What We Do on the First Day in Paris

After having found the a local bar/brasserie that accepts jet-lagged clients with the same courtesy as locals (Le Petit Sommelier), we have one ritual that works best in good weather - that's a walk from Montparnasse to the Luxembourg Gardens. It's an easy walk for jet-lagged wobbly feet - so we can do it - preferably past Blvd Raspail under the nodding approval of Rodin's Balzac. We cross over to Rue Vavin and dodge mothers piloting baby strollers with the smoothness of Formula 1 - drivers.

On a sunny day in late May, it's not the flowers that draw us to this park of poets, but several favorite landmarks.

The fountains: - Although the Medici fountain (1630) is the oldest and the biggest crowd-pleaser, I have to admit that I'm hooked on the Fontaine de l'Observatoire or the 'Carpeaux' fountain. First off, we want to know whether the fountain is actually on - and today, we're fortunate. The Fremiat-sculpted stallions are getting properly splashed.

Sculptor Carpeaux takes credit for the winsome nudes representing the 'Four Parts of the World'. At the time the work was considered scandalous - not of course because of the nudity, but clearly looking at the expressions of these lovely 'women of four worlds', they were just having too much fun holding up the globe.

Technically speaking, the Carpeaux fountain isn't in the Luxembourg Garden. It's in the annex gardens known as the Marco Polo Gardens which lead to Rue de L'Observatoire and Boulevard Montparnasse.

Another monument which always deserves a pause is located near the gardens at the Montparnasse and Observatoire intersection. This is the statue of Marshall Michel Ney (sculpted by Rude). It's incredible to think that a statue stands in Paris for a marshall who was shot for treason. Even if one doesn't know half the story, Rude's portrayal of a marshall whose last command to his executors: "Be sure and shoot straight in the heart!" - shows that this was a guy with guts.

For visitors from the Carolinas - there are some rumors - or myths that Ney wasn't actually shot - that his execution was staged and he ended up in North or South Carolina.

Walking around the gardens can be a veritable history lesson if one takes the time to look carefully at each statue. Likewise plenty of drama had to unfold within the Luxembourg palace constructed for Marie de Medici, Henry IV's queen and mother to Louis XIII. At one point the queen's favorite painter Rubens was thought to be a spy.

Of course, each day in these gardens, new plots are certainly hatched for great fiction and, maybe even, poetry, or simply a daydream.

First Day Back in Paris

Recently a stateside friend asked, what's the first thing you do when you get back to Paris?
Recover from jet-lag - or try.

But I know what he was really asking me is - 'what's the first thing you do to celebrate your return to Paris? '
Because, and I'm sure this is true for many return visitors to France, there must be rituals.

And there are rituals, but I tend to downplay them. Rituals can be mistaken for habits and habits get boring - fast.

Breaking Fast.

If you're flying in from the US to Paris, you'll normally arrive in the morning. That sorry excuse for a roll and a plastic container of yogurt you received in flight don't measure up to breakfast, and, after waiting for the Air France Le Car shuttle bus from CDG to Montparnasse during morning rush hour traffic, you'll be lucky to get into Paris before eleven am.

We used to have breakfast at a cafe/brasserie called 'L'Ocean' across from the train station. Now that 'L'Ocean' has closed its doors, we've shifted over to another local bar/tabac which has recently metamorphosed from a tabac into a non-stop brasserie called 'Le Petit Sommelier'. The lunches might be two or three euros cheaper at restaurant chains (like Indiana) or the pizza joints - but where else would you get freshly mashed potatoes and a huge plate of roast chicken for thirteen Euros?

With jet lag, I'm never really quite sure whether I'm hungry, thirsty or just exhausted. So, it's important to find just the right place where we can sit and stare at the passing scene with glazed eyes and not seem out of place. We've always had this hopelessly idealistic idea that we'd find the perfect little brasserie, preferably in the same building as our apartment where we might return after an extended absence - and the waiter - or bartender might remember us. (This might have worked in the fifties or sixties, but not in the new millenium!) After ten years, we haven't 'exactly' found that certain neighborhood bar/brasserie to call 'home'.

