language stations, including one that broadcasts live and recorded sports, so we've been glued to the set more than we should be, watching election news and college football. I suppose everyone's caught the Sarah Palin fake phone call from Montreal radio hosts claiming to be French President Nicolas Sarkozy; if not, you can hear it here. Nice going Sarah, that's what we like to see two days before the election!

I am really looking forward to being back in Paris. Portugal was OK, certainly much less expensive than France, but as a vacation spot (at least this time through), I'd give it a B- at best (although in fairness much of that may have had to do with the weather, or maybe the traffic).

I realize this post was boring, maybe I'll try again tomorrow.