Saint Augustin

Paris, is the city of churches. Sadly most of them are defunct, rather objects of touristic curiosities.

Paris

("facing the Eiffel Tower")

First of all its pronouced "Pari", not the hindi 'paree' (fairy) but 'paaree'. Its one of many nuances (exceptions come later) than you learn when you get associated with the French world. Like here they like to eat the last letters (well almost always, you see exceptions don't wait for long) along with the sumptuous doses of pain (french bread) and vin (wine).
You must have guessed I love words.
So here I am talking about Paris, the city I call home for the last 6 months, and thought it was high time I write something about it. Living in a world where your hands speak for you (you will learn more about that later) instead of your tongue you tend to appreciate things told lucidly to you. I came across a wonderfully guide to living (read surviving Paris) for an American.

http://www.muvy.org/firmitas/frugal-paris.php

Anyways I cannot be so exhaustive. I intend it more as a way to showcase my photos and not my survival skills.
Lonely Planet guide starts off on Paris as follows "Paris has almost exhausted the superlatives that can be reasonably applied to a city". Yeah superlatives is a nice word, its the highest, exaggerated degree you can ascribe. Comparatives don't have a space here, be its the comparisons with the city of amour or the city where you gotta watch your pockets (all the time).

("eiffel tower at night, seen across La Seine")

My relation with Paris, has been a love-hate kind of so far. Love because its a beautiful city to walk around (if you don't mind dog shit strewn all across the roads), has some of the classiest cafes (terrible cafe au lait, or coffee with milk which tastes as if 1% coffee diluted with milk and water, don't get me started on prices) facing La Seine (the river) or the boulevards where you can simply watch the world walk across for hours( they close at 8 pm though). The city offers wonderful architecture to view if you are a walker( when you cross the zone 2 limits it feels like you are entering a ghetto though). I don't qualify to comment on the French cuisine as I am vegetarian. I would like to make my sensibilities clear, I don't even meat, i.e. no cows, no pigs, no chicken, no rabbit, no snails, no fish, no horse, no eggs (oh mon Dieu, c'est possible) and consume legumes, milk and cereal. O.k. you must be wondering why do I have to go into the details of my dietary regime



1. Food means meat in French. I have been told that I am abnormal because I don't eat meat. Its rare to find a single vegan dish in restaurant here and I am tired of explaining so I learnt cooking here (I love Paris for this).

2. Fish, 'poisson' is vegetarian is French, its is called "fruit de mer", the fruit of sea. Vegetarianism is slowly catching up here, and the belle filles here would relish their poisson and exclaim on the virtues of a vegan diet in maintaining weight.

3. Also I have nothing against non vegetarians. But there was this ad recently splashed over the metro stations here that "cheval is ton ami or rotir" i.e. "is a horse your friend or roasted meat on your platter", tick the right one with the photo of a cute girl riding a horse with red meat juxtaposed. Hey, I hate this kind of discrimination, so you don't eat your friends, does it means you should eat your enemies. What makes a horse a friend but a cow (i am not a hindu cow lover though) just a four legged animal with a tail.


("making Crepes, near Concorde, they are made from dough and eggs filled with sugar, jam or chocolate, sell from 2 euros onwards")

Something I like here regarding food is that they wish you 'bon appetit', i.e. enjoy your meal, before or while you are eating. A stranger can wish you. No awkward searching for word when you see yours friends feasting and you move on. I don't have an equivalent for it in english or hindi.

So where were we. The love hate relation with Paris. I love that Paris is a city of lights, its roads and buildings lit at nights are a pleasure to walk and gaze. But excuse me to ask then I don't understand why do the living rooms are so dark (lit by just a 40W watt bulb). They are not even using tube lights or CFLS, just halogens and bulbs and living in the dark. The moment I enter my room I start yawning. Man, I miss the bright white light back at home in India.

I love winter in Paris ( I come from Agra where mercury touches 50'C), it gets freezing cold here, the lakes were frozen, a white blanket of ice covers the grass (no snow sadly), autumn was even better, with colorful leaves. But I don't understand the freak (rather normal here) changes in weather. In a 15 minutes period it rains, becomes sunny like the day sun was born and it rains hail) and the cycle continues quarter of an hour, again and again.


I love the metro, the RER (don't ask to write it phonetically, Ok I will try rrrrrrrrrrrr ae rrrrrrrrrrrr, do that 100 times till your throat is sore, and then you will do it right, trust me. The Indian vocal chord is not equipped to pronouce the French 'r'. Anyways I realized the Chinese cannot pronounce my name, they go 'Praaa" "khaa" "kaa" "khaaa" "kaa" and they break into a cough. The metro is efficient, but boy the French love to strike. They love to strike. The French love strikes.


("RER B at Cite Universitaire")
The French love strikes.
The French love strikes.
The French love strikes.

I cannot stress it further. I heard that November is the month when an average French man/woman feels like going for a strike. Its a well documented fact. I lived through it, the metro strikes were due to the French train drivers wanting early retirement and benefits (around 52 years of age) because apparently, driving a train (one just has to pull a level to speed, and pull it down to brake) is an hazardous job and should be treated is same category as miners. I know a lot of people who supported this strike. The French know how to live, an 35 hrs work week, with over a month of paid holiday each year, an interminable job and boy the benefits keep adding.

("Autumn in Jardin Luxembourg, also featured on BBC News, European Autumn series")

And train is a nice word though, the French are very reticent people, its rare to find one who laughs. My solutions to the problem, when you are bored on a train ride, start practicing speaking 'train' (with a french 'r' and eating the last few letters, as many or few as the weather of that minute dictates) and boy they will break into a smile.

I will sign off this post for now. I have an exam to give on VLSI CMOS design in about 3 hrs from now. Au revoir i.e. good bye (any guesses of how you pronounce it).

The Day India got Independent

so said HT. Photographed at a cafe in Mussorie.