So, if there's a return ritual, it would be 'looking for a brasserie to call home'. That's not to say we don't know a few of the waiters in the neighborhood as well as owners of the one of the local Chinese restaurants on Gaite. The Liberte at Edgar Quinet is a little to far flung to be called our 'local bar' and the Chinese restaurant doesn't serve breakfast, so I'm optimistic about Le Petit Sommelier although right now, my jet-lagged brain is playing tricks with the name - is it really "Le Petit Sommelier, or is it "Le Petit Sommeil"?

Le Petit Sommelier
Avenue du Maine
Metro: Gaite
Across from Gare Montparnasse
Plat du jour: 13.50 Euros
Glass of House Wine 4.50 Euros

Westward Bound

It's on the road again and this time, without a laptop. So, until we meet again!

Beware of the Eyes of April

For those of you who may not know it, May is the ideal month to look after your eyes. Which is why I'm glad to hear that R-Girl is getting eye issues finalized in mid-May. My eye guy here in Paris is very cool. He hasn't pushed laser surgery by any stretch, (except that he says it's 'miraculous') but Paris being a style-conscious capital, it has been a happy option for many. Then, on the other hand, there are so many great style glasses to choose from, wearing glasses isn't as much of a stigma as it used to be.
http://www.lesplusbelleslunettesdumonde.com/?gclid=CPTJ28n29KACFYUx3god0CUztw

If you do wear glasses, France is a great place to shop for a new pair of frames. However, buying prescription lenses are outrageously expensive. Strangely enough, the cost of a pair of lense varies from departement to departement. For example, I've been told that glass lenses cost more money in Eure Departement than in Calvados.

Here is something that I just learned about Xalatan, the eye drops I'm taking currently: Aside from lowering eye pressure, they also make your eyelashes grow.

French Makeover: A Spring Haircut

Before:



You said you wanted to see the new haircut, but first I need to say a word about haircuts in France. Women don't rely on long hair in this country to be attractive. If anything, a good haircut, makes a much better impression than the 'Tressy Doll' effect. Do you remember the 'Tressy Dolls'? You'd tug at their ponytails and unending volumes of hair would spit out of the top of Tressy's head. Pretty ghastly, right?

Every now and then, there's nothing quite as exhilarating as saying "Chop it all off!" Probably much the way the 'Queen of Hearts' in Alice in Wonderland commanded 'Off With their Heads!"

So in the spring holiday spirit, I shed the old 'do' and for the first time (in a long time) refrained from saying 'Leave enough to pull my hair back into a ponytail.'
Ponytails are great for cheerleaders.

Bastille Opera Gala Conversations: Mahler

I promised my table neighbor at the Gala 'souper' that I would listen to Mahler. Although he suggested I might begin by listening to his symphonies, the CD, I happened upon in our stack of CDs was Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singing Mahler's song cyles Gesellen, Kindertotenleider, Ruckertleider.

It comes as no surprise that Bellini's 'Somnambule' brought to mind Mahler - particularly because the word 'elegiac' had been mentioned. But, once I've plunged into Mahler's world, Bellini evaporates like a soap bubble.

How appropriate that today happens to be the first real day of spring, starting with golden sunshine and a hint of humid remains: winter decay lifting in the early morning mist. And so, begins the Kindertotenlieder:

(after poems by Friedrich Ruckert)
"And now the sun will rise as bright
as if no ill luck had befallen in the night.
The ill luck befell me alone
And the sun shines all around
You must not enclose the night within you:
you must drown it in eternal light
A little lamp went out in my tent.
Hail to the gladdening light of the world!
Now I understand why such dark flames
were strewn on me when you looked at me
O eyes! O eyes!
As if in one look
you would compress your whole force
I did not know then (for mists surrounded me,
woven by fate to dazzle me).
that the beam was already turning towards home,
there, whence all beams spring
You wanted to tell me with your rays:
We long to stay near you
but fate will not let us.
Look at us now, for soon we shall be far away.
These that are eyes today,
in nights to come will be stars."

In his essay, Michael Kennedy compares Mahler's song cycle to the Winterreisen, except, in this case, the disconsolate wanderer begins his journey in the spring. In real life, Mahler composed the song cyle in 1883-1885. Certainly, rejected love and the recent loss of two brothers (followed soon afterward by the death of his 4-year-old daughter) are some of the tragedies that influenced the haunting melodies of Mahler's song cycle.

Kennedy notes that the song cycles are often sung by mezzo sopranos but, he adds:
"there can be little doubt that the texts imply a male voice. Is is a measure of the artistry of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau that, as one listens, one cannot imagine any voice but a baritone's in that music."

Thanks, cher Ami Voisin du Gala, for mentioning Mahler!

La Somnambule at Bastille, Jan 2010

If you are, like me, a newcomer to opera, you'll want to be sure to do some homework before going to the opera. It's easy to do that on the internet by reading the synopsis of the
La Somnambule which was composed by Vincenzo Bellini in 1831. It is one of three operas for which Bellini is famous: Norma (considered to be his best) and the Puritan.

Originally Bellini had been working on an opera based on Victor Hugo's 'Hernani' but because of scandals connected with 'Hernani', he ended up opting for an opera sure to be a crowd-pleaser without ruffling any feathers. The story is based on a girl who has a sleepwaking disorder in a country village.

Of course, the reason for the full house at Opera Bastille is Nathalie Dessay. The opera allows her to 'strut her stuff' in a few famous arias that demand a singer's very best:

• Come per me sereno"
  
• "Ah! non credea mirarti"
  

You can compare Dessay's interpretation of Ah! non credea mirarti with that of author opera singer greats such as Maria Callas, or Montserrat Caballe.


Which leaves the question - why bother going to the opera when you can listen to the music in your own home -or watch a video? Is it just to say that you've listened to one of the 'great' opera singers in person, or is there part of the opera going experience that sets it apart for reproduced technology?

In this case, I would have to say that you have to experience opera in both ways - for opera is not only about performers but also about spectators. When an audience really loves a singer - there is that communal sigh. This is what sets apart the opera-going experience from reproductions. And this is probably why opera singers would never give up having a stage and live audience.

That being said, I do have some personal criticisms regarding the performance we attended - and that is merely a question of set and costume design. Before buying tickets for a performance - you may want to check out the setting and costume design on the Opera de Paris website. Although last Fall's Barbier de Seville had a phenomenal set, it is common now to dress performers in clothing from totally different time periods. For example, last Fall's performance of La Boheme was performed in 1940 era costumes.

In this case, La Somnambule 's director and set designer Marco Arturo Marelli chose a voluminous art-Deco style 'hotel resort' design one might imagine in a Swiss 'village' in the late 20s or early 1930s whereas the costumes (especially Lisa, the innkeeper's 'power suit' looked more like vintage 1980s). Of course, set design and costumes are a very subjective issue. I would have preferred to have seen a design which remains faithful to the era. Isn't Amina supposed to sing her famous aria as she balances her way across the trestle bridge of a water mill? In this case, she is only viewed from the inside of the auberge/sanitarium. (Le Monde's review mentions the irony of Rodolpho returning to this quaint village happy to see the familiar scenes of the auberge and the old mill (yet he is confronted with art deco bar stools!).

Natalie Dessay is certainly capable of carrying an opera - but she can't carry the stage set on her back as well. Musically speaking she was in excellent company for La Somnambule with Javier Camarena as Elvino, Marie Adeline Henry as Lisa, Michele Perusi as Comte Rodolfo. It was a memorable evening, especially when Dessay appeared for her last solo in a drop-dead red dress that almost made up for the set and costume design blunders (of course all these comments are purely subjective!).

P.S. According to one review, Dessay would have preferred performing La Somanmbule at the Garnier Opera House (thus the closing aria with the backdrop of the traditional Opera House red curtain?). NY Times reviewer Loomis takes a swipe at the her last aria as not being quite up to the 'hauteur' of a diva (but the audience didn't appear to agree - she had a resounding aplause). In other reviews, there were some cryptic comments about the last aria in the red dress. Maybe some of you more informed opera goers can fill me in